Hilary Swank Biography

Hilary Swank was born on July 30, 1974, as the second child of Stephen Michael Swank and Judy Kay in Nebraska. Her father was an officer in the Air National Guard while her mother was a secretary cum dancer. She is of mixed ancestry.

She attended Happy Valley Elementary School and later went to Sehome High School. An athletic girl, she took part in various swimming and gymnastics competitions and was also active in the school and regional theater.

Her parents separated when she was sixteen and she moved to Los Angeles with her mother. There she enrolled in the South Pasadena High School but soon dropped out.

She began her acting career in 1991, with a guest appearance in the television series ‘Harry and the Hendersons’. The same year she played the guest role of Aimee Thompson in the sitcom series ‘Evening Shade’.

She made her Hollywood debut with a small role in the 1992 film, ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’.

She landed her first major role when she was selected over many other actresses to play Julie Pierce in ‘The Next Karate Kid’ in 1994. Her gymnastics training proved helpful in learning the karate moves for the film.

Over the next three years she acted in television movies like ‘Victim of Rage’ (1994), ‘Terror in the Family’ (1996), and ‘Dying to Belong’ (1997).

In 1999, she was offered the role of Brandon Teena in ‘Boys Don’t Cry’. She was relatively unknown at the time of accepting that role, but her brilliant performance catapulted her into overnight fame.

She was flooded with movie offers and acted in the supernatural thriller ‘The Gift’ as Valerie Barksdale in 2000. This was followed by ‘The Affair of the Necklace’ (2001), ‘Insomnia’ (2002), and ‘The Core’ (2003).

The highly successful sports drama film ‘Million Dollar Baby’ happened in 2004, which proved to the world once again the actress’s dedication to her profession.

She appeared in a couple of lesser-known films in the next three years: ‘The Black Dahlia’ (2006) and ‘The Reaping’ (2007).

She acted in the offbeat film ‘Birds of America’ in 2008, followed by ‘Amelia’ in 2009, and ‘Conviction’ in 2010 where she played a single mother whose brother is convicted of murder.

She was also seen in ‘The Resident’ and ‘New Year’s Eve’, both released in 2011.

She next starred in films such as ‘The Homesman,’ You're Not You,’ ‘Spark,’ ‘Logan Lucky,’ and ‘55 Steps.’ In 2018, she played the role of ‘Bridget Ertz’ in the drama film ‘What They Had.’ The film received positive reviews from critics.

She went on to star in ‘I Am Mother,’ ‘The Hunt,’ and ‘Fatale.’ She portrayed ‘Marissa Bennings’ in the 2023 American crime thriller film ‘The Good Mother.’ The film holds a 21% approval score on Rotten Tomatoes.

Her Academy Award-winning performance in ‘Boys Don't Cry’ (1999) is one of her most brilliant works. She played Brandon Teena, a young trans man who is brutally murdered when people realize his sexuality. Swank was commended for her courage in taking up such a controversial role.

She played the role of Maggie Fitzgerald, a would-be boxer in Clint Eastwood’s ‘Million Dollar Baby’ (2004). Her performance earned her rave reviews and several awards.

She won the Academy Award for Best Actress in 1999, for her portrayal of Brandon Teena in ‘Boys Don’t Cry’. The same year, she was awarded The Boston Society of Film Critics Award for Best (Lead) Actress for the same role.

In 2004, she won her second Academy Award for Best Actress for her role as Maggie Fitzgerald, a boxer, in ‘Million Dollar Baby’. She also won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture-Drama the same year for the same role.

Swank married actor Chad Lowe in 1997, and divorced him in 2007, after a decade-long marriage.

She was in a relationship with her agent John Campisi for some years, but the couple has since broken up. In March 2016, she got engaged to Ruben Torres, however, the couple parted ways within a few months.

In August 2018, she married Philip Schneid. In September 2022, Hilary and Philip announced that they were expecting twins. They welcomed their twins in April 2023.

She cut her hair very short and lost a lot of weight to prepare for her role as a transman in ‘Boys Don’t Cry’.

She is an animal lover and has many pets.

She is the third youngest actress to win two Academy Awards for Best Actress, only after Luise Rainer and Jodie Foster.