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Hilary Swank: Los Angeles
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This brown-haired, brown-eyed actress Hilary Swank found success in Hollywood not long after unpacking her bags. The athletic native of Bellingham, Washington moved to Los Angeles when she was 16 and soon landed a guest starring role on the syndicated "Harry and the Hendersons.†She then played recurring characters on both "Evening Shade" (CBS) and "Growing Pains" (ABC) during the 1991-92 season before making her feature debut as Kristy Swanson's Valley Girl pal in "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" (1992). Swank beat out thousands of actresses for the coveted lead part of Julie in "The Next Karate Kid" (1994), a role that required her to call on her athletic prowess. It marked her most prominent role to date.
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Born 1974, July - A professional actress since the age of 16, when she moved to Los Angeles from Bellingham, WA, Hilary Swank first appeared onscreen in 1992's Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Two years later, she earned a rudimentary degree of fame when she was picked to star in The Next Karate Kid, but this recognition proved fleeting.
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At sixteen, Swank moved from Washington to Los Angeles to pursue acting. She ... completed her high school education at South Pasadena High School. She made her film debut in Buffy the Vampire Slayer and made guest appearances on Evening Shade and Growing Pains. Her breakout role came in 1994 in The Next Karate Kid. Several unremarkable roles followed as well as recurring roles on the series Leaving LA and Beverly Hills 90210. Swank finally gained deserved acclaim for her moving performance as Brandon Teena in the independent film Boys Don't Cry in which she played a young woman who suffered after trying to live her life as a man. Her performance won her a Golden Globe and her first Academy Award.
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CINCINNATI, Nov. 2 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — Two-time Oscar winner Hilary Swank cut her hair for Pantene Beautiful Lengths in a powerful declaration of support for women with cancer. This national campaign encourages people to come together and share their strength by giving their healthy hair to create free wigs for women who have lost their hair due to cancer treatment.
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When she was nine years old, Swank made her first appearance on stage starring in The Jungle Book, and thereafter became heavily involved in her school and community theater programs, including those of the Bellingham Theatre Guild. She went to Sehome High School[6] in Bellingham until she was sixteen. Swank ... competed in the Junior Olympics and the Washington State championships in swimming; she ranked 5th in the state in all-around gymnastics[1] (which would come in handy when starring in The Next Karate Kid (1994) years later). Swank's parents separated when she was thirteen,[1] and her mother, supportive of her daughter's desire to act, moved the two of them to Los Angeles, California, where they lived out of their car until Swank's mother saved enough money to rent an apartment.[4] Swank has described her mother as the inspiration for her acting career and her life during this time period and subsequently.[7] In California, Swank enrolled in South Pasadena High School (although she later dropped out of high school[8]) and started acting professionally. She also helped pay the rent with the money she earned appearing in television programs such as Evening Shade and Growing Pains.
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Oscar winner Hilary Swank stars as Maggie, a fighter with nothing to lose, in this wallpaper from the film based on the stories of F.X. Toole. And thanks to her recent Academy Award win, she's a contender in and out of the ring.
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