Rebecca De Mornay
{{short description|American actress (born 1959)}}
{{For|the Seinfeld character|Rebecca DeMornay (Seinfeld){{!}}Rebecca DeMornay (Seinfeld)}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=November 2021}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Rebecca De Mornay
| image = File:Rebecca-de-Mornay.jpg
| image_size =
| caption = De Mornay in 2006
| birth_name = Rebecca Jane Pearch
| birth_date = {{birth date and age|1959|8|29}}{{efn|name=Birthday}}
| birth_place = Santa Rosa, California, U.S.
| death_date =
| death_place =
| other_names = Rebecca George
| occupation = Actress
| years_active = 1975, 1981–present
| spouse = {{marriage|Bruce Wagner|December 16, 1986|1990|end={{abbr|div.|divorced}}}}
| partner =
| children = 2
| parents = Wally George (father)
| relatives = Eugenia Clinchard (grandmother)
}}
Rebecca De Mornay (born August 29, 1959{{cite web |url=https://www.upi.com/Entertainment_News/2019/08/29/Famous-birthdays-for-Aug-29-Rebecca-De-Mornay-Liam-Payne/8331566781621/ |title=Famous birthdays for Aug. 29: Rebecca De Mornay, Liam Payne |newspaper=UPI |date=August 29, 2019 |quote=-- Actor Rebecca De Mornay in 1959 (age 60)}}{{cite web |url=https://apnews.com/article/entertainment-music-tv-arts-and-entertainment-celebrity-16f5296fd513d9f32d8942718cfea995 |title=Celebrity birthdays for the week of Aug. 29-Sept. 4 |date=August 23, 2021 |website=AP News |agency=The Associated Press |quote=Aug. 29...Actor Rebecca DeMornay is 62.}}{{efn|name=Birthday|Sources vary on De Mornay's birth year.{{cite news |url=https://www.today.com/popculture/rebecca-de-mornay-arrested-suspected-dui-1C9487858 |title=Rebecca De Mornay arrested for suspected DUI |work=Today |agency=Associated Press |quote=Associated Press records indicate De Mornay's age is 45, while some other sources give it as 48. |date=November 6, 2007 |access-date=November 24, 2021}} Sources have given either a 1959,{{cite news |title=Famous birthdays for Aug. 29: Rebecca De Mornay, Liam Payne |url=https://www.upi.com/Entertainment_News/2019/08/29/Famous-birthdays-for-Aug-29-Rebecca-De-Mornay-Liam-Payne/8331566781621/ |date=August 29, 2019 |access-date=March 21, 2023 |work=UPI}}{{cite news |title=Vital Statistics: Births, Deaths, Marriages, Divorces |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/106710109/ |date=August 31, 1959 |newspaper=The Press Democrat |via=Newspapers.com}} or 1962{{sfn|Thomson|2010|p=98}}{{cite news |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/style/longterm/filmgrph/rebecca_de_mornay.htm |title=Rebecca De Mornay Filmography |newspaper=The Washington Post |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181215172554/https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/style/longterm/filmgrph/rebecca_de_mornay.htm |archive-date=December 15, 2018}} birth year.}}) is an American actress. Her breakthrough film role came in 1983, when she starred in Risky Business. De Mornay is also known for her roles in The Slugger's Wife (1985), Runaway Train (1985), The Trip to Bountiful (1985), Backdraft (1991), and The Hand That Rocks the Cradle (1992).
Her other film credits include The Three Musketeers (1993), Never Talk to Strangers (1995), Identity (2003), Lords of Dogtown, Wedding Crashers (both 2005), and Mother's Day (2010). On television, she starred as Wendy Torrance in the miniseries adaptation of The Shining (1997), and as Dorothy Walker on Marvel's Jessica Jones (2015–19).
Early life
De Mornay was born Rebecca Jane Pearch in Santa Rosa, California, the daughter of Julie{{cite web |title=Rebecca De Mornay Biography |url=https://www.tvguide.com/celebrities/rebecca-de-mornay/bio/3000029537/ |access-date=November 24, 2021 |website=TV Guide}} and Wally George (né George Walter Pearch), a disc jockey and later television host.{{cite journal |url=http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20087128,00.html |title=Rabble-Rouser Wally George Is the New Pitchman and Great Right Hope of TV Squawk Shows |first=Joshua |last=Hammer |journal=People |volume=21 |issue=8 |date=February 27, 1984 |access-date=December 11, 2021}} Her paternal grandmother was vaudeville performer and child film actress Eugenia Clinchard.{{sfn|Kiehn|2003|p=258}}
Her parents divorced in 1960, and she took the surname of her stepfather, Richard De Mornay, after her mother married him in 1961. She spent her early years in Pasadena, California, until her stepfather died of a stroke on March 2, 1962, aged 48.{{cite news |title=A Pasadena Genius Passes |url=https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/31754108/ |date=April 8, 1962 |newspaper=Independent Star-News}} After his death, De Mornay and her half-brother Peter were raised by her mother, who relocated the family to Europe, where they lived in several different locations.{{cite web |url=https://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/person/46543%7C0/Rebecca-De-Mornay#biography |work=Turner Classic Movies |title=Rebecca De Mornay Biography |access-date=May 14, 2022}} She attended the independent Summerhill School in Leiston, Suffolk, England{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2000/mar/24/schools.news1 |title=Radical boarding school escapes closure threat |first=Rebecca |last=Smithers |date=March 24, 2000 |work=The Guardian |location=London |access-date=2010-08-30}} before completing her studies at a private high school in Germany.
Career
File:Rebecca De Mornay (1987).jpg
By the time she was 16, De Mornay had an agent who was selling her songs to German rock & roll musicians, and she had written the theme song for a kung fu movie called Goodbye Bruce Lee: His Last Game of Death (1975).{{cite web |title=King Of Kung Fu (Titelsong A. D. Film Good Bye, Bruce Lee) |url=https://www.discogs.com/release/4471407-Kandy-2-Amazing-Pop-Machine-King-Of-Kung-Fu-Originalmusik-Aus-Dem-Spielfilm-Goodbye-Bruce-Lee-Sein-L |website=Discogs |year=1975}}{{cite news |title=A blast through the past |url=https://popcultmaster.com/2018/04/13/a-blast-through-the-past/ |date=April 13, 2018 |website=Pop Cult Master}} In 1980, De Mornay returned to the United States and enrolled at the Lee Strasberg Institute to study acting.{{cite news |url=https://movies.nytimes.com/person/17592/Rebecca-De-Mornay/biography |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110103042846/http://movies.nytimes.com/person/17592/Rebecca-De-Mornay/biography |url-status=dead |archive-date=2011-01-03 |department=Movies & TV Dept. |work=The New York Times |date=2011 |title=Rebecca De Mornay — about this person |access-date=2010-12-11}} She made her film debut with a small part in Francis Ford Coppola's 1981 film One from the Heart, which starred her real-life partner at the time, Harry Dean Stanton.{{Cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/11/movies/harry-dean-stanton-looks-at-the-actors-life.html |title=Harry Dean Stanton Looks at the Actor's Life |last=Catsoulis |first=Jeannette |date=2013-09-10 |work=The New York Times |access-date=2017-10-02 |issn=0362-4331}}{{cite web |url=https://www.vice.com/read/notes-on-the-new-harry-dean-stanton-documentary |title=Notes on the New Harry Dean Stanton Documentary |date=September 20, 2013 |publisher=vice.com |access-date=February 17, 2018}} Her star-making role came two years later in Risky Business (1983), as a call girl who seduces a high-school student played by Tom Cruise. In 1985, she played the title role in The Slugger's Wife opposite Michael O'Keefe, and co-starred in The Trip to Bountiful and Runaway Train, both of which were nominated for several Academy Awards. That same year, she appeared with Starship's Mickey Thomas in the music video for the song "Sara". The song reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart on March 15, 1986.
She also appeared in Roger Vadim's provocative 1988 remake of And God Created Woman, and as the wife of Kurt Russell's character in Ron Howard's Backdraft (1991). In 1990 she enacted the role of a USAF Captain pilot in HBO's successful Cold War film By the Dawn's Early Light. One of De Mornay's most commercially successful films was the thriller The Hand That Rocks the Cradle, released in 1992. She starred as a defense lawyer in Sidney Lumet's murder drama Guilty as Sin (1993) with Don Johnson. Then she appeared in the 1995 drama film Never Talk to Strangers opposite Antonio Banderas, for which she was also the executive producer.
In 2003, she guest-starred as primary antagonist in the first two episodes of season 2 of Boomtown. In 2004, she guest-starred as attorney Hannah Rose for the last few episodes of The Practice and the following year, had a brief role alongside Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn in Wedding Crashers. De Mornay also starred in the 2007 drama American Venus.
In June 2007, she appeared in the HBO series John from Cincinnati with a starring role as matriarch of a troubled Imperial Beach, California, surfing family and the grandmother/guardian of a teen surfer on the brink of greatness. She appeared in Darren Lynn Bousman's Mother's Day (2010).
In 2012, De Mornay played the role of Finch's mom in the movie American Reunion where she portrayed an attractive older woman and a love interest of Stifler. From 2015 to 2019, she appeared in Jessica Jones as Trish Walker's abusive mother.{{cite web |first=Alex |last=Abad-Santos |url=https://www.vox.com/2015/11/23/9784398/jessica-jones-feminism |title=In Marvel's Jessica Jones, women get stuff done while men just talk about women |work=Vox |date=November 23, 2015 |access-date=2015-11-24}}
Personal life
De Mornay dated actor Harry Dean Stanton in the early 1980s. They met in 1981 on the set of One from the Heart{{citation |url=https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2017/09/the-tao-of-harry-dean-stanton |title=The Tao of Harry Dean Stanton: Alcohol, Cigarettes, and Knowing "You're Nothing" |author=Fortune, Drew |date=September 20, 2017 |publisher=Vanity Fair magazine}} and dated until De Mornay and Tom Cruise began an affair while filming Risky Business in 1982.{{citation |url=https://parade.com/1226899/jessicasager/tom-cruise-dating |title=From Teen Crushes to Couch Jumping, Tom Cruise's Dating History Has Been a Heck of a Ride |author=Sager, Jessica |date=June 24, 2021 |publisher=Parade magazine}} De Mornay and Cruise parted in 1985.
De Mornay married writer Bruce Wagner on December 16, 1986; they divorced in 1990.{{cite journal |url=http://nymag.com/nymetro/arts/books/reviews/n_9418 |title=Still Holding, Bruce Wagner — book review |journal=New York Magazine |date=November 3, 2003 |access-date=2010-12-11}}
De Mornay subsequently dated and was briefly engaged to singer Leonard Cohen.{{cite news |last=King |first=Randall |url=http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/arts-and-life/entertainment/movies/rebecca-de-mornay-joins-films-killer-cast-56534662.html |title=Rebecca De Mornay joins film's killer cast |work=Winnipeg Free Press |date=August 29, 2009 |access-date=2013-01-27}}{{cite web |url=http://www.webheights.net/speakingcohen/priv1.htm |title=Knowing Rebecca de Mornay Like Only Leonard Cohen Can |author=Cohen, Leonard |date=June 1, 1993 |access-date=November 19, 2010 |publisher=Interview magazine |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://archive.today/20120919013317/http://www.webheights.net/speakingcohen/priv1.htm |archive-date=September 19, 2012}} She co-produced Cohen's 1992 album The Future, which is also dedicated to her.
De Mornay was in a relationship with actor turned sportscaster Patrick O'Neal. They have two daughters together.{{cite web |url=http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20123972,00.html |title=Passages |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160403164254/http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20123972,00.html |archive-date=2016-04-03}}{{cite web |url=http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20133489,00.html |title=Star Tracks |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160403170429/http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20133489,00.html |archive-date=2016-04-03}}
Filmography
=Film=
| class="wikitable sortable plainrowheaders"
|+Rebecca De Mornay film work | |
| scope="col"| Year
!scope="col"| Title !scope="col"| Role !scope="col" class="unsortable"|Notes | |
|---|---|
| 1982
!scope="row"|One from the Heart | Understudy | Credited as Rebecca de Mornay |
| rowspan="2" | 1983
!scope="row"| Risky Business | Lana | |
| scope="row"| Testament
| Cathy Pitkin || | |
| rowspan="3" | 1985
!scope="row"| The Slugger's Wife | Debby Palmer | |
| scope="row"| Runaway Train
| Sara || | |
| scope="row"| The Trip to Bountiful
| Thelma || | |
| 1987
!scope="row"| Beauty and the Beast |Beauty | |
| rowspan="2" | 1988
!scope="row"| Feds | Elizabeth "Ellie" DeWitt | |
| scope="row"| And God Created Woman
| Robin Shea Moran || | |
| 1989
!scope="row"| Dealers | Anna Schuman | |
| 1990
!scope="row"| By Dawn's Early Light | Captain Moreau, USAF | |
| 1991
!scope="row"| Backdraft | Helen McCaffrey | |
| 1992
!scope="row"| The Hand That Rocks the Cradle | Mrs. Mott / Peyton Flanders | MTV Movie Award for Best Villain |
| rowspan="2" | 1993
!scope="row"| Guilty as Sin | Jennifer Haines | |
| scope="row"| The Three Musketeers
| Milady de Winter || | |
| 1995
!scope="row"| Never Talk to Strangers |Dr. Sarah Taylor | Executive producer |
| 1996
!scope="row"|The Winner | Louise | Credited as Rebecca DeMornay |
| 1999
!scope="row"| Thick as Thieves | Det. Louise Petrone | |
| 1999
!scope="row"| A Table for One | Ruth Draper | |
| 2000
!scope="row"| The Right Temptation | Derian McCall | |
| 2003
!scope="row"| Identity | Caroline Suzanne | Credited as Rebecca DeMornay |
| 2004
!scope="row"| Raise Your Voice | Aunt Nina | |
| rowspan="2" | 2005
!scope="row"| Lords of Dogtown | Philaine | |
| scope="row"| Wedding Crashers
| Mrs. Kroeger || | |
| rowspan="2" | 2007
!scope="row"| American Venus | Celia Lane | |
| scope="row"| Music Within
| Mrs. Pimental || | |
| rowspan="2" | 2010
!scope="row"| Flipped | Patsy Loski | |
| scope="row"| Mother's Day
| Natalie "Mother" Koffin || | |
| rowspan="2" | 2011
!scope="row"| A Fonder Heart | Dr. Bach | |
| scope="row"| Apartment 1303 3D
| Maddie Slate || | |
| 2012
!scope="row"| American Reunion | Rachel Finch | |
| 2015
!scope="row"| Collar | Mayor Ramona 'Nomi' Billingsley | |
| 2016
!scope="row"| I Am Wrath | Vivian Hill | |
| 2018
!scope="row"| Periphery | Vi Warner | |
| 2020
!scope="row"| She Ball | Aggie | |
| 2024
!scope="row"| Peter Five Eight | Brenda |
=Television=
| class="wikitable sortable plainrowheaders"
|+Rebecca De Mornay television work | |
| scope="col"| Year
!scope="col"| Title !scope="col"| Role !scope="col" class="unsortable"|Notes | |
|---|---|
| rowspan="2" | 1986
!scope="row"| Tall Tales & Legends | Slew Foot Sue | Episode: "Pecos Bill" |
| scope="row"| The Murders in the Rue Morgue
| Claire Dupin || Television film | |
| 1990
!scope="row"| By Dawn's Early Light | Captain Moreau | Television film |
| 1991
!scope="row"| {{Sortname|An|Inconvenient Woman}} | Flo March | Television film |
| 1993
!scope="row"| Blind Side | Linda Kaines | Television film |
| 1994
!scope="row"| Getting Out | Arlene Holsclaw | Television film |
| 1995
!scope="row"| {{sortname|The|Outer Limits|The Outer Limits (1995 TV series)}} | Woman | Episode: "The Conversion". Also directed the episode. |
| 1997
!scope="row"| {{sortname|The|Shining|The Shining (miniseries)}} | Miniseries |
| 1998
!scope="row"| The Con | Barbara Beaton / Nancy Thoroughgood | Television film |
| rowspan="2" | 1999
!scope="row"| Night Ride Home | Nora Mahler | Television film |
| scope="row"| ER
| Elaine Nichols || 5 episodes | |
| 2000
!scope="row"| Range of Motion | Lainey Berman | Television film |
| 2001
!scope="row"| {{sortname|A|Girl Thing}} | Kim McCormack | Television film |
| 2002
!scope="row"| Salem Witch Trials | Television film |
| rowspan="2" | 2003
!scope="row"| No Place Like Home | Liz | Television pilot |
| scope="row"| Boomtown
| Sabrina Fithian / Jill Foster || 2 episodes | |
| 2004
!scope="row"| {{sortname|The|Practice|The Practice (TV series)}} | Hannah Rose | 4 episodes |
| 2006
!scope="row"| Law & Order: Special Victims Unit | Tessa McKellen | Episode: "Manipulated" |
| 2007
!scope="row"| John from Cincinnati | Cissy Yost | 5 episodes |
| rowspan="2" | 2013
!scope="row"| Hatfields & McCoys | Mary Hatfield | Unaired pilot |
| scope="row"| Hawaii Five-0
| Barbara Cotchin || Episode: "A ia la aku" | |
| 2015–2019
!scope="row"| Jessica Jones | 13 episodes |
| 2016, 2021
!scope="row"| Lucifer | Penelope Decker | 3 episodes |
=Music videos=
Notes
{{reflist|group=lower-alpha}}
References
{{Reflist}}
Sources
{{Refbegin}}
- {{cite book |last=Kiehn |first=David |title=Broncho Billy and the Essanay Film Company |year=2003 |isbn=978-09729-2265-4 |publisher=Farewell Books |location=Berkeley, California}}
- {{cite book |title=The New Biographical Dictionary of Film: Completely Updated and Expanded |first=David |last=Thomson |year=2010 |publisher=Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group |location=New York City, New York |isbn=978-0-3075-9461-7}}
{{Refend}}
Further reading
- {{cite journal |title=The Key to Rebecca |journal=Saturday Review |date=January–February 1986 |pages=30–34 |volume=12 |issue=1}}
- {{cite book |title=Contemporary Theatre, Film, and Television |volume=29 |chapter=Rebecca de Mornay |first=Michael J. |last=Tykus |isbn=978-0-7876-3188-8 |page=135 |publisher=Gale Research Co. |year=2000}}
- {{cite encyclopedia |encyclopedia=Dictionary of Pseudonyms: 13,000 Assumed Names and Their Origins |first=Adrian |last=Room |edition=5th |publisher=McFarland |year=2010 |isbn=978-0-7864-4373-4 |article=Rebecca de Mornay |pages=141}}
- {{cite encyclopedia |encyclopedia=The Post-Feminist Hollywood Actress: biographies and filmographies of stars born after 1939 |first1=Kerry |last1=Segrave |first2=Linda |last2=Martin |publisher=McFarland & Co. |year=1990 |isbn=978-0-89950-387-5 |article=Rebecca de Mornay |pages=[https://archive.org/details/postfeministholl0000segr/page/265 265–269] |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/postfeministholl0000segr/page/265}}
- {{cite encyclopedia |encyclopedia=World Guide to Film Stars |first1=Thomas G. |last1=Aylesworth |first2=John S. |last2=Bowman |first3=Douglas |last3=Fairbanks |publisher=Great Pond |year=1992 |isbn=978-1-56657-007-7 |article=De Mornay, Rebecca |pages=69}}
- {{cite encyclopedia |encyclopedia=The International Who's Who of Women 2002 |first1=Elizabeth |last1=Sleeman |edition=3rd |publisher=Routledge |year=2001 |isbn=978-1-85743-122-3 |article=De Mornay, Rebecca |pages=131}}
- {{cite encyclopedia |encyclopedia=Contemporary Theatre, Film and Television: A Biographical Guide |volume=64 |editor1-first=Thomas |editor1-last=Riggs |publisher=Gale / Cengage Learning |year=2005 |isbn=978-0-7876-9037-3 |article=De MORNAY, Rebecca}}
External links
{{Commons category}}
- {{IMDb name}}
- {{TCMDb name}}
- {{Rotten Tomatoes person|id=rebecca_demornay}}
{{MTV Movie Award for Best Villain}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:De Mornay, Rebecca}}
Category:Year of birth uncertain
Category:20th-century American actresses
Category:21st-century American actresses
Category:American film actresses
Category:Film producers from California
Category:American television actresses
Category:Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute alumni
Category:People educated at Summerhill School