Kate Beckinsale's Real Name: Kathrin Romany Beckinsale

Quick answer: Kate Beckinsale was born Kathrin Romany Beckinsale in London in 1973. Kate is the short form of Kathrin that she uses professionally. She is the daughter of actors Richard Beckinsale and Judy Loe. She studied at Oxford, broke out in British period films such as Emma, and became an action star as Selene in the Underworld series (Esquire UK interview, via Philip Watson; Encyclopedia.com; Library of Congress).

Real name and early life

Journalist Philip Watson wrote in a profile for Esquire UK, archived on his site, that "Kate was born Kathrin Romany Beckinsale in 1973 and brought up in Chiswick, west London." The Gale reference entry on Encyclopedia.com gives her birth as July 26, 1973, in London. The Library of Congress name authority files her as "Beckinsale, Kate." One LOC citation gives the year as 1974, while Gale and most references give 1973.

Encyclopedia.com lists her as the daughter of Richard Beckinsale, an actor and comedian, and actress Judy Loe. Her stepfather is director Roy Battersby, and her half-sister is actress Samantha Beckinsale. Esquire says her father, a star of the sitcoms Rising Damp and Porridge, died of a heart attack in 1979 at 31, when she was five. She grew up in a house full of actors and theater people. Gale records that she studied Russian and French at New College, Oxford, from 1991 to 1994, including time in Paris.

Career highlights

While at Oxford she played Hero in Kenneth Branagh's Much Ado About Nothing (1993). Encyclopedia.com lists British period work that followed, including Flora Poste in Cold Comfort Farm (1995) and the title role in ITV's Emma (1996). On stage she played Nina in The Seagull (1995). Shooting Fish (1997) won her a best actress award at Sitges, and The Last Days of Disco (1998) earned a London Critics Circle award.

She moved into Hollywood films with Brokedown Palace (1999), The Golden Bowl (2000), and Pearl Harbor (2001), in which she played nurse Evelyn Johnson opposite Ben Affleck. Her roles in Laurel Canyon (2002), The Aviator (2004), Van Helsing (2004), and Adam Sandler's Click (2006) followed. As the vampire warrior Selene she led the Underworld films, including Underworld: Evolution (2006).

Gale records her marriage to director and writer Len Wiseman on May 9, 2004, and her daughter, Lily, with actor Michael Sheen.

Name notes for searchers

Kathrin, spelled without an "e," is her birth first name, and Kate is its short form. Romany is her middle name, and Beckinsale is her father's surname. The documented spelling is Kathrin, not Katherine or Kathryn.