Overview (3)

Mini Bio (1)

New Yorker Claire Catherine Danes was born in Manhattan, the daughter of Carla (Hall), a day-care provider and artist, and Christopher Danes, a computer consultant and photographer. She has an older brother, Asa. Her paternal grandfather, Gibson Andrew Danes, was a Dean of the Yale School of Art and Architecture. She is of mostly German and British Isles descent.



Claire was educated at Dalton School, New York, The New York City Lab School for Collaborative Studies, The Professional Performing Arts School and Lycée Français de Los Angeles. From 1998, she attended Yale University, studying psychology, but dropped out after two years to concentrate on her acting career.



Danes first came to major public attention when she appeared as "Angela Chase" in My So-Called Life (1994). She won an Emmy nomination and a Golden Globe award for this performance. A successful film career followed, including the role of "Juliet", opposite Leonardo DiCaprio, in Baz Luhrmann's Romeo + Juliet (1996). She continued acting in such varied project as The Hours (2002), Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003) and Stardust (2007).



In 2010, she appeared in the HBO Production, Temple Grandin (2010), playing the title character. She received huge critical acclaim for the role, and won an Emmy, Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild Award for her performance. Since 2011, she has starred on the SHOWTIME series Homeland (2011), receiving great critical acclaim and winning Emmys and Golden Globes.

- IMDb Mini Biography By: Anonymous

Spouse (1)

Hugh Dancy (September 2009 - present) ( 2 children)

Trivia (30)

Completed two years at Yale University pursuing a psychology degree but never finished. [2002]



Chosen by People magazine as one of the 50 Most Beautiful People in the World. [1997]





Flew to Los Angeles for the casting of Schindler's List (1993), after she was discovered for the role in My So-Called Life (1994). Steven Spielberg finally gave her the role which she had to turn down, because they were not willing to give her tutoring in the Polish language.

Was banned from the Philippines for making derogatory remarks about the country. The President of the Philippines condemned her publicly. [September 1998]





Auditioned for the role of Lisa Rowe in Girl, Interrupted (1999). The role went to Angelina Jolie which won her a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her performance.



Was considered for the title role in Lolita (1997), which went to Dominique Swain



Auditioned and was the first choice for the role of Rose DeWitt Bukater in Titanic (1997).

The most frequently used title for articles about her has been "Great Danes".





Has at least four songs written about her. The Ataris ' "My So Called Life" (album: "Look Forward to Failure" EP), Size 14 's "Claire Danes Poster" (self-titled album), "The Five Mile Line"'s "Claire Danes" ("Busride Home" demo) and "Claire Danes", a low-fi indi ballad by "John Parker Music" which was released on Subversive Records Limited in 2004.



Her letter of recommendation to Yale University was written by Oliver Stone , her director on U Turn (1997).



Danes grew up in SoHo, Manhattan with Zac Posen and Julia Stiles . Her mother, Carla Hall, an artist, ran a daycare center in their SoHo loft, called "Danes Tribe". Her father, Chris, is a computer consultant and photographer. She has an one sibling, an older brother, Asa, who is a corporate lawyer. She began studying modern dance at the age of six. She played a duck in an avant-garde production involving stilt-walkers. By age 10, Danes was enrolled at Lee Strasberg's Theatre Institute and appeared in films by students attending the acting schools of New York and Columbia universities. For junior high, she briefly attended New York City Lab School from 1991-92 ( Morena Baccarin was a classmate) but graduated from the Lycée Français (Los Angeles) in 1997 after her family relocated to California.



She and Billy Crudup became a couple during the filming of Stage Beauty (2004).



Is mentioned in actor Canyon Prince 's song "Life" from his 2003 album "Live and Funked Up".



She turned down the role of Rose DeWitt Bukater in Titanic (1997) as she had just finished working with Leonardo DiCaprio on Romeo + Juliet (1996). Though she described working with him on that film as a "treat", she admitted in an interview later that if she had accepted the role in Titanic (1997), she would not have been able to get away from him.



Very close friends with actor Jason Schwartzman

She was awarded the Nova Award at the 2007 Maui film Festival.





As of Fall 2008, the exclusive model for Gucci Jewelry, succeeding Drew Barrymore



Was in attendance at the wedding of Mamie Gummer to Benjamin Walker on July 16, 2011.

Named Harvard University's 2012 Hasty Pudding Woman of the Year on January 23, 2012.



Ranked #20 in Ask men's top 99 "most desirable" women for 2013.





Has two sons with her husband Hugh Dancy : Cyrus Michael Christopher (b. December 17, 2012) and Rowan (b. August 27, 2018).



Was eight months pregnant with her son Cyrus when she completed filming the second season of Homeland (2011). Returned to work five months after giving birth to her son Cyrus in order to begin filming the third season of Homeland (2011).

Is a certified scuba diver.



Received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6541 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, California on September 24, 2015.





Is mentioned in the title segment of Tosh.0: Fart Porn (2016).



Was four months pregnant with her son Rowan when she completed filming the seventh season of Homeland (2011). Returned to work six months after giving birth to Rowan to begin filming the eighth season of Homeland (2011).

Personal Quotes (28)



[on co-star Kate Beckinsale and hoping to become friends] That was wrong. We didn't. She's complicated. She's prickly.

I live in an adult world, but I'm a kid. I love the work. But I no longer have a group of friends to hang out with regularly.



[on education vs. career] I was told that my going to college wouldn't be good for my career. I think that's nonsense. It's good to empower yourself by cutting yourself off from this business every once in a while.



I have a huge, active imagination, and I think I'm really scared of being alone; because if I'm left to my own devices, I'll just turn into a madwoman.





My line about Arnold Schwarzenegger is that he doesn't get in his own way. He is not apologetic about achieving his goals. And when you have that attitude, it's amazing what one can accomplish. He wanted to give me relationship advice. I was having trouble with a female friend, and he said, "Be really forthright and do not accommodate her needs excessively." I took his advice and we're not friends anymore. So there you go.



[on Stage Beauty (2004)] I was intimidated. There was the accent, the period of the film, and I had to act badly. I kept laughing during those scenes because I was god-awful. I've worked so hard to be good, and now I had to work even harder to be bad.

It's very difficult to judge yourself. Extreme self-doubt is only attractive when it's fictionalized. Which is why people love the movies. They are so reassuring.



I had an unwavering focus. My parents never condescended to me. As a child, I always sat at the head of our dinner table. I was always given a lot of responsibility. It was all rather amazing when I think about it now.





I was a very confident child. I knew I wanted to be an actress from the age of 5. Madonna was my original muse -- around 5, I saw her perform on television, and I realized that performing could be one's vocation. Then, at 7 or 8, I realized that most actors don't make a lot of money, and I amended my plan. But at 9, I seized my destiny. I made a formal announcement to my parents that I had to be true to my art. Money or no money, acting is my calling.

I never thought of myself as a child actor. I knew I was a kid, but they weren't related. There was nothing I could do about being a kid, and meanwhile I was an actress, and I had something to say in my acting.



I think that everybody wants to create, to do something that feels genuine and kinetic and spontaneous. I think actors want to surprise themselves. When it's really good, you kind of transcend yourself, and that happens infrequently. Very, very rarely. You might get one or two of those moments on a film, say, and sometimes they don't even use the takes where that happens. And I'm not really that moralistic about how you get there.



[December 21, 2005, on having children] I would like to have a family, but I'm trying not to make any plans, because when I do, everything goes wrong.





[on her notorious swimsuit scene in To Gillian on Her 37th Birthday (1996)] I'll never wear a thong again. I'm a Speedo gal.

[on her non-stop work schedule] Usually, my social life and my sanity and my health are the things that are sacrificed.



The point of acting is to share, to connect. That's why I act. Acting is the greatest answer to my loneliness that I have found.



I think people confuse fame with validation or love. But fame is not the reward. The reward is getting fulfilment out of doing the thing you love.





[on husband Hugh Dancy ] He's such a cutie patootie. While relationships are work, this just didn't feel like it. It's the kind of work that feels energizing rather than enervating. I find it very freeing to know that, okay, it takes constant nurturing and attention, but I can also stop looking for the one.



[on Steve Martin ] He's a great, great fucking weirdo.



[what she gained from working on Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003)] It made me realize I'm a professional actress.

[on Lena Dunham's series "Girls" and its central character, Hannah] Lena's power lies largely in her self-awareness and wit. Like all great comics, she has a joke ready to deflect any jeer. Hannah's pathetic declaration that she could at least be "a voice for a generation" invites and thwarts many a poisoned arrow. Lena's true power, though, lies in her transparency. She is unflinchingly, unnervingly honest. She exposes, beneath all that bare skin, a multitude of shortcomings... as vivid and raw a portrait as we have seen.





They had written Carrie [from Homeland (2011)] as bipolar without even knowing it. At first, I was concerned that it would just be a gimmick. I still am because it's fun to see crazy Carrie.

I don't know if people are meant to be together. You have to have a lot in common, choose well and be really fortunate. It's not like you're sprinkled with fairy dust. You have to believe that love will be there when you need it.



This business can be very erratic. You can be the subject of great attention, both positive and negative. You really do have to tether yourself when you're a teen star. If you don't have that tether, than you're really lost.



If you do something that you're not genuinely passionate about, it is a little soul-crushing. Just not worth it.



Acting is the greatest answer to my loneliness that I have found.



Once you get over that peak of puberty, you hit a nice stride.



Growing up, I wanted desperately to please, to be a good girl.



But I don't know if people are meant to be together. You have to have a lot in common, choose well and be really fortunate. It's not like you're sprinkled with fairy dust. You have to believe that love will be there when you need it.



Salary (3)