Reese Witherspoon Biography And Filmography:

Blonde, dignified and flexible, actress Reese Witherspoon went from Southern beauty queen to a determined Hollywood sexy celebrity after getting her start in the 1991 feature "The Man in the Moon". Hired due to winning a nationwide talent search, the unproven actress had only local television commercials to her credit, but Witherspoon gave a spotless show on her first time out, playing with tear-jerking emotion a fourteen-year-old girl in love with the boy who lives next door dating her sister. It was instantly evident from her performance that the tenderfoot could handle complex and loving characters with both demeanor and attitude. 

That same year, Witherspoon made her television acting debut in the Diane Keaton cable movie "Wildflower" (1991) with Patricia Arquette, playing a young girl who finds an epileptic teenager (Patricia Arquette) held confined by her father. Witherspoon added more television credits as a gravely ill young teen in "Desperate Choices: To Save My Child" (1992) and a young wife with a drifting eye in the miniseries "Return to Lonesome Dove" (1993) with Jon Voight, Barbara Hershey and Rick Schroder. That same year Witherspoon starred in "A Far Off Place", a young teen targeted drama where the witty Nonni, and the stuck-up city-boy Harry, are the only ones to survive a massacre of a gang of poachers among the gamekeeper's family on his lonesome farm in the savanna.

While Reese had always shown an attitude of sexuality, Witherspoon gave an innovative performance as a vulnerable and playful hostage in the controversial spoof "S.F.W." (1995), about an alienated and misanthropic teenager who gains sudden and unwanted celebrity status after he's taken hostage by terrorists where his indifference to their threats to kill him makes news headlines. Witherspoon was next pursued by Mark Wahlberg in James Foley's "Fear" with Alyssa Milano, and said goodbye to her innocent girl image in "Freeway" ( 1996) with Kiefer Sutherland and Brooke Shields, a twisted take on 'Little Red Riding Hood' with a teenage juvenile delinquent on the run from a social worker traveling to her grandmother's house and being hounded by a charming, but sadistic, serial killer and pedophile.

Building a wide-ranging and gratifying career seemed to come naturally to the young actress, who stayed away from typical young teen roles and shunned being stereotyped. After she played the unruly daughter of Susan Sarandon and Gene Hackman in "Twilight", her stunning beauty and vivacious behavior found its way into Gary Ross' "Pleasantville" (1998) starring Tobey Maguire, where two teenagers find themselves in a 1950's sitcom where their influence begins to profoundly change that complacent world. Reese stayed on her path to celebrity with roles in three 1999 films. First as Alessandro Nivola's lover who plan to escape from their isolated town in "Best Laid Plans", then opposite Matthew Broderick in the dark satire "Election", about when a high school teacher's personal life becomes complicated as he works with students during the school elections. And finally that year Reese played the courageous but innocent Annette in "Cruel Intentions" with Ryan Phillippe, a spin on "Les Liaisons Dangereuses" set in the midst of the teen angst.

Portraying the ferociously ruthless and playful class president candidate Tracey Flick in "Election", Witherspoon played a whole new kind of bad girl, a outwardly innocent teenager so courageously focused on her ambition that anything and anyone in the way is rightly destroyed. Amusing, yet horrifying, Witherspoon's portrayal of the character took the dark comedy to its highest level. A guest role as Rachel's younger sister on the hit sitcom "Friends" raised her profile even higher in 2000, a year that saw the young celebrity busy with marriage and the birth of her first child.

Witherspoon return alongside Adam Sandler, Patricia Arquette and Rodney Dangerfield the hit comedy "Little Nicky" (2000), where Sandler's two evil brothers Adrian and Cassius have just escaped from Hell and are wreaking havoc on an unsuspecting earth. His dad Lucifer (Dangerfield) is disintegrating and it's up to Nicky (Sandler) to save him and all of a humanity by midnight before one of his brothers becomes the new Satan. The actress then worked with Christian Bale in the mystery thriller "American Psycho" (2000).

In 2001, Witherspoon starred in the delightful comedy "Legally Blonde" to the number one box office spot. This cute tale about a blonde sorority queen who is dumped by her boyfriend and she decides to follow him to law school to get him back and, once there, learns she has more legal savvy than she ever imagined. Witherspoon was then cast to play Cecily Cardew in the 2002 film remake of Oscar Wilde's "The Importance of Being Earnest" and would transition into the additional role of producing with projects including a film adaptation of the best-selling novel "The Girl's Guide to Hunting and Fishing.”

Witherspoon then starred in a movie that was close to her heart, the romantic comedy "Sweet Home Alabama" (2002) about a southern girl who, after converting herself into a New York socialite, has second thoughts about her true self during a trip back home. The following year, Witherspoon starred and executive produced the sequel "Legally Blonde: Red, White and Blonde" (2003), a smaller version of the original that took the adored character Elle Woods to Washington D.C to fight a law.     

The actress then took on the role of the aspirant Becky Sharp in an adaptation of William Makepeace Thackeray's classic novel "Vanity Fair" (2004), where growing up poor in London, Becky Sharp (Witherspoon) defies her poverty-stricken background and ascends the social ladder alongside her best friend, Amelia.

Witherspoon's next movie, the more standard "Just Like Heaven" (2005), a romantic comedy where she plays a workaholic doctor who finds herself in an ethereal state haunting her home after it's leased to a depressed widower (Mark Ruffalo). While falling short on laughs and originality, the film benefited from its stars and scene-stealing supporting actors. Next, Witherspoon was on to a project that afforded a bigger acting challenge, playing country singer June Carter Cash opposite Joaquin Phoenix's Johnny Cash in the biopic "Walk the Line" (2005). Her hard work paid off, as Witherspoon won a Golden Globe award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy, as well as the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role. Reese Witherspoon then won an Oscar win for Best Actress in a Leading Role at the 78th Annual Academy Awards.

In her private life, Witherspoon was at the center of tabloid and her lawyers attention on issues involving the paparazzi during 2005. The actress was harassed and detained by the hostile photographers. Witherspoon failed in her attempt to bring charges against a photographer who she claimed followed her home from a gym visit and blocked her car and prevented her from entering the gates of her Brentwood home in April 2005, but as a result of a second incident in September of that year another photographer was charged with six misdemeanor counts, including battery (for allegedly shoving a five-year-old child and hitting another on the head with his camera), child endangerment and false imprisonment stemming from his persistent attempts to take photos of Witherspoon and her daughter Ava at the young girls sixth birthday party at Disney's California Adventure theme park. 

The Witherspoon incidents along with other high-profile paparazzi mishaps that year involving such stars as Lindsay Lohan and Paris Hilton prompted California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and other legislators to consider tougher laws governing paparazzi behavior.

Once things settled down it was back to work for the actress in the romantic comedy "Penelope" (2006), a modern romantic tale about a young aristocratic heiress born under a curse that can only be broken when she finds true love with "one who will love her faithfully" Next was the dramatic thriller "Rendition" (2007), where a CIA analyst questions his assignment after witnessing an unorthodox interrogation at a secret detention facility outside the United States. Witherspoon returned to comedy in the holiday themed movie "Four Christmases" (2008) with Vince Vaughn, where a young couple struggles to visit all four of their divorced parents on Christmas Day. Reese wrapped her year by lending her voice talents to the animated comedy "Monsters vs. Aliens" (2009) with Kiefer Sutherland, where a meteorite from outer space hits a young girl and turns her into a giant monster and she is taken to a secret government compound where she meets a ragtag group of monsters also rounded up over the years.

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