Catherine Zeta Jones FAQ

Catherine was born in 1969 to a Irish mother (Pat) and Welsh father (Dai). She has two brothers. The younger one, Lyndon, acts as her manager. David, her elder brother is a producer and helps her choose which movies to act in. She started singing and dancing at the age of 4 and was a member of a local church drama group. At age 10 she starred in the play Annie and was featured in a theatrical production of Bugsy Malone. In 1983 her on-stage career really began to take off. While performing in a musical featuring Monkees star Mickey Dolenz she impressed the show's producers so much that they offered her the lead part in the London production of The Pyjama Game. She moved to London full time in 1984 and later won a roll in the musical 42nd Street. Originally cast as the 2nd understudy to the lead actress, good fortune gave her the chance play the character on-stage. Once again her talents were impressed the producer so much that she began playing the lead 8 shows a week. In 1990, when the 3 year run of 42nd street ended, she moved to France. It was here that she made her film debut in Philip de Broca's 'Scheherazade'. She moved back to Britain the following year to take up an offer of a part in the TV series 'The Darling Buds of May'. The comedy-drama series was an enormous success and threw Catherine into the limelight as never before. Although the show only produced 12 episodes over a 3 year run the media attention Catherine faced was so extreme that it was one of the main reasons she left Britain for L.A. The move also coincided with the release of her first Hollywood movie, The Phantom. Although the film was not a great success Catherine continued to work in the States and had a part in the TV mini-series Titanic. It was her performance here which caught the eye of executive producer Steven Spielberg. Spielberg asked to meet with her and then took her to Mexico to screen test for the movie The Mask of Zorro. She won the part and the movie went on to be a great success.

Many have suggested that Catherine added Zeta to her name to make her sound more exotic. This is not true. She was named after her grandmother. Catherine explains ,"It was something to do with my great-grandfather - either a boat he sailed on or a stripper he encountered on his travels." It is interesting to note that many people (including the Zorro film makers, Columbia TriStar) are hyphenating Catherine's name to produce Zeta-Jones. This, to my mind, seems to be incorrect. Jones is a very common Welsh surname. I suspect that Catherine used her middle name, Zeta, because Catherine Jones is a common name. "There were about six other Catherine Joneses in my class at school." she says.

The full list of film/TV credits are as follows:

Title	Character	Format	Year
Les 1001 nuit (aka Scheherazade)	Sheherazade	Film	(1990)
Out of the Blue	Christy	Film	(1991)
The Darling Buds of May	Mariette	TV	(1991)
Christopher Columbus : The Discovery	Beatriz	Film	(1992)
Splitting Heirs	Kitty	Film	(1993)
The Cinder Path Victoria	Chapman	TV mini-series	(1994)
The Return Of The Native	Eustacia Vye	TV mini-series?	(1994)
Catherine the Great	Catherine	TV mini-series	(1995)
Blue Juice	Chloe	Film	(1996)
The Phantom	Sala	Film	(1996)
Titanic	Isabella Paradine	TV mini-series	(1996)
The Mask Of Zorro	Elena Montero	Film	(1998)
Entrapment	Virginia Baker	Film	(1999)
The Haunting of Hill House	Theodora	Film	(1999)

Theatrical/Childhood rols include:

Annie	Annie
Bugsy Malone	Tallulah
The Pyjama Game	Unknown
42nd Street	Female Lead (name unknown)
Under Milkwood	Unknown
Street Scenes	Unknown

Hopefully her success in Hollywood will continue. If this is the case then the future looks bright for Catherine. In the past she has been offered many period dramas as well as the usual B-grade sci-fi films where the script calls for her character to end up naked! She can be quite choosy about the type of film she goes for. "I turned down a True Romance/Natural Born Killers type of thing because I didn't like the subject matter." So perhaps we can expect to see her in more action, adventure and romance type films.

Catherine is both a trained dancer and singer. Although her dancing talents were shown off to great effect in 'The Mask of Zorro' most people will be unaware that she can also sing. She released a single entitled 'In The Arms Of Love' in the UK in March 1995. Zorro co-star Sir Anthony Hopkins said of her, "I'm only sorry they didn't need her to sing in Zorro. She has a beautiful voice." Prior to moving to the US her record company were trying to persuade her to follow her singing career instead of doing movies.

Another, perhaps less practical, talent is her ability to drink huge amounts of alcoholic beverages without getting drunk!

According to Catherine, her ideal man must romantic, spontaneous and good with words. "If a man can speak eloquently and beautifully to me, I just melt on the floor." says Catherine. She likes to be kissed, pampered and given flowers but is unimpressed by materialistic things such as cars.

She also admits to being attracted to older men.

Perhaps Michael Douglas meets all the above requirements.

Yes.

I am sure that many male fans are dissapointed by the news! Michael Douglas proposed to Catherine on New Year's Eve. The couple had been dating since March 1999. Although a date has not been set yet it is thought that they will marry on 25th September, their shared birthday. A location for the wedding has also to be settled on. Possible locations include Los Angeles, Majorca (Spain) and Clyne Chapel (South Wales). More information as it comes in.

Yes. The news broke a few days after her engagement was announced. Catherine is 3 months pregnant with fiance Michael Douglas's baby. The baby is due in June or early July of this year.

• When she was a kid she was quite ill and doctors had to perform a tracheotomy to allow her to breathe. She still has a slight scar on her throat.
• She is a fan of gadgets.
• E! Online listed her on their "The Sizzlin' 16 of 1998".
• When she is nervous a strawberry birthmark on her left shin changes colour.
• She was voted 4th sixiest women in the world by readers of FHM this year. That's a massive improvement of 80 places as compared to last years result!
• She doesn't eat chips (french-fries) because she believes that eating greasy foods makes you look greasy.
• She buys all her own make-up at British chemist's (drug store) Boots.
• Entrapment director Jon Amiel calls Catherine Beryl.
• Catherine says she's so allergic to forward planning she hasn't a clue where she will be spending next month, let alone the night of the millennium.
  (Update: She got engaged to Michael Douglas on New Year's Eve)
• Although she has made an effort to loose/hide her accent to a great extent it still comes through slightly. It is most prominent just after she has woken up in the morning. (It's very cute actually!)

Catherine has been in hundreds of magazines worldwide. Some of her earlier interviews can be found in the following publications:

Empire (UK edition)	1993	*
FHM (For Him Magazine)	Sept 1995
Empire (UK edition)	1996	*
FHM (UK)	Sept 1997
Detour (US)	June 1998	*
Maxim (US edition)	July 1998
Movieline	Feb 1998	*
Entertainment Weekly (US)	Aug 1998	*
Cinemania (Mexico)	Sept 1998	*
Starlog (USA)	Sept 1998	*
Live! Magazine	1998
Entertainment Tonight Online	1998
Empire (UK edition)	Dec 1998
Loaded	May 1999

Other articles:

Vanity Fair (US)	May 1998	*
Premiere (US)	July 1998	*

Fan mail may be directed to the following address:

Catherine Zeta Jones,
c/o ICM 8942,
Wilshire Blvd,
Beverly Hills,
CA 90027

Do bear in mind that Catherine is a very busy woman and that replies to any letters sent are very unlikely.

Also, I do not know of Catherine having an e-mail address but perhaps e-mail sent to her official site is forwarded to her.

Until 1998 there were very few Catherine Zeta Jones sites on the internet. With the release of Zorro the situation improved drastically. Listed below are most the sites which I am aware of. If you know of any others, get in touch!

This FAQ is updated quarterly (or whenever I have the time!). It will also depend on whether I have any new material for the FAQ. More regular updates will appear if there is a large amount of new info.

If you have any information at all about Catherine then do get in touch. I am especially interested in magazine articles and photographs. Other bits of gossip and general information are also sure to find a spot in this FAQ.

Send all submissions to:

It may be redistributed freely provided the following conditions are met:

I have had a great respect for Catherine's work for many years now. She has also come across as a very 'normal' and down-to-earth person in both TV and magazine interviews. I haven't been able to understand why it's taken so long for her to break into Hollywood. As a fellow Brit, I'm hoping that this FAQ will raise public awareness of Catherine and also answer some questions for the fans.