Reese Witherspoon Life Story

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Laura Jeanne Reese Witherspoon (born March 22, 1976) is an Academy Award winning actress best known for her roles in Legally Blonde and Walk the Line. Witherspoon landed her first feature role as the female lead in the movie The Man in the Moon in 1991; later that year she made her television acting debut, in the cable movie Wildflower. In 1996, Witherspoon appeared in Freeway and followed that appearance with roles in three major 1998 movies: Overnight Delivery, Pleasantville, and Twilight.

The following year, Witherspoon appeared in the critically acclaimed Election, which earned her a Golden Globe nomination. 2001 marked her career’s turning point with the breakout role as “Elle Woods” in the box office hit Legally Blonde, and in 2002 she starred in Sweet Home Alabama, which became her biggest commercial film success to date. 2003 saw her return as lead actress and executive producer of Legally Blonde 2: Red, White & Blonde. In 2005, Witherspoon received worldwide attention and praise for her portrayal of June Carter Cash in Walk the Line, which earned her an Academy Award, Golden Globe, BAFTA, and Screen Actors Guild Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role.

Witherspoon married actor and Cruel Intentions co-star Ryan Phillippe in 1999; they have two children, Ava and Deacon. The couple separated at the end of 2006 and divorced in October 2007. Witherspoon owns a production company, Type A Films, and she is actively involved in children’s and women’s advocacy organizations. She serves on the board of the Children’s Defense Fund (CDF), and was named Global Ambassador of Avon Products in 2007, serving as honorary chair of the charitable Avon Foundation.
Witherspoon was born in New Orleans to John Witherspoon, a surgeon, and Betty Reese, a nurse and college professor. She is a direct descendant of Scottish-born John Witherspoon, a signer of the United States Declaration of Independence and sixth president of Princeton University, who was also a Presbyterian minister.

Because her father worked for the US military in Wiesbaden, Germany, she lived there for four years as a small child. After returning to the United States, Witherspoon spent much of her childhood and adolescence in Nashville, Tennessee.

She has an older brother, John, who works as a real estate broker. After graduating from the prestigious private all-girl’s Harpeth Hall School in Nashville, she attended Stanford University as a literature major. After completing a year of her studies, she left Stanford to pursue her acting career.

Witherspoon began her career in local commercials. Her first role was in a 1991 made-for-TV movie called Wildflower, directed by Diane Keaton and starring Beau Bridges, William McNamara, and Patricia Arquette. That same year, at age 14, Witherspoon attended an open casting call for The Man in the Moon, intending to audition as a bit player.

She was instead cast in the lead role, immediately capturing the attention of critics. Since, she has built up an impressive filmography, playing both comedic and dramatic roles, including performances as Vanessa in Freeway and Tracy Flick in Election. She was the voice of the animated character Greta Wolfecastle in an episode of The Simpsons.

She achieved fame for her role in 2001′s Legally Blonde, and its sequel Legally Blonde 2 for which she received a reported $15 million paycheck, making her one of Hollywood’s top-paid actresses. She has garnered critical praise and awards for her turn as June Carter Cash in Walk the Line. Carter Cash, who died in 2003, personally approved of Witherspoon to play her. Witherspoon won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy, NYFCC, the FFCC, the SFFCC Award for Best Actress, the Screen Actor’s Guild (SAG) for best actress in a lead role, the British Academy’s BAFTA for best actress in a lead role, the “Favorite Leading Lady” at the 32nd Annual People’s Choice Awards, and the Academy Award for Best Actress for this role.

Witherspoon runs a production company, Type A Productions, with partner Laura Siegel. The company is named after Witherspoon’s childhood nickname “Little Miss Type A.”

On February 28, 2006, it was reported that Witherspoon will beat Julia Roberts’ record for the highest paid actress of all time when she is paid $29 million for an upcoming horror film Our Family Troubles, which will beat Roberts’ $25 million 2004 salary for Mona Lisa Smile.

Witherspoon met actor Ryan Phillippe at her 21st birthday party in March 1997, where she reportedly greeted him with “You must be my birthday present.” The pair were engaged in December 1998. Soon after, the couple starred together in the box office hit Cruel Intentions. They were married on a plantation in Charleston, South Carolina on June 5, 1999.

They have two children together: daughter Ava Elizabeth, born September 9, 1999, and son Deacon, born October 23, 2003. Ava is named after Phillippe’s grandmother, and Deacon after one of his distant relatives. Witherspoon and Phillippe have a pact that one of them will always be a full-time parent to the children, and they thus alternate filming schedules. Witherspoon is known for being a very hands-on mother, and she and her husband claim to have never employed a full-time nanny. The family resides in a gated community in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Brentwood.

Witherspoon was back in front of the camera again in November 2006, as shooting began for the political thriller Rendition. She starred alongside Meryl Streep, Alan Arkin, Peter Sarsgaard, and Jake Gyllenhaal, playing Isabella El-Ibrahim, the pregnant wife of a bombing suspect. Rendition was released in October 2007 and marked Witherspoon’s first appearance in theaters in two years, since the 2005 release of Walk the Line. The movie received mostly negative reviews, and was generally considered a disappointment at the Toronto Film Festival.

Witherspoon’s performance was also criticized: “Reese Witherspoon is surprisingly lifeless”, USA Today wrote, “She customarily injects energy and spirit into her parts, but here, her performance feels tamped down.” In December 2007, Witherspoon began filming the holiday comedy Four Christmases, a story about a couple who have to spend their Christmas Day trying to visit all four of their divorced parents, and in which she stars alongside Vince Vaughn.

The film was released in November 2008. Despite only receiving average reviews by critics, the movie became a box office success, earning more than 120 million US dollars domestically, and US$157m worldwide. Witherspoon next provided the voice for Susan Murphy, the main character of the computer-animated 3-D feature film Monsters vs. Aliens, which had a March 27, 2009 release from DreamWorks Animation.