 "Photo: Scott Garfield of ABC")
 "Photo: Reisig and Taylor of ABC")
TV shows "Felicity," "Party of Five" and "Rose Hill," movies "Pearl Harbor," "Catch Me If You Can" and "Daredevil," which seeks the top box-office hit again this week, all are tied with one actress, Jennifer Garner.
In "Daredevil," Garner stars as Elektra, who was trained in martial arts. Elektra seeks revenge on the Marvel character, Man Without Fear, for an assassination she believes he committed. The man, with whom she attempts to deal, uses only four senses to stalk the dark, city streets because he is blind.
Garner, grown up in Charleston, has been attracting people across the nation with her acting in both TV dramas and films.
Her supporters include Marshall students, acknowledging the local actress.
"It is awesome that she is so successful and is from West Virginia," Jenny L. Porter, a junior marketing major from Huntington said.
Amy N. Wolfe, a sophomore biotechnology major, said, "It's neat that she is from West Virginia and she's lucky to have worked with Ben Affleck."
For Garner, love, life on screen and life in West Virginia all become her passions to be an actress.
Growing up in West Virginia
She was born in Texas, but she feels it is her duty to give recognition to the mountaineer state.
"West Virginia is my favorite subject," Garner told Parade magazine reporter James Brady. "It's gotten such a bad reputation, and I feel like I'm single-handedly going to bring it back. And now and then, I slip into a West Virginia accent."
She was mentioned in a Parade article and was on the cover of Glamour magazine.
Garner studied ballet as a kid and was not allowed to pierce her ears or wear nail polish as a teenager according to an article by Mark Binelli in Rolling Stone magazine.
Kackie Eller, a counselor at George Washington High School (GWHS), from which Garner graduated, said she was very involved in activities and clubs. She also spent a lot of time participating in the Charleston Light Opera Guild.
Students currently attending GWHS are proud to call Garner their own, Eller said. "They are tickled to death someone they knew became so famous," she said. Garner has spoken in the past at graduation and they hope she will again in the future.
Garner avoided parties in college and instead pursued a career in theatre at Denison University, according to the Rolling Stones article.
Garner, a supporting performer in the movie Pearl Harbor, acknowledges Cuba Gooding Jr.'s character on the U.S.S. West Virginia.
"We get our 15 seconds," Garner told Mary Wade Burnside for the Charleston Daily Mail. Burnside also mentions Garner's acceptance speech at the Golden Globes where she waved "back home in West Virginia" to her mother and father.
Finding a valentine
The 30-year-old actress married actor Scott Foley, also 30, in October 2000 after the couple met on the set of the television show "Felicity."
"I realized it was working out when we'd been together a year and it was still just as great as when we started," Garner told Glamour magazine reporter John Griffiths.
She described in the article her first date with Foley, their first real house and plans for the future. "We can't wait to have kids, but it won't be this year," Garner said.
Garner and her husband also devote their time to a cause that hits close to home.
"Scott and I are the new spokespeople for Cedars-Sinai Research for Women's Cancers," she said. "Scott's mom passed away from ovarian cancer 15 years ago. This is a cause that is really important to both of us," Garner said to Griffiths.
Playing role as spy
Garner started trading in her ballet shoes for a black belt when she became Sydney Bristow on ABC's action drama Alias. Garner plays the double CIA agent who also is a graduate student. She does most of her own stunts, but has a stunt double. "I don't mind getting bruises," Garner said to Binelli. "They make me feel tough."
On the Feb. 9 episode, Christian Slater guest-starred as a kidnapped scientist. Sydney made difficult decisions about the agency and had complications with her graduation. "Alias" airs Sundays at 9 to 10 p.m. on ABC networks.
Garner also has had television appearances on Felicity, Party of Five and Rose Hill. She has been nominated a number of times for best actress in a drama series and one a Golden Globe for the category in 2001, according to Entertainment Weekly's Web site at www.ew.com.
Acting on the movie screen
Garner is not only a television actress, but also has risen to the prestige of movie roles.
In 2000, she appeared in "Dude, Where's My Car?" Then the next year she played a nurse in "Pearl Harbor" that starred Ben Affleck. "Dude was fun, but comedy is hard work. In a sick way, Pearl Harbor was really more fun. I played one of five Navy nurses and no one, absolutely no one, recognized me. I had curly hair and wore glasses. I was frumpy," Garner said to Brady.
In 2002, Garner acted alongside Tom Hanks and Leonardo Dicaprio in "Catch Me If You Can." She played a prostitute who tries to seduce Dicaprio's character according to Entertainment Weekly.com.
Garner and Ben Affleck worked together once more for the comic-book-based movie, "Daredevil." The movie, which came out Feb. 14, has started drawing people to box offices nationwide.
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