Actress known as the queen of gothic and hysterical roles: Who is Helena Bonham Carter?

Helena Bonham Carter was born on May 26, 1966 in Islington, London. She was born to Raymond Bonham Carter, whose father was a banker, from an English political family, and Elena Propper de Callejón, whose Spanish and Jewish mother was a psychotherapist. Helena has two older brothers named Edward and Thomas. She grew up in Golders Green with Helena and her brothers and was educated at South Hampstead High.

When Helena was five years old, her mother had a severe nervous breakdown and needed three years to recover. Five years after her mother's recovery, her father fell ill. Due to his illness, he had some difficulties during the operation, which caused her father to be semi-paralyzed and confined to a wheelchair.

Helena, who started her professional acting career at the age of 16 with a television commercial, starred in the 1983 TV movie "A Pattern of Roses", based on the novel of the same name. Helena made her lead role as Lady Jane Gray in the drama romantic film "Lady Jane" (1986), directed by Trevor Nunn. The film received mixed reviews by critics. Her breakthrough role came when she played Lucy Honeychurch in the romantic movie "A Room with a View" (1985), based on E.M.Forster's novel. She also acted as Don Johnson's girlfriend in episodes of the 1986-87 season of the crime drama TV series "Miami Vice". Then in 1987, she appeared in the TV movie "The Vision" with Dirk Bogarde. She also appeared with Stewart Granger in the romantic drama "A Hazard of Hearts" and with John Gielgud in the comedy-drama "Getting It Right".

Her early films portrayed pre- and early 20th-century characters, causing her to become a typical character as a "corset queen" and "English rose". In 1994, Helena appeared as Edina Monsoon's daughter Saffron in a dream sequence in the second series of the British tv sitcom "Really Fabulous". In the following years, she played the character of Olivia in the movie "Twelfth Night", adapted from a play directed by Trevor Nunn. One of the highlights of her career came with her performance as the scheming Kate Croy in the romantic drama film "The Wings of the Dove" (1997), directed by Iain Softley. While the film was highly acclaimed internationally, Helena received many awards and nominations, notably her first Golden Globe Award and Academy Award nominations for her performance.

The following year, she studied her father's actions and attitudes for her role in the comedy-drama film "The Theory of Flight." She followed suit with Brad Pitt and Edward Norton in 1999's "Fight Club" based on the same novel in which she played Marla Singer, for which she won the 2000 Empire Award for Best British Actress.

She was featured in Maxim magazine in August 2001. She later appeared as the second Queen of England when she took on the role of Anne Boleyn in the ITV1 mini-TV series "Henry VIII". In 2005, she played the character of Lady Tottingham, a wealthy aristocratic girl, with Ralph Fiennes and Peter Sallis in the sequel, stop-motion animated comedy "Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit." The film, which was generally acclaimed, was also a great success at the box office and was nominated for many awards and nominations in various categories.

In May 2006, Helena launched her own fashion line called "The Pantaloonies" with swimwear designer Samantha Sage. Their first collection, called "Bloomin' Bloomers", was a selection of Victorian camisole, mob hats and bloomers.

The following year, Helena played the villainous witch Bellatrix Lestrange in the last four "Harry Potter" franchise films (2007–2011). Helena's role, which has been described as "a brilliant but underutilized talent", garnered critical acclaim. Around this time, she played the character of Ms. Lovett, Sweeney Todd's (Johnny Depp) love accomplice in the John Burton-directed production of the musical slasher movie "Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street" based on Stephen Sondheim's Broadway musical. She earned a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress for her performance. In the same year, she won the Best Actress Award at the 2007 Evening Standard British Film Awards and the Best Actress Award at the 2009 Empire Awards for her performances in "Sweeney Todd" and "Conversations With Other Women". She also portrayed a small but very important role as the personification of Skynet in the movie of the fourth Terminator series called "Terminator Salvation".

In early 2009, Helena was ranked among The Times' "Top 10 British Actresses of All Time". Later that year, she appeared as the mother squirrel narrator in the 30-minute animated TV movie adaptation of the best-selling children's book "The Gruffalo", which aired on BBC One on 25 December 2009. The following year, she joined the cast of "Alice in Wonderland" adventure fantasy film directed by Tim Burton as the Red Queen. The film also starred Johnny Depp, Anne Hathaway, Mia Wasikowska, Crispin Glover, and Alan Rickman, alongside Helena.

In 2009, Helena played the character of writer Enid Blyton in the BBC Four television biopic "Enid," alongside Matthew Macfadyen and Denis Lawson. This was the first big screen portrayal of the character of Enid Blyton in her life. Her performance earned her first Television BAFTA nomination for Best Actress.

Released on March 5, 2010, the film was a huge commercial success, receiving mixed or average reviews. It was also the second highest-grossing film of 2010 and the fifth-highest-grossing film at the time of its theatrical release. Later that year, she played Queen Elizabeth in the drama film "The King's Speech," directed by Tom Hopper. The film was a huge box office and critical success. Additionally, Helena garnered a lot of applause and praise for her performance, including BAFTA Award for Best Supporting Actress and Academy Award nominations for Best Supporting Actress. She also won her first BAFTA Award.

She co-starred with Freddie Highmore in the comedy-drama film "Toast", based on Nigel Slater's autobiographical novel of the same name, which was shot in 2010 and premiered at the 2011 Berlin International Film Festival. That year, she won the Britannia British Artist of the Year Award from BAFTA LA. The following year, she played Miss Havisham in Mike Newell's "Great Expectations," based on the Charles Dickens novel of the same name. Later that year, she appeared in the music video for Rufus Wainwright's song "Out of the Game" from the album of the same name. She then starred as Madame Thénardier in the period musical "Les Misérables", a film adaptation of the musical of the same name, released in 2012, alongside Hugh Jackman, Russell Crowe, Anne Hathaway, Eddie Redmayne, Amanda Seyfried and Sacha Baron Cohen. The film garnered generally positive reviews, garnering several awards and nominations. In addition, it was a huge success commercially.

On May 17, 2012, it was announced that Helena would star in the adventure drama film "The Young and Prodigious T.S. Spivet", based on the book by Reif Larsen and directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet, alongside Kathy Bates, Kyle Catlett, and Callum Keith Rennie. She also co-starred with Ben Kingsley in a short film called "A Therapy" directed by Roman Polanski for the luxury clothing brand 'Prada'.

The following year, she played Red Harrington in the action western movie "The Lone Ranger" directed by Gore Verbinski. The film, which received generally negative reviews, became one of the biggest box office bombs of all time. Also that year, she sang poetry for "The Love Book App," an interactive love literature anthology developed by Allie Byrne Captive. Also that same year, she starred as Elizabeth Taylor alongside Dominic West in "Burton & Taylor", which premiered at BBC4's 2013 Hamptons International Film Festival. Later, she played the Fairy Godmother in the live-action romantic fantasy adaptation of Walt Disney's "Cinderella" (2015), directed by Kenneth Branagh.

Helena reprized the role of the Red Queen in the live-action fantasy adventure movie "Alice Through the Looking Glass" in 2016. The movie received mixed reviews and became a box office bomb. In June 2018, she starred in the heist comedy "Ocean's 8", a spin-off of the Ocean's Eleven trilogy, alongside Sandra Bullock, Cate Blanchett, Anne Hathaway, and Sarah Paulson. She played the role of an older Princess Margaret in the Netflix drama TV series "The Crown", where a younger version was played for the first two seasons. In 2020, Helena starred alongside Millie Bobby Brown, Sam Claflin and Henry Cavill as Eudoria Holmes in the Netflix mystery film "Enola Holmes"(2020), based on the Sherlock Holmes adaptation The Enola Holmes Mysteries. The film garnered generally positive reviews and received awards and nominations in various categories.

In 2022, she voiced the animated anthology movie "The House". Later that year, she played the same role in the sequel mystery film "Enola Holmes 2". The movie was received positively after its release and topped Netflix's watch lists. She later appeared as part of a large cast on the TV special "Harry Potter 20th Anniversary: Return to Hogwarts".

The following year, she starred as star Noele Gordon in "Nolly," a three-part biographical mini-series. It was met with generally positive reactions.

Personal life

In 1994, Helena met Kenneth Branagh while filming a movie. Helena started a relationship despite Branagh being married to Emma Thompson. Later, after their relationship, Branagh and Thompson divorced in 1995. Helena and Branagh separated in 1999 after five years together.

In 2001, Helena met American director Tim Burton while shooting a movie and they started a relationship. The couple has a son named Billy Raymond and a daughter named Nell. The couple later decided to separate on December 23, 2014. Helena has been romantically involved with art historian Rye Dag Holmboe since 2018.

In early October 2008, Helena and her parents became the first patrons of "Action Duchenne", the national charity set up to support patients with Duchenne muscular dystrophy. A member of the Library of London since 1986, Helena was appointed to the honorary position of head of the Library of London in 2022, becoming the first female president.

Helena is known for her unconventional and eccentric fashion sense. She was included in the Best Dressed List of 2010 by Vanity Fair magazine. Chosen by fashion designer Marc Jacobs as the face of the Fall/Winter 2011 ad campaign she. In May 2021, she appeared in an advertisement for British furniture retailer Sofology. She is of English and French ancestry, so she is fluent in French and English.