Kirsten Dunst Biography

Kirsten Dunst

Dunst has been in show business almost her entire life. She began modeling and appearing in commercials at age 3 and made her feature film debut in 1989, in New York Stories. In 1990 she played Tom Hanks's daughter in Bonfire of the Vanities. Dunst's role as Claudia, a grown-up vampire stuck in a child's body in Interview with the Vampire (1994) created a stir, with many asserting that the role was too mature for a child. Next she played the precocious Amy in Gillian Armstrong's Little Women (1994). She made the leap to adult roles in 1999's Drop Dead Gorgeous, playing a beauty pageant contestant who thinks a win will be her ticket out of her small town. In The Virgin Suicides (2000), Dunst played the sexually adventurous Lux. She achieved superstar status with the release of Spider-Man (2002), in which she played the girl next door who seems just beyond reach of hero Peter Parker (Tobey Maguire). The film smashed box-office records with its $114 million opening weekend. Her other roles include the cheerleader movie Bring It On (2000) and Crazy/Beautiful (2001).