Rosamund Pike

Born in London, England in 1979, Rosamund Mary Elizabeth Pike was the only child of Caroline (Friend) Pike, an accomplished classical violinist mother and Julian Pike, an opera singer father. The actress spent her youth traveling around Europe because of her parents' work. Pike was born in Bristol and attended Badminton School. She then began her acting career at the National Youth Theatre. As a performer in the National Youth Theatre production of "Romeo and Juliet", she was first noticed and contracted by an agent, although she continued to study at Wadham College, Oxford, where she read English Literature, eventually graduating with an upper second grade honours degree.Pike appeared in a number of UK television shows, including Wives and Daughters (1999) and then made her feature film debut as the glacial beauty "Miranda Frost" in the James Bond film, Die Another Day (2002); when the film debuted at the age of 23, she was just 23. Although her debut film was a major-budget action feature, the film follow-up was mainly in smaller independent films, such as Promised Land (2004), The Libertine (2004), (for which she was awarded the Best Supporting Actress award at The British Independent Film Awards) and Pride & Prejudice (2005) as one of the Bennet daughters. A brief venture into Hollywood film followed with the action movie, Doom (2005) and the suspenseful Fracture (2007) however, she returned to films with smaller budgets with outstanding performances in three films: An Education (2009) Then Dagenham (2010), and An Education. Dagenham (2010) and the lead role with Paul Giamatti in Barney's Version (2010).As she continued her stage work in England, Pike appeared in the spy spoof Johnny English Reborn (2011) and played the character of "Andromeda" in the epic sci-fi thriller, Wrath of the Titans (2012). Pike returned to action movies featuring a female lead with Tom Cruise in Jack Reacher (2012).