From Birth To Stardom

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."