Swank, Hilary (1974-…), is an American motion-picture actress who has won two Academy Awards as best actress. Swank won the first award for her portrayal of a young woman who lives as a man in Boys Don’t Cry (1999). She won the second award for her performance as a waitress who becomes a professional boxer in Million Dollar Baby (2004).
Hilary Ann Swank was born on July 30, 1974, in Lincoln, Nebraska. When she was 3 years old, she moved with her family to Washington, first to Spokane and then to Bellingham. In 1990, Swank moved with her mother to Los Angeles, where she began acting professionally on such television shows as “Evening Shade,” “Growing Pains,” and “Beverly Hills, 90210.” Her first film was Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1992). She first gained fame in The Next Karate Kid (1994), in which she starred as a troubled teenager who studies karate.
Swank’s other films include The Gift (2000); Insomnia (2002); The Black Dahlia (2006); Freedom Writers, P.S. I Love You, and The Reaping (all 2007); Amelia (2009), in which she portrayed the American aviator Amelia Earhart; Conviction (2010); and The Homesman and You’re Not You (both 2014). Swank also starred in the cable TV movies Iron Jawed Angels (2004), in which she portrayed the American women’s rights leader Alice Paul, and Mary and Martha (2013), in which she portrayed a woman who dedicates her life to the prevention of malaria after losing her son to the disease. Swank was married to the American actor Chad Lowe from 1997 to 2006.
