Kirsten Dunst

Born : Kirsten Caroline Dunst, April 30, 1982 (1982-04-30) (age 26), Point Pleasant, New Jersey, United States
Years active : 1989–present
Kirsten Caroline Dunst (born April 30, 1982) is an American actress and singer. She made her film debut in Oedipus Wrecks, a short film directed by Woody Allen for the anthology New York Stories (1989). She appeared in Little Women (1994) opposite Winona Ryder and Claire Danes, before securing the role that brought her widespread recognition, as the vampire Claudia in Interview with the Vampire (1994). She was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance.
Dunst achieved international recognition as a result of her portrayal of Mary Jane Watson in the Spider-Man films. Since then, she has played the title role in Sofia Coppola's Marie Antoinette (2006), and How to Lose Friends & Alienate People (2008). She has accepted leading roles in the 2009 films All Good Things and Sweet Relief.
Dunst made her singing debut in the film Get Over It (2001), in which she performed two songs. In the 2001 film The Cat's Meow, she performed Henry Creamer and Turner Layton's song "After You've Gone" for the end credits of the film. Early in 2008 Dunst admitted that she was suffering from depression. She checked into a treatment center, discharging herself in March and resuming her career. She has dated playwright Jeff Smeenge, actor Jake Gyllenhaal and Razorlight frontman Johnny Borrell.
Early life
Dunst was born in Point Pleasant, New Jersey to Klaus and Inez Dunst. She has a younger brother, Christian. Her father was a medical services executive and her mother was an artist and former gallery owner. Dunst is of German descent on her father's side, and Swedish on her mother's.
Dunst lived in New Jersey until the age of six, where she attended Ranney School, before she moved with her mother and younger brother to Los Angeles, California in 1991. In 1995, her mother filed for divorce from her father. In 1996, she began attending Notre Dame, a private Catholic high school in Los Angeles. Dunst graduated from Notre Dame in 2000 and left to continue her acting career. When asked if she had any regrets about the way she spent her childhood, Dunst said: "Well, it's not a natural way to grow up, but it's the way I grew up and I wouldn't change it. I have my stuff to work out... I don't think anybody can sit around and say: 'My life is more screwed up than yours.' Everybody has their issues."
Early work
Dunst began her career at the age of three as a child fashion model in television commercials. She was signed with Ford Models and Elite Model Management. At the age of eight Dunst made her film debut in Woody Allen's Oedipus Wrecks, a short film that was released as one-third of the anthology New York Stories (1989). Soon after, she landed a small part in The Bonfire of the Vanities (1990), as Tom Hanks' daughter. In 1993, Dunst played Hedril in "Dark Page", the seventh season episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation.
Dunst portrayed young Amy March in the 1994 film adaptation of Little Women. The film received favorable reviews; critic Janet Maslin of The New York Times wrote that the film was the greatest adaptation of the novel, and also remarked on Dunst's performance: "The perfect contrast to take-charge Jo comes from Kirsten Dunst's scene-stealing Amy, whose vanity and twinkling mischief make so much more sense coming from an 11-year-old vixen than they did from grown-up Joan Bennett in 1933. Ms. Dunst, also scarily effective as the baby bloodsucker of Interview With the Vampire, is a little vamp with a big future."
Spider–Man and after
In the 2002 film Spider-Man, the most successful film of her career to date, she played Mary Jane Watson, the best friend and love interest of the title character, played by Tobey Maguire. The film was directed by Sam Raimi. Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly wrote: "Dunst has a role that's no more fleshed out than Maguire's, yet she lends even the smallest line a tickle of flirtatious music." In the Los Angeles Times review, critic Kenneth Turan wrote: "Dunst and Maguire make a real connection on screen, and we are involved in their relationship to an extent that's rare in films like this." Spider-Man was a commercial and critical success. The film earned $114 miliion during its opening weekend.
The success of the first Spider-Man film led her to reprise the role in the 2004 sequel, Spider-Man 2. The film was relatively well received by critics. Spider-Man 2 was a big financial success, setting a new opening weekend record at the North America box office. With revenue of $783 million worldwide, it became the second highest grossing film in 2004. In 2005, she appeared as flight attendant Claire Colburn, alongside Orlando Bloom, in Elizabethtown. The film was written and directed by Cameron Crowe. The film premiered at the 2005 Toronto Film Festival. Dunst revealed that working with Crowe was "enjoyable".The film was garnered with mixed reviews, and was a box office failure.
For future films, she will portray peace activist Marla Ruzicka, a US relief worker killed by a suicide bomb in Baghdad, in a film about the Iraq war, in Sweet Relief, to be released in 2009. She has expressed interest in playing the role of Blondie frontwoman Debbie Harry in Michel Gondry's upcoming biopic about the band. Dunst also expressed interest in playing Jean Seberg in an upcoming biopic.
Personal life
In an article for Premiere, Sam Raimi confirmed the long-standing rumor that Dunst and her Spider-Man co-star Tobey Maguire had "a thing" going on during the 2001 shooting of the first film. As Raimi explained for the article, "I'm so dumb, because I met with them for dinner one night during the shooting to talk about the next day's scenes. And I go, 'Okay, well, that's it for the meeting.' And then I ask Kirsten, 'Can I drive you home?' And they look at each other and she goes, 'No, no, I'm going to play a game of Touch 10 with Tobey.' I don't know, it was some game. I thought, 'That's weird. She's got to work tomorrow.'"
After briefly dating her longtime friend, playwright Jeff Smeenge, she started dating actor Jake Gyllenhaal in September 2002, after meeting him through his sister, Maggie her Mona Lisa Smile co-star. However, they broke up in July 2004. In March 2007, she dated frontman Johnny Borrell of Razorlight. However, they broke up later that year.
Dunst supported Democratic candidate John Kerry in the 2004 US presidential election. She supported Barack Obama in the 2008 presidential election. Viewed as a sex symbol, she was ranked in the "Hot 100 List" by Maxim magazine in 2003 and 2004. She was ranked at number 59 on VH1's 100 Greatest Kid Stars. Dunst was featured on Richard Blackelwl's famous Best Dressed List for 2005.
Dunst confirmed that she was treated for depression early in 2008. She sought treatment at the Cirque Lodge treatment center in Utah. She explained that she had been feeling "low" in the six months prior to her going to rehab. In late March, she checked out from the treatment center and began filming All Good Things. In May, she went public with this information to "highlight the struggle faced by so many other successful women" and to dispel false rumors that had "been very painful for my friends and family".
Source : en.wikipedia.org