By Cheryl Eddy

DAKOTA FANNING WAS born in 1994, the same year Nancy Kerrigan got clubbed in the knee at the Olympics, Kurt Cobain killed himself, O.J. Simpson went a-running in his white Ford Bronco, and Pulp Fiction was released. It was a banner year in so many ways.

But the world would not kneel before Fanning's cinematic powers until her 2001 breakout role as Sean Penn's daughter in I Am Sam. Cynics remember this film for Penn's turn as a mentally challenged Beatlemaniac, which was inevitably Oscar-nominated. Though she was only six when the film was shot, Fanning earned raves – no easy feat when acting opposite a Very Special Performance (see also: Gary Sinise in Forrest Gump) – and became the youngest-ever Screen Actors Guild Award nominee. Hollywood hailed the second coming of Jodie Foster – or maybe Drew Barrymore, though hopefully without all those Little Girl Lost shenanigans this time around.

Anyone who's seen VH-1's 100 Greatest Kid Stars knows today's adorable moppet has a way of becoming tomorrow's scowling mug shot. Still, some do emerge unscathed: The chap who played Charlie in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory is now a perfectly contented veterinarian somewhere in rural New York. There's also the potential for a long-lasting Hollywood career, à la "Ronnie" Howard. Fanning's only 11, so her off-camera track record is still spotless (unless you fell for Kathy Griffin's red-carpet joke about the precocious star's rehab stint, which incited a panicked apology from the E! channel after this year's Golden Globes). Meanwhile, her on-camera talents have earned her more cred than Lindsay Lohan, Hilary Duff, and both Olsens combined.

In 2002, Fanning played Charlize Theron's kidnapped daughter in Trapped, a young Reese Witherspoon in Sweet Home Alabama, and a key character in the Steven Spielberg-produced alien abduction miniseries Taken. The Spielberg-alien thing comes back around in Fanning's latest gig, playing Tom Cruise's daughter in Spielberg's War of the Worlds. Much has been made of Fanning's ability to hold her own against major leaguers: Besides Penn and Cruise, she's found father figures among the Academy-beloved likes of Denzel Washington (2004's Man on Fire) and Robert De Niro (2005's Hide and Seek).

Hide and Seek recently earned Fanning an MTV Movie Award for Best Frightened Performance. Though 2003's Cat in the Hat was truly terrifying – let's hope the wee miss banked some serious bucks for her troubles – Hide and Seek was Fanning's first real foray into horror. To play a gothed-out grade schooler, she paired a dark wig with darker under-eye circles, and added sinister shadings to her trademark preternatural intelligence. Too bad she couldn't save the film from its stupid last-act twist.

Though her filmography contains a handful of stinkers – 2003's Uptown Girls shall be mentioned here, and nowhere else – Fanning's unique position as Hollywood's go-to child actor makes her virtually Teflon-coated. Despite VH-1's unholy love for Gary Coleman, Fanning is presently the top star in the kiddie universe. While there are plenty of preteens sharing Disney Channel airtime and taking up space in movies like The Pacifier, there just aren't many young 'uns turning in consistent, memorable performances in grown-up movies. Fanning's particular gift is that she already seems like an adult actor – technically speaking, she's light years ahead of her peers. Sure, she's cute, in that wholesome, Pottery Barn Kids kind of way. But she also seems much wiser than her years, a striking trait that's also occasionally spooky.

Of course, as assorted Culkins can attest, being adorably in-demand is a terribly temporary state. Fanning's immediate future includes a horse movie, with ex-kid star Kurt Russell as her pops (due this fall, it's called Dreamer: Inspired by a True Story); she'll also play Fern in a 2006 take on Charlotte's Web, and will lend her pipes to Disney's direct-to-video Lilo and Stitch sequel. At this point, she's clearly cashing in on her innocence for all it's worth – who knows what'll happen once she's caught between wholesome (The Princess Diaries?) or edgy (Taxi Driver?) teenage roles.

Fanning's diverse career to date suggests some seriously savvy management. Someone had the smarts to hire her to narrate In the Realms of the Unreal, Jessica Yu's Oscar-nominated doc about outsider artist Henry Darger – and for now, at least, Fanning surges forward like one of Darger's blond mini-warriors. Despite the distractions caused by Cruise's increasingly exciting personality, War of the Worlds will no doubt fan the Fanning flames even further. And if she ever decides to ditch showbiz entirely, or falls victim to the Haley Joel Osment puberty curse, casting agents need look no further than younger sister Elle – at just seven, she's already a veteran of movies like Door in the Floor and Daddy Day Care.

'War of the Worlds' opens Wed/29 in Bay Area theaters. See Movie Clock for show times.