Catherine Zeta-Jones hails from Mumbles, Wales (a tiny fishing village just outside Swansea in the UK), where she was born September 25, 1969. Her name stems from two different grandmothers; one grandmother is named Catherine, while the other is "Zeta," named after a ship Catherine's grandfather sailed on.

Although Zeta-Jones was not known in the U.S. until her role in The Mask of Zorro in 1998, she was a well-known star in her native UK. Zeta-Jones played the lead in a production of the musical Annie at 11 years of age, and starred in a West End production of Bugsy Malone two years later. At age 17, Zeta-Jones nabbed the lead role in 42nd Street after having moved to London in order to pursue an acting career. Once the show closed, Zeta-Jones traveled to France, where she received the lead role in French director Phillippe De Broca's Scheherazade, her feature film debut.

Zeta-Jones' big break came upon her return to England in 1991, when she became a regular on the hugely popular British television series The Darling Buds of May. Her role as the eldest daughter of a farm family increased her star status in the UK. The price celebrities must pay is being featured in the tabloids, and Zeta-Jones became a tabloid favorite, constantly hounded by the paparazzi. Once the intrusiveness of the media became unbearable, she decided to take her life and career across the Atlantic.

Although a sex symbol and celebrity in the UK, it took a while for Zeta-Jones to break into the Hollywood scene. In 1994, she landed the lead role in CBS's Return of the Native, and gave a remarkable performance in her role as "Catherine" in the miniseries Catherine the Great. It wasn't until Zeta-Jones' role in the four-hour television docudrama Titanic that Americans would soon learn why she was famous across the pond, one year before Leo DiCaprio and Kate Winsletcame along.

Steven Spielberg noticed her in the mini-series and thought she would be perfect for the female lead in The Mask of Zorro, which Spielberg produced. Spielberg knew what he was talking about, and he wasn't the only one who was impressed; audiences and critics liked what they saw in the role opposite Antonio Banderas Audiences probably wondered where this beauty popped up from, since they had never before heard of the Welsh star, who was often mistaken for Spanish. At the 1998 Oscars, Zeta-Jones stood out on the red carpet, looking ravishing. If she wasn't yet noticed after The Mask of Zorro, her appearance at the Oscars turned heads. In the summer of 1999, Zeta-Jones appeared opposite Sean Connery in the summer action film Entrapment. That same summer, Zeta-Jones took on the role of Theo in The Haunting, Dreamworks' adaptation of the 1963 horror of the same name, joining cast members Liam Neesonand Lili Taylor

Actor Michael Douglasfirst met Zeta-Jones at a Film Festival, and apparently told her that he wants to father her children during their first date. As if a premonition, they had their first child, Dylan Michael, in August 2000. The couple married in New York's famed Plaza Hotel in November 2000; apparently, Catherine arrived ten minutes late, as a result of being held up by her troop of security guards.

After appearances in High Fidelity, starring John Cusack, and Steven Soderbergh's Oscar-winning Traffic (both in 2000), she reunited with Cusack for America's Sweethearts in 2001, which also starred Julia Roberts More recent film roles include 2002's Chicago and the upcoming Intolerable Cruelty, with George Clooney Catherine Zeta-Jones is next scheduled to play a female James Bond-like character, in a movie she's co-producing with her brother, Lyndon. And she has become the spokesperson for T-Mobile International, a leading global wireless service provider, as well as spokesperson for cosmetics company, Elizabeth Arden. On the family front, she has built a seaside dream home in her hometown, determined that her son -- and the newest member of the Douglas clan, daughter Carys -- grows up aware of their Welsh heritage.