Background

Ethnicity: Gwyneth's paternal grandparents, Arnold P. Paltrow and Dorothy Weigert, were both from Jewish families from Eastern and Central Europe (Poland, Russia, Belarus and Lithuania), and Gwyneth's father had many generations of rabbis in the family tree. Gwyneth's maternal grandparents were Harry Earl Danner and Katherine M. Kile, and Gwyneth's mother is of German, with smaller amounts of English and Irish, descent. Some of her mother's ancestors lived in Barbados.

Gwyneth Kate Paltrow was born on September 27, 1972, in Los Angeles, California, the United States, to noted producer and director Bruce Paltrow and Tony Award-winning actress Blythe Danner. She has a younger brother, Jake Paltrow, who is a director and screenwriter. Her godfather is director Steven Spielberg.

Her father's Ashkenazi Jewish family emigrated from Belarus. Paltrow's paternal great-great-grandfather was a rabbi in Nowogród, Poland, and a descendant of the well known "Paltrowicz" family of rabbis from Kraków. She was raised celebrating "both Jewish and Christian holidays."

Paltrow grew up no stranger to the world of Hollywood. After living in Los Angeles, Paltrow moved with her family to New York at the age of 11. By her own account, Paltrow knew from a young age that she wanted to act, and she appeared in her first part, a stage walk-on role, at age five.

Education

Gwyneth Paltrow attended Crossroads School, before enrolling in a prestigious girls’ school, Spence School, and studied acting at a summer camp in Vermont. She briefly attended the University of California, Santa Barbara, studying anthropology, before appearing on stage alongside her mother in William Inge’s play Picnic at the Williamstown Theatre Festival. Her parents recognized her talent and passion for acting and supported her decision to leave college to pursue acting full-time.

At 15, she spent a year as an exchange student in Talavera de la Reina, a city in the western part of the province of Toledo, Spain, and learned to speak Spanish.

Career

The decision to leave college paid off - Paltrow won a string of roles in films like Malice (1993), co-starring Nicole Kidman and Alec Baldwin, Flesh and Bone (1993) and Jefferson in Paris (1995), co-starring Nick Nolte. In 1995, Paltrow appeared in the controversial film Se7en, with Morgan Freeman and Brad Pitt.

A romance with the latter helped propel Paltrow into the headlines, just as she began to win starring roles in The Pallbearer (1996), Emma (1996), Great Expectations (1998), Sliding Doors (1998) and A Perfect Murder (1998), with Michael Douglas. Paltrow confirmed her superstar status with an inspired performance in 1998's Shakespeare in Love, as the immortal Bard's purported muse. The role won her the Best Actress Oscar and made her one of Hollywood's most sought-after female performers.

Paltrow made a name for herself in the gossip columns with much-publicized relationships and break-ups with both Pitt and Ben Affleck, the Oscar-winning co-screenwriter of Good Will Hunting (1997). Affleck also appeared (in a relatively small role) in Shakespeare in Love. He and Paltrow broke up amicably in early 1998 after a yearlong romance.

In 1999, Paltrow starred with Matt Damon in director Anthony Minghella's lush production of The Talented Mr. Ripley, a novel by Patricia Highsmith. In 2000, she starred in the karaoke comedy-drama Duets, directed by her father, Bruce Paltrow, and the romance Bounce, opposite Affleck.

In late 2001, Paltrow donned an unflattering fat suit for some of her scenes in the crude comedy Shallow Hal, co-starring Jack Black and directed by Peter and Bobby Farrelly. She also joined an all-star cast, including Gene Hackman, Anjelica Huston, Ben Stiller, Bill Murray, Danny Glover, and Luke and Owen Wilson, in The Royal Tenenbaums, directed by Wes Anderson. In 2002, she starred in the screen adaptation of Possession, as well as in Miramax's romantic spoof A View From the Top.

Following her 1998 Academy Award win, Paltrow took part in several less than memorable roles. In 2003, Paltrow played in the biopic Sylvia, the story of the talented poet and author Sylvia Plath, as the main character. The film failed to live up to the hype and flopped at the box office. A string of less popular films followed, including Running with Scissors (2003), Proof (2005) and Infamous (2006). She even tried her hand at directing in 2005 with the short film Dealbreakers.

In 2008, Paltrow launched her lifestyle website GOOP, which sends out a weekly newsletter on a range of topics, from parenting to fashion tips. That year, she also joined the ranks of A-listers making the leap to movies based on comic books, appearing in Iron Man as Pepper Potts, opposite Robert Downey Jr.'s Tony Stark. The film earned rave reviews and garnered the highest box office numbers of any film involving the actress to date.

Paltrow reprised her roles in the second and third Iron Man films, released in 2010 and 2013, respectively, as well as in other related features from the Marvel franchise, including The Avengers (2012) and Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017). During that period, she also appeared in films like the drama Country Strong (2010) and the comedy Mortdecai (2015), alongside Johnny Depp.

She reprised her role of Pepper Potts in The Avengers (2012), which set numerous box office records, including the biggest opening weekend in North America; it grossed over $1.5 billion worldwide, becoming Paltrow's most widely seen film.

In 2014, she had a two-episode arc in the improvised online series Web Therapy, as Maya Ganesh, "a new-age caricature." In 2015, she starred in Mortdecai, alongside Johnny Depp, Olivia Munn, and Paul Bettany. In it, she portrayed the wife of an unscrupulous art dealer and swindler (Depp). Budgeted at US$60 million, the film only grossed US$7.7 million in North America and US$47.3 million internationally. Paltrow was featured on the track "Everglow", which was included in Coldplay's seventh studio album A Head Full of Dreams (2015). In June 2017, Paltrow announced that she would take a break from acting to focus on her business Goop, stating: "I'm still going to do a little bit here and there, but [the company] really requires almost all of my time."

She returned to the role of Pepper Potts again in Avengers: Infinity War (2018) and Avengers: Endgame (2019). Also in 2019, she is set to appear in The Politician, an upcoming American comedy web television series created by Ryan Murphy, Brad Falchuk, and Ian Brennan that is set to premiere on Netflix on September 27, 2019. The Politician is set to revolve around "the politician aspirations of Platt’s Payton Hobart, a wealthy Santa Barbarian, and every season will revolve around a different political race his character is involved in."

Achievements

• 

  Gwyneth Paltrow has won an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, a Primetime Emmy Award and two Screen Actors Guild Awards. Her films have grossed $3.3 billion at the U.S. box office and $8.8 billion worldwide.
  
  In 2009, Paltrow received a Grammy Award nomination for the Best Spoken Word Album for Children for the children's audiobook.
  
  Paltrow was awarded a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6931 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, California on December 13, 2010. In April 2013, Paltrow was named People magazine's Most Beautiful Woman.
  
  

Works

More photos

• book

  • It's All Easy: Delicious Weekday Recipes for the Super-Busy Home Cook

    (The #1 New York Times bestselling cookbook that will help...)

    2016
  • My Father's Daughter: Delicious, Easy Recipes Celebrating Family & Togetherness

    (The Academy-Award winning actress and avid foodie shares ...)

    2011
  • It's All Good: Delicious, Easy Recipes That Will Make You Look Good and Feel Great

    (Gwyneth Paltrow, Academy-Award winning actress and bestse...)

    2013
  • Notes from My Kitchen Table

    (The Academy-Award-winning actress Gwyneth Paltrow is an i...)

    2011
  • The Clean Plate: Eat, Reset, Heal

    (Delicious food can heal the body. Reset and rebalance wit...)

    2019

• movie

  • Moonlight & Valentino

    (Gwyneth Paltrow, Elizabeth Perkins, Whoopi Goldberg and K...)

    1995
  • Great Expectations

    (Loosely based on the classic Charles Dickens novel of the...)

    1998
  • Sky Captain and The World of Tomorrow

    (After New York City is attacked by giant flying robots, a...)

    2004
  • The Pallbearer

    (Hot star David Schwimmer makes a hilarious big-screen deb...)

    1996
  • The Good Night

    (Penélope Cruz, Martin Freeman, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Danny...)

    2007
  • A Perfect Murder

    (A wealthy woman becomes the target for murder when her hu...)

    1998
  • Two Lovers

    (Set in the insular world of Brighton Beach, Brooklyn, Two...)

    2008
  • Avengers: Infinity War

    (With the powerful Thanos on the verge of raining destruct...)

    2018
  • Iron Man

    (After surviving an unexpected attack in enemy territory, ...)

    2008
  • Shout

    (John Travolta portrays a music teacher at a home for boys...)

    1991
  • Infamous

    (Author Truman Capote travels to Kansas to meet the mass m...)

    2006
  • Running With Scissors

    (Bizarre behavior goes with the territory when a teenage b...)

    2006
  • A View From The Top

    (Academy Award-winning actress Gwyneth Paltrow stars in th...)

    2003
  • Love and Other Disasters

    (An assistant at British Vogue, Jacks, adores fixing up he...)

    2006
  • Contagion

    ("Contagion" follows the rapid progress of a lethal airbor...)

    2011
  • Seven

    (Detective William Sommerset and his new partner, Detectiv...)

    1995
  • Spider-Man: Homecoming

    (Spider-Man [Tom Holland] begins to navigate his new ident...)

    2017
  • Mortdecai

    (Depp, Paltrow, and McGregor star in this globe-trotting c...)

    2015
  • Hook

    (Superstars Robin Williams, Dustin Hoffman and Julia Rober...)

    1991
  • Shakespeare In Love

    (A young Shakespeare, out of ideas and short of cash, meet...)

    1998
  • Possession

    (Two literary sleuths unearth the amorous secret of two Vi...)

    2002
  • Duets

    (Duets is a road-trip comedy that revolves around the litt...)

    2000
  • The Anniversary Party

    (Sally and Joe seem to be the perfect Hollywood couple, bu...)

    2001
  • Avengers: Endgame

    (The fourth installment in the Avengers saga is the culmin...)

    2019
  • Hard Eight

    (Before his commercial breakthrough with Boogie Nights (19...)

    1996
  • Hush

    (A new bride (Gwyneth Paltrow) moves to a beautiful countr...)

    1998
  • The Royal Tenenbaums

    (An estranged family of former child prodigies reunites wh...)

    2001
  • Flesh and Bone

    (A figure from the past awakens a memory as deep and dark ...)

    1993
  • Sylvia

    (Gwyneth Paltrow stars as the renowned tragic poet Sylvia ...)

    2003
  • Thanks For Sharing

    (An all-star cast in an unconventional romantic comedy abo...)

    2012
  • Sliding Doors

    (A London woman's love life and career both hinge, unknown...)

    1998
  • Country Strong

    (A drama centered on a rising country-music songwriter (He...)

    2010
  • Proof

    (It's a powerful story of a young woman haunted by her fat...)

    2005
  • Jefferson In Paris

    (Chronicles the time that Thomas Jefferson spent as the Am...)

    1995
  • Malice

    (College Dean Andy Safian and his beautiful wife Tracy liv...)

    1993
  • Emma

    (This delightfully fun and lighthearted comedy is based on...)

    1996
  • Deadly Relations

    (Deadly Relations is a riveting thriller and a fascinating...)

    1993
  • The Talented Mr. Ripley

    (Tom is a young man who believes it's better to be a fake ...)

    1999
  • Bounce

    (A man switches plane tickets with another man who dies in...)

    2000
  • Shallow Hal

    (A shallow man falls in love with a 300 pound woman becaus...)

    2001
  • The Avengers

    (Marvel makes cinematic history as it unites the super her...)

    2012
  • Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle

    (Fueled by a career-defining performance from Jennifer Jas...)

    1994
  • Iron Man 3

    (Marvel Studios unleashes the must-own, best Iron Man adve...)

    2013
  • Iron Man 2

    (Robert Downey Jr. returns as billionaire Tony Stark in th...)

    2010

• music

  • Cruisin' 2000
  • Bette Davis Eyes 2000
  • Me And Tennessee 2011
  • Forget You 2010
  • Nowadays / Hot Honey Rag 2010
  • Singing In The Rain / Umbrella 2010
  • Do You Wanna Touch Me 2011
  • Kiss 2011
  • Landslide 2011
  • Turning Tables 2011
  • Happy 2014
  • Party All the Time 2014
  • Somewhere Over The Rainbow 2011

Religion

Paltrow’s father comes from a family with a long, dynastic Eastern European Jewish history and her mother was raised in the Pennsylvania Dutch Quaker tradition. Paltrow has spoken about her bi-religious upbringing positively, saying: "It was such a nice way to grow up. We had more holidays. And there are two different lifestyles and cultures."

She publicly expressed a distaste for organized religion, saying: "I don’t believe in religion. I believe in spirituality. Religion is the cause of all the problems in the world. I don’t believe in organized religion at all. It’s what separates people. One religion just represents fragments, it causes war. More people have died because of religious conflict than any other reason."

Politics

Paltrow is a liberal Democrat. She has given money to a variety of Democrat organizations including Al Gore’s 2000 presidential campaign, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee in 2000 and 2002, and John Kerry’s presidential campaign in 2004.

In 2008, Paltrow was an outspoken Obama supporter, even making a video hoping to get fellow expat Americans (she lives in England) to vote for Obama from afar. During Obama’s re-election campaign in 2012, Gwyneth was back at it, throwing campaign fundraiser parties for the president in her England home where even the Obama administration’s campaign manager, Jim Messina, and his national finance chairman, Matthew Barzun, showed up to speak.

In October 2014, she hosted a Democratic fundraiser attended by President Barack Obama at her private residence in Los Angeles. In May 2019, Paltrow and actor Bradley Whitford hosted a fundraiser for Democratic Presidential candidate Mayor Pete Buttigieg.

Views

Paltrow is a Save the Children artist ambassador, raising awareness about World Pneumonia Day. She is on the board of the Robin Hood Foundation, a charitable organization that works to alleviate poverty in New York City.

She has donated to Emily’s List, an organization dedicated to putting women into political power, keeping (or getting) abortion legal, and supporting access to birth control.

In September 2008, Paltrow launched the weekly lifestyle newsletter Goop, encouraging readers to 'nourish the inner aspect'. Goop has expanded into a web-based company. According to Paltrow, the company's name came from someone telling her successful internet companies have double O's in their name, and "is a nickname, like my name, is G.P., so that is really where it came from. And I wanted it to be a word that means nothing and could mean anything." Goop has expanded into e-commerce, collaborating with fashion brands, launching pop-up shops, launching a wellness summit, a print magazine, a podcast, and a documentary series to be streamed on Netflix.

Goop, and by extension Paltrow, have drawn criticism by showcasing expensive products and promoting medically and scientifically impossible treatments, many of which have harmful consequences. The controversies have included vaginal steaming, the use of jade eggs, a dangerous coffee enema device, and "Body Vibes", wearable stickers that were claimed to "rebalance the energy frequency in our bodies" and which Goop falsely claimed were made of a NASA-developed material. Goop settled a lawsuit regarding the health claims it made over the jade eggs.

Jill Avery, a brand analyst, has noted how Goop's response to criticisms seems designed to "strengthen their brand and draw their customers closer", noting Goop's references to feminism, traditional Asian medicines and Eastern philosophies, and anti-establishment politics to do so.

In 2008, Paltrow co-wrote the book Spain... A Culinary Road Trip with Mario Batali. In 2011, she wrote a book titled My Father's Daughter: Delicious, Easy Recipes Celebrating Family and Togetherness. That same year she penned the book Notes From the Kitchen Table. Two years later she published a book titled It's All Good: Delicious Easy Recipes That Will Make You Look Good and Feel Great, which promoted an elimination diet that is unsupported by medical evidence. Included in that book was a recipe for the avocado toast which was widely copied and adapted as part of a 2010s food trend. Also in 2013, Paltrow wrote a foreword for a book by Ross Matthews, Man Up! Tales of My Delusional Self-Confidence. In 2016, Paltrow published a cookbook: It's All Easy: Delicious Weekday Recipes for the Super-Busy Home Cook.

Negative reactions by a group of scientists and science communication mothers to Paltrow's 2015 video pushing for mandatory labeling of food containing genetically modified organisms led to the creation of a documentary, Science Moms. The film is about mothers who advocate for science-based decision-making concerning the health and nutrition of children.

Quotations: "Beauty, to me, is about being comfortable in your own skin. That, or a kick-ass red lipstick."

"I realized life is so short and precious, you should do things that make you feel inspired, that push you and teach you something. I'd rather not have a big house, a huge closet of clothes, diamonds, and a private plane, and instead a body of work that I'm proud of."

"The simpler things are, the happier they are."

"The work gets more difficult as you get older. You learn more and you gather more experiences, there is deeper pain and higher highs."

Personality

Paltrow loves Spain. She spent some time in the European country to learn Spanish while in her teen years. She is still very close to her Spanish “adoptive parents”, from Talavera de la Reina, and she even participated in the reality series Spain… on the Road Again in 2008, where she traveled around the country trying different regional foods.

In January 2019, retired optometrist Terry Sanderson sued Paltrow for $3.1 million, claiming that three years earlier she collided with him on a ski slope at Deer Valley Resort in Park City, Utah, causing him permanent traumatic brain injury. Paltrow counter-sued Sanderson in February, claiming that he was the one who crashed into her. She sought a symbolic $1 in damages, as well as repayment of her legal fees.

Paltrow is involved in a "Sliding Doors" moment for a woman who missed a train and arrived late for work at the World Trade Center on 9/11. On her way to the train, Lara Lundstrom Clarke jaywalked in front of Paltrow's car, then stopped in the street when she recognized the star. The two stared each other down long enough for Clarke to arrive at the station just in time to see the train pulling out, her life changed by a chance delay and a narrowly-missed train, like Paltrow's character in "Sliding Doors." By the time Clarke reached the World Trade Center, the first tower had already fallen.

In 2013, The New York Times reported Paltrow to be a practitioner of Transcendental Meditation.

Physical Characteristics: Paltrow has a height of 5 ft 9 in or 175 cm, and a weight of 60 kg or 132 pounds. She has naturally blonde hair and blue eyes.

Quotes from others about the person

• " I have always been an admirer of Gwyneth Paltrow, I am not afraid to admit it. She was so good in my favorite movie, A Perfect Murder. I also think her secondary career as a lifestyle guru is rather inspiring." - Rebecca Harrington

Interests

• cooking

• Politicians

  Barack Obama

• Writers

  How to Talk So Kids Will Listen & Listen So Kids Will Talk by Adele Faber and Elaine Mazlish, 32 Yolks by Eric Ripert, Vagina by Naomi Wolf

• Artists

  Richard Diebenkorn

• Sport & Clubs

  baseball

• Music & Bands

  Jay-Z, Beyoncé, Sturgill Simpson, Ryan Adams, Frank Ocean

Connections

At the age of 24, Paltrow was engaged to actor Brad Pitt, whom she dated from 1994 to 1997. The engagement was called off, according to Paltrow, because she was not ready for marriage, and she later felt responsible for hurting Pitt since she was “such a mess” during that time in her life. Paltrow has since said that, as this was her first high-profile relationship with another celebrity, it taught her the need for public discretion about her romantic life; she told Biography magazine, “I said things about being in a relationship [with Brad Pitt] that felt wrong to me even as I was saying them.”

Paltrow had an on-off three-year relationship with actor Ben Affleck from 1997 to late 2000. They first broke up in early 1999 but, soon after their breakup, Paltrow managed to persuade Affleck to star in the film Bounce with her; during the making of the film, which was shot in mid-1999, the couple started dating again and eventually broke up in October 2000.

In October 2002, Paltrow met Chris Martin of the British rock group Coldplay backstage three weeks after the death of her father, Bruce Paltrow. They married on December 5, 2003, in a ceremony at a hotel in Southern California. Paltrow and Martin have two children together: daughter Apple Blythe Alison Martin (b. 2004) and son Moses Bruce Anthony Martin (b. 2006). In March 2014, Paltrow announced that she and Martin had separated after ten years of marriage, describing the process as “conscious uncoupling”. In April 2015, Paltrow filed for divorce from Chris Martin.

Paltrow began dating Glee co-creator Brad Falchuk. In January 2018, the couple announced their engagement. "We feel incredibly lucky to have come together at this juncture in our lives when our collective successes and failures can serve as building blocks for a healthy and happy relationship," Paltrow and Falchuk said in a joint statement. They married on September 29, 2018, in the Hamptons.

Father:

Bruce Paltrow

Paltrow is a self-professed daddy’s girl and shared an extremely close relationship with her father until he died of cancer and pneumonia in 2002.

After his passing, during which Paltrow was by his side during a trip to Rome for her 30th birthday, she decided to dedicate herself to becoming much healthier. She began learning about fitness and nutrition, a journey that would become something she’d be well known for in the years to come.

Mother:

Blythe Danner

Spouse:

Brad Falchuk

Paltrow followed the advice of her intimacy teacher to create a sort of “polarity” in her marriage to Falchuk, whom she wed last year. That includes living in separate houses in Los Angeles, even if Falchuk tends to stay with her at least four days a week. “All my married friends say that the way we live sounds ideal and we shouldn't change a thing,” she added.

Paltrow noted their arrangement is largely to make the blending of their families a bit more gradual, as she shares daughter Apple and son Moses with ex-husband and Coldplay frontman Chris Martin, while Falchuk also has two children from a prior marriage. Martin and girlfriend Dakota Johnson also participated in what Paltrow called “a big family honeymoon” in the Maldives after Paltrow and Falchuk’s wedding in September, while Martin maintains a standing room in Paltrow’s home.

colleague:

Bradley Cooper

ex-boyfriend:

Brad Pitt

In 1995, Paltrow appeared in the controversial film Se7en alongside Brad Pitt.

Shortly after appearing in the movie, a romance between her and Brad Pitt blossomed. "I definitely fell in love with him. He was so gorgeous and sweet and, I mean, he was Brad Pitt, you know?" she in an interview. The couple became engaged before calling it off because she felt she wasn't ready to take the next step. "I was such a kid," she told Stern. "I mean I was 22 when we met and it's taken me until 40 to get my head out of my ass. You can't make a decision when you're 22 years old."

They broke up three years later. The actress says the breakup wasn't easy on her father, either: "My father was so devastated when we broke up. My father loved him like a son." Still, the pair remain amicable exes, as Paltrow insists that she and Pitt are "friendly" when they see each other.

ex-boyfriend:

Ben Affleck

Paltrow started dating Ben Affleck in 1997 and had an on-off relationship for three years. When she split with Affleck, her parents weren't as upset as they were when she and Pitt went their separate ways. "I think they appreciated how [Affleck] is super intelligent, and he's really, really talented and he's funny. But he wasn't in a good place in his life to have a girlfriend so I think they were okay with - they loved him - but they were okay with us not being [together]," she said.

Daughter:

Apple Blythe Alison Martin

Paltrow explained Apple's unusual first name on Oprah, saying: "It sounded so sweet and it conjured such a lovely picture for me you know, apples are so sweet and they're wholesome and it's biblical and I just thought it sounded so lovely and ... clean! And I just thought, 'Perfect!'."

Son:

Moses Bruce Anthony Martin

Paltrow explained her son's first name came from the song, "Moses", that her husband wrote for her before their wedding.

Ex-husband:

Chris Martin

In March 2014, via her website GOOP, Paltrow announced that she and Martin had separated: "It is with hearts full of sadness that we have decided to separate," she stated. "We have been working hard for well over a year, some of it together, some of it separated, to see what might have been possible between us, and we have come to the conclusion that while we love each other very much, we will remain separate." Their divorce was finalized in 2016.

Brother:

Jake Paltrow

godfather:

Steven Spielberg

Paltrow's parents were extremely close to director Steven Spielberg and asked him to be their daughter's godfather. Their close relationship apparently led Gwyneth to one of her first major film roles. The director was with the Paltrow family after seeing “The Silence of the Lambs,” right around the time he was about to begin filming “Hook,” when he realized that Gwyneth could make a great young Wendy. Paltrow summers in the Hamptons almost every year, and she usually sees her godfather Steven Spielberg there.

colleague:

Alec Baldwin

colleague:

Nicole Kidman

colleague:

Jessica Lange

colleague:

Cate Blanchett

colleague:

Danny Glover

colleague:

Tom Holland

colleague:

Chris Hemsworth

colleafue:

Karen Gillan

colleague:

Chadwick Boseman

colleague:

Sebastian Stan

colleague:

Peter Dinklage

colleague:

Benicio del Toro

Friend:

Madonna Ciccone

Paltrow was the Maid of Honor at Madonna and Guy Ritchie’s wedding.

Friend:

Guy Ritchie

Friend:

Winona Ryder

Friend:

Liv Tyler

References

• Gwyneth Paltrow