DEMI MOORE BIOGRAPHY:
Elegant redhead Nicole
Kidman, known as one of Hollywood's top Australian imports, was actually born
in Honolulu, Hawaii to Anthony (a biochemist and clinical psychologist) and
Janelle (a nursing instructor) Kidman. The family moved almost immediately
to Washington, D.C., where Nicole's father pursued his research on breast
cancer, then, three years later, made the pilgrimage to her parents' native
Sydney.
She worked regularly
at the Philip Street Theater, where she once received a personal letter of
praise and encouragement from audience member Jane Campion (then a film student).
Kidman eventually dropped
out of high school to pursue acting full-time. She broke into movies at age
16, landing a role in the Australian holiday favorite Bush Christmas (1983).
That appearance touched off a flurry of film and TV offers, including a lead
in BMX Bandits (1983) and a turn as a schoolgirl-turned-protester in the miniseries
"Vietnam" (1986) (mini) (for which she won her first Australian
Film Institute Award). With the help of an American agent, she eventually
made her US debut opposite Sam Neill in the at-sea thriller Dead Calm (1989).
She appeared as a catty
high school senior in the Australian film Flirting (1991), then as Dustin
Hoffman's moll in the gangster flick Billy Bathgate (1991). She reunited with
Cruise for Far and Away (1992), the story of young Irish lovers who flee to
America in the late 1800s, and starred opposite Michael Keaton in the tear-tugger
My Life (1993).
In 1996, Kidman stepped
into a corset to work with her countrywoman and onetime admirer, Jane Campion,
on the adaptation of 'Henry James' 's Portrait of a Lady, The (1996). A few
months later, she tore across the screen as a nuclear weapons expert in Peacemaker,
The (1997), adding "action star" to her professional repertoire.
She and Cruise then disappeared into a notoriously long, secretive shoot for
Stanley Kubrick's sexual thriller Eyes Wide Shut (1999). The couple's on-screen
shenanigans prompted an increase in public speculation about their sex life
(rumors had long been circulating that their marriage was a cover-up for Cruise's
homosexuality); tired of denying tabloid attacks, they successfully sued _The
Star_ for a story alleging that they needed a sex therapist to coach them
through love scenes. Despite their rock-solid image, the couple announced
in early 2001 that they were separating due to career conflicts.
Nicole Kidman has appeared
nude several times
