Anne Hathaway Turns 44 on November 12, From The Princess Diaries to an Oscar for Les Miserables

Illustration: AI-generated with Pollinations (FLUX), free to use

Anne Hathaway turns 44 on November 12. She was born in 1982 in Brooklyn, New York, and she started in films as a teenager. Her career has covered teen comedy, prestige drama, big-budget science fiction and a number of supporting roles that she has made memorable.

Photo: Harald Krichel, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The Princess Diaries (2001) was her first big hit. She played Mia Thermopolis, a high-school student who learns she is the heir to a European kingdom, and the film opened the door to a long run of lead roles in comedies and dramas.

Photo: Sean Reynolds, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Brokeback Mountain (2005) and The Devil Wears Prada (2006) showed her range in quite different ways. In Prada she played the junior assistant to a demanding magazine editor, played by Meryl Streep, and in Brokeback Mountain she took a smaller role in a dramatic story.

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Les Miserables (2012) brought her the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. She sings the role of Fantine, and the performance is one of the most often discussed in recent musicals. She followed it with Interstellar (2014), a science-fiction film in which she plays a scientist.

Photo: Chrisa Hickey, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Which of her roles would you put at the top of your list? The princess, the assistant, or Fantine?