Claire Danes

Although she initially became famous for starring in the television show, My So-Called Life, Claire Danes has actually led more of a charmed life. She has successfully upgraded her career from teenage television star to successful movie star as an adult, and along the way Claire has had no less than four songs written about her.

Danes was born on April 12, 1979, into a creative family, with her father Chris Danes being a photographer and her mother Carla being a painter. Her older brother, Asa, is a not-for-profit organizer. Danes had an exclusive education, attending the Professional Performing Arts High School in New York City, private high school Le Lycee Francais De Los Angeles, and later attending Yale University, her father’s alma mater. The university received a letter of recommendation for her acceptance from none other than director Oliver Stone.

It was the television series My So-Called Life, about a teenager living a much more ordinary life than her own, where Danes first caught the public’s eye. She starred in this series with Bess Armstrong and Jared Leto for only two years, yet it was enough of a start to catapult her career. Previous to this series Danes had a few guest roles on television, and appeared in movies such as Little Women. She took on the role of Beth March, starring with such Hollywood heavies as Winona Ryder, Gabriel Byrne, Kirsten Dunst, Eric Stoltz, and Susan Sarandon.

There was a public outcry of fans trying to save My So-Called Life from cancellation, but in reality Danes couldn’t continue the show due to her skyrocketing film career. Shortly after the show ended, she starred in yet another movie with Winona Ryder, titled How to Make an American Quilt. This film also starred Anne Bancroft, Ellen Burstyn, Kate Capshaw, and Adam Baldwin. She also starred in Home for the Holidays, again with Anne Bancroft, as well as Holly Hunter, Robert Downey Jr., Charles Durning, and Dylan McDermott.

Danes stayed busy with her movie success, but her next big movie came a few years later with Romeo + Juliet, based on one of William Shakespeare’s most famous plays. Again she starred with an assortment of Hollywood’s finest actors, such as Leonardo DiCaprio, John Leguizamo, and Paul Sorvino. Just one year later she starred with Sean Penn, Nick Nolte, and Jennifer Lopez in the movie U-Turn. It was then that Danes left such an impression on Oliver Stone, the director of this movie, that he later wrote the letter of recommendation to Yale.

Another famous director, Francis Ford Coppola directed Danes’ next film, The Rainmaker, where she starred with Matt Damon, Danny DeVito, and Mary Kay Place. She followed this success working alongside Liam Neeson, Geoffrey Rush, and Uma Thurman in Les Misérables, and worked with Giovanni Ribisi, Omar Epps, Dennis Farina, and Josh Brolin in The Mod Squad.

Danes took a break from the acting world to attend Yale University against the advice of many others. She felt it was important to cut herself off from the entertainment business for a little while. She only stayed at Yale a few years before coming back to the acting world, with her first post-college movie being Igby Goes Down, starring in it with Kieran Culkin, Jeff Goldblum, Amanda Peet, and once again working with Susan Sarandon.

Re-entering the acting business as an adult was no problem for Danes with her next movies being The Hours, It’s All About Love, and The Rage in Lake Placid. She entered the world of Science Fiction movies starring in The Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, where she starred with Arnold Schwarzenegger. Danes picked up notice as young adult actress in Shopgirl working with Steve Martin. Shortly thereafter she filmed another movie, The Family Stone, with Diane Keaton, Dermot Mulroney, Sarah Jessica Parker, and Luke Wilson.

Just like her career, Danes’s private life is no less than sensational. She has dated Matt Damon, Ben Lee, and Billy Crudup. There have been at least four songs written about her, “My So-Called Life” by The Ataris, “Claire Danes Poster” by Size 14, “Claire Danes” by The Five Mile Line, and another “Claire Danes” by John Parker Music.  

YUDDY