Charlize Theron

Developer's DescriptionBy k20Theron was born in Benoni, in the then Transvaal Province of South Africa, the only child of Gerda and Charles Theron 27 November 1947...Theron was born in Benoni, in the then Transvaal Province of South Africa, the only child of Gerda and Charles Theron 27 November 194721 June 1991).Second Boer War military leader Danie Theron was her great-great-uncle.She is from an Afrikaner family, and her ancestryincludes Dutch as well as French and German her French forebears were early Huguenot settlers in South Africa.Theron is an Occitansurname pronounced in Afrikaans as She grew up on her parents farm in Benoni, near Johannesburg.On 21 June 1991, Therons father, an alcoholic,threatened both teenaged Charlize and her mother while drunk, physically attacking her mother and firing a gun at both of them.Therons mother retrieved her own handgun, shot back and killed him.The shooting was legally adjudged to have been self-defence, and hermother faced no charges.Theron attended Putfontein Primary School, a period during which she has said she was not fitting in.At 13, Theron was sent to boarding school and began her studies at the National School of the Arts in Johannesburg.Although Theron is fluent in English, her first language is Afrikaans.In 1994,Theron flew to Los Angeles, on a one-way ticket her mother bought for her, intending to work in the film industry.During theinitial months there, she went to a Hollywood Boulevard bank to cash a cheque her mother had sent to help with the rent.When the tellerrefused to cash it, Theron engaged in a shouting match with him.Upon seeing this, talent agent John Crosby,waiting behind her, handed herhis business card and subsequently introduced her to casting agents and also an acting school.She later fired him as her manager afterhe kept sending her scripts for films similar to Showgirls and Species.After several months in the city, Theron made her film debut witha non-speaking role in the horror film Children of the Corn III: Urban Harvest (1995).Her first speaking role was that of a hitwoman in 2Days in the Valley (1996).Though it was a small role, a lingerie-clad Theron was prominently featured on the movie poster, and film offers for hot-chick parts quickly followed. But Theron turned them down. A lot of people were saying, You should just hit while the ironshot, she remarked. But playing the same part over and over doesnt leave you with any longevity. And I knew it was going to be harder forme, because of what I look like, to branch out to different kinds of roles.