- Title: FILE: Actor-producer Reese Witherspoon turns 50 on March 22
- Date: 20th March 2026
- Summary: NEW YORK, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES (FILE - FEBRUARY 18, 1998) (ORIGINALLY 4:3) (REUTERS) ***WARNING: CONTAINS FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY*** WITHERSPOON ARRIVING AT "TWILIGHT" PREMIERE/ WALKING OVER TO SPEAK TO REPORTER LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES (FILE - APRIL 14, 1999) (ORIGINALLY 4:3) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF PREGNANT WITHERSPOON SPEAKING TO REPORTER AT "ELECTION" PREMIERE
- Embargoed:
- Keywords: Jennifer Aniston Reese Witherspoon The Morning Show Walk the Line actor entrepreneur producer
- Location: VARIOUS
- City: VARIOUS
- Country: US
- Topics: Celebrities,Arts/Culture/Entertainment,North America
- Reuters ID: LVA003346912032026RP1
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: Academy award-winning actor Reese Witherspoon is turning 50 on Sunday (March 22).
Born Laura Jeanne Reese Witherspoon in 1976 in New Orleans, the actor, producer and entrepreneur began her acting career as a teenager in Robert Mulligan's 1991 coming of age drama "The Man in the Moon." She also starred in 1990 films "Fear," "Twilight," and "Election."
However, in this period Witherspoon is best known for playing the studious daughter of a headmaster of an elite prep school in 1999 film "Cruel Intentions" who becomes the subject of a wager between two vicious and sexually active step-siblings, played by Sarah Michelle Gellar and Ryan Phillippe. The latter was Witherspoon's real-life boyfriend at the time whom she met at her 21st birthday party in 1997. The pair married on June 5, 1999, when Witherspoon was six months pregnant with daughter Ava.
Another movie role synonymous with Witherspoon's screen success is fashionable sorority queen Elle Woods in 2001 romantic comedy "Legally Blonde," who follows her ex-boyfriend to law school and becomes a great legal mind with style. A second film followed in 2003.
"Legally Blonde" cemented Witherspoon's rom-com acting prowess, with other leading lady roles in "Four Christmases" (2008), "How Do You Know" (2010), "This Means War" (2012), and more recently, "You're Cordially Invited" with Will Ferrell.
However, Witherspoon won an Oscar, BAFTA and Golden Globe, among other awards, in 2006 for her portrayal of Grammy-winning American singer-songwriter and comedienne June Carter, the second wife of singer Johnny Cash (played by Joaquin Phoenix). "Walk the Line" chronicles country music legend Cash's life, from his early days on an Arkansas cotton farm to his rise to fame with Sun Records in Memphis, where he recorded alongside Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Carl Perkins. The drama also follows the highs and lows of Carter and Cash's relationship.
Witherspoon's second leading actress Oscar nod came in 2014 with "Wild," based on writer Cheryl Strayed's New York Times bestselling book of the same name. It follows Cheryl's cathartic 1,100-mile solo trek that helped her recover from a personal tragedy. Witherspoon who plays Cheryl, also produced the film, directed by Jean-Marc Vallee.
On the small screen, Witherspoon stars in and produces HBO's Emmy-winning show "Big Little Lies." She has also been Emmy-nominated for Apple TV+ series "The Morning Show," co-starring Jennifer Aniston, about the lives of morning show TV presenters.
Witherspoon founded her media company Hello Sunshine in 2016. The women-led production house is being series like "Big Little Lies," "The Morning Show" and "Little Fires Everywhere." The company was sold for a reported $900m in 2012 to Blackstone Group Inc.-backed media firm Candle Media.
Entrepreneurial Witherspoon also launched retail brand Draper James in 2015, focusing on fashion and home decor inspired by her American South roots, and named after her grandparents.
She began Reese's Book Club in 2017, where she selects a book each month that she loves with a woman at the centre of the story. Witherspoon co-authored her first novel, "Gone Before Goodbye," in 2025 with American mystery and thriller writer Harlan Coben.
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