Her maternal grandmother,Baroness Hélène Fould-Springer, was from an upper-classJewish family; she was the daughter of Baron Eugène Fould-Springer (a French banker descended from theEphrussi family and theFould dynasty) and Marie-Cécile von Springer (whose father was Austrian-born industrialist Baron Gustav von Springer, and whose mother was from the deKoenigswarter family).[12][13][14] Hélène Fould-Springerconverted to Catholicism after the Second World War.[10][15] Hélène's sister was the French philanthropist Liliane de Rothschild (1916–2003), the wife of BaronÉlie de Rothschild, of the prominentRothschild family (who had also married within the von Springer family in the 19th century);[16] Liliane's other sister, Therese Fould-Springer, was the mother of British writerDavid Pryce-Jones.[13]
When Bonham Carter was five, her mother had a seriousnervous breakdown, from which she needed three years to recover. Soon afterwards, her mother's experience in therapy led her to become a psychotherapist herself. Bonham Carter has since paid her to read her scripts and deliver opinions on the characters' psychological motivations.[23] Five years after her mother's recovery, her father was diagnosed withacoustic neuroma. He suffered complications during an operation to remove the tumour, which led to a stroke, leaving him half-paralysed and using a wheelchair.[24] With her brothers at college, Bonham Carter was left to help her mother cope. She later studied her father's movements and mannerisms for her role inThe Theory of Flight.[25] He died in January 2004.[26]
Career
Early work and breakthrough (1980s–1990s)
Bonham Carter, who has had no formal acting training,[27] entered the field winning a national writing contest in 1979, and used the money to pay for her entry into the actors'Spotlight directory. She made her professional acting debut at the age of 16 in a television commercial. She also had a minor part in the 1983 TV filmA Pattern of Roses.[28] In the early 1990s, Bonham Carter studied clown under master clownPhilippe Gaulier atÉcole Philippe Gaulier.[29][30]
Her early films led to her being typecast as a "corset queen" and "English rose", playing pre- and early 20th century characters, particularly inMerchant Ivory films.[3] Uncomfortable with this image, she states: "I looked, as someone said, like a bloated chipmunk".[3] In 1994, Bonham Carter appeared in a dream sequence during the second series of the British sitcomAbsolutely Fabulous, asEdina Monsoon's daughter Saffron, who was normally played byJulia Sawalha. Throughout the series, references were made to Saffron's resemblance to Bonham Carter.[33]
Bonham Carter, who speaks French fluently, starred in a 1996 French film titledPortraits chinois. That same year, she played Olivia inTrevor Nunn's film version ofTwelfth Night. One of the high points of her early career was her performance as the scheming Kate Croy in the 1997 film adaption ofThe Wings of the Dove, which was highly acclaimed internationally and saw her receive her first Golden Globe and Academy Award nominations. Then followedFight Club in 1999, in which she played Marla Singer, a role for which she won the 2000Empire Award for Best British Actress.[34]
Worldwide recognition and blockbuster films (2000s–2020s)
In August 2001, she was featured inMaxim. She played her second Queen of England when she was cast asAnne Boleyn in the ITV1 miniseriesHenry VIII; however, her role was restricted, as she was pregnant with her first child at the time of filming.[35] In 2005, she voiced Lady Tottingham, a wealthy aristocratic spinster in the 2005 stop-motion animated comedyWallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit. Starring alongsideRalph Fiennes andPeter Sallis, the film serves as part of theWallace & Gromit series.[36][37]
She was a member of the2006 Cannes Film Festival jury that unanimously selectedThe Wind That Shakes the Barley as best film.[38] In May 2006, Bonham Carter launched her own fashion line, "The Pantaloonies", with swimwear designer Samantha Sage. Their first collection, called Bloomin' Bloomers, is aVictorian style selection ofcamisoles,mob caps, andbloomers. The duo worked on Pantaloonies customised jeans, which Bonham Carter describes as "a kind of scrapbook on the bum".[39]
She also appeared in a short film directed byRoman Polanski for the clothing brandPrada. The short was entitledA Therapy and she appeared as a patient ofBen Kingsley's therapist.[62]
In August 2008, four of Bonham Carter's relatives were killed in asafari bus crash in South Africa,[70] and she was given indefinite leave from filmingTerminator Salvation, returning later to complete filming.[71]
In early October 2008, Bonham Carter became the firstpatron of the charity Action Duchenne, the national charity established to support parents and sufferers ofDuchenne muscular dystrophy.[72]
In 2016, Bonham Carter said she was keen on the UK remaining in theEuropean Union in regard to thereferendum on that issue.[74]
In 2022 Bonham Carter was appointed to the honorary position of theLondon Library's president, making her their first female president. She has been a member of the London Library since 1986.[75]
Relationships
In 1994, Bonham Carter andKenneth Branagh met while filmingMary Shelley's Frankenstein. They began an affair while Branagh was still married toEmma Thompson.[76] At the time, Thompson's career was soaring, while Branagh was struggling to make a success of his first big-budget film.[76] Following the affair, Branagh and Thompson divorced in 1995.[77] In 1999, after five years together, Bonham Carter and Branagh separated.[78]
Thompson has said she has "no hard feelings" towards Bonham Carter, calling her affair with Branagh "blood under the bridge".[79] She explained: "You can't hold on to anything like that. It's pointless. I haven't got the energy for it. Helena and I made our peace years and years ago. She's a wonderful woman."[79] Thompson, Branagh, and Bonham Carter all later went on to appear in theHarry Potter series (none of them shared any scenes); Thompson and Bonham Carter both appeared inOrder of the Phoenix.
Bonham Carter and Burton have a son and daughter together.[83][84][19] She toldThe Daily Telegraph of her struggles withinfertility and the difficulties she had during her pregnancies. She said that before the conception of her daughter, she and Burton had been trying for a baby for two years and, although they conceived naturally, they were consideringin vitro fertilisation.[85]
On 23 December 2014, the two announced that they had "separated amicably" earlier that year.[86][87] Of the separation, Bonham Carter toldHarper's Bazaar: "Everyone always says you have to be strong and have a stiff upper lip, but it's okay to be fragile. ...You've got to take very small steps, and sometimes you won't know where to go next because you've lost yourself." She added: "With divorce, you go through massive grief—it is a death of a relationship, so it's utterly bewildering. Your identity, everything, changes."[80]
Since 2018, Bonham Carter has been in a relationship with art historian Rye Dag Holmboe.[88] Holmboe is 21 years her junior. Regarding their age gap, Bonham Carter toldThe Times in 2019: "Everybody ages at a different rate. My boyfriend is unbelievably mature. He's an old soul in a young body, what more could I want? People are slightly frightened of older women, but he isn't. Women can be very powerful when they're older."[89]
Public image
Bonham Carter is known for her unconventional and eccentric sense of fashion.[90][91]British Vogue described her dark style in clothing and acting as "quirky and irreverent".[92]Vanity Fair named her on its 2010 Best-Dressed List[93] and she was selected byMarc Jacobs to be the face of his Autumn/Winter 2011 advertising campaign.[94] She has citedVivienne Westwood andMarie Antoinette as her main style influences.[93]
In May 2021, Bonham Carter featured in a commercial for British furniture retailerSofology, taking viewers through the quirks and stylistic flourishes of her home.[95] In 2021, she wrote an article forHarper's Bazaar on the influence ofLewis Carroll'sAlice's Adventures in Wonderland on her life since she first read the book as a child: "As far back as I can remember, I've been a wannabeAlice", adding, "everywhere I look at home, every view has some reference toAlice: frog footman candlesticks, teacup constructions, a teapot lamp, a chessboard teapot, an oversized pocket watch, undersized doors, bunnies, internal windows that look like mirrors, and mirrors that look like windows".[96]
Bonham Carter was made aCBE in the2012 New Year Honours list for services to drama,[97] and Prime MinisterDavid Cameron announced that she had been appointed to Britain's new nationalHolocaust Commission in January 2014.[98]
^L. G. Pine,The New Extinct Peerage 1884–1971: Containing Extinct, Abeyant, Dormant and Suspended Peerages with Genealogies and Arms (London: Heraldry Today, 1972), p. 16
^abcCosta, Maddy (3 November 2006)."It's all gone widescreen".The Guardian. London.Archived from the original on 30 June 2008. Retrieved6 October 2010.
^Collin, Robbie (29 November 2012)."Great Expectations, review".The Daily Telegraph. London.Archived from the original on 10 January 2022. Retrieved9 March 2013.
Canadian Film Awards 1968–1978,Genie Awards 1980-2011,Canadian Screen Awards 2012–present. Separate awards were presented by gender prior to 2022; a single unified category for best performance regardless of gender has been presented since.
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