Diane Kruger

Diane Kruger (German pronunciation: [diˈa:nə ˈkru:ɡɐ]; born Diane Heidkrüger; 15 July 1976) is a German actress and former fashion model. She is known for roles such as Helen in the epic war film Troy (2004), Dr. Abigail Chase in the adventure/heist film National Treasure (2004) and its sequel (2007), Bridget von Hammersmark in the Quentin Tarantino-directed war film Inglourious Basterds (2009), Anna in the sci-fi drama Mr. Nobody (2009), and Gina in the psychological thriller film Unknown (2011).

She was born as Diane Heidkrüger on 15 July 1976 in Algermissen, West Germany, in the west, near Hildesheim, the daughter of computer specialist Hans-Heinrich Heidkrüger, and his wife, Maria-Theresa, a bank employee. She was brought up Roman Catholic and attended Catholic school. She has stated that one of her grandmothers was Polish.

She was brought up in Germany with her younger brother, Stefan. Her mother sent her to student exchange programmes when she was a teenager to improve her English.As a child, Kruger wanted to become a ballerina and successfully auditioned for the Royal Ballet School in London. However, after an injury ended her ballet career prematurely, Kruger moved to Paris and turned her energy toward modelling and learning French.

In 1992, Kruger represented Germany in the Elite Model Look and started modelling afterwards. Despite her relatively short stature for a model, she managed to land prestigious bookings such as advertisements from Yves Saint Laurent, Chanel, Salvatore Ferragamo, Giorgio Armani, Jil Sander, Christian Dior, Burberry and Louis Vuitton; runway shows from Marc Jacobs, D&G and Sonia Rykiel as well as appearances on the cover of Vogue Paris, Marie Claire and Cosmopolitan to her modeling repertoire. She gradually stopped modelling after deciding to pursue a career in acting.

In 1999, she began dating French actor and director Guillaume Canet. They were married on 1 September 2001. They acted together in 2005's Joyeux Noël, but divorced in 2006, though they remain friends.Kruger later said that the marriage was not successful because their careers had kept them occupied in different parts of the world.

She began dating actor Joshua Jackson in 2006. During an interview with magazine Glamour, she said, "Without sounding pessimistic, I learned that I don't believe in marriage. I believe in a commitment that you make in your heart. There's no paper that will make you stay. A guy friend of mine said, and it made a lot of sense, that people should get married at the end of the road, not the beginning." Jackson has expanded on this point by saying in an interview that one of the reasons that he and Kruger had not married is that neither of them was religious. Jackson and Kruger ended their relationship in 2016, after 10 years together.

Besides German, Kruger speaks English and French fluently. She is a friend of fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld. Kruger divides her time among Paris, Vancouver and Los Angeles.As of May 2013, she was living in Los Angeles for her role in The Bridge.

Kruger is a permanent resident of the United States.