Rachel Hannah Weisz (
"vice") (born 7 March 1970
[There are conflicting sources for the year of Weisz' birth. The British Film Institute and others give 1970 BFI | Film & TV Database | WEISZ, Rachel; a Guardian article gives 1971. Her birth was registered in March quarter of 1970 in Westminster]) is an
Academy Award-winning
English actress.
[IndieLondon: Definitely Maybe - Rachel Weisz interview - Your London Reviews] She gained wide public recognition after her portrayal of Evelyn "Evy" Carnahan-O'Connell in the
Hollywood films
The Mummy and
The Mummy Returns. In 2001, she starred opposite
Hugh Grant in the hit
About a Boy and continued to garner leading roles in Hollywood productions. Her performance in
The Constant Gardener (2006) garnered her the
Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, along with other major motion picture awards.
Early life
Weisz was born in
Westminster,
England, and grew up in the
Hampstead Garden Suburb.
[Aslet, Clive. Design for living, The Daily Telegraph, 14 April 2007. Accessed 6 May 2008.] Her mother, Edith Ruth (
née Teich), is a
Vienna-born
Austrian teacher turned
psychotherapist.
[Rachel Weisz biography] Her father, George Weisz, is a
Hungarian-born inventor whose family fled to England to escape
Nazi persecution. Weisz's father is
Ashkenazi Jewish and her mother has been referred to as either
Catholic,
Jewish,
having Jewish ancestry,
and being of part Italian descent.
[www.highbeam.com/doc/1P1-43680041.html] Weisz was raised in a cerebral Jewish household
[Joseph, Claudia. Rachel's Weisz guy. 5 June 2005.] and refers to herself as Jewish.
Weisz has a sister, Minnie Weisz, who is an artist.
