| Name
: |
Nicole
Kidman |
| Date
Of Birth : |
June
20,1967 |
| Place
of Birth : |
Honolulu,
Hawaii, USA |
| Sign
: |
Gemini |
| Education
: |
High
school dropout |
| Occupation
: |
Actress |
| Ex-Husband
: |
Tom
Cruise |
| Kids
: |
Connor,
Isabella |
| Father
: |
Antony
(biochemist) |
| Mother
: |
Janelle
(nursing instructor) |
| Sister
: |
Antonia
(TV reporter) |
| Fan
Mail : |
C/O
Creative Artists Agency
9830 Wilshire Blvd
Beverly Hills, CA 90212
USA |
An actress who was
relegated to playing decorative parts for years and was known
primarily for her real-life role as the wife of Tom Cruise, Nicole
Kidman spent the latter half of the 1990s finally earning the
critical respect she deserved. Standing a willowy 5'11'' and
sporting one of Hollywood's most distinctive heads of red hair, the
Australian actress first came to the attention of a wide American
audience with her role opposite Cruise in Days of Thunder (1990),
but it was not until she starred as a homicidal weather girl in Gus
Van Sant's 1995 To Die For that she began to be regarded as a
performer of considerable range and talent. Although many assume
that Kidman is a native of Australia, she was actually born in
Honolulu, Hawaii, on June 20, 1967. Her family, who lived on the
island because of a research project Kidman's father, a biochemist,
was involved with, subsequently moved to Washington, D.C. for the
next three years. After her father's project reached completion,
Kidman and her family -- which also included her mother, a
nurse/educator, and a younger sister -- moved to her parents' native
Australia. Raised in the upper-middle-class Sydney suburb of
Longueville, she grew up with a love of the arts, particularly dance
and theatre. Trained in ballet from the age of three, Kidman made
her acting debut in a nativity play when she was six. By the age of
ten, she was studying acting in drama school, and she went on to
train at the St. Martin's Youth Theatre in Melbourne and at Sydney's
Phillip Street Theatre. An awkward, gawky teenager who was teased
relentlessly because of her height, Kidman took refuge in the
theatre, and she landed her first professional role at the age of
14, when she starred in Bush Christmas (1983), a TV movie about a
group of kids who band together with an Aborigine to find their
stolen horse. This was followed by a role in another adventure film,
BMX Bandits (1983), and a number of TV movies. Kidman's first
breakthrough came when she was asked to star in Vietnam, a
miniseries directed by John Duigan; the actress won positive notices
for her portrayal of an awkward 1960s schoolgirl who matures into an
idealistic 24-year-old Vietnam war protester. She also won an
American agent, something that opened quite a few doors of
opportunity. In 1989, Kidman got another major break when she was
tapped to star in Phillip Noyce's Dead Calm. A psychological
thriller about a couple (Kidman and Sam Neill) who are terrorized by
a young man they rescue from a sinking ship (Billy Zane), the film
helped to establish the then-19-year-old Kidman as an actress of
considerable mettle. That same year her reputation was further
boosted by her starring performance in the made-for-TV Bangkok
Hilton, which cast her as a young woman incarcerated in a Thai
prison on false drug smuggling charges. By now a rising star in
Australia, Kidman began earning recognition across the Pacific. In
1989, she was picked by Tom Cruise for a starring role in her first
American feature, Tony Scott's Days of Thunder (1990). The film, a
testosterone-saturated drama about a racecar driver (Cruise), cast
Kidman as the neurologist who falls in love with him. A sizable hit,
it had the added advantage of introducing Kidman to Cruise, whom she
married in December of 1990. Following a role as Dustin Hoffman's
moll in Billy Bathgate (1991), and a supporting turn as a snotty
boarding school senior in Flirting (also 1991), John Duigan's
wonderful and criminally little-seen coming-of-age drama, Kidman
collaborated with Cruise on their second film together, Far and Away
(1992). Despite their onscreen pairing and some gorgeous
cinematography, the film got only a lukewarm reception, and Kidman's
subsequent projects, My Life and Malice ( both 1993), were similarly
disappointing. Batman Forever (1995), in which she played the hero's
love interest, fared somewhat better, but it did little in the way
of establishing Kidman as a serious actre
|
