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Julia Roberts
Biography
Early life
Young RobertsJulia Roberts was born in Smyrna, Georgia, with the name Julie Roberts. Her father, Walter Grady Roberts, was an actor and writer of Irish ancestry on his father's side and English-Scottish descent on his mother's. Roberts's mother, Betty Lou Bredemus, a church secretary and actress, was born in Minneapolis in 1934, daughter of football player Wendell John Bredemus (whose mother was born in Sweden) and Elizabeth Ellen Billingsley.
While Mrs. Roberts was pregnant with Julia, she and her husband ran an acting school for children in Decatur, Georgia. The children of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Coretta Scott King attended the school. As a thank-you for their service, Mrs. King paid the hospital bill when Mrs. Roberts gave birth to Julia.
Roberts' parents divorced when she was four, and her mother remarried. Her father died of cancer when Roberts was nine. Her elder brother Eric Roberts, from whom she is estranged, is also an actor, as is her niece, Emma Roberts, whom she would often take along on sets when she was younger.
Roberts wanted to be a veterinarian as a child, but soon after graduating from Smyrna's Campbell High School, and attending Georgia State University, she headed to New York to join her sister and pursue a career in acting. Once there, she signed with the Click modeling agency and enrolled in acting classes. She changed her name to "Julia Roberts" when she found that there was already a "Julie Roberts" registered with the Screen Actors Guild
Career
Julia Roberts made her film debut playing a supporting role opposite her brother, Eric, in Blood Red (she gets just two words of dialogue), which, although completed in 1986, was not released until 1989. She once appeared on Sesame Street opposite the character Elmo, demonstrating her ability to change emotions.
Roberts first caught the attention of moviegoers with her performance in the independent film Mystic Pizza in 1988. The following year she was featured in Steel Magnolias as a young bride battling diabetes and garnered her first Oscar nomination (as Best Supporting Actress) for her performance. She catapulted to worldwide fame when she co-starred with Richard Gere in the Cinderella story Pretty Woman in 1990.
The role also earned her a second Oscar nod, this time as Best Actress. Her next box office success was the thriller Sleeping with the Enemy, playing a battered wife who escapes her demented husband and starts a new life in Iowa. She played Tinkerbell in Steven Spielberg's Hook in 1991, which was followed by a two-year period of no acting roles other than a cameo appearance in Robert Altman's The Player (1992). In early 1993, she was the subject of a People magazine cover story asking, "What Happened to Julia Roberts?"
She starred alongside Liam Neeson in the 1996 film Michael Collins Later that year, she co-starred with Denzel Washington in the successful The Pelican Brief, based on the John Grisham novel. Over the next few years, she starred in a series of films that were critical and commercial failures, primarily because she was cast in roles that strayed too far from her film persona. She broke her losing streak with the hugely popular comedy My Best Friend's Wedding (1997), and eventually regained her earlier reputation as an actress who could open a movie and guarantee box office success. She also starred with Hugh Grant in the popular 1999 film Notting Hill.
In 2001, she won critical acclaim and finally received a Best Actress Oscar for her portrayal of Erin Brockovich, who helped wage a successful lawsuit against energy giant Pacific Gas & Electric. Her acceptance speech was one of the longest in Oscar history and became fodder for late-night comedians. At the same time, Roberts' win created a mild uproar in the film community because she had beaten out Ellen Burstyn's wrenching portrayal of Sara Goldfarb in Requiem for a Dream. Roberts' win over Burstyn is frequently cited as an example of the Academy's tendency to award popularity over artistic merit. Subsequently, Roberts would team up with Erin Brockovich director Steven Soderbergh for three more films: Ocean's Eleven, Full Frontal, and Ocean's Twelve.
Roberts recently enjoyed her broadway debut as Nan in "Three Days of Rain" opposite Bradley Cooper, and television star, Paul Rudd, at the Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre. Although the play grossed nearly one million dollars in ticket sales its first week out and continued to be a commercial success throughout its limited run, most critics have heavily criticized Roberts' performance and the play itself. Even New York Times' critic Ben Brantly, a self proclaimed 'Juliaholic', described her as being fraught with "self-consciousness (especially in the first act) [and] only glancingly acquainted with the two characters she plays." Three Days of Rain received two Tony Award nominations in stage design categories but took home neither prize. Julia Roberts did, however, receive a Broadway.com audience award (a minor theatrical prize) for her peformance.
As of January 2006, Roberts' films have grossed 2.09 billion dollars at the American Box Office making her the biggest female movie star in history.
Personal life
Julia Roberts with Private First Class Sowell at Incirlik hospital, Incirlik Air Base, Turkey, December 7, 2001Roberts' personal life has often been in the spotlight, a fact reflected in her Notting Hill, a romantic comedy about a famous actress falling for a bookstore owner played by Hugh Grant. Her character, Anna Scott, was said to be closely modeled on Roberts herself. (When asked in one scene how much she was paid to appear in a movie, Scott replies "fifteen million dollars" - precisely the amount Roberts had received to appear in the film.)
Relationships
Roberts met Kiefer Sutherland, her co-star in Flatliners from 1990. Sutherland left his wife and children and moved in with Roberts. In August 1990, Roberts and Sutherland announced their engagement, with a wedding of June 14th 1991. Roberts cancelled the wedding when she discovered Sutherland had had an affair with a stripper named Amanda Rice. Roberts went to Europe with Jason Patric after she and Sutherland broke up.
Eventually, she married country singer, Lyle Lovett, after the couple had known each other for a few weeks. Two years later, in March 1995, the couple announced that they were separating.
For the Christmas '98 premiere of Stepmom, Roberts appeared with television actor Benjamin Bratt. In late June 2001, Roberts and Bratt announced they were breaking up. "It's come to a kind and tender-hearted end," she said of their relationship.
Roberts also briefly dated Friends star Matthew Perry and actor Daniel Day-Lewis. For a time, she lived with actor Liam Neeson.
Roberts met her current husband, cinematographer Danny Moder, on the set of her movie The Mexican in 2000. He was already married to Vera Steimberg Moder, but they eventually divorced. Roberts and Moder were married on July 4, 2002, at her ranch in Taos, New Mexico. On November 28, 2004, they became the parents of fraternal twins, daughter Hazel Patricia and son Phinnaeus Walter.
Roberts bought a penthouse in Manhattan's Gramercy Park neighborhood. She reportedly loves to shop anonymously, buying her own organic greens on weekends at the market in nearby Union Square. She and her family divide their time between their homes in New York City, Malibu, California, and their 50-acre retreat in Taos. Julia Roberts is expecting her third child with husband Danny Moder.
Charities
May 29, 1995Roberts has a production company called Red Om Films ("Moder" spelled backwards; formerly "Shoelace Productions") and has given of her time and resources to UNICEF as well as to other charitable organizations."In the Spring of 1995, Roberts, 27, an enthusiastic supporter of UNICEF, asked if she could meet some of the relief agency's neediest recipients. And so, on May 10, she arrived in Port-au-Prince 'to educate myself.' The poverty she found was overwhelming. 'My heart is just bursting,' she said. UNICEF officials hope her six-day visit will trigger an outburst of giving: $10 million in aid is still needed. Roberts herself had no need for journalists, whom she kept at arm's length. 'You in the orange shirt!' she snapped at one cameraman. 'Out!' She did turn on the charm for Haiti's President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, 42, who glowingly described Roberts as a 'Hollywood Haitian'. Asked by a reporter if she would consider making a movie in Haiti, Roberts replied, 'Certainly. Are you offering me a script?' No, but Aristide may have come up with a title."
In 2000, Julia narrated "Silent Angels", a documentary about Rett syndrome, which was shot in Los Angeles, Baltimore and New York. The documentary is designed to help raise public awarness about the disease.
In July 2006, Earth Biofuels announced that Roberts became a spokesperson for the company and will chair the company's newly formed Advisory Board promoting the use of renewable fuels such as biodiesel and ethanol.
She has been named one of People magazine's "50 Most Beautiful People in the World" a record-setting ten times. She maintains a close friendship with actress-activist Susan Sarandon.
Filmography
| Year | Film | Role | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2007 | Charlie Wilson's War | Joanne Herring | Pre-production | |
| 2006 | Charlotte's Web | Charlotte | Voice | |
| The Ant Bully | Hova | Voice | ||
| 2004 | Ocean's Twelve | Tess Ocean/Herself | ||
| Closer | Anna Cameron | |||
| 2003 | Mona Lisa Smile | Katherine Ann Watson | ||
| 2002 | Confessions of a Dangerous Mind | Patricia Watson | ||
| Full Frontal | Catherine/Francesca | |||
| 2001 | Ocean's Eleven | Tess Ocean | ||
| America's Sweethearts | Kathleen "Kiki" Harrison | |||
| The Mexican | Samantha Barzel | |||
| 2000 | Erin Brockovich | Erin Brockovich | Academy Award - Best Actress Oscar | |
| 1999 | Runaway Bride | Maggie Carpenter | ||
| Notting Hill | Anna Scott | |||
| 1998 | Stepmom | Isabel Kelly | ||
| 1997 | Conspiracy Theory | Alice Sutton | ||
| My Best Friend's Wedding | Julianne Potter | |||
| 1996 | Everyone Says I Love You | Von Sidell | ||
| Michael Collins | Kitty Kiernan | |||
| Mary Reilly | Mary Reilly | |||
| 1995 | Something to Talk About | Grace King Bichon | ||
| 1994 | Ready to Wear (Pri?t-i?-Porter) | Anne Eisenhower | ||
| I Love Trouble | Sabrina Peterson | |||
| 1993 | The Pelican Brief | Darby Shaw | ||
| 1992 | The Player | Cameo | ||
| 1991 | Hook | Tinkerbell | ||
| Dying Young | Hilary O'Neil | |||
| Sleeping with the Enemy | Sara Waters/Laura Burney | |||
| 1990 | Flatliners | Rachel Mannus | ||
| Pretty Woman | Vivian Ward | Academy Award nomination - Best Actress | ||
| 1989 | Steel Magnolias | Shelby Eatenton Latcherie | Academy Award nomination - Best Supporting Actress | |
| 1988 | Blood Red | Maria Collogero | ||
| Mystic Pizza | Daisy Arujo | |||
| Baja Oklahoma | Candy Hutchins | TV | ||
| Satisfaction aka Girls of Summer | Daryle | |||
| 1987 | Firehouse | Babs |
Awards
Awards won
Awards nominated
Source: Wikipedia. All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License
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