The daughter of Rising Damp and Porridge actor Richard Beckinsale, Kate was raised by her mother after her father's death from a heart attack in 1979. Beckinsale decided to follow in her father's acting footsteps and made her movie debut in Kenneth Branagh's film adaptation of Much Ado About Nothing (1993) while still studying at Oxford. She left Oxford the following year and appeared in John Schlesinger's adaptation of Cold Comfort Farm, initially made for BBC television, it proved to be a minor hit on the art-house circuit. In 1995 she starred opposite Adian Quinn and Sir John Gielgud in the eerie Haunted. Beckinsale then starred as the altruistic temp in the quirky romantic comedy Shooting Fish, becoming one of 1997’s highest grossing films. Her performance as a catty New York sophisticate in Whit Stillman's The Last Days of Disco (1998) earned her serious plaudits. She then worked on the Merchant/Ivory production of Henry James' The Golden Bowl (2000), Michael Bay's lavish World War II epic Pearl Harbour, and opposite John Cusack in the romantic comedy Serendipity (2001). With her willing grasp of an American accent, an adventure in Hollywood seems to be beckoning.
