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Katie Holmes, known for her performance as Rachel Dawes in “Batman Begins,” is an American actress and model. She is the ex-wife of "Mission Impossible" star Tom Cruise. Here are 50 interesting facts about the actress
- Kate Noelle Holmes was born on December 18, 1978 in Toledo, Ohio, USA.
- She was born as a premature baby weighing four pounds to Martin Joseph Holmes, Sr., a lawyer with specialization in divorces, and Kathleen Ann (Craft), a philanthropist. She has the roots of German, Irish and English.
- She has four siblings - three elder sisters - Holly Ann Holmes, Nancy Kay Holmes, Tamera Holmes and one elder brother - Martin Joseph Holmes, Jr.
- Holmes feels that she has a telepathic connection to her sisters. “If I’m thinking about my sister, she will end up calling me, it’s weird. Telepathic,” she once said.
- She was a 4.0 student at the all-girls Notre Dame Academy in Toledo. By the age of 14, she attended modeling classes run by Margaret O’Brien.
- She first competed in a modeling competition, when she was just 16. She managed to win a number of awards, including the one at international talent competition, in which she recited a monologue from To Kill A Mockingbird.
- In the year 1997, she earned the role of Libbets Casey in “The Ice Storm,” as casting director Ang Lee was impressed with her performance at the competition. This marked the beginning of her career in acting.
- The same year, she was reportedly offered the lead role in “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” but she is said to have turned it down.
- Following her successful role, she started sending in audition tapes for pilot shows, through which she landed the part of Joey Potter in “Dawson’s Creek” TV series in 1998.
- It was not easy for her to get the chance as the audition for Joey Potter role clashed with her opening night for “Damn Yankees,” her all-girls Catholic high school musical, in which she played the role of Lola, due to which refused to audition.
- “I was doing my school play, Damn Yankees. And I was playing Lola. I even got to wear the feather boa. I thought, ‘There is no way I’m not playing Lola to go audition for some network. I couldn’t let my school down. We had already sold a lot of tickets. So I told Kevin and The WB, ‘I’m sorry. I just can’t meet with you this week. I’ve got other commitments,’“ Holmes once said in an interview.
- However, the producers of “Dawson’s Creek” permitted her to audition via videotape, with her mother reading Dawson’s lines. Paul Stupin, executive producer of the show, once said his first reaction on seeing her audition tape was “That’s Joey Potter!”
- Soon, she graced the covers of magazines such as Seventeen, TV Guide, and Rolling Stone. Jancee Dunn. According to an editor at Rolling Stone, Holmes was chosen because “every time you mention Dawson’s Creek you tend to get a lot of dolphin-like shrieks from teenage girls. The fact that she is drop-dead gorgeous didn’t hurt either.”
- She was voted as “Babe of the Year” in 1998, by Expressen Fredag, Sweden.
- She started dating her “Dawson’s Creek” co-star Joshua Jackson, though the relationship did not last long. The duo remains to be close friends even now.
- For the filming of “Dawson’s Creek,” she had to stay in Wilmington for 10 months a year. She bought her own town house and stayed there.
- The same year, Holmes played the role of Rachel Wagner in “Disturbing Behavior” for which she received a MTV Movie Award for Best Breakthrough Performance.
- In the year 1999, she starred in the movie “Go,” as Claire Montgomery, which was met with excellent reviews. Holmes’ performance was liked by critics.
- She was listed as one of the sexiest women in the world, by both British and American editions of FHM magazine. Since then, she has been named so, every year.
- Her next films were Kevin Williamson’s “Teaching Mrs. Tingle,” with the part of Leigh Ann Watson, “Muppets from Space,” in which she had a cameo appearance, as Hannah Green in “Wonder Boys,” a very small role of just six and one-half minutes of screen time, and “The Gift,” for the role of Jessica King.
- Her first nude scene was for the movie “The Gift,” which was met with disapproval in Ohio.
- She started dating actor Chris Klein famous for his role in “American Pie,” with whom she had a romantic relationship for a few years.
- The couple got engaged in the year 2003, but unfortunately broke up in March 2005. Chris Klein said about the breakup “From my side there was a lot of denial and fear about the future. It ended as amicably as these things can end.”
- In the year 2001, she hosted her first Saturday Night Live show.
- Holmes had her first leading role in “Abandon” as Katie Burke, the next year. The screenplay of the movie was suggested by the book “Adam’s Fall,” written by Sean Desmond. The writer of the film claimed that he wrote the character of Katie Burke with Holmes in mind.
- She reportedly turned down the lead role in "40 Days and 40 Nights" (2002).
- In May 2003, “Dawson’s Creek” TV series had its curtains fall for the last time, after 6 years. Holmes was the only actor to have appeared in all the 128 episodes.
- Following the end of “Dawson’s Creek,” she had two movies - “Pieces of April” starring Derek Luke and Oliver Platt and “The Singing Detective,” with Robert Downey Jr as the lead, in the same year.
- She was listed among 50 Most Beautiful People by People magazine, while Teen People named her as one of the “25 Hottest Stars Under 25.”
- In 2004, she was casted as Samantha Mackenzie in the movie “First Daughter,” in which Michael Keaton starred as her father and Marc Blucas as her love interest.
- Her major breakthrough was when she landed the role of Rachel Dawes in the 2005 film “Batman Begins,” which is more likely the most successful movie of her career till date.
- Holmes’ performance in the movie, as a childhood sweetheart and love interest to Batman/Bruce Wayne, earned her nominations for Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actress as well as Golden Raspberry Worst Supporting Actress.
- While the character doesn’t exist in “Batman” or any other DC Comics’ series, director Christopher Nolan and screenwriter David S. Goyer, created the role of Rachel Dawes, expressly for Holmes, with Claire Danes and Reese Witherspoon as backup considerations.
- British artist ‘Firexit’ has two songs with references to Holmes, one called “K H” (her initials) and a song called “The reason I can’t have her” featuring samples of Holmes’ singing ‘On my own’ from a Dawson’s Creek (1998) episode. A Japanese small band even performed a song entitled “Katie” about her. She was also mentioned in the Bowling for Soup’s song “High School Never Ends.”
- Following the break up with actor Klein in March 2005, she started dating “Mission Impossible” star Tom Cruise in April 2005. They met for the first time regarding a role for Holmes in “Mission Impossible 3.”
- Holmes began studying Scientology, just before their marriage. Cruise proposed to Holmes in Paris at the Eiffel Tower at a restaurant on the Tower’s second floor. The duo got engaged in just 2 months on June 17, 2005, since their first meet.
- The couple was soon named to be one of the supercouples of the Hollywood, with the nickname of “TomKat.” They welcomed their daughter “Suri” on April 18, 2006.
- TomKat along with their daughter Suri were featured in the October edition of Vanity magazine’s cover, with Annie Leibovitz as the photographer.
- On November 18, 2006, Holmes and Cruise were married in a Scientologist ceremony at the 15th-century Odescalchi Castle in Bracciano, Italy.
- “I don’t know what to say -- I’m just happy, and I have been since the moment I met her. What we have is very special,” Cruise said about his love for Holmes.
- On the other hand, it was a dream turn true for Holmes, as she once said “I think every little girl dreams of her wedding. I used to think I was going to marry Tom Cruise.”
- Even before the word about her relationship with Cruise was out, Holmes was said to have called her ex-fiancé, with whom she is still friends and say “Listen, I want you to know this, before you see it somewhere.”
- In the period between 2006 and 2007, Holmes was not active in her career. She was speculated to reprise her role in “The Dark Knight,” the “Batman Begins” sequel, but Maggie Gyllenhaal was cast in her place.
- The next year, she was cast in the comedy "Mad Money," opposite Diane Keaton and Queen Latifa, in which her performance was criticized heavily. The New York Times called Holmes “the movie’s weakest link”.
- In the year 2008, she he started her high fashion clothing line Holmes & Yang with longtime stylist Jeanne Yang, the same year. However, the first fashion line was presented at New York Fashion Week in September 2012.
- Together with Nigel Lythgoe, Adam Shankman, and Carrie Ann Inaba, Holmes launched a dance scholarship fund called the Dizzy Feet Foundation in the year 2009.
- On June 29, 2012, Holmes filed for divorce from Cruise in New York after five years of marriage. On July 9, 2012, just 11 days after she filed for divorce, the attorneys of the couple announced that they had reached a settlement, with Holmes having primary custody of their daughter Suri Cruise.
- While the couple haven’t revealed the reason for divorce, sources close to them claims that Holmes believed she had reason to fear that Cruise would abduct Suri, and also feared intimidation by the Church of Scientology.
- In the year 2013, she became the face of Bobbi Brown Cosmetics brand. She was also announced as the brand ambassador and co-owner of Alterna Haircare.
- Holmes has been active on Television, with a number of series like “The Kennedys,” “How I Met Your Mother,” and “Ray Donovan,” in which she will be featured in a recurring role for the upcoming season.
