Rebecca De Mornay

Early life

De Mornay was born Rebecca J. Pearch in Santa Rosa, California. Her father was the conservative radio and television commentator Wally George (born George Walter Pearch). De Mornay was raised by her mother, Julie (née Eagar), and stepfather, Richard De Mornay. She grew up in France and went to college in the United Kingdom. She studied acting at the Lee Strasberg Institute in New York (which also at one time included veterans Mickey Rourke, Robert De Niro and Christopher Walken).

[edit] Career

De Mornay's film debut came with a small part in Francis Ford Coppola's One from the Heart (1982). Despite the subsequent success of Risky Business, De Mornay's most commercially successful film to date was The Hand That Rocks the Cradle (1992). In 2004, she guest starred as attorney Hannah Rose for the final few episodes of The Practice and the following year had a brief role alongside Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn in Wedding Crashers.

In June 2007, she appeared in the HBO series John From Cincinnati in a starring role as matriarch of a troubled Imperial Beach, California surfing family, and as grandmother/guardian to a teen surfer on the brink of greatness.


[edit] Personal life

De Mornay lived with Tom Cruise for two-and-a-half years after they met in Risky Business. In the early 1990s De Mornay was linked romantically to Leonard Cohen. She is credited as a producer and arranger on his critically acclaimed album The Future (1992). In the 80's she was briefly married to noted novelist/screenwriter Bruce Wagner. The two divorced after less than two years.

In 1995 De Mornay married sportscaster Patrick O'Neal, whose father is Ryan O'Neal. They have two daughters and divorced in 2002. In December 2007 she was charged with misdemeanor driving under the influence.

[edit] Filmography

* One from the Heart (1982)
* Testament (1983)
* Risky Business (1983)
* Runaway Train (1985)
* Sara (Jefferson Starship music video) (1985)
* The Slugger's Wife (aka Neil Simon's The Slugger's Wife) (1985)
* The Trip to Bountiful (1985)
* Beauty and the Beast (1987 film) (1987), voice of Beauty
* Feds (1988)
* And God Created Woman (1988)
* Dealers (1989)
* By Dawn's Early Light (1990)
* Backdraft (1991)
* The Hand That Rocks the Cradle (1992)
* The Three Musketeers (1993)
* Guilty as Sin (1993)
* Never Talk to Strangers (1995)
* The Winner (1996)
* The Con (1998)
* A Table for One (aka Wicked Ways) (1999)
* Thick as Thieves (1999)
* The Right Temptation (2000)
* The Salem Witch Trials (2001)
* Identity (2003)
* Lords of Dogtown (2004)
* Raise Your Voice (2004)
* Wedding Crashers (2005)
* American Venus (2007)