Charlize Theron started out as models or beauty queens that no one takes them seriously. They're seen, they believe, merely as eye candy, girlfriend material, lacking the talent to take on the meatier female roles.
Michelle Pfeiffer was a glowing example of this, and the first four years of the new millennium saw two others follow her. First Halle Berry took the Best Actress Oscar for Monster's Ball then, two years later, Charlize Theron for Monster.
As the serial killer Aileen Wuornos, she left her looks behind entirely, wholly inhabited her character. When her performance was compared to that of Robert De Niro in Raging Bull, it could not be denied that this beauty was far more than just a looker.
She was named after her father, Charles. Charles was of French descent, while her mother Gerda hailed from German stock - both parents, though, were Afrikaans, born and raised in South Africa.