Demi Guynes Kutcher (/dəˈmiː/ de-mee; born November 11, 1962),[n 1] known professionally as Demi Moore, is an American actress, film producer, film director, former songwriter, and model. Moore dropped out of high school at age 16 to pursue an acting career, and posed for a nude pictorial in Oui magazine in 1980. After making her film debut in 1981, she appeared on the soap opera General Hospital and subsequently gained attention for her roles in Blame It on Rio (1984) and St. Elmo's Fire (1985). Her first film to become both a critical and commercial hit was About Last Night... (1986), which established her as a Hollywood star.
In 1990, Moore starred in Ghost, the highest-grossing film of that year, which brought her a Golden Globe nomination. She had a string of additional box-office successes over the early 1990s with A Few Good Men (1992), Indecent Proposal (1993), and Disclosure (1994). In 1996, Moore became the highest-paid actress in film history when she was paid a then-unprecedented fee of $12.5 million to star in Striptease. The high-profile disappointment of that film as well as her next, G.I. Jane (1997), was followed by a lengthy hiatus and significant downturn in Moore's career, although she has remained a subject of substantial media interest during the years since.
Moore took her professional name from her first husband, musician Freddy Moore, and is the mother of three daughters from her second marriage to actor Bruce Willis. She married her third husband, actor Ashton Kutcher, in 2005, and separated from him in November 2011.
Contents[]
[hide] *1 Background and early life
- 2 Career
- 3 Vanity Fair controversy
- 4 Business ventures
- 5 Personal life
- 6 Charity work
- 7 Filmography
- 8 Awards and nominations
- 9 Footnotes
- 10 References
- 11 External links
Background and early life[edit][]
Moore was born in Roswell, New Mexico. Prior to Moore's birth, her biological father, Air Force man Charles Harmon, Sr.[12] left her mother, Virginia (née King), after a two-month marriage.[13] When Moore was three months old, her mother married Dan Guynes, a newspaper advertising salesman who frequently changed jobs; as a result, the family moved many times.[14] Moore said in 1991, "My dad was Dan Guynes. He raised me. There is a man who would be considered my biological father who I don't really have a relationship with."[13] Moore learned of him at age 13, when she found her mother and stepfather's marriage certificate and inquired about the circumstances since "I saw my parents were married in February 1963. I was born in '62."[13] Dan Guynes committed suicide in October 1980 at age 37, two years after divorcing Moore's mother.[13] Moore's biological father appeared on Inside Edition in 1995, making an appeal to see his grandchildren.[15] Virginia Guynes had a long record of arrests for crimes, including drunk driving and arson.[16] Moore broke off contact with her in 1990, when Guynes walked away from a rehab stay Moore had paid for at the Hazelden Foundation in Minnesota.[17] Guynes later embarrassed her daughter by posing nude for the low-end magazine High Society in 1993,[18] where she spoofed Moore's controversial Vanity Fair pregnancy and bodypaint covers, and parodied her love scene from the film Ghost. Moore and Guynes briefly reconciled shortly before Guynes died of cancer in July 1998 at age 54.[19]
Moore has a maternal half-brother, Morgan Guynes, who in 1988 was a U.S. Marine stationed in North Carolina, and gave her away at her wedding the previous year;[20] two paternal half-brothers, Charles Harmon Jr.[12] and James Craig Harmon (b. 1974[21]) who in 2006 was sentenced to 10 years in jail for aggravated assault;[21] and a paternal half-sister, Charlotte Harmon Eggar, who in 2012 said she had not seen Moore in 30 years.[12]
Moore was cross-eyed as a child; this was ultimately corrected by two surgeries. She also suffered from kidney dysfunction.[14] At age 15, Moore moved to West Hollywood, California, where her mother worked for a magazine-distribution company.[13] Moore attended Fairfax High School there,[13] and recalled, "I moved out of my family's house when I was 16 and left high school in my junior year."[22] She worked at a debt collection agency[17] and had a stint as a pin-up girl in Europe upon signing with the Elite Modeling Agency,[23] then enrolled in drama classes after being inspired by her neighbor, 17-year-old German actress Nastassja Kinski.[24] In August 1979, three months before her 17th birthday,[24] Moore met musician Freddy Moore at the Los Angeles nightclub The Troubadour.[25] Freddy Moore was married to another woman at that time.[24] In February 1980, six months after they met, Freddy and Demi were married[26] and moved into an apartment in West Hollywood.[25]
Career[edit][]
[1][2]Moore at the Academy Awards in 1989
Demi Moore co-wrote three songs with Freddy Moore and appeared in the music video for their "It's Not a Rumor," performed by his band The Nu Kats.[27] She continues to receive royalty checks from her brief songwriting career (1980-1981).[28]
Moore appeared on the cover of the January 1981 issue of the adult magazine Oui, in which she posed for a series of photographs containing full frontal nudity.[29][30] In a 1988 interview, Moore claimed she "only posed for the cover of Oui—I was 16; I told them I was 18" and that the photos inside the issue "were for a European fashion magazine."[31] In 1990, she told another interviewer, "I was 17 years old. I was underage. It was just the cover."[32]
Moore made her film debut with a supporting role in the low-budget teen drama Choices (1981), directed by Silvio Narizzano.[33] Her second feature was the 1982 3-D science fiction/horror film Parasite, for which director Charles Band had instructed casting director Johanna Ray to "find me the next Karen Allen."[29] Moore gained greater exposure when she joined the cast of the ABC soap operaGeneral Hospital, playing the role of Jackie Templeton from 1982 to 1983. During her tenure on the series, she made an uncredited cameo appearance in the 1982 spoof Young Doctors in Love.[34]
Moore's film career took off in 1984 following her appearance in the sex comedy Blame It on Rio.[35] That same year, she played the lead role in No Small Affair. Her commercial breakthrough came inJoel Schumacher's yuppie drama St. Elmo's Fire (1985), which received negative reviews but was a box office success.[36] Because of that film, Moore was often listed as part of the Brat Pack, a label she shunned at the time.[37] She progressed to more serious material with About Last Night... (1986), which marked a positive turning point in her career,[38] as she later noted that she started to see better scripts following its release.[39] Film critic Roger Ebert gave the film 4 out of 4 stars and praised her performance, writing, "There isn't a romantic note she isn't required to play in this movie, and she plays them all flawlessly."[40] The success of About Last Night... was not rivaled by Moore's other two 1986 releases: One Crazy Summer and Wisdom, the last youth-oriented films she would star in.[41]
Moore made her professional stage debut in an Off-Broadway production of The Early Girl, which ran at the Circle Repertory Company in fall 1986.[42] In 1988, Moore starred as a prophecy-bearing mother in the apocalyptic drama The Seventh Sign—her first outing as a solo film star.[39] The following year, she played the quick-witted local laundress and prostitute in Neil Jordan's Depression-era allegory We're No Angels (1989) opposite Robert De Niro.
[3][4]Moore and Patrick Swayze in Ghost(1990)
Her most successful film as of 2012 was the supernatural romantic melodrama Ghost, a sleeper hit that grossed over $505 million at the box office and was the highest-grossing film of 1990.[43] The love scene between Moore and Patrick Swayze that starts in front of a potter's wheel as the song "Unchained Melody" plays has become an iconic moment in film history.[44][45] Ghost was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture, and Moore's performance as Molly Jensen garnered her a Golden Globe Award nomination as Best Actress.[46]
In 1991, Moore co-produced and starred in the mystery thriller Mortal Thoughts, and appeared as a blonde for the first time in the romantic comedy The Butcher's Wife, with Roger Ebert's review describing her as "warm and cuddly".[47] Both films were box-office disappointments, but Moore sustained her A-list status with her starring roles in Rob Reiner's A Few Good Men (1992), Adrian Lyne's Indecent Proposal(1993), and Barry Levinson's Disclosure (1994)—all of which opened at #1 at the box office and were blockbuster hits.[48]
By 1995, Moore was the highest-paid actress in Hollywood.[49] However, she subsequently had a string of unsuccessful films starting with The Scarlet Letter, a "freely adapted" version of the historical romance novel by Nathaniel Hawthorne, in which her portrayal of Hester Prynne was met with harsh criticism.[50] Despite the poor reception of that film and her follow-up release, The Juror, Moore was paid a record-breaking salary of $12.5 million in 1996 to star in Striptease.[49][51] Much hype was made about Moore's willingness to dance topless for the part, though this was the sixth time she had shown her breasts on film.[17] Although the film was actually a financial success—grossing over $113 million worldwide[52]—it failed to reach expectations and was widely considered a flop.[53] Meanwhile, she also produced and starred in a controversial miniseries for HBO called If These Walls Could Talk, a three-part anthology about abortion. Its screenwriter,Nancy Savoca, directed two segments, including one in which Moore played a widowed nurse in the early 1950s seeking a back-alley abortion. For that role, Moore received a second Golden Globe nomination as Best Actress.[46]
Moore famously shaved her head in order to play a Navy SEALS recruit in Ridley Scott's G.I. Jane (1997). The film was a moderate box office success,[54] but its domestic gross was only slightly more than it cost to make.[55] During the film's production, it was reported that Moore had ordered studio chiefs to charter two planes for her and her entourage,[56] which reinforced her negative reputation for being a diva[57]—she had previously turned down the Sandra Bullock role in While You Were Sleeping because the studio refused to meet her salary demands,[58] and was dubbed "Gimme Moore" by the media.[55]
After G.I. Jane, Moore took a low-profile role in Woody Allen's Deconstructing Harry, then left the Hollywood spotlight and moved to Hailey, Idaho on a full-time basis to devote herself to raising her three daughters.[59] She was offscreen for three years before re-emerging in the arthouse drama Passion of Mind (2000), the first English-language film from Belgian director Alain Berliner. Her performance was critically acclaimed, but the film itself received mixed reviews and was deemed "naggingly slow" by some critics.[60] Moore then resumed her self-imposed career hiatus and continued to turn down film offers.[61] Producer Irwin Winkler said in 2001, "I had a project about a year and a half ago, and we made an inquiry about her—a real good commercial picture. She wasn't interested."[55]
Another three years passed before Moore acted again. She returned to the screen as the villain of the 2003 film Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle, but that was followed by yet another three-year absence. In the interim, Moore signed on as the face of the Versace fashion brand.[62] and then the Helena Rubinstein brand of cosmetics.[63] In 2006, she appeared in Bobby which featured an all-star cast, including her husband Ashton Kutcher, although they did not appear in any scenes together.
Moore reunited with Blame It on Rio co-star Michael Caine for the British crime drama Flawless, which came out in a limited release in 2008 with generally positive reviews.[64] As of 2012, her last appearance in a widely released film was in 2007's Mr. Brooks with Kevin Costner. Since then, she has acted in several independent films, including the 2011 corporate drama Margin Call, in which she had a small role.
Moore had been cast to play feminist activist Gloria Steinem in the Linda Lovelace biographical film Lovelace,[65] but within a month of being announced for the role, she dropped out of the production in the wake of a January 23, 2012 hospitalization and what her representative called "professional assistance to treat her exhaustion and improve her overall health."[66] Sarah Jessica Parker took over the role.[67]
Vanity Fair controversy[edit][]
See also: More Demi Moore and Demi's Birthday Suit
In August 1991, Moore appeared nude on the cover of Vanity Fair under the title More Demi Moore. Annie Leibovitz shot the picture while Moore was seven months pregnant with her daughter Scout LaRue, intending to portray "anti-Hollywood, anti-glitz" attitude.[68] The cover sparked an intense controversy for Vanity Fair and Moore. It was widely discussed on television, radio, and in newspaper articles.[69] The frankness of Leibovitz's portrayal of a pregnant sex symbol led to divided opinions, ranging from complaints of sexual objectification to celebrations of the photograph as a symbol of empowerment.[70]
The photograph was subject to numerous parodies, including the Spy magazine version which placed Moore's then-husband Bruce Willis' head on her body. In Leibovitz v. Paramount Pictures Corp., Leibovitz sued over one parodyfeaturing Leslie Nielsen, made to promote the 1994 film Naked Gun 33⅓: The Final Insult. In the parody, the model's body was attached to what is described as "the guilty and smirking face" of Nielsen. The teaser said "Due this March".[71] The case was dismissed in 1996 because the parody relied "for its comic effect on the contrast between the original".[71] In November 2009, the Moroccan magazine Femmes du Maroc emulated the infamous pose with Moroccan news reporter Nadia Larguet, causing controversy in the majority Muslim nation.[72]
In August 1992, Moore again appeared nude on the cover of Vanity Fair, modeling for body painting artist Joanne Gair in Demi's Birthday Suit.[73][74]
Business ventures[edit][]
Moore was a founding "celebrity investor" in the Planet Hollywood chain of international theme restaurants (modeled after the Hard Rock Cafe and launched in New York on October 22, 1991) along with Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and former husband Bruce Willis.[75] She was the executive producer of all three of the films in the successful Austin Powers franchise,[76] as well as an interview series for the Lifetime network called The Conversation.[77]
Moore's net worth is estimated to be $150 million.[78][79][80]
Personal life[edit][]
Marriages and relationships[edit][]
[7][8]Moore and Kutcher in 2008
On February 8, 1980, she married singer Freddy Moore, 12 years her senior.[26] Before their marriage, Demi had already begun using Freddy's surname as her stage name.[28] She filed for divorce in September 1984; it was finalized on August 7, 1985.[28]
Following her divorce from Freddy Moore, Moore was engaged to actor Emilio Estevez. The pair had planned to marry in December 1986, but called off the engagement.[81]
On November 21, 1987, Moore married her second husband, actor Bruce Willis.[82] She stated on her marriage license that this was her first marriage, explaining in an interview the following year, "I did it only because I thought it was going to take longer if I put that [first marriage] on there."[20] She and Willis have three daughters together: Rumer (born August 16, 1988),[83] Scout (born July 20, 1991),[84] and Tallulah (born February 3, 1994).[85] The couple separated on June 24, 1998,[19] but did not file for divorce until October 18, 2000.[86] Their divorce was finalized one day after the filing.[87]
Moore had a longstanding relationship with martial arts instructor Oliver Whitcomb, whom she dated from 1999 to 2002.[88]
In 2003, Moore began dating actor Ashton Kutcher, who is 15 years her junior. They married on September 24, 2005.[89] The wedding was attended by about 150 close friends and family of the couple, including Willis.[90] In November 2011, after months of media speculation about the state of the couple's marriage, Moore announced her decision to end her marriage to Kutcher.[91]After over a year of separation, Kutcher filed for divorce from Moore on December 21, 2012 in Los Angeles Superior Court, citing irreconcilable differences.[92] Moore filed her response papers in March 2013, requesting spousal supportand payment of legal fees from Kutcher.[93][94]
Lawsuits[edit][]
On January 28, 1998, Moore and Willis sued their former nanny, Kim Tannahill, in a U.S. district court in Blaine County, Idaho, claiming she billed them for personal expenses, reneged on some $8,000 worth of loans and spoke about their private lives in violation of a confidentiality agreement.[95] The couple sought at least $300,000 in damages.[95] On February 2, 1998, Tannahill filed a countersuit in a Los Angeles Superior Court.[95] In that lawsuit, Tannahill claimed that she was subjected to "intimidation, threats and force," and accused Moore of locking her in a bedroom for a two-hour "verbal beating" upon firing her in August 1997,[95] quoting Moore as saying "It's scary what I could do to you."[95]Tannahill's lawsuit was thrown out by a federal judge in April 1998,[96] while the suit filed by Moore and Willis was settled out of court.
In May 2003, Moore was sued by the former manager of her Idaho ranch, Lawrence Bass, for sexual harassment and discrimination.[97] Bass sought more than $250,000 in damages, claiming in his lawsuit that Moore approached him in the same manner as did her character with Michael Douglas in the 1994 film Disclosure, then fired him, months later, after he had turned down her advances.[97] Bass, who also filed complaints with the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and Idaho's Human Rights Commission,[98] had been the subject of seven restraining orders, was arrested in 1998 for domestic abuse, and was wanted for failing to answer a five-count criminal harassmentcomplaint against him.[98] Idaho state investigators ruled there was "no probable cause" to support his allegations against Moore.[99] The case was dismissed in February 2004.[100] Moore filed a countersuit against Bass, who served a 10-day jail sentence for civil contempt.[99]
Interests[edit][]
She is a follower of Philip Berg's Kabbalah Centre religion, and initiated Kutcher into the faith, having said that she "didn't grow up Jewish, but ... would say that [she has] been more exposed to the deeper meanings of particular rituals than any of [her] friends that did."[101]
According to The New York Times, Moore is "the world's most high-profile doll collector," and among her favorites is the Gene Marshall fashion doll.[102] At one point, Moore kept a separate residence to house her 2,000 dolls.[95]
While she landed on PETA's Worst-Dressed List in 2009 for wearing fur,[103] two years later she supported the group's efforts to ban circus workers' use of bullhooks on elephants.[104]
Charity work[edit][]
In 2009,[105] Moore and Kutcher launched The Demi and Ashton Foundation (DNA), a nonprofit, non-governmental organization directed towards fighting child sexual slavery.[106][107] Its first campaign was "Real Men Don't Buy Girls."[108]In November 2012, the foundation said it was announcing "a new name and refined mission"[109] as Thorn, which aimed "to disrupt and deflate the predatory behavior of those who abuse and traffic children, solicit sex with children or create and share child pornography".[105]
Filmography[edit][]
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1981 | Choices | Corri | |
| 1982 | Parasite | Patricia Welles | |
| 1982 | Young Doctors in Love | New intern | Uncredited cameo[34] |
| 1984 | Blame It on Rio | Nicole 'Nikki' Hollis | |
| 1984 | No Small Affair | Laura Victor | |
| 1985 | St. Elmo's Fire | Jules | |
| 1986 | About Last Night... | Debbie | |
| 1986 | One Crazy Summer | Cassandra Eldridge | |
| 1986 | Wisdom | Karen Simmons | |
| 1988 | The Seventh Sign | Abby Quinn | |
| 1989 | We're No Angels | Molly | |
| 1990 | Ghost | Molly Jensen | |
| 1991 | Nothing but Trouble | Diane Lightson | |
| 1991 | Mortal Thoughts | Cynthia Kellogg | Also producer |
| 1991 | The Butcher's Wife | Marina Lemke | |
| 1992 | A Few Good Men | LCDR JoAnne Galloway | |
| 1993 | Indecent Proposal | Diana Murphy | |
| 1994 | Disclosure | Meredith Johnson | |
| 1995 | The Scarlet Letter | Hester Prynne | |
| 1995 | Now and Then | Samantha Albertson (older) | Also producer |
| 1996 | The Juror | Annie Laird | |
| 1996 | Striptease | Erin Grant | |
| 1996 | If These Walls Could Talk | Claire Donnelly | Also producer |
| 1996 | The Hunchback of Notre Dame | Esmeralda (voice) | |
| 1996 | Beavis and Butt-head Do America | Dallas Grimes (voice) | Uncredited[34] |
| 1997 | G.I. Jane | LT Jordan O'Neil | Also producer |
| 1997 | Deconstructing Harry | Helen / Harry's Character | |
| 2000 | Passion of Mind | Martha Marie / 'Marty' Talridge | |
| 2002 | The Hunchback of Notre Dame II | Esmeralda (voice) | Direct-to-video |
| 2003 | Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle | Madison Lee | |
| 2006 | Half Light | Rachel Carlson | |
| 2006 | Bobby | Virginia Fallon | |
| 2007 | Mr. Brooks | Detective Tracy Atwood | |
| 2008 | Flawless | Laura Quinn | |
| 2010 | Happy Tears | Laura | |
| 2010 | The Joneses | Kate Jones | |
| 2010 | Bunraku | Alexandra | |
| 2011 | Margin Call | Sarah Robertson | |
| 2011 | Another Happy Day | Patty | |
| 2012 | LOL | Anne | |
| 2013 | Very Good Girls | Kate | Post-production |
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1982–1983 | General Hospital | Jackie Templeton | Cast member |
| 1984 | The Master | Holly Trumbull | 1 episode: "Max" |
| 1984 | Bedrooms | Nancy | Sketch comedy |
| 1987[110] or 1988[111] (sources differ) | The New Homeowner's Guide to Happiness[111][112] | Sandy Darden[110] | TV special |
| 1989 | Moonlighting | Woman in elevator[34] | 1 episode: "When Girls Collide"[113] |
| 1990 | Tales from the Crypt | Cathy Marno | 1 episode: "Dead Right" |
| 1997 | Ellen | The Sample Lady | 1 episode: "The Puppy Episode"; uncredited[34] |
| 1997 | Destination Anywhere: The Film | Janie | Short |
| 2003 | Will & Grace | Sissy Palmer-Ginsburg | 1 episode: "Women and Children First" |
| Year | Title | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 2008 | Streak | Short |
| 2009 | The Joneses | |
| 2011 | Five | TV, segment "Charlotte" |