LET'S CELEBRATE CHARLIZE THERON'S 38TH BIRTHDAY

Charlize Theron is a South African and American actress and fashion model. She rose to fame in the late 1990s following roles in the films The Devil's Advocate, Mighty Joe Young, and The Cider House Rules. 

Born: August 7, 1975, Benoni, Gauteng, South Africa

Height: 1.77 m

Parents: Gerda Jacoba Aletta Maritz, Charles Jacobus Theron

Children: Jackson Theron

Awards: Academy Award for Actress in a Leading Role, More

Early life

Theron was born in Benoni, in the then-Transvaal Province of South Africa, the only child of Gerda (nee Maritz; who has also called herself Gerta) and Charles Theron (born 27 November 1947). Second Boer War figure Danie Theron was her great-great-uncle. Her ancestry includes French, German, and Dutch; her French forebears were early Huguenot settlers in South Africa. "Theron" is an Occitan surname (originally spelled Théron) pronounced in Afrikaans as [tron], although she has said that the way she pronounces it in South Africa is [θron]. She changed the pronunciation when she moved to the U.S. to give it a more "American" sound.

She grew up on her parents' farm in Benoni, near Johannesburg. Her father was lawfully killed by her mother with a firearm on 21 June 1991. Theron's father, an alcoholic, physically attacked her mother and threatened both her mother and her while drunk. The shooting was legally adjudged to have been self-defense and her mother faced no charges

Theron attended Putfontein Primary School (Laerskool Putfontein), a period she later characterised as not "fitting in". At 13, Theron was sent to boarding school and began her studies at the National School of the Arts in Johannesburg. Although Theron is fluent in English (which she speaks with a General American accent), her first language is Afrikaans

Personal life

Theron at the Meteor Awards in 2008

Theron has a son, Jackson, whose adoption was announced in March 2012. She lives in Los Angeles, California.Theron became a naturalised citizen of the United States in May 2007, while retaining her South African citizenship

In the mid-1990s, Theron had a two-year relationship with actor Craig Bierko.From 1997 to 2001, she dated Third Eye Blind frontman Stephan Jenkins. Theron then began a relationship with Irish actor Stuart Townsend, with whom she starred in Trapped (2002) and Head in the Clouds (2004). Theron and Townsend separated in January 2010 after nearly nine years together.