Born in Golders Green, London, England on May 26, 1966, Bonham Carter hailed from a bloodline of great prominence – her great-grandfather was former British Prime Minister Herbert H. Asquith and her father was Raymond Bonham Carter, a noted merchant banker. Despite her pedigree, Bonham Carter experienced her share of early drama growing up. When she was 5-years-old, her mother, Elena, suffered a nervous breakdown that left her incapacitated for nearly three years, an experience that had a profound impact on Bonham Carter’s emotional worldview. Five years later, her father suffered a stroke while undergoing surgery to remove a tumor, confining him to a wheelchair and impelling her to pursue a career as a performer. In 1979, at the age of 13, Bonham Carter entered a national poetry-writing contest and won second place. Determined to be famous, the ambitious youngster used the prize money to have her photo published in a casting directory, through which she secured her first agent. Though continuing her education at Westminster School in London, it was clear what Bonham Carter wanted to do.
In 1982, the young actress made her screen debut in the British made-for-TV movie, “A Pattern of Roses,” based on K.M. Peyton's 1972 novel. An Edwardian tale of a sick young boy who finds himself haunted by the ghosts of two young lovers from 70 years past, “A Pattern of Roses” led to her first feature, “Lady Jane’ (1986). Widely considered her breakthrough role, Bonham Carter’s dark good looks and heart-shaped face made her the perfect choice to play doomed Tudor monarch Lady Jane Grey, who ruled England uncrowned a mere nine days after the death of young Edward VI (Warren Saire). Despite her relative youth, Bonham Carter was also able to project the requisite mix of hauteur and innocence required for the role. Her second film, the Merchant-Ivory production of E.M. Forster's "A Room with a View" (1986), firmly established her as a screen presence. As Lucy Honeychurch, Bonham Carter perfectly essayed a young woman swept up in passion. She further solidified her stereotyping as a period player with a portrayal of Ophelia opposite Mel Gibson's "Hamlet" (1990), and by playing the impulsive younger sister of Emma Thompson in Merchant-Ivory's meticulous rendering of "Howards End" (1992).
Breaking free from her usual fare, Bonham Carter delivered a fine portrayal of a drug addict engaged to Don Johnson's detective on NBC's "Miami Vice" (1984-89). The actress later won applause as a working-class stripper in the British TV-movie "Dancing Queen" (1993) and was superb as Marina Oswald in the NBC telefilm "Fatal Deception: Mrs. Lee Harvey Oswald" (1993). As Woody Allen's unhappy spouse contemplating an affair in "Might Aphrodite" (1995), Bonham Carter seemed to eerily channel Mia Farrow, especially in her vocal cadences. The role of the foul-mouthed, married coal miner's daughter in the Canadian-made "Margaret's Museum" (1995) earned her fine notices, as well as a Genie Award. But few bothered to show up in theaters.
Returning to bread-and-butter period pieces, Trevor Nunn tapped her for Olivia in his filming of The Bard’s "Twelfth Night" (1996). For personal reasons, Bonham Carter turned down the role of Bess in Lars von Trier's "Breaking the Waves" (1996) and watched Emily Watson receive all the critical bouquets. In 1997, it was her turn to receive accolades in what many felt was the best role of her career – playing the manipulative Kate Croy in Iain Softley's "The Wings of the Dove.” Delivering a tour-du-force performance, Bonham Carter finely walked a line between desperation and hedonism as a woman hoping to land a lowly journalist (Linus Roache) and the fortune of a dying American heiress (Alison Elliott). Her imaginative and finely calibrated performance earned her nominations for Best Actress at the Golden Globes and Academy Awards. After a turn as a dowdy spinster in "Keep the Aspidistra Flying,” she joined then-boyfriend Kenneth Branagh for the modern romance "Theory of Flight" (both 1998), in which she played a victim of a rare motor neuron disease. And not forsaking period roles, Bonham Carter was the bewitching Morgan Le Fey opposite Sam Neill's "Merlin" (NBC, 1998).
In 1999, Bonham Carter once again cast off the petticoats and pretty frocks to portray a contemporary neurotic woman who attends various self-help groups just for kicks in the intriguing, but flawed "Fight Club,” starring Edward Norton and Brad Pitt As the complex, yet sexily engaging Marla, Bonham Carter’s performance was a refreshing change of pace that made audiences and critics recognize anew her prodigious gifts. For her next high profile role – that of the sympathetic Ari in the new adaptation of "Planet of the Apes" (2001) for director Tim Burton, the actress' porcelain features were covered with simian makeup. But her expressive eyes and plummy voice made her recognizable, allowing Bonham Carter to once again offer a fine turn, albeit in an ultimately disappointing film. Later that year, Bonham Carter once again played an alluring siren as a patient who drives her dentist (Steve Martin) into a world of sex, drugs and murder in the black comedy "Novocaine" (2001).
In 2003, Bonham Carter was cast in Thaddeus O'Sullivan's costume drama "The Heart of Me” that depicted her as a free-spirited artist who lures a staidly married businessman (Paul Bettany) into an extramarital affair. That same year, she was the enigmatic amnesiac, Ruby, opposite Guy Pearce in the slow-moving supernatural mystery, "Till Human Voices Wake Us.” Meanwhile, her personal relationship with Burton flourished alongside their professional careers. In 2003, the couple had their first child, Billy Raymond, after she appeared as a one-eyed witch with a glass eye in Burton’s charming fantasy, "Big Fish.” Following a turn as the doomed Anne Boleyn in made-for-TV movie “Henry VIII” (PBS, 2003-04), Bonham Carter reunited with Burton for “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” (2005), a remake of the Mel Stuart’s “Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory” (1971) that hewed closer to the original Roald Dahl novel. She played the downtrodden yet hopeful Mrs. Bucket, whose lucky son Charlie (Freddie Highmore) wins one of five golden tickets good for a tour of the chocolate factory owned by an eccentric recluse (Johnny Depp). Next for the actress were vocal roles in two popular stop-motion animated features: she provided the voice for the titular undead ghoul in "Tim Burton's The Corpse Bride" and for Lady Campanula Tottington, who hires a cheese-loving inventor and his faithful dog to battle a marauding veggie-chomping beast, in "Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit" (both 2005).
In 2007, Bonham Carter joined the cast of “Sweeney Todd,” a film adaptation of the Broadway musical starring Johnny Depp, Alan Rickman and Sacha Baron Cohen. Slated for an early 2008 release, the film was again directed by Burton. Also in 2007, Bonham Carter also joined the extended cast for the fifth installment to J.K. Rowling’s book and film empire, “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.” As the femme fatale Bellatrix Lestrange, Bonham Carter received positive reviews despite being somewhat underused – an inevitability given the enormity of the film.