Happy Birthday, Kate Beckinsale

For the last 10 years, Kate Beckinsale has been a regular on lists of the most attractive women in the world for publications like FHM, Maxim, Stuff and Ask Men. In 2009, she was named Esquire magazine's "Sexiest Woman Alive."

Before she kisses co-stars, Beckinsale makes sure her mouth is minty fresh, because she is paranoid that she has bad breath.

Kate Beckinsale has a pet cat named Wabbit.

Check out more hot brunettes. 

Beckinsale is super smart. When she was 6, a school report found that she had the reading age of an 11-year-old and an IQ of 152.

Beckinsale spent her teens reading French, Russian and German novels because of her studies, and completed A-levels in Russian, German and French, which resulted in her admission to Oxford University.

Kate Beckinsale lives in Venice, Calif. because it reminds her of London.

Beckinsale comes by her profession organically, being the daughter of actor Richard Beckinsale (of the 1970s BBC sitcom "Porridge") and actress Judy Loe ("Ripping Yarns"). She actually made her first TV appearance when she was 4 on an episode of "This Is Your Life" dedicated to her father.

If acting hadn’t worked out, Beckinsale may have been a writer. In her teens, she twice won the W.H. Smith Young Writers' Competition, once for a short story and once for poetry. For the latter, renowned poet Ted Hughes presented her with the prize.

A self-described late bloomer, Beckinsale was well into her studies at Oxford when she got her first big feature-film break. She appeared in the 1993 adaptation of the Shakespeare play "Much Ado About Nothing," directed by and starring Kenneth Branagh. Her co-stars included Keanu Reeves and Denzel Washington.

While attending Oxford, Beckinsale divided her time between performing with the Drama Society and studying French and Russian Literature. She once appeared in a play directed by classmate Tom Hooper, who went on to win a Best Director Oscar in 2010 for "The King's Speech."

Even when doing commercials, Beckinsale knows how to pick them. She co-starred with Orlando Bloom for a 2002 Gap advertisement directed by Cameron Crowe ("Almost Famous") and once did a Diet Coke commercial directed by Michel Gondry ("Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind").

Beckinsale will next be seen in husband Len Wiseman's remake of the Arnold Schwarzenegger cult classic sci-fi action flick "Total Recall." Beckinsale will be taking over the role of the main character’s duplicitous wife, originally played by Sharon Stone. Colin Farrell takes over the Schwarzenegger role.

She credits the positive vibes on the set of the monster-movie mash-up "Van Helsing," cultivated by star Hugh Jackman and director Stephen Sommers in particular, for helping her get over the split from Michael Sheen. "People like Stephen and Hugh made it possible to get through what I was going through," Beckinsale said.