Academy Award-winning Actress Marion Cotillard was born on September 30, 1975 in Paris. Cotillard is the daughter of Jean-Claude Cotillard, an actor, playwright and director, and Niseema Theillaud, an actress and drama teacher. Her father's family is Breton.
Raised in Orléans, France, she made her acting debut as a child with a role in one of her father's plays. She studied drama at the Conservatoire d'Art Dramatique in Orléans. After small appearances and performances in theater, Cotillard had occasional and minor roles in television series such as Highlander (1992) and Extrême limite (1994), but her career as a film actress began in the mid-1990s. While still a teenager, Cotillard made her cinema debut in the film L'histoire du garçon qui voulait qu'on l'embrasse (1994) and had small but noticeable roles in such films as Arnaud Desplechin's Comment je me suis disputé... (ma vie sexuelle) (1996), Coline Serreau's comedy La belle verte (1996).
In 1996, she had her first leading role in the TV film Chloé (1996).
In 1997, she won her first film award at the festival Rencontres Cinématographiques d'Istres in France, for her performance as the young imprisoned Nathalie in the short film Affaire classée (1997).
Her first prominent screen role was Lilly Bertineau in Gérard Pirès's box-office hit Taxi (1998), a role which she reprised in two sequels: Taxi 2 (2000) and Taxi 3 (2003), this role earned her first César award nomination (France's equivalent to the Oscar) for Most Promising Actress in 1999.
In 1999, Cotillard starred as Julie Bonzon in the Swiss war drama La Guerre dans le Haut Pays (1999). For her performance in the film, she won the Best Actress award at Autrans Film Festival in France.
In 2001, starred in Les jolies choses (2001) as the twin sisters Marie and Lucie, and was nominated for her second César award for Most Promising Actress.
Cotillard's breakthrough in France came in 2003 when she starred in Yann Samuell's dark romantic comedy Jeux d'enfants (2003), in which she played Sophie Kowalsky, the daughter of Polish immigrants. The film was a box-office hit in France, became a cult film abroad and led Cotillard to bigger projects.
Her first movie in Hollywood was Tim Burton's Big Fish (2003), years later she starred in Ridley Scott's Une grande année (2006) alongside Russell Crowe.
In 2004, she won the Chopard Thophy of Female Revelation at the Cannes Film Festival.
In 2005, Cotillard won the César award for Best Supporting Actress for her role as Tina Lombardi in Jean-Pierre Jeunet's Un long dimanche de fiançailles (2004).
In 2007, Cotillard received international recognition for her iconic portrayal of Édith Piaf in La môme (2007). Director Olivier Dahan cast Cotillard to play the legendary French singer because to him, her eyes were like those of "Piaf". The fact that she can sing also helped Cotillard land the role of "Piaf", although most of the singing in the film is that of Piaf's. The role won Cotillard the Academy Award for Best Actress along with a César, a BAFTA Award, and a Golden Globe. That made her only the second actress to win an acting Oscar performing in a language other than English next to Sophia Loren (La ciociara (1960)). Only two male performers (Roberto Benigni for La vie est belle (1997) and Robert De Niro for Le parrain, 2ème partie (1974)) have won an Oscar for solely non-English parts. Trevor Nunn called her portrayal of "Piaf" "one of the greatest performances on film ever". At the Berlin International Film Festival, where the film premiered, Cotillard was given a 15-minute standing ovation. When she won the César, Alain Delon presented the award and announced the winner as "La Môme Marion" (The Kid Marion), he also praised her at the stage saying: "Marion, I give you this César. I think this César is for a great great actress, and I know what I'm talking about".
Cotillard has worked much more frequently in English-language movies following her Academy Award recognition. In 2009, she acted opposite Johnny Depp in Michael Mann's Public Enemies (2009), and later that year had a role in Rob Marshall's musical Nine (2009) and received a Golden Globe nomination for her performance as Luisa Contini. Time magazine ranked her as the fifth best performance by a female in 2009. The following year, she took on the main antagonist role in Christopher Nolan's Inception (2010), and in 2011 she had memorable parts in Minuit à Paris (2011) and Contagion (2011) and reteamed with Christopher Nolan in The Dark Knight Rises (2012).
In 2011 and 2012 respectively, she appeared on the top of Le Figaro's list of the highest paid actors in France, it was the first time in nine years that a female topped the list. Cotillard was also the highest paid foreign actress in Hollywood.
In 2012, Cotillard received wide-spread critical acclaim for her role as the legless orca trainer Stéphanie in De rouille et d'os (2012). The film wa s abox office hit in France and received a ten-minute standing ovation at the end of its screening at the 65th Cannes Film Festival. Cotillard won the Globe de Cristal (France's equivalent to the Golden Globe) and the Étoile d'Or award and was nominated for Golden Globe, SAG, BAFTA, Critics' Choice and César Awards for her performance in the film. Cate Blanchett wrote an op-ed for Variety praising Cotillard's performance in "Rust and Bone", the two actresses competed for the Academy Awards for Best Actress in 2008, Cate was nominated for her performance in Elizabeth - L'âge d'or (2007) and Marion for her performance in La môme (2007) and Cotillard won the Oscar.
Her first leading role in an American movie came in 2013 as Ewa Cybulska, a Polish immigrant who wants to experience the American dream in James Gray's The Immigrant (2013). Cotillard received wide-spread acclaim for her performance in the film at the 66th Cannes Film Festival, where the film premiered.
In 2014, Cotillard starred as Sandra in the Belgian film Deux jours, une nuit (2014) by the Dardenne brothers. Her performance was unanimously praised at the 67th Cannes Film Festival, earned several critics awards, she won her first European Award for Best Actress, also received her second Oscar nomination and her sixth César award nomination.
In 2015, she will star as Lady Macbeth opposite Michael Fassbender in Justin Kurzel's Macbeth (2015), will voice two animated movies: Le Petit Prince (2015) in which she will voice The Rose, and Avril et le monde truqué (2015), in which she will voice the lead role, Avril.
Her upcoming projects are Nicole Garcia's Mal de pierres (2016), Xavier Dolan's Juste la fin du monde (2016) and Justin Kurzel's Assassin's Creed (2016), in which she will work again with her Macbeth co-star, Michael Fassbender.
