The daughter of Rising Damp and Porridge
actor Richard Beckinsale, Kate was raised by her mother after her father's
death from a heart attack in 1979. Beckinsale decided to follow in her
father's acting footsteps and made her movie debut in Kenneth
Branagh's film adaptation of Much Ado About Nothing (1993) while
still studying at Oxford. She left Oxford the following year and appeared
in John Schlesinger's adaptation
of Cold Comfort
Farm, initially made for BBC television, it proved to be a minor
hit on the art-house circuit. In 1995 she starred opposite Adian Quinn
and Sir John Gielgud in the eerie Haunted.
Beckinsale then starred as the altruistic temp in the quirky romantic
comedy Shooting Fish,
becoming one of 1997’s highest grossing films. Her performance as a
catty New York sophisticate in Whit Stillman's The Last Days of Disco
(1998) earned her serious plaudits. She then worked on the Merchant/Ivory
production of Henry James' The
Golden Bowl (2000), Michael Bay's lavish World War II epic Pearl
Harbour, and opposite John Cusack in the romantic comedy Serendipity
(2001). With her willing grasp of an American accent, an adventure in
Hollywood seems to be beckoning.
