Connie Nielsen extracted from Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia, distributed under the GNU Free Documentation License

Connie Nielsen
Nielsen at the 2009 Toronto International Film Festival
Born	Connie Inge-Lise Nielsen 3 July 1965 (1965-07-03) (age 44) Frederikshavn, Denmark
Years active	1986 - present
Domestic partner(s)	Lars Ulrich (2003-present)

Connie Inge-Lise Nielsen (born 3 July 1965) is a Danish actress. She is best known for her roles in the American films Gladiator, Basic and The Ice Harvest.

Contents 1 Early life 2 Career 3 Personal life 4 Filmography 5 Television 6 References 7 External links

Early life

Nielsen was born in Frederikshavn. Her father, Bent Nielsen, was a bus driver, and her mother was an insurance clerk who also acted and wrote musical revues.¹²³ She was raised a Mormon⁴ and grew up in a small village named Elling. She began her acting career working alongside her mother on the local revue and variety scene. At 18 she traveled to Paris, France where she worked as an actress and model, which led to further work and study in Italy — at drama school in Rome and in master classes with Lydia Styx, a teacher at il Piccolo Teatro di Milano in Milan. She lived in Italy for many years, before moving to the United States, where she still resides.

Career

Nielsen's feature film debut was the Jerry Lewis French film, Par Où T'es Rentré? On T'a Pas Vu Sortir in 1984, followed by a role in the Italian mini-series Colletti Bianchi in 1988. She appeared in the 1991 Italian Vacanze di Natale '91 and the French film Le Paradis Absolument in 1993.

She moved to the United States in 1996 and made her first appearance in a major English-language film in 1997 as Christabella Andreoli in The Devil's Advocate, starring opposite Al Pacino and Keanu Reeves. This first minor breakthrough led to roles in films as Permanent Midnight (1998), Rushmore (1998) and Soldier (1998).

In 2000, Nielsen became known to worldwide audiences as Lucilla in Ridley Scott's internationally acclaimed Academy Award-winning epic Gladiator, where she starred opposite Russell Crowe and Joaquin Phoenix. She has since then starred in some notable American films, including Mission to Mars (2000), One Hour Photo (2002), The Hunted (2003) and Basic (2003). She also starred in the acclaimed French thriller Demonlover (2002), directed by Olivier Assayas.

In 2004, Nielsen made her Danish film debut in the drama, Brødre (aka Brothers) for which she won the Danish Best Actress Award, The Bodil, as well as Best Actress at the San Sebastian International Film Festival. She was also nominated for Best Actress at the European Film Awards. In 2006, Nielsen appeared in several episodes of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit as Det. Dani Beck. She filled in for Mariska Hargitay who was on maternity leave at the time of filming.

Personal life

Nielsen has a son, Sebastian (born 2 June 1990), from a previous relationship. Since 2003 Nielsen has been dating Metallica-drummer Lars Ulrich, and on 21 May 2007, they welcomed a boy, named Bryce Thadeus Ulrich-Nielsen. The couple and their son, Bryce, as well as Ulrich's two children from previous marriage, Myles, 10, and Layne, 7, currently reside in the San Francisco-area.

Nielsen's favorite band is The Clash, and she is a big fan of Danish movie-directors Lars von Trier and Thomas Vinterberg. The latter directed Metallica's music video for their song The Day That Never Comes.

She speaks seven languages: Danish, English, French, German, Italian, Norwegian, and Swedish.⁵

Filmography

	Film	Role	Notes
1984	Par Où T'es Rentré? On T'a Pas Vu Sortir	Eva
1991	Vacanze di Natale '91	Brunilde/Vanessa
1993	Voyage	Ronnie Freeland	Television movie
1994	Le paradis absolument	Sarah	Television movie
1997	The Devil's Advocate	Christabella Andreoli
1998	Permanent Midnight	Dagmar
	Rushmore	Mrs. Calloway
	Soldier	Sandra
2000	Dark Summer	Megan Denright
	Mission to Mars	Terri Fisher
	Gladiator	Lucilla
2002	One Hour Photo	Nina Yorkin
	Demonlover	Diane de Monx
2003	The Hunted	Abby Durrell
	Basic	Osborne
2004	Brødre	Sarah
	Return to Sender	Charlotte Cory
2005	The Great Raid	Margaret Utinsky
	The Ice Harvest	Renata
2006	The Situation	Anna Molyneux
2007	Battle in Seattle	Jean
2008	Danny Fricke	Danny Fricke
2009	A Shine of Rainbows	Maire
	Tonight at Noon	Laura	Post-production
2010	Mellem linierne	Cora	Pre-production
	The Last Word		Post-production

Television

• Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (2006) - Det. Dani Beck

References

External links

• Connie Nielsen at the Internet Movie Database