Rebecca De Mornay

Though Rebecca DeMornay's place in pop culture history was assured by two extreme roles - the glacially gorgeous prostitute in Risky Business (1983) and a devious psychopath in The Hand That Rocks the Cradle (1992) - the California native took great pains to prove that her talents laid beyond roles that were based solely around her icy blonde beauty. Over the course of her 20-plus-year career, DeMornay proved that she could handle characters of all stripes, from the scheming Lady De Winter in The Three Musketeers (1993), to terrorized Wendy Torrance in the TV remake of The Shining (1997) to the insecure mother of a trouble skateboarding champ in Lords of Dogtown (2005). Along the way, the enterprising actress also dabbled in producing and directing to keep herself in the game and improve upon her own projects throughout the years.

Born Rebecca Pearch in Santa Rosa, CA on Aug. 29, 1959 - though other sources cite 1961 or 1962 as her year of birth - DeMornay's birth father was George Walter Pearch, better known among late-night television fans as the absurd, ultra-conservative talk show host, Wally George. Her parents divorced when DeMornay was two; she adopted her stepfather Richard DeMornay's surname shortly thereafter. DeMornay and her father, Wally George, had a lengthy and tempestuous relationship, with the two estranged for some 15 years prior to his death in 2003. Richard DeMornay died when she was five, leaving her mother to relocate her daughter and stepson to Europe, where they traveled extensively. DeMornay graduated with high honors from an exclusive private school in Germany.

DeMornay returned to the United States in 1980 and studied acting at the prestigious Lee Strasberg Institute. She was soon hired by Zoetrope Studios to appear in director Francis Ford Coppola's romantic drama One From the Heart (1982). Shortly thereafter, she rose to fame as Lana, the business-minded call girl who captures Tom Cruise's affections in Risky Business (1983). The film was a substantial hit and her subway seduction of Cruise helped make DeMornay a crush object for countless male moviegoers. The two actors carried on their relationship off-screen for the next two years, even sharing a home during this period. The much discussed Cruise relationship would not be her last through the years. DeMornay's personal life often earned her as much press as her movies.

Subsequent roles in Testament (1983) and The Trip to Bountiful (1985) showed that De Mornay's onscreen talent was no doubt growing, and following a high-profile role in the thriller Runaway Train (1985), she essayed a demanding role in the ambitious box-office failure And God Created Woman. Though De Mornay would strike big in the early '90s with an intensely psychotic performance in The Hand that Rocks the Cradle (1992) and a solid supporting role in the previous year's Backdraft, the remainder of the decade found her wallowing in a glut of low-budget thrillers attempting to capitalize on her frightful performance in The Hand that Rocks the Cradle.

The new millennium found the talented actress still struggling to overcome her association with thrillers, and the heartwarming made-for-television drama Range of Motion proved without a doubt that she was indeed capable of greater things. Following a pair of impressive small-screen performances in A Girl Thing (2001) and Salem Witch Trials (2002), a virtually unrecognizable De Mornay turned up as a demanding screen diva in the 2003 sleeper thrillerIdentity. Outside of film work, De Mornay has been cited for her on-stage performances in the Pasadena Playhouse production of Born Yesterday, and in 1995 she made her directing debut with an episode of The Outer Limits entitled "The Conversation."

DeMornay was married for a year to writer and director Bruce Wagner before marrying sportscaster Patrick O'Neil - the son of actor Ryan O'Neil - with whom she has two daughters.

Source: Yahoo Movies