Life Story

Kate Noelle "Katie" Holmes (born December 18, 1978) is an American actress from Ohio best known for her role as Joey Potter, the tomboy down the titular waterway on The WB television drama Dawson's Creek. Only her second role, Dawson's Creek made Holmes a star, praised by critics and adored by fans. Holmes' movie roles have ranged from art films such as Pieces of April to thrillers such as Abandon, but she has not found the same success in films as she did on television.

In June 2005, she became engaged to the actor Tom Cruise. Their highly publicized relationship has made Holmes the subject of international press attention, much of it negative.

Early life and career: Holmes, born in Toledo, Ohio, is the youngest of the five children (four daughters, one son) of Martin J. Holmes, Sr., an attorney, and Kathleen Holmes. She lived in Sylvania Township and attended Catholic schools in Toledo, attending high school at the all-female Notre Dame Academy. 

While in high school, she went with her mother to Los Angeles to audition for pilots for television shows. She did not land a television role, but was cast as the character Libbets Casey in the film The Ice Storm (1997), directed by Ang Lee and starring Kevin Kline and Sigourney Weaver.

She returned to Toledo but her audition tapes continued to circulate. One reached the producers of a new show created by Kevin Williamson for Columbia Tri-Star Television: Dawson's Creek. Her appointment to read for it was unknowingly set by the producers for the same day as her high school production of Damn Yankees (she was playing Lola), but they permitted her to send a videotape rather than make her miss the show. 

Holmes read for the part of Joey, the tomboyish best friend of the title character, while her mother read Dawson's lines, including dialogue about sex and masturbation. Holmes won the part. Williamson said "She had those eyes, those eyes just stained with loneliness."

Dawson's Creek: "I'm a lot like Joey," she said. "I think they saw that. I come from a small town. I was a tomboy. Joey tries to be articulate and deny that she doesn't have a lot of experience in life. Her life parallels mine, which is all about new everything--relationships, personnel, perceptions—and about being guarded." Dawson's Creek filmed its first season in the spring and summer of 1997. Holmes moved to Wilmington, North Carolina, where the show filmed, and for a time lived with creator Williamson.

At 5'9" (some sources say 5'7"), the tall brunette enchanted the press. "The Audrey Hepburn of her generation," was one typical comment. Variety, reviewing the pilot, said Holmes "is a confident young performer who delivers her lines with slyness and conviction." So good was Holmes that The New York Times Magazine would claim everyone in Hollywood was looking for the "Katie Holmes type" when casting shows. "The Katie Holmes type," the reporter claimed, "is a throwback to the 1950's: she is a smart girl next door (as opposed to the babe-o-rama blondes)"--the sort represented by her Dawson's Creek co-star Michelle Williams. But her "type" was no less attractive, Arena magazine declaring her "the most coquettishly sexy woman on television. Anywhere."

Dawson's Creek ran from 1998 to 2003 and Holmes was the only actor to appear in all 128 episodes. "It was very difficult for me to leave Wilmington, to have my little glass bubble burst and move on. I hate change. On the other hand it was refreshing to play someone else," she said in 2004. Holmes confirmed that, as is often the case on soaps, the character is a caricature of the actor:

I miss her spirit, and her spunk, and I miss her anxiety. She always had these long speeches about her fears and her future and love. It was a great tool for me personally because I got to get it all out. I was able to psychoanalyze all of it everyday with her and then I wouldn't have to do it on my own. So much of me is in Joey and it really felt like I grew up on television.

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