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Hilary Ann Swank (b. July 30, 1974) is an Academy Award-winning American actress born in Bellingham, Washington. Swank began acting as a child performing in local theater and also proved to be a good athlete. She competed in the Junior Olympics and Washington State Championships in swimming and also studied and excelled in gymnastics. Her athletic skills would later prove useful in films such as The Next Karate Kid and her Oscar winning turn in Million Dollar Baby.

At sixteen, Swank moved from Washington to Los Angeles to pursue acting. She also completed her high school education at South Pasadena High School. She made her film debut in Buffy the Vampire Slayer and made guest appearances on Evening Shade and Growing Pains. Her breakout role came in 1994 in The Next Karate Kid. Several unremarkable roles followed as well as recurring roles on the series Leaving LA and Beverly Hills 90210. Swank finally gained deserved acclaim for her moving performance as Brandon Teena in the independent film Boys Don't Cry in which she played a young woman who suffered after trying to live her life as a man. Her performance won her a Golden Globe and her first Academy Award.

Following that successful turn, Swank's career picked up pace and she made appearances in the film The Gift, with Cate Blanchett and Katie Holmes, Insomnia with Al Pacino, The Affair of the Necklace with Jonathon Pryce, the scifi feature, The Core and the turn of the century HBO drama, Iron Jawed Angels. In 2004, she starred alongside Clint Eastwood, a a boxer, in the drama Million Dollar Baby. Her physical transformation into a muscled athlete as well as her sincere performance earned her yet another Best Actress award at the Oscars. The joy of her success was marred a short while later when her separation and later divorce from husband Chad Lowe was announced.

Swank's recent roles include Brian De Palma's Black Dahlia based on the James Elroy novel, the drama Freedom Writers, horror feature The Reaping, and the comedy P.S., I Love You. She is slated to appear in the 2008 thriller, Labyrinth.

External Links

• Hilary Swank at Internet Movie Database
• Hilark Swank – Starpulse bio
• Upcoming TV Schedule by IMDB.com

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