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Top 10 Child Actors who made it big
Other | Monday 24th September 2012 | Osh
With last month’s release of sci-fi thriller Looper, starring 2012’s must-see actor Joseph Gordon Levitt, it just goes to show that actors who start young don’t all turn out to have addiction issues, or early suicides. Some have turned into Hollywood’s elite. Here’s a top ten list of actors who have risen from adolescence to follow on into a highly successful career in Hollywood.
10. Anna Paquin
Long before her appearance as the bite-able Sookie Stackhouse in True Blood, Paquin was first seen at the age of eleven in The Piano, a role that won her a supporting role Oscar, making her the second youngest actress ever to do so.
9. Christina Ricci
This Californian has a history of choosing slightly odd roles, beginning with her part as Wednesday Addams, the gothic little girl in The Addams Family, who she played age 11.
8. Jodie Foster
Still best known as Clarice of Silence of the Lambs, Jodie Foster began her TV career aged 7, before later playing Iris, opposite Robert De Niro, in the seminal Taxi Driver, and Tallulah in 1976’s Bugsy Malone, both at just 14 years old.
7. Chloë Grace Moretz
Today only 15, Moretz has been acting in film for the past seven years, appearing in hit indie flick 500 Days of Summer in 2009 and, most memorably, played the foul-mouthed, gun-slinging Hit Girl in Kick-Ass. She also starred in Oscar-winner Hugo and Tim Burton’s Dark Shadows.
6. Dakota Fanning
Dakota began acting at age 6 and appeared in her first film, I Am Sam, a year later. She starred alongside Denzel Washington in 2004’s Man On Fire, before spending the best part of two hours screaming in 2005’s War of the Worlds.
5. Drew Barrymore
At age 7, who else could have screamed in such a high pitch as Drew Barrymore did in the timeless E.T? She also played the lead in two Stephen King adaptations at the age of 10.
4. Joseph Gordon Levitt
Now high on the list of Hollywood’s most wanted, JGL began work in television at a young age, appearing in Dark Shadows and Roseanne in his pre-teen years. His film work began at age 11 where he appeared in Beethoven and Oscar-winner A River Runs Through It a year later.
3. Christian Bale
Now best known as Batman, Bale began his film career at age 13 in Mio in the Land of Faraway, as well as Steven Spielberg’s Empire of the Sun. He then appeared in Shakespearian epic Henry V a year later.
2. Kirsten Dunst
At 12 years old, the actress appeared as the chilling Claudia in Interview with the Vampire alongside Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise, before appearing in Little Women and the ultimate kids adventure film, Jumanji.
1. Natalie Portman
Topping the list is last year’s Oscar-winner who, at 13, starred alongside Jean Reno and Gary Oldman in Luc Besson’s masterpiece Leon. She also appeared in the Al Pacino/Robert De Niro act-off that was 1995’s Heat, as well as the wacky Mars Attacks! in 1996.
