Nicole Kidman Detailed Biography

 An actress who was relegated to playing decorative parts for years and was known primarily for her real-life role as the wife of Tom Cruise, Nicole Kidman spent the latter half of the 1990s finally earning the critical respect she deserved. Standing a willowy 5'11'' and sporting one of Hollywood's most distinctive heads of red hair, the Australian actress first came to the attention of a wide American audience with her role opposite Cruise in Days of Thunder (1990), but it was not until she starred as a homicidal weather girl in Gus Van Sant's 1995 To Die For that she began to be regarded as a performer of considerable range and talent. Although many assume that Kidman is a native of Australia, she was actually born in Honolulu, Hawaii, on June 20, 1967. Her family, who lived on the island because of a research project Kidman's father, a biochemist, was involved with, subsequently moved to Washington, D.C. for the next three years. After her father's project reached completion, Kidman and her family -- which also included her mother, a nurse/educator, and a younger sister -- moved to her parents' native Australia. Raised in the upper-middle-class Sydney suburb of Longueville, she grew up with a love of the arts, particularly dance and theatre. Trained in ballet from the age of three, Kidman made her acting debut in a nativity play when she was six. By the age of ten, she was studying acting in drama school, and she went on to train at the St. Martin's Youth Theatre in Melbourne and at Sydney's Phillip Street Theatre. An awkward, gawky teenager who was teased relentlessly because of her height, Kidman took refuge in the theatre, and she landed her first professional role at the age of 14, when she starred in Bush Christmas (1983), a TV movie about a group of kids who band together with an Aborigine to find their stolen horse. This was followed by a role in another adventure film, BMX Bandits (1983), and a number of TV movies. Kidman's first breakthrough came when she was asked to star in Vietnam, a miniseries directed by John Duigan; the actress won positive notices for her portrayal of an awkward 1960s schoolgirl who matures into an idealistic 24-year-old Vietnam war protester. She also won an American agent, something that opened quite a few doors of opportunity. In 1989, Kidman got another major break when she was tapped to star in Phillip Noyce's Dead Calm. A psychological thriller about a couple (Kidman and Sam Neill) who are terrorized by a young man they rescue from a sinking ship (Billy Zane), the film helped to establish the then-19-year-old Kidman as an actress of considerable mettle. That same year her reputation was further boosted by her starring performance in the made-for-TV Bangkok Hilton, which cast her as a young woman incarcerated in a Thai prison on false drug smuggling charges. By now a rising star in Australia, Kidman began earning recognition across the Pacific. In 1989, she was picked by Tom Cruise for a starring role in her first American feature, Tony Scott's Days of Thunder (1990). The film, a testosterone-saturated drama about a racecar driver (Cruise), cast Kidman as the neurologist who falls in love with him. A sizable hit, it had the added advantage of introducing Kidman to Cruise, whom she married in December of 1990. Following a role as Dustin Hoffman's moll in Billy Bathgate (1991), and a supporting turn as a snotty boarding school senior in Flirting (also 1991), John Duigan's wonderful and criminally little-seen coming-of-age drama, Kidman collaborated with Cruise on their second film together, Far and Away (1992). Despite their onscreen pairing and some gorgeous cinematography, the film got only a lukewarm reception, and Kidman's subsequent projects, My Life and Malice ( both 1993), were similarly disappointing. Batman Forever (1995), in which she played the hero's love interest, fared somewhat better, but it did little in the way of establishing Kidman as a serious actre