Catherine McCormack

Biography

Catherine McCormack (born April 3, 1972), is an English actress, known for her stage acting as well as her screen performances in films such as Braveheart, Spy Game, 28 Weeks Later, and Dangerous Beauty. Early life McCormack was born in Epsom, Surrey, England. She has Irish ancestry, as one of her grandfathers was Irish. Her mother died of lupus when McCormack was six years old, and her steelworker father subsequently brought her and her brother Stephen up. She was brought up in the Catholic religion (though is now a "lapsed Catholic") and attended Convent of Our Lady of Providence. She then went on to study at the Oxford School of Drama. Career - Film McCormack's first notable role was as the character Murron MacClannough in the multiple Academy Award winning movie Braveheart. Her screen debut however was as the lead in the Anna Campion directed film Loaded, and has subsequently stated that she had a "miserable time with the director (Anna Campion)... it was my first film job, I needed to be mollycoddled, I needed to be helped through it, and I wasn't. Mostly, it was a horrible experience." After Braveheart, McCormack had lead roles in Nils Gaup's Northstar and Marshall Herskovitz's Dangerous Beauty. Other films include Spy Game and 28 Weeks Later. Despite being in demand, she does few films, stating that "I read very few scripts I'm passionate about... Maybe one in every twenty or thirty." - Theatre McCormack has shown preference in her career towards the theatre, saying that "theatre really is an actor's medium: you're on stage with no director anymore, whereas in film very rarely do you get much rehearsal other than running through the scene very quickly. Then everyone comes in and shoots it." McCormack was one of the original 2006 London cast of Patrick Barlow's play of The 39 Steps. In 2008, she performed the role of Nora in A Doll's House, directed by Peter Hall at the Theatre Royal, Bath, and also the role of Isabel Archer in a stage adaptation of The Portrait of a Lady, both of which commenced their runs in July 2008, ending in August, before transferring to the Rose Theatre in Kingston later that year. In 2009 she appeared in the UK tour of Headlong's adaptation of Six Characters in Search of an Author. Selected credits - Theatre work 2000: Nominated for a Laurence Olivier Theatre Award in 2001 (2000 season) for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in All My Sons at the Royal National Theatre, Cottesloe Stage. 2003: Played Claudia in the UK premiere of Honour, a play by Joanna Murray-Smith at the Royal National Theatre, London. 2003: Played Siân in Dinner, a new play by Moira Buffini. It co-starred Harriet Walter and Nicholas Farrell. 2006: Played The Woman in The 39 Steps at the Tricycle Theatre and Criterion Theatre, London. 2007: Jo in The Lady from Dubuque at the Theatre Royal Haymarket 2008: A Doll's House/ The Portrait of a Lady at the Theatre Royal, Bath & Rose Theatre, Kingston. - Filmography Loaded (1994) Wycliffe (1 episode, "The Scapegoat", 1994) Braveheart (1995) North Star (1996) Deacon Brodie (1997) (TV) The Land Girls (1998) Dangerous Beauty (1998) Dancing at Lughnasa (1998) This Year's Love (1999) Love in the 21st Century (1 episode, "Reproduction", 1999) The Debtors (1999) Shadow of the Vampire (2000) A Rumor of Angels (2000) The Weight of Water (2000) Born Romantic (2000) The Tailor of Panama (2001) Armadillo (2001, TV) Spy Game (2001) Broken Morning (2003, TV) Gunpowder, Treason & Plot (2004, TV) Strings (2004; voice in English version) Kenneth Tynan: In Praise of Hardcore (2005, TV) A Sound of Thunder (2005) Elizabeth David: A Life in Recipes (2006, TV) Renaissance (2006, voice) Ancient Rome: The Rise and Fall of an Empire (1 episode, "Nero", 2006) The Moon and the Stars (2007) 28 Weeks Later (2007) Stevie (2008) Midnight Man (2008) (from wikipedia)