Biography for
Rebecca De Mornay More at IMDbPro »

Date of Birth

29 August 1959, Santa Rosa, California, USA

Birth Name

Rebecca Jane Pearch

Height

5' 5½" (1.66 m)

Mini Biography

Rebecca De Mornay was born in 1959. Her parents divorced when she was young, and she got her last name when her mother married Richard De Mornay, who adopted her. After Richard's untimely death, Rebecca's mother moved her and her half-brother Peter from northern California to Europe, where she was raised primarily in England and Austria. Rebecca graduated "summa cum laude" from a German-speaking high school in the Austrian alps, and still speaks fluent German and French.

She began her acting training in Los Angeles at Lee Strasberg's Institute, became an apprentice at Francis Ford Coppola's Zoetrope Film Studio, and soon thereafter made her film debut in One from the Heart (1982), which was followed by the box office hit Risky Business (1983), in which she gave a seductive and critically acclaimed performance as a streetwise prostitute. She went on to international stardom with her portrayal of a chillingly twisted nanny in the hugely popular The Hand That Rocks the Cradle (1992). Other acclaimed film work includes Runaway Train (1985) (with Jon Voight), The Trip to Bountiful (1985) (with Geraldine Page), Backdraft (1991) (with Kurt Russell).

Network television work includes the tour-de-force role of Arlie in the stellar Getting Out (1994) (TV) (based on Marsha Norman's play), the tragic title character in Dominick Dunne's An Inconvenient Woman (1991) (TV) (with Jason Robards), the remake of "The Shining" (1997) (produced by Stephen King), a multi-episode story arc about a cancer survivor on "ER" (1994) and Hallmark Hall of Fame's Night Ride Home (1999) (TV) (with Ellen Burstyn).

On stage, she starred as Billie Dawn in "Born Yesterday" (1988) at the Pasadena Playhouse, as Charlotte Corday in "Marat/Sade" (1990) at the Williamstown Festival, and as Anna in "Closer" (2000) at the Mark Taper Forum.

Rebecca's directing debut was with a segment of Showtime's "The Outer Limits" (1995) starring John Savage and Frank Whaley. Twice divorced from writer Bruce Wagner and, more recently, sportscaster Patrick O'Neal, Rebecca resides in Los Angeles with her two young daughters Sophia and Veronica.

IMDb Mini Biography By: A. Nonymous

Spouse

Patrick O'Neal	(1995 - 2002) (divorced) 2 children
Bruce Wagner	(16 December 1989 - 2 December 1990) (divorced)

Trivia

Speaks German fluently.

Daughter of TV talk show host Wally George.

Was engaged to Leonard Cohen.

Daughters: Sophia (b. 16 November 1997) and Veronica (b. 31 March 2001).

Her last name was changed as a child, when she was adopted by her stepfather, Richard De Mornay.

She attended the radically alternative English boarding school Summerhill.

She has several half-brothers and half-sisters whom she has never met.

Granddaughter of Eugenia Clinchard

Ex-stepsister-in-law of Tatum O'Neal and Griffin O'Neal.

Sentenced to a three-month program for DUI offenders, three years summary probation and a $350 fine, after pleading no contest to one count of DUI on February 5, 2008. Was pulled over and arrested on October 30, 2007 on Sunset Blvd. in Los Angeles.

Former daughter-in-law of actors Ryan O'Neal and Leigh Taylor-Young.

Lived with Tom Cruise (1983-1985).

Personal Quotes

I feel a terrifically painful disturbance in the natural law of things between men and women that must be balanced in the next few thousand years. What has been done in the name of holding up masculine energy as God and feminine energy as subservient has really wiped out everything.

I've made some great movies. Risky Business (1983) still stands up. It's timeless. They study that film in film school.

[Referring to Patrick Flueger, Deborah Ann Woll, Warren Kole, and Matt O'Leary while working on the remake of 'Mother's Day'] Just want to say, the actors playing my 4 kids are fantastic, and I'm very proud of them, as Mother, but also as Rebecca.

Where Are They Now

(June 2007) Working on the HBO series "John from Cincinnati" (2007).