Julianne Moore (15011443428).jpg

Julie Anne Smith (born December 3, 1960), known professionally as Julianne Moore, is an American actress. Prolific in film since the early 1990s, she is particularly known for her portrayals of emotionally troubled women in independent films, as well as for her roles in blockbusters. She is the recipient of numerous accolades, including an Academy Award, a British Academy Film Award, two Golden Globe Awards, and two Emmy Awards.

After studying theater at Boston University, Moore began her career with a series of television roles. From 1985 to 1988, she was a regular in the soap opera ''As the World Turns'', earning a Daytime Emmy Award for her performance. Her film debut was in '' Tales from the Darkside: The Movie'' (1990), and she continued to play small roles for the next four years, including in the thriller '' The Hand That Rocks the Cradle'' (1992). Moore first received critical attention with Robert Altman's ''Short Cuts'' (1993), and successive performances in ''Vanya on 42nd Street'' (1994) and '' Safe'' (1995) continued this acclaim. Starring roles in the blockbusters ''Nine Months'' (1995) and '' The Lost World: Jurassic Park'' (1997) established her as a Hollywood leading lady.

Moore received considerable recognition in the late 1990s and early 2000s, earning Academy Award nominations for '' Boogie Nights'' (1997), ''The End of the Affair'' (1999), '' Far from Heaven'' (2002) and '' The Hours'' (2002). In the first of these, she played a 1970s pornographic actress, while in the other three, she starred as a mid-twentieth century unhappy housewife. She also had success with the films ''The Big Lebowski'' (1998), ''Magnolia'' (1999), '' Hannibal'' (2001), '' Children of Men'' (2006), ''A Single Man'' (2009), '' The Kids Are All Right'' (2010), and ''Crazy, Stupid, Love'' (2011). She won a Primetime Emmy Award for her portrayal of Sarah Palin in the television film ''Game Change'' (2012). She won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her portrayal of an Alzheimer's patient in '' Still Alice'' (2014) and was named Best Actress at the Cannes Film Festival for her role in ''Maps to the Stars'' (2014). Among her highest-grossing releases are the final two films in the series ''The Hunger Games'' and the spy film '' Kingsman: The Golden Circle'' (2017).

In addition to her acting work, Moore has written a series of children's books about a character named ''Freckleface Strawberry''. In 2015, ''Time'' named her one of the 100 most influential people in the world, and in 2020, ''The New York Times'' named her one of the greatest actors of the 21st century. She is married to director Bart Freundlich, with whom she has two children.

Early life

Moore was born Julie Anne Smith on December 3, 1960, at the Fort Bragg army installation in North Carolina. Her father, Peter Moore Smith, a paratrooper in the United States Army during the Vietnam War, attained the rank of colonel and became a military judge. Her mother, Anne (née Love 1940–2009), was a Scottish psychologist and social worker from Greenock, Renfrewshire, who had immigrated with her family to the United States in 1951.'' Finding Your Roots'', February 9, 2016, PBS Moore has a younger sister, Valerie Smith, and a younger brother, the novelist Peter Moore Smith. Being of half-Scottish parentage, Moore claimed British citizenship in 2011 in honor of her late mother.

Moore frequently moved around the United States as a child, owing to her father's occupation. She was close to her family as a result, but has said she never had the feeling of coming from one particular place. The family lived in multiple locations, including Alabama, Georgia, Texas, Panama, Nebraska, Alaska, New York, and Virginia, and Moore attended nine different schools. Stated by Moore in this interview. The constant relocating made her an insecure child, and she struggled to establish friendships. Despite these difficulties, Moore later remarked that an itinerant lifestyle was beneficial to her future career: "When you move around a lot, you learn that behavior is mutable. I would change, depending on where I was ... It teaches you to watch, to reinvent, that character can change."

When Moore was sixteen, the family moved from Falls Church, Virginia, where Moore had been attending Justice High School, to Frankfurt, West Germany, where she attended Frankfurt American High School. She was clever and studious, a self-proclaimed "good girl", and she planned to become a doctor. She had never considered performing, or even attended the theater, but she was an avid reader and it was this hobby that led her to begin acting at the school. Moore appeared in several plays, including ''Tartuffe'' and ''Medea'', and with the encouragement of her English teacher, she chose to pursue a theatrical career.Rozen, Leah (April 2012). "Moore than Meets the Eye". ''More''. pp. 72–75, 88. Her parents supported her decision, but asked that she train at university to provide the added security of a college degree. She was accepted into Boston University and graduated in 1983 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Theatre.

Career

Early work (1985–1993)

Moore moved to New York City after graduating, and worked as a waitress. After registering her stage name with Actors' Equity, she began her career in 1985 with off-Broadway theatre. Her first screen role came in 1985, in an episode of the soap opera ''The Edge of Night''. Her break came the following year, when she joined the cast of ''As the World Turns''. Playing the dual roles of half-sisters Frannie and Sabrina Hughes, she found this intensive work to be an important learning experience, and she said of it fondly: "I gained confidence and learned to take responsibility." Moore performed on the show until 1988, when she won a Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Ingenue in a Drama Series. Before leaving ''As the World Turns'', she had a role in the 1987 CBS miniseries ''I'll Take Manhattan''. Once she finished her contract at ''World Turns'', she played Ophelia in a Guthrie Theater production of ''Hamlet'' opposite Željko Ivanek. The actress returned intermittently to television over the next three years, appearing in the TV movies ''Money, Power, Murder'' (1989), ''The Last to Go'' (1991), and '' Cast a Deadly Spell'' (1991).

In 1990, Moore began working with stage director Andre Gregory on a workshop theatre production of Chekhov's ''Uncle Vanya''. Described by Moore as "one of the most fundamentally important acting experiences I ever had", the group spent four years exploring the text and giving intimate performances to friends. Also in 1990, Moore made her cinematic debut as a mummy's victim in '' Tales from the Darkside: The Movie'', a low-budget horror that she later described as "terrible". Her next film role, in 1992, introduced her to a wide audience. The thriller '' The Hand That Rocks the Cradle''in which she played the main character's ill-fated friendwas number one at the US box office, and Moore caught the attention of several critics for her performance. She followed it the same year with the crime comedy '' The Gun in Betty Lou's Handbag'', appearing as the protagonist's kooky sister. She continued to play supporting roles throughout 1993, first featuring in the erotic thriller '' Body of Evidence'' as Madonna's love rival. The film was panned by reviewers and heavily mocked, and Moore subsequently regretted her involvement—terming it "a big mistake". She had greater success in a 1993 romantic comedy with Johnny Depp. In ''Benny & Joon'', Moore played a gentle waitress who falls for Aidan Quinn's character, Benny. She also appeared briefly as a doctor in one of the year's biggest hits, the Harrison Ford-starring thriller '' The Fugitive''.

Rise to prominence (1993–1997)

Filmmaker Robert Altman saw Moore in the ''Uncle Vanya'' production, and was sufficiently impressed to cast her in his next project: the ensemble drama ''Short Cuts'' (1993), based on short stories by Raymond Carver. Moore was pleased to work with him, as his film '' 3 Women'' (1977) gave her a strong appreciation for cinema when she saw it in college. Playing artist Marian Wyman was an experience she found difficult, as she was a "total unknown" surrounded by established actors, but this proved to be Moore's breakthrough role.Haramis, Nick (March 2012). "Julie and Julianne". ''BlackBook''. pp. 50–57. The critic Todd McCarthy called her performance "arresting" and remarked that her monologue, delivered naked from the waist down, would "no doubt be the most discussed scene" of the film. ''Short Cuts'' was critically acclaimed, and received awards for Best Ensemble Cast at the Venice Film Festival and the Golden Globe Awards. Moore received an individual nomination for Best Supporting Female at the Independent Spirit Awards, and the monologue scene earned her a degree of notoriety.

''Short Cuts'' was one of a trio of successive film appearances that boosted Moore's reputation. It was followed in 1994 with ''Vanya on 42nd Street'', a filmed version of her ongoing ''Uncle Vanya'' workshop production, directed by Louis Malle. Moore's performance of Yelena was described as "simply outstanding" by '' Time Out'', and she won the Boston Society of Film Critics award for Best Actress. Following this, Moore was given her first leading role, playing an unhappy suburban housewife who develops multiple chemical sensitivity in Todd Haynes' low-budget film '' Safe'' (1995). She had to lose a substantial amount of weight for the role, which made her ill, and she subsequently swore off changing her body for a film again. In their review, ''Empire'' writes that ''Safe'' "first established oore'scredentials as perhaps the finest actress of her generation". The film historian David Thomson later described it as "one of the most arresting, original and accomplished films of the 1990s", and the performance earned Moore an Independent Spirit Award nomination for Best Actress. Reflecting on these three roles, Moore has said, "They all came out at once, and I suddenly had this profile. It was amazing."

Moore's next appearance was a supporting role in the comedy-drama '' Roommates'' (1995), playing the daughter-in-law of Peter Falk. Her following film, ''Nine Months'' (1995), was crucial in establishing her as a Hollywood leading lady. The romantic comedy, directed by Chris Columbus and co-starring Hugh Grant, was poorly reviewed, but a box office success; it remains one of her highest-grossing films. Her next release was also a Hollywood production, as Moore appeared alongside Sylvester Stallone and Antonio Banderas in the thriller ''Assassins'' (1995). Despite negativity from critics, the film earned $83.5 million worldwide. Moore's only appearance of 1996 came in the Merchant Ivory film '' Surviving Picasso'', where she played the artist Dora Maar opposite Anthony Hopkins. The period drama met with poor reviews.

A key point in Moore's career came when she was cast by Steven Spielberg to star as paleontologist Dr. Sarah Harding in '' The Lost World: Jurassic Park'' – the sequel to his 1993 blockbuster '' Jurassic Park''. Filming the big-budget production was a new experience for Moore, and she has said she enjoyed herself "tremendously". It was a physically demanding role, with the actress commenting, "There was so much hanging everywhere. We hung off everything available, plus we climbed, ran, jumped off things ... it was just non-stop." ''The Lost World'' (1997) finished as one of the ten highest-grossing films in history to that point, and was pivotal in making Moore a sought-after actress: "Suddenly I had a commercial film career", she said. ''The Myth of Fingerprints'' was her second film released in 1997. During its production she met her future husband in director Bart Freundlich. Later that year, Moore made a cameo appearance in the dark comedy '' Chicago Cab''.

Worldwide recognition (1997–2002)

The late 1990s and early 2000s saw Moore achieve significant industry recognition. Her first Academy Award nomination came for the critically acclaimed '' Boogie Nights'' (1997), which centers on a group of individuals working in the 1970s pornography industry. Director Paul Thomas Anderson was not a well-known figure before its production, with only one feature credit to his name, but Moore agreed to the film after being impressed with his "exhilarating" script. The ensemble piece featured Moore as Amber Waves, a leading porn actress and mother-figure who longs to be re-united with her real son. Martyn Glanville of the BBC
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