Catherine Zeta-Jones was born on September 25, 1969 in Swansea, West Glamorgan, Wales, UK. She is the daughter of Patricia (Fair) and David James "Dai" Jones, who formerly owned a candy factory. Her father is of Welsh descent and her mother is of Welsh, English, and Irish ancestry. Her brothers are David Jones (b. 1967), a development executive, and Lyndon Jones (b. 1972), who works at her production company. Catherine showed an interest early on in entertainment. She starred on stage in "Annie", "Bugsy Malone" and "The Pajama Game". At age 15, she had the lead in the British revival of "42nd Street". She was originally cast as the second understudy for the lead role in the musical but when the star and first understudy became sick the night the play's producer was in the audience, she was given the lead for the rest of the musical's production. She first made a name for herself in the early 1990s when she starred in the Yorkshire Television comedy/drama series The Darling Buds of May (1991). The series was a smash hit and made her one of the United Kingdom's most popular television actresses. She subsequently played supporting roles in several films including Kolumbusz, a felfedező (1992), the miniseries Nagy Katalin (1996) and a larger part as the seductive Sala in A fantom (1996) before landing her breakthrough role playing the fiery Elena opposite Anthony Hopkins and Antonio Banderas in Zorro álarca (1998). She starred in many big-budget blockbusters like Briliáns csapda (1999), Az átok (1999) and Traffic (2000), for which many believed she was robbed of an Oscar nomination for best supporting actress. In November 2000, she married actor Michael Douglas. She gave birth to their son Dylan Michael in August 2000 followed by daughter, Carys, in April 2003. She was awarded Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 2010 Queen's Birthday Honours List for her accomplishments in film and television.
