Reese Witherspoon Biography

As one of America's most beloved sweethearts, Reese Witherspoon has become an internationally recognized and critically acclaimed film actress.Believe it or not, Reese is actually her third name her full name is Laura Jeanne Reese Witherspoon. She was born on March 22, 1976 in New Orleans, Louisiana, which explains her slight southern drawl accent.Witherspoon's parents are Betty Reese and John Witherspoon, who worked for the U.S. military in Germany meaning Reese spent several of her growing-up years there. She was also raised in Nashville, Tennessee, attending a private all-girls school there before taking a year of classes at Stanford University and then moving on to pursue acting professionally.Reese started off appearing in commercials when she was a young girl, and landed her first role in Diane Keaton's 1991 T.V. movie Wildflower, co-starring Beau Bridges, Susan Blakely, William McNamara and Patricia Arquette. Her film debut was that same year in The Man in the Moon with the lead female role at only 14, alongside Jason London, Sam Waterston, Tess Harper, and Gail Strickland.After that, Reese's acting career took off, giving her steady work playing varied roles. Some of her work in the 1990s include A Far Off Place (1993), opposite Ethan Embry, Freeway (1996), opposite Keifer Sutherland, Pleasantville (1998), with Tobey Maguire and William H. Macy, and in 1999, Cruel Intentions with Sarah Michelle Gellar and real-life hubby Ryan Phillippe. She also starred in Election with Matthew Broderick, for which she earned a Golden Globe nominee and became a National Society of Film Critics Awards winner.Two years later, Reese garnered further critical acclaim with her oh-so-perfect portrayal of ditzy blonde lawyer wannabe Elle Woods in Legally Blonde and its sequel in 2003. Both movies co-starred Luke Wilson and Jennifer Coolidge and the first gave her another Golden Globe nomination and two MTV Movie Awards.Witherspoon went on to star in Sweet Home Alabama (2002) with Josh Lucas, Patrick Dempsey and Candice Bergen, Vanity Fair (2004) and Just Like Heaven (2005) opposite Mark Ruffalo, but her biggest role was yet to come. As June Carter Cash in 2005's smash hit success Walk the Line, a biopic of Johnny Cash (played equally well by Joaquin Phoenix), Reese received not only high praise but also high honors with, at last, a Golden Globe Award win for Best Actress, as well as a heap of other awards (Academy Award, BAFTA, Screen Actors Guild, Broadcast Film Critics Association Award, among others).Reese also runs Type A Productions, was featured on Time Magazine's 100 Most Influential People and has become famous for a major paparazzi incident gone wrong with photographer Todd Wallace. Todd basically went berserk after Reese refused to be photographed at her daughter's birthday party and was arrested and charged, but before the trial, he was found dead in his apartment.Reese has been married to Ryan Phillippe since June 1999 when she was quite pregnant with his child and has two children with him: Ava (born 1999) and Deacon (born 2003).

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