Helena Bonham Carter was born in London on May 26, 1966, to a banker father and a psychotherapist mother. Her young life was rough: When she was five, her mother suffered a nervous breakdown (later to recover), and when she was around 13, her father became paralyzed after complications arose during brain surgery. While her father was still in the hospital, she won a poetry contest and used the money to get her picture in a casting catalog. Not long after, she hired an agent who helped her get her marvelous career underway.
Despite the hardship, she comes from the finest stock: Her great-grandfather, H.H. Asquith, was prime minister of England from 1908 to 1916; her great-uncle was the famous director Anthony Asquith; and her grandmother was a famous socialite/orator/politician. It is thus no surprise that much of her acclaimed career has seen her playing a British aristocrat.
Before completing her studies at the exclusive Westminster School in London, she got her first role -- as Juliet in a radio ad for stereo equipment. In 1986, she landed her first lead as the ill-fated Lady Jane Grey, and, that same year, initiated her long run as an acclaimed period actress in A Room with a View. It was the first of a series of films adapted from E. M. Forster novels in which she would star.
In 1987, she capitalized on her pitch-perfect American accent and landed a role as -- get this -- Don Johnson's drug-addicted fiancee Theresa on Miami Vice. She was a spot-on Ophelia in the Mel Gibson-led version of Hamlet in 1990, and thereafter had a superb decade. Additional to the notable TV and radio work she has always pursued, she claimed the aforementioned crown after a string of grand 19th century set flicks: Where Angels Fear to Tread, Howards End, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and, the grandest, 1997's The Wings of the Dove, which earned her Oscar and Golden Globe Best Actress nominations.
Believe it or not, the successful starlet did not move from her parents' home until the ripe age of 30. Call her a late bloomer. But then, what a bloom: She soon moved in with her beau, actor-director Kenneth Branagh, who apparently divorced his wife Emma Thompson for her (Branagh directed Bonham Carter in 1994's Mary Shelley's Frankenstein). After a rough break five years later (rumor had it she was quite shaken up), she embarked on a romance with Steve Martin following their collaboration in Novocaine. She reportedly squashed his hopes for marriage when she decided their 21-year age difference was too much and dumped him.
Shortly before Planet of the Apes' release, director Tim Burton ended a very long-term relationship to date her. About this on-going romance, Bonham Carter has been quoted as saying, "it's getting serious," but when pressed on the issue of family life, her playfully self-effacing side takes over: "I'm just such a retard and a bit of a Peter Pan. I've been very reluctant to grow up."
Helena Bonham Carter reached a different and much wider audience as another drug-addled eccentric in Fight Club. She has also recently shown some meaningful self-interest, playing her own grandmother in a British radio piece and contributing her own money to the low-budget Australian film Till Human Voices Wake Us, co-starring Memento star Guy Pearce.
Her role in 2001's Planet of the Apes may not have won her any spots in Revlon commercials (she wore a monkey mask the whole time!), but it did bring her to a more mainstream audience.
Having conquered the art-house and the Hollywood blockbuster, the corset and the ape suit, Helena Bonham Carter is at the top of her game. Where can we expect to see her in the future? Pretty much anywhere -- just follow the trail of cigarette butts, dejected men and critical acclaim.