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Charlize was
born in the small town of Benoni, South Africa in 1975. She was the only
child of Charles and Gerda Theron. Her parents owned a farm and a road
construction company. She started taking ballet lessons at the age of 6
and quickly had aspirations of one day being a professional ballet dancer.
She would soon realize this dream as she began dancing professionaly in
Jonannesburg just a few years after she started ballet.
In 1991 a
tragic event occurred in her life. Her father passed away. This left her
mother in charge of both the farm and the road construction business.
This, as you can well imagine, was very difficult for both her mother and
herself. It was around this time that she began modelling in Milan, Italy.
This lasted but for a short while as she soon grew tired of being viewed
as nothing more than a pretty model. It was at this time that she returned
to her first true love of ballet. But because of a knee injury at the age
of 18, her career ended as a ballet dancer. Broke and without the ability
to dance, she decided to go to Hollywood and try her luck out as an actor.
How she was
"discovered" is quite unbelievable. And of all places it
happened in a bank. When a teller in an L.A. bank refused to cash her
out-of-town check she threw a bit of a tantrum. This was noticed by talent
manager John Crosby. He saw something in her that was special and as we
all now know, he certainly found a true gem. If only we could all be so
lucky. From an unhappy customer in a bank to one of the hottest actresses
in Hollywood is pretty amazing, but nonetheless true. So to quote a slogan
of a cigarette company, "You've come a long way baby."
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