Helena Bonham Carter Pictures

Helena Bonham Carter's career has been one long struggle against preconceptions and virus-like rumours. Many, particularly in America, believe her to be related to the Royal Family, and thus born with a silver spoon in her mouth - neither is true. Many more consider her to be the quintessential English rose, her pre-Raphaelite looks priming her for a lifetime of Shakespeare, EM Forster and Henry James adaptations. In fact, she's performed a huge variety of roles and, by birth, is actually far from pure-blood English. Only now, after her star-turn alongside Brad Pitt in Fight Club, her appearance with Steve Martin in Novocaine, and as Ari, an activist chimpanzee, in Tim Burton's Planet Of The Apes, has she come to be recognised for what she is - one of the UK's finest and most successful contemporary actresses.