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Reese Witherspoon

Reese WitherspoonAKA Laura Jeanne Reese Witherspoon

Born: 22-Mar-1976
Birthplace: New Orleans, LA [1]

Gender: Female
Race or Ethnicity: White
Sexual orientation: Straight
Occupation: Actor

Nationality: United States
Executive summary: Legally Blonde

Reese Witherspoon was born in New Orleans, and raised in an expensive part of Nashville. Her father was a surgeon, her mother a college professor, and Witherspoon attended a private, all-girls school, where she was a straight-A student. She became a model at the age of 7, when a family friend who owned a flower shop asked if young Reese could pose for an advertisement. She eventually appeared in several TV commercials, took acting lessons, and at 14 she auditioned for a small role in a movie to be filmed in the Nashville area, The Man in the Moon. Instead she landed the nominal lead, as the young tomboy who gets her first kiss from Jason London.

In supporting roles, she and William McNamara rescued an autistic and imprisoned Patricia Arquette in Wildflower, she played a hippie girl in Jack The Bear with Danny DeVito, and performed her first topless scene in the otherwise forgettable Twilight with Gene Hackman. She was the nymphomaniac sister of Tobey Maguire in Pleasantville, the innocent lass of Cruel Intentions with Sarah Michelle Gellar, Christian Bale's spoiled fiancée in American Psycho, and a prim and proper lady in The Importance of Being Earnest with Colin Firth.

She had leading roles in two more low-budget films that earned raves, playing a thoroughly modern Little Red Riding Hood in Freeway and a girl very determined to be class president in Election with Matthew Broderick. She came to major stardom as a law student wearing pink in Legally Blonde, then played the citified country girl in Sweet Home Alabama. She won the Oscar as Best Actress for her portrait of June Carter Cash, opposite Joaquin Phoenix as Johnny Cash in Walk the Line.

In 2002, her brother, John Witherspoon Jr, was arrested after breaking into a neighbor's house and attempting to sexually molest a woman while she slept. He said he was drunk, and was sentenced to two years probation.


[1] Southern Baptist Hospital (now Memorial Medical Center).

Father: John Witherspoon (doctor)
Mother: Betty Reese (Professor of Nursing, Vanderbilt University)
Brother: John Draper Witherspoon Jr. (real estate agent, b. 1973)
Boyfriend: Graham Locke (schoolmate, together in 1986)
Boyfriend:
Jeremy Sisto (actor, dated 1991-92)
Husband: Ryan Phillippe (actor, m. 5-Jun-1999, sep. 2006, div. 5-Oct-2007, one son, one daughter)
Son: Deacon Phillippe (b. 23-Oct-2003)
Daughter: Ava Elizabeth Phillippe (b. 9-Sep-1999)
Boyfriend: Jake Gyllenhaal (actor, together 2007-09)
Husband: Jim Toth (agent, b. circa 1970, together since 2009, m. 26-Mar-2011, one son)
Son: Tennessee James (b. 27-Sep-2012)

    High School: Harpeth Hall, Nashville, TN (1994)
    University: Stanford University (dropped out)

    Oscar for Best Actress 2006 for Walk the Line
    Golden Globe 2006 for Walk the Line
    Hollywood Walk of Fame 2010 (6262 Hollywood Blvd.)
    Endorsement of Avon "Global Ambassador" (2007-)
    Disorderly Conduct Atlanta, GA (arrested, 19-Apr-2013)
    Friends of Hillary
    Risk Factors: Vegetarian, Yoga

    FILMOGRAPHY AS ACTOR
    A Wrinkle in Time (26-Feb-2018)
    Home Again (8-Sep-2017)
    Sing (11-Sep-2016) [VOICE]
    Hot Pursuit (7-May-2015)
    Inherent Vice (4-Oct-2014)
    The Good Lie (7-Sep-2014)
    Wild (29-Aug-2014)
    Devil's Knot (8-Sep-2013)
    Stevie Nicks: In Your Dreams (2-Apr-2013) · Herself
    Mud (26-May-2012)
    This Means War (14-Feb-2012) · Lauren
    Water for Elephants (15-Apr-2011) · Marlena
    How Do You Know (17-Dec-2010) · Lisa
    Monsters vs Aliens (19-Mar-2009) [VOICE]
    Four Christmases (26-Nov-2008) · Kate
    Rendition (7-Sep-2007)
    Penelope (8-Sep-2006)
    Just Like Heaven (16-Sep-2005)
    Walk the Line (4-Sep-2005)
    Vanity Fair (1-Sep-2004) · Becky Sharp
    Legally Blonde 2: Red, White & Blonde (2-Jul-2003) · Elle Woods
    Sweet Home Alabama (20-Sep-2002)
    The Importance of Being Earnest (17-May-2002) · Cecily
    Legally Blonde (13-Jul-2001)
    The Trumpet of the Swan (1-Mar-2001) [VOICE]
    Little Nicky (2-Nov-2000)
    American Psycho (21-Jan-2000) · Evelyn Williams
    Best Laid Plans (14-May-1999) · Lissa
    Election (23-Apr-1999) · Tracy Flick
    Cruel Intentions (5-Mar-1999) · Annette Hargrove
    Pleasantville (17-Sep-1998)
    Overnight Delivery (7-Apr-1998)
    Twilight (6-Mar-1998) · Mel Ames
    Fear (12-Apr-1996) · Nicole Walker
    Freeway (Jan-1996)
    S.F.W. (15-Sep-1994)
    Return to Lonesome Dove (14-Nov-1993)
    Jack the Bear (2-Apr-1993)
    A Far Off Place (12-Mar-1993)
    Wildflower (3-Dec-1991) · Ellie Perkins
    The Man in the Moon (15-Nov-1991) · Dani Trant

Appears on the cover of:
People, 14-Jul-2003, DETAILS: Reese! My Real Life


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