Frances O'Connor

Frances O'Connor is an upcoming actor on Once Upon a Time, portraying the role of Colette.

Life and Career
O'Connor was born in Wantage, Oxfordshire, England to a pianist mother and nuclear physicist father; her family moved to Perth, Australia when she was two. O'Connor was raised Roman Catholic, and attended the Mercedes College in Perth. She then went on to attend the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts and earned a BA in literature from the Curtin University of Technology in Western Australia. O'Connor and her long-term partner, Gerald Lepkowski, have a son, Luka, born in April 2005. O'Connor made her film debut in Emma-Kate Croghan's critically acclaimed independent romantic comedy Love and Other Catastrophes (1996). She received her first AACTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role nomination for her performance in this movie. In 1997 she had the leading role in Kiss or Kill, and starred opposite Cate Blanchett and Richard Roxburgh in Thank God He Met Lizzie. In 1999, O'Connor starred as Fanny Price in the British romantic comedy-drama Mansfield Park. The film also received favorable reviews from critics. In the next year O'Connor earned a Golden Globe Award nomination for her performance as Emma Bovary in Madame Bovary.

In 2000, O'Connor began her career in Hollywood, with role in the comedy film Bedazzled, remake of the 1967 film of the same name, opposite Brendan Fraser and Elizabeth Hurley. In the following year she had a leading role in the Steven Spielberg science fiction drama A.I. Artificial Intelligence. She was nominated for a Saturn Award for Best Actress for her performance in the film. In 2002, she starred alongside Rupert Everett}Rupert Everett, Colin Firth, and Judi Dench in the romantic comedy-drama The Importance of Being Earnest, directed by Oliver Parker, and based on Oscar Wilde's classic comedy of manners play. In 2003, O'Connor starred opposite Paul Walker in the science fiction film Timeline, which bombed at the box office.

In 2004, O'Connor returned to independent movies and starred in Iron Jawed Angels with Hilary Swank, Julia Ormond, and Anjelica Huston. She received two more AACTA Award for Best Actress nominations for Three DollarsThree Dollars (2005) and The Hunter. In 2008, she starred in the short-lived ABC comedy-drama series Cashmere Mafia opposite Lucy Liu, Miranda Otto, and Bonnie Somerville. In 2009 she won an AACTA Award for Best Actress for her performance in Blessed. She later appeared in Jayne Mansfield's Car, Little Red Wagon, and The Truth About Emanuel. In 2011, O'Connor was cast in the ABC drama pilot Hallelujah, created by Marc Cherry, but the show was not picked up to series. From 2013 to 2014 she starred as Rose Selfridge in the British period drama Mr Selfridge. In 2014, O'Connor was cast as lead in the British drama The Missing, and as Belle's mother Colette for the fourth season of the American series Once Upon a Time.