Moore began her career as a model and joined the cast of the soap opera General Hospital in 1981.[17] After departing the show in 1983, she rose to prominence as a member of the Brat Pack, with roles in the films Blame It on Rio (1984), St. Elmo's Fire (1985), and About Last Night... (1986). She emerged a star with her portrayal of a grieving ceramist in the romance film Ghost (1990), had further box office success in A Few Good Men (1992), Indecent Proposal (1993), and Disclosure (1994), and received a then-unprecedented $12.5 million to star in Striptease (1996). Her output decreased significantly after The Scarlet Letter (1995), The Juror (1996), and G.I. Jane (1997) fell below commercial expectations.[18][19]
Demi Moore was born November 11, 1962, in Roswell, New Mexico. Her biological father, Air Force airman Charles Foster Harmon Sr.,[24] deserted her then-18-year-old mother, Virginia (née King),[25] after a two-month marriage before Moore's birth.[26] Charles came from Lanett, Alabama, and Virginia was born in Richmond, California but had grown up in Roswell.[27] Moore's maternal grandmother was raised on a farm in Elida, New Mexico.[27] Moore has deep roots in the South Central and Southern United States, particularly Oklahoma, Arkansas and Georgia. 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.[28] In 1967 they had Moore's half-brother Morgan.[29] Moore said in 1991, "My dad is 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."[26] Moore has half-siblings from Charlie Harmon's other marriages, but she does not keep in touch with them either.[30]
Moore's stepfather Dan Guynes married and divorced Virginia twice.[31] On October 20, 1980, a year after their second divorce from each other, Guynes committed suicide.[26][32] Her biological father Harmon died in 1997 from liver cancer in Brazoria, Texas.[33][34] Moore's mother had a long arrest record which included drunk driving and arson.[35] Moore broke off contact with her mother in 1989, when she walked away halfway through a rehab stay Moore had financed at the Hazelden Foundation in Minnesota.[2] Virginia Guynes posed nude for the magazine High Society in 1993,[36] where she spoofed Moore's Vanity Fair pregnancy and bodypaint covers and parodied her clay scene from Ghost. Moore and Guynes reconciled shortly before Guynes died of a brain tumor on July 2, 1998.[37]
Moore spent her early childhood in Roswell, and later, Canonsburg, Pennsylvania.[38] Bob Gardner, a photographer for the Monongahela Daily Herald when Dan Guynes was head of advertising, recalled that Moore "looked malnourished and not so much abused as neglected. That haunting look as a child made me feel uneasy."[39] She suffered from strabismus, which was corrected by two operations, as well as kidney dysfunction.[28] Moore learned that Guynes was not her real father at age 13, when she discovered a marriage certificate and inquired about the circumstances since she "saw my parents were married in February 1963. I was born in '62."[26]
At age 14, Moore returned to her hometown of Roswell and lived with her grandmother for six months before relocating to Washington state, where her recently separated mother was residing near Seattle.[40] Several months later, the family moved again to West Hollywood, California, where Moore's mother took a job working for a magazine distribution company.[26] Moore attended Fairfax High School there.[26] In 2019, she stated she was raped at 15 by landlord Basil Doumas, then 49.[41] Doumas claimed he had paid Moore's mother to get access to Moore to rape her, although Moore said it is unclear if this were true.[42][43]
In November 1978, Moore moved in with 28-year-old guitarist Tom Dunston, quitting high school in her junior year to work as a receptionist at 20th Century Fox—a job she secured through Dunston's mother, who was an executive assistant to producer Douglas S. Cramer.[27][44] She signed with the Elite Modeling Agency, then enrolled in acting classes after being inspired by her next-door neighbor, 17-year-old German starlet Nastassja Kinski.[45][46] Moore's first and second roles as a professional actress were guest spots on the TV shows W.E.B. and Kaz (though neither is listed in her IMDb filmography).[47][48][49][50][51] In August 1979, three months before her 17th birthday,[52] Moore met married[46] musician Freddy Moore, at the time leader of the band Boy, at the Los Angeles nightclub The Troubadour.[53] He obtained a divorce in late 1980 and married Demi six weeks later.[53]
Career
Beginnings and breakthrough (1980–1989)
Newspaper clipping, January 29, 1982
Moore co-wrote three songs with Freddy Moore and appeared in the music video for their selection It's Not a Rumor, performed by his band, The Nu-Kats. She continues to receive royalty checks from her songwriting work (1980–1981).[52]
Moore appeared on the cover of the January 1981 issue of the adult magazine Oui,[54] taken from a photo session in which she had posed nude.[55] In a 1988 interview, Moore claimed she "only posed for the cover of Oui—I was 16; I told them I was 18." Interviewer Alan Carter said, "However, some peekaboo shots did appear inside. And later, nude shots of her turned up in Celebrity Sleuth—photos that she once said 'were for a European fashion magazine'."[56] In 1990, she told another interviewer, "I was 17 years old. I was underage. It was just the cover."[57]
Moore made her film debut as the protagonist's girlfriend in Choices (1981), a sports drama directed by Silvio Narizzano.[58] It did not garner much attention until after Moore became a household name, with home video releases heavily hyping up her appearance.[59] Her second feature was the 3-D sci-fi horror Parasite (1982), for which director Charles Band had instructed casting director Johanna Ray to "find me the next Karen Allen."[54] It proved to be a minor hit on the drive-in circuit, ultimately grossing $7 million.[60] Moore had already joined the cast of the ABC soap opera General Hospital several months before the film's release, playing the role of investigative reporter Jackie Templeton through 1983. During her tenure on the series, she made an uncredited cameo appearance in the 1982 spoof Young Doctors in Love.
Moore's film career took off in 1984 following her appearance in the sex comedy Blame It on Rio.[61] In No Small Affair (1984), she played the love interest of an amateur photographer, opposite Jon Cryer. Her commercial breakthrough came with her role as an uninhibited banker in Joel Schumacher's yuppie drama St. Elmo's Fire (1985), which received negative reviews, but was a box office success and brought her widespread recognition.[62][63] Because of her association with that film, she was often listed as part of the Brat Pack, a label she felt was "demeaning."[64]
Moore progressed to more serious material with the romantic dramedy About Last Night... (1986), in which she played one half of a Chicago couple, alongside Rob Lowe. It marked a positive turning point in her career,[65] as Moore noted that, following its release, she began seeing better scripts.[66] Film critic Roger Ebert gave the film four out of four 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."[67] The success of About Last Night... was unrivaled by Moore's other two 1986 releases, One Crazy Summer and Wisdom, the last youth-oriented films in which she would star.[60]
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.[68] In 1988, Moore starred as a prophecy-bearing mother in the apocalyptic drama The Seventh Sign—her first outing as a solo film star—[66] and in 1989, she played the quick-witted local laundress and part time prostitute in Neil Jordan's Depression-era allegory We're No Angels, opposite Robert De Niro.
Established career (1990–1997)
With Patrick Swayze in Ghost (1990)
Moore's most successful film to date is the supernatural romantic melodrama Ghost, which grossed over $505 million at the box office and was the highest-grossing film of 1990,[69] as well as the most rented videocassette of 1991.[70] She played a young woman in jeopardy to be protected by the ghost of her murdered boyfriend through the help of a reluctant psychic. The love scene between Moore and Patrick Swayze that starts in front of a potter's wheel to the sound of "Unchained Melody" has become an iconic moment in cinema history.[71]Ghost was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture, while Moore's performance earned her a Golden Globe nomination and the Saturn Award for Best Actress.[72] She started fashion trends with her uncharacteristically gamine look, and legions of women emulated the short haircut she sported throughout the film.[60][73] At one point, Ghost and Die Hard 2, starring Moore's then-husband Bruce Willis, would occupy the number one and number two spots at the box office, a feat that would not be accomplished again for a married Hollywood couple until 2024.[74][75]
In 1991, Moore starred in the horror comedy Nothing but Trouble, the mystery thriller Mortal Thoughts, and the romantic comedy The Butcher's Wife. She took on the role of a clairvoyant woman in the latter to increase her fee following the success of Ghost, but later regretted making the film. Roger Ebert's review, nevertheless, described her portrayal as "warm and cuddly."[76] She maintained her A-list status with her leading roles as a lieutenant commander in Rob Reiner's A Few Good Men (1992), a morally tested wife in Adrian Lyne's Indecent Proposal (1993), and a sexually charged employer in Barry Levinson's Disclosure (1994). The three aforementioned films opened atop the box office and were blockbuster hits.[77] By 1995, Moore had become the world's highest paid actress.[78]
Moore's next starring vehicles were released to fluctuated critical and commercial responses. She played an author with commitment issues in the coming-of-age drama Now and Then (1995), a film that found box office success and cult following despite a negative critical reception. Her portrayal of Hester Prynne in The Scarlet Letter (1995), a "freely adapted" version of the historical romance novel by Nathaniel Hawthorne, was met with harsh criticism.[79] Moore was paid a record-breaking salary of $12.5 million to star as a FBI secretary-turned-stripper in Striptease (1996).[78][80] The film was critically panned, but made a respectable $113 million worldwide.[81] She starred as a single mother intimidated by a mobster in the thriller The Juror (1996), which made $63 million on a $44 million budget.[82] For both Striptease and The Juror, she received the Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Actress.[14]
Moore shaved her head to play the first woman to undergo training in the Navy SEALs in Ridley Scott's G.I. Jane (1997). Budgeted at $50 million, the film was a moderate commercial success,[85] with a worldwide gross of $97.1 million.[86][87] During the production of G.I. Jane, it was reported that Moore had ordered studio chiefs to charter two planes for her entourage and her,[88] which reinforced her negative reputation for being a diva[89]—she had previously turned down the Sandra Bullock role in While You Were Sleeping because the studio refused to meet her salary demands,[90] and was dubbed "Gimme Moore" by the media.[87] She took on the role of an ultrapious Jewish convert psychiatrist in Woody Allen's Deconstructing Harry, also in 1997.[91]
Hiatus and sporadic roles (1998–2009)
After G.I. Jane, Moore retreated from the spotlight and moved to Hailey, Idaho, on a full-time basis to devote herself to raising her three daughters.[92] She was off screen for three years before re-emerging in the arthouse psychological drama Passion of Mind (2000), the first English-language film from Belgian director Alain Berliner. Her performance as a woman with dissociative identity disorder was well received,[93][94] but the film itself garnered negative reviews and was deemed "naggingly slow" by some critics.[94] Moore then resumed her self-imposed career hiatus and continued to turn down film offers.[95] 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."[87]
Moore returned to the screen playing a villain in the 2003 film Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle,[96] opposite Cameron Diaz, Drew Barrymore and Lucy Liu. A commercial success, the film made $259.1 million worldwide. On Moore's role, Peter Travers of Rolling Stone remarked: "It's a relief when Demi Moore shows up as fallen angel [...] Moore, 40, looks great in a bikini and doesn't even try to act. Her unsmiling sexiness cuts through the gigglefest as the angels fight, kick, dance and motocross like Indiana Jones clones on estrogen."[97]Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle was followed by yet another three-year absence. In the interim, Moore signed on as the face of the Versace fashion brand[98] and the Helena Rubinstein brand of cosmetics.[99]
Moore reunited with Blame It on Rio co-star Michael Caine for the British crime drama film Flawless (2008),[104] which saw her portray an American executive helping to steal a handful of diamonds from the London Diamond Corporation during the 1960s. Moore received positive reviews from critics; Miami Herald wrote: "The inspired pairing of Demi Moore and Michael Caine as a pair of thieves in the diamond-heist semi-caper movie Flawless goes a long way toward overcoming the film's slack, leisurely pacing."[105][106]
Independent films and television (2010–2023)
In 2010, Moore played a daughter helping her father deal with age-related health problems in the dramedy Happy Tears, as well as the matriarch of a family moving into a suburban neighborhood in the comedy The Joneses. The latter film was largely highlighted upon its theatrical release, with critics concluding that it "benefits from its timely satire of consumer culture—as well as a pair of strong performances".[107] In Bunraku (2010), a film Moore described as a "big action adventure,"[108] she starred as a courtesan and a femme fatale with a secret past.[109]
Moore played a "brash and overtly sexual second wife" in the black comedy Another Happy Day (2011),[116] mothers in the coming-of-age films LOL (2012)[117] and Very Good Girls (2013),[118] an old flame of a quick-draw killer in the Western drama Forsaken (2015), the daughter of a retired high school teacher in the road comedy Wild Oats (2016),[119] and the neglected wife of an indicted businessman in the drama Blind (2017).
Between 2017 and 2018, Moore had a recurring arc as a mysterious take-charge nurse on Empire.[120][121][122] The comedy Rough Night (2017) featured Moore as one half of a nymphomaniac couple seducing a member of a bachelorette party. Despite a lukewarm response, the film was Moore's only wide theatrical release of the decade.[123] She played a social worker in the Hindi-language drama Love Sonia (2018),[124] and a superficial CEO in the black comedy Corporate Animals (2019).[125]
Moore in an advertisement for Swedish cosmetic company Oriflame in 2012
Moore is viewed as a pioneer for equal salary for women in Hollywood.[150][151][152] She was paid $12.5 million for her role in Striptease, which was more money than any other woman in Hollywood had ever been offered at the time.[153][154] Producers for Striptease and G.I. Jane got into a bidding war to see who could get Moore to film first. Striptease won and Moore became the highest-paid actress in Hollywood in 1995.[155] "She became a pioneer for other actresses by being the first female lead to demand the same salary, benefits and billing as her male counterparts," Lifetime wrote.[156] "Her screen persona always has something indestructible about it. There's a toughness, a strength, a determination," The Guardian described in 2007.[157] She was also the subject of an E! True Hollywood Story special in 2003 and of Celebrity Style Story special in 2012.[158]
Moore has been included in magazine lists of the world's most beautiful women. She was selected as one of People magazine's 50 Most Beautiful People in the world in 1996. In 1999, Moore became a guest editor for the November issue of Marie Claire.[159] In 1999, she was ranked eighth on Forbes' list of Top 20 Actresses, based on three separate lists of box office receipts.[159] In 2004, People ranked her ninth on their list of All-Time Most Beautiful Women.[160] She was voted seventh on Life & Style magazine's Best Dressed Female poll in December 2006. On December 31, 2019, The Wall Street Journal listed a cover story about Moore as one of their most-read stories in 2019.[161][162]
Moore has 4.5 million followers on Twitter as of January 2020.[163] She uses Twitter as a platform to raise awareness of sexual trafficking and slavery. "She is practicing what she preaches: More than half of her posts are on the subject, directing followers where to get involved," Harper's Bazaar reported in August 2010.[164] "I like to connect to people in the virtual world.. exchanging thoughts and ideas, when in the physical world we might never have the opportunity to cross paths," Moore told Harper's Bazaar.[164] As of February 2024, Moore has 5 million Instagram followers.[165]
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 second child, Scout LaRue Willis, intending to portray "anti-Hollywood, anti-glitz" attitude.[168] The cover drew a lot of attention, being discussed on television, radio, and in newspaper articles.[169] The frankness of Leibovitz's portrayal of a pregnant sex symbol led to divided opinions, ranging from suggestions of sexual objectification to celebrations of the photograph as a symbol of empowerment.[170]
The photograph was subject to numerous parodies, including the Spy Magazine version, which placed Moore's then-husband Bruce Willis's head on the body of a male model with a false belly. In Leibovitz v. Paramount Pictures Corp., Leibovitz sued over one parody featuring Leslie Nielsen, made to promote the 1994 film Naked Gun 33+1⁄3: 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."[171] The case was dismissed in 1996 because the parody relied "for its comic effect on the contrast between the original."[171] In November 2009, the Moroccan magazine Femmes du Maroc emulated the pose with Moroccan news reporter Nadia Larguet, causing controversy in the majority-Muslim nation.[172]
Moore became a special contributor to the CNN Freedom Project and traveled to Nepal to meet with 2010 CNN Hero of the Year Anuradha Koirala and her organization, Maiti Nepal, which has rescued more than 12,000 stolen Nepalese children from sex trafficking since 1993.[179] Moore was the narrator and anchor of CNN's documentary on child trafficking, called Nepal's Stolen Children, which aired on June 26, 2011.[180] In the documentary, Moore talked to Nepal's prime minister, Jhalanath Khanal, and young girls who were forced into prostitution before being saved by a Nepalese nonprofit.[180][181] Moore appeared on PETA's Worst-Dressed List in 2009 for wearing fur;[182] two years later she supported the group's efforts to ban circus workers' use of bullhooks on elephants.[183]
In 2009, Moore and Kutcher launched DNA Foundation, a nonprofit, non-governmental organization directed towards fighting child sexual slavery.[184][185][186] The foundation's first campaign included several celebrities, including Justin Timberlake, Sean Penn, Bradley Cooper appearing in a series of viral videos proclaiming: "Real Men Don't Buy Girls."[187] In November 2012, the foundation said it was renaming as Thorn: Digital Defenders of Children, 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."[185] Thorn: Digital Defenders of Children, assisted law enforcement in identifying 5,894 child sex trafficking victims and rescuing 103 children from "situations where their sexual abuse was recorded and distributed" in 2017, according to the organization's 2017 impact report.[188] In 2018, Los Angeles-based nonprofit organization, Visionary Women honored Moore with its inaugural Visionary Woman Award for her work to combat human trafficking.[189][190][191] In 2022, Thorn found 824,466 child sexual abuse material files and identified 1,895 victims of child sexual abuse.[192]
On February 8, 1981, at the age of 18, Moore married singer Freddy Moore, then 30[193] and recently divorced from his first wife, Lucy.[194] Before their marriage, Demi had already begun using Freddy's surname as her stage name.[52] The pair separated in 1983, after which Demi had a relationship with Timothy Hutton.[195] She filed for divorce from Freddy in September 1984; it was finalized on August 7, 1985.[52] Moore was then engaged to actor Emilio Estevez, with whom she co-starred in St. Elmo's Fire and Wisdom, a crime drama he also wrote and directed. The pair planned to marry on December 6, 1986, but called off the engagement after a woman filed a $2 millionpaternity suit against Estevez.[196][197]
On November 21, 1987, Moore married her second husband, actor Bruce Willis.[198] She and Willis had three daughters: Rumer Glenn Willis (born 1988),[199] Scout LaRue Willis (born 1991),[200] and Tallulah Belle Willis (born 1994).[201] They announced their separation on June 24, 1998,[37] and divorced on October 18, 2000.[202][203] Despite the divorce, Moore maintains a close friendship with Willis and his current spouse Emma Heming Willis, and has assisted her and their respective children with caretaking for Willis as his health has declined.[204][205] Moore had a three-year romance with martial arts instructor Oliver Whitcomb, whom she dated from 1999 to 2002.[206]
In 2003, Moore began dating actor Ashton Kutcher. Soon after they began dating, Moore became pregnant and she suffered a stillbirth six months into the pregnancy.[207] They married on September 24, 2005.[208] The wedding was attended by about 150 close friends and family of the couple, including Willis.[209] 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.[210] After over a year of separation, Kutcher filed for divorce from Moore on December 21, 2012, in Los Angeles Superior Court, citing irreconcilable differences.[211] Moore filed her response papers in March 2013, requesting spousal support and payment of legal fees from Kutcher.[212] On November 26, 2013, their divorce was finalized.[213]
Moore claims that her good health is due to a raw vegan diet.[214]
Moore was at one point 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."[215][216] She is no longer affiliated with Berg's organization.[207] According to The New York Times, Moore is "the world's most high-profile doll collector," and among her favorites is the Gene Marshallfashion doll.[217] At one point, she kept a separate residence to house her 2,000 dolls.[218]
^Juzwiak, Rich (August 3, 2012). "Demi Moore, Queen of Flops". POPSUGAR Celebrity UK. Archived from the original on August 10, 2020. Retrieved January 4, 2020.
^Reed, Jon-Michael (January 22, 1982). "Two New 'GH' Sisters May Lure a Lonely Luke". Philadelphia Daily News. For TV series she played a teenage prostitute in an episode of Kaz and an innocent teen for the short-lived W.E.B.
^Peterson, Bettelou (December 27, 1987). "Moore put in time on 'Hospital' soap". The Post-Star. It was her first important role after making her debut in an episode of the CBS series Kaz in 1979.
^Kit, Borys (April 14, 2008). "Demi Moore books two projects". The Hollywood Reporter. Archived from the original on September 21, 2011. Retrieved July 2, 2009.
^"Show Biz Q&A". Public Opinion. February 17, 1984. Archived from the original on October 30, 2020. Retrieved October 26, 2020. Demi and husband musician Freddy Moore separated a few months ago, and Demi has been seeing eligible and wonderful Tim Hutton.
^"Baby Girl Is a Rumer". Gainesville Sun. August 18, 1988. Archived from the original on October 30, 2020. Retrieved October 26, 2020.
^"Demi Moore Has Her Baby". The Philadelphia Inquirer. July 22, 1991. Archived from the original on November 20, 2018. Actress Demi Moore ... gave birth Saturday //July 20, 1991// to a 5- pound, 15-ounce baby girl, her publicist announced yesterday. The baby, born at 4:53 a.m. at an undisclosed hospital, is the second child for Moore, 28, and her husband, actor Bruce Willis, 36...{{cite news}}: External link in |quote= (help)
^"That's a Wrap". People. November 6, 2000. Archived from the original on January 6, 2016. Retrieved September 26, 2012.
^"Demi Moore". People. May 3, 1993. Archived from the original on April 22, 2020. Retrieved April 22, 2020. Two years ago and eight months pregnant with second daughter Scout...
^Oldenburg, Ann (September 27, 2006). "Changing of the 'Guardian'". USA Today. Archived from the original on May 22, 2010. Retrieved September 30, 2006.
^Oldenburg, Ann (September 27, 2006). "Changing of the 'Guardian'". USA Today. Archived from the original on May 22, 2010. Retrieved September 30, 2006.
.png)
.jpg)
_(54021920343)_(cropped).jpg)
_(cropped).jpg)
