Embodied grace, soft copper curls and a maliciously astonished gaze: this is Helena Bonham Carter, whose magnetic charm as a noblewoman of the past has enchanted the audiences, enchanting the greatest filmmakers on the planet.
Seduced by that extravagant and completely out of the ordinary soul, Tim Burton conquered her, giving him two children: Billy Ray, born in 2003 and Indiana Rose, in 2007.
To find out more, stick with us and learn about the life of this popular actress.
Early Life
Helena Bonham Carter grows up in London and attends one of the best schools in the country.
He began to develop his skills as an actress at a very young age and, after a television ad appeared, he got his first role on the big screen in 1986 with ‘Lady Jane’, which is followed by other titles such as ‘A room with a view’ or ‘Back to Howards End’.
Helena begins to acquire a great popularity that allows her to work under the orders of important directors like Woody Allen or David Fincher in the well-known titles ‘Powerful Aphrodite’ (1995) and ‘The fight club’ (1998).
In 1997 he won his first Oscar nomination for his role in ‘The wings of the dove’. The actress would also become one of Tim Burton’s muses, with whom she would collaborate on films like ‘Big Fish’ or ‘Charlie and the Chocolate Factory’
Throughout his prolific career he also intervenes in important titles such as’ Planet of the Apes’ (2001), ‘Conversations with other women’ (2005), ‘Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix’ (2007), ‘Sweeney Todd ‘(2007),’ Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince ‘(2008) or’ Alice in Wonderland ‘(2010).
Career Path
Burbank’s visionary filmmaker who directed her in Fellinian Sweeney Todd: The diabolical barber of Fleet Street (here, the actress supports Johnny Depp in his bloody revenge) found in her an inspiring muse with charm and intellect, just like it was Giulietta Masina for the great Fefè.
The artistic partnership that binds her to her beloved Burton began in 2001 with the science fiction Planet of the Apes, where the diva ventured into a stubborn monkey with human features.
Followed by the scary witch of Big Fish – The stories of an incredible life, the caring mother of Charlie Bucket in The Chocolate Factory, the voice of La Sposa Cadavere in the animated film of the same name and the Queen of Hearts in the very personal transposition of Tim of Lewis Carroll’s classic: Alice in Wonderland (2010).
He returned to work for Burton in 2012 in Dark Shadows.
But let’s take a few steps back in time. Helena was born in London to Raymond Bonham Carter, banker, and Elena Propper de Callejon, psychotherapist. He has two brothers: Edward, banker, and Thomas, soldier. Franco-Hispanic roots flow in his blood, inherited from his mother.
Helena’s is a reputable aristocratic family: descendant of British Prime Minister Herbert Asquith, the star is the cousin of Crispin Bonham-Carter and Baroness Jane Bonham-Carter, as well as great-grandson of director Anthony Asquith.
However, the star is sucked into an extremely anguished childhood: at the tender age of five, she witnesses helplessly the mother’s severe nervous breakdown and, not yet thirteen, takes care of the hospitalized father due to a paralysis that occurred, due to complications, during brain surgery for acoustic neuroma.
He attended South Hampstead High School and the Royal College of St Peter in Westminster, acting – for the first time – in 1982 in the part of Juliet, in a school performance. With his dad still hospitalized, the teenager wins a contest for young poets, and uses the money earned to put his photo in a casting catalog.
Later, she starts looking for an agent to help her take her first steps in the entertainment business. Despite the excellent marks, the girl is rejected by the University of Cambridge because she is too absorbed by her ascent into the world of the stage.
He made his debut in the television feature film A Garden of Roses and, in 1986, made his debut on celluloid in Lady Jane, in which he played the regal role of an heir to the throne.
She stands out thanks to the shy Lucy in the Camera with a view of James Ivory, and alongside an inspired Mickey Rourke aka Francesco in the poignant work of Liliana Cavani, where she solemnly embodies an austere Santa Chiara.
Later, she is the restless Ophelia in Zeffirelli’s Hamlet, the nonconformist Helen Schlegel in Casa Howard and the incestuous sister of Kenneth Branagh in Mary Shelley’s mighty Frankenstein. In 1997 she was nominated for an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for the interpretation of the tormented bourgeois in Iain Softley’s The Wings of Love.
Twenty-four months later, here it is transformed into the dark obsession of Edward Norton in Fight Club (role later replicated in the tragicomic Novocaine).
In 2009 we find her in McG’s Terminator Salvation and in 2011 she plays the role of Queen Queen Elizabeth, wife of George VI (Colin Firth), in Tom Hooper’s The King’s Speech.
In 2012 she was Miss Havisham in Mike Newell and Madame Thénardier’s Great Hopes in the musical based on Tom Hooper’s Victor Hugo Les Misérables. The following year he starred alongside Johnny Depp in Gore Verbinski’s The Lone Ranger.
In 2016 he returned to the big screen to play Edith New in Sarah Gavron’s feature film, Suffragette. In the film, a group of women, supportive and militant, fight alongside the founder of the Women’s Social and Political Union, for the conquest of the rights and the right to vote for women in London in the early 1900s.
She will also return in the guise of the Red Queen – no longer directed by her husband but by James Bobin – in Alice through the mirror.
The Bonham Carter has even managed to undermine the most famous wizard of cinema in the sinister features of Bellatrix Lestrange in Harry Potter and the order of the phoenix, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, as well as in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.
The eccentric artist was engaged to colleague Kenneth Branagh (with whom he recently worked in Cinderella, in which he plays the fairy godmother). He also had a flirtation with Rufus Sewell and Steve Martin before getting married to Tim Burton.
After debuting on television with A Pattern of Roses, Helena achieved stardom at age 20 thanks to her role in A Room with a View (1986), a debut film directed by James Ivory, who adapted a story by writer E. M. Forster.
Later he would participate again in various film adaptations of the work of this writer, such as where the angels do not venture (1991) or Return to Howards End (1992).
He is known for his roles in films such as Fight Club, The Dove’s Wings and The King’s Speech, and for playing the villain Bellatrix Lestrange in the Harry Potter movies.
She is also known for frequently participating in the films of director Tim Burton, who is also her partner. Bonham Carter has been recognized as one of the great actresses by international groups such as the Golden Globe, the Emmy Awards, the BAFTA and the Screen Actors Guild Awards.
Personal life
Daughter of a banker and a physiotherapist, Helena Bonham Carter was born in the London town of Golders Green. Great-granddaughter of Prime Minister Asquith, descends from a family of stale ancestry.
He did not have a simple childhood; his father suffered an accident that left him in a wheelchair; A very hard blow for the Carter family.
But let’s take a few steps back in time. Helena was born in London to Raymond Bonham Carter, banker, and Elena Propper de Callejon, psychotherapist. He has two brothers: Edward, banker, and Thomas, soldier. Franco-Hispanic roots flow in his blood, inherited from his mother.
Helena began her relationship in the world of interpretation after winning a national poetry contest, which sparked her passion for the arts. A representative was sought and began his career in the world of advertising at the age of 16.
Three years later, and after making his first steps on television and in the theater, he debuted in the cinema through the big door with a room with views. It took him, however, to break through and failed to assert himself until 1992, when he won one of the leading roles of Back to Howards End, for which he won a BAFTA candidacy as best supporting actress.
It does not take long to become one of the most sought-after British actresses and muse of the period cinema thanks to Frankenstein, Night of Kings or The Wings of the Dove, for which she achieved her first Oscar nomination as best leading actress.
The Fight Club, Planet of the Apes (where he meets the father of his two sons, Tim Burton), Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Sweeney Todd, The King’s Speech (for which he gets his second nomination to Oscar) o Les miserables ratify his second youth.
But it will be especially his participation in the Harry Potter saga, in the role of Bellatrix Lestrange, which ostensibly increases his doses of popularity.
He continues to increase it with his collaboration with the French filmmaker Jean-Pierre Jeunet in the adaptation of Reif Larsen’s novel The extraordinary journey of T.S. Spivet, as well as Cinderella, Suffragists, Alice through the mirror and Ocean’s 8, among others.
In addition, his charismatic voice has marked animation tapes like Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of Vegetables, The Corpse Bride or Stubby, a very special hero.
Helena’s childhood is rather troubled, complicated by the nervous breakdown of which her mother is a victim. There is also paralysis that affects the father following an acoustic neuroma.
Little more than a teenager, Helena Bonham Carter, with her father still in the hospital, comes first in a poetry contest. With the money obtained, he inserts his photo in a casting catalog.
So, to take the first steps in the entertainment industry, he hires an agent.
At sixteen he got his first job, performing at the Westminster school in the role of Juliet.
The first starring role in a film came only in 1986 with “Lady Jane”, directed by Trevor Nunn.
Quick summary
Full name: Helena Bonham Carter
Date of birth: May 26th 1966
Birthplace: Islington, London, U.S.
Age: 53
Profession: Actress
Height: 1.57 m
Weight: 55 kg
Net Worth: 60$ million