Charlize Theron
Charlize Theron was born on August 7, 1975 in Benoni, South Africa, the only child of Charles and Gerda Theron, and is of German and French descent. Theron’s first language is Afrikaans, she is fluent in English and speaks some Zulu. “Theron” is an Occitan surname (originally spelled Théron) pronounced in Afrikaans as “Tronn”, although she has said that she prefers the pronunciation “Thrown”.
Theron grew up on her parents’ farm near Johannesburg (Benoni). She attended Putfontein Primary School (Laerskool Putfontein). At the age of 13, Theron was sent to boarding school and began her studies at the National School Of The Arts in Johannesburg. At 15, Theron witnessed the death of her father, an abusive alcoholic; her mother shot him in self-defence when he attacked her. The police pressed no charges against her.
Theron resides in Los Angeles with her boyfriend Stuart Townsend, with whom she starred in the 2004 film Head in the Clouds, as well as in the 2002 film Trapped and 2005 Æon Flux. She has said that she will not marry until same-sex couples are able to have their marriages recognized. Townsend recently stated he considers himself and Theron to be husband and wife.
“We didn’t have a ceremony,” he said. “I don’t need a certificate or the state or the church to say otherwise. So no there’s no big official story on a wedding, but we are married… I consider her my wife and she considers me her husband”.
Theron became a naturalized citizen of the United States in May 2007.
Theron signed with William Morris Endeavour in 2009 and is represented by CEO Ari Emanuel.
Having signed a deal with John Galliano in 2004, Theron replaced Estonian model Tiiu Kuik as the spokeswoman in the J’ADORE advertisements by Christian Dior. Invariably, she would bearably bare the uppermost part of her bosom for Dior’s ads. Then, on December 18, 2007, she finally stripped for Dior’s J’Adore perfume. Galliano has reputedly cited her as a muse and has been creating couture dresses for her to wear to formal red carpet events such as the Academy Awards and the Golden Globe Awards.
From October 2005 to December 2006, Theron earned $3,000,000 for the use of her image in a worldwide print media advertising campaign for Raymond Weil watches. In February 2006, she and her loan-out corporation were sued by Weil for breach of contract. The lawsuit was settled on November 4, 2008.
