Michelle Ingrid Williams (born September 9, 1980) is an American actress. After starting her career with television guest appearances in the early 1990s, Williams achieved recognition for her role as Jen Lindley on the WB television teen drama Dawson's Creek, from 1998 to 2003. Williams graduated to full-length features including Halloween H20: 20 Years Later, her first mainstream film, Dick (1999), a comedy, and Prozac Nation (2001), a biographical film adaption.Since the 2000s, the actress mostly appeared in dramatic independent films. A career highlight for Williams was starring in 2005's controversial movie Brokeback Mountain, about a homosexual relationship in the 1960s. One of its eight Academy Award nominations was a Best Supporting Actress nomination for Williams. Brokeback Mountain was followed with I'm Not There (2007), Synecdoche, New York (2008) and Martin Scorsese's Shutter Island (2010). Williams's performance as a drifter in 2008's Wendy and Lucy earned her critical praise and her work opposite Ryan Gosling in Blue Valentine (2010) led to the actress receiving another Academy Award nomination, this time for Best Actress. Upcoming films for Williams included playing Marilyn Monroe in My Week with Marilyn (2011) and the 2013 3-D Oz: The Great and Powerful.
Her relationship with actor and Brokeback Mountain co-star Heath Ledger remains the most high-profile of Williams's relationships since the 1990s. Before breaking up in 2007, they had one child together: a daughter named Matilda Rose, born October 28, 2005. After his death in January 2008, the media paid close attention to Williams and her daughter; the two were also frequently followed by paparazzi.
Williams was born on September 9, 1980, in Kalispell, Montana, the daughter of Carla Ingrid (née Swenson), a homemaker, and Larry Richard Williams, an author and stock and commodities trader. He was also a two-time Republican candidate for the United States senate. She is of Norwegian descent. Since a child, Williams kept to herself and was self-sufficient; as she has said, "I was really secretive with my parents and I think I sort of continued that... I found that by keeping to myself I got on OK. I don't know why." When Williams was nine, her family moved to San Diego, California, and, at an early age, she became interested in acting.
