Background

Julianne Moore was born Julie Anne Smith on December 3, 1960, in Fort Bragg, North Carolina, United States. Smith was the eldest of three children; her American father was a military lawyer and judge, and her Scottish immigrant mother was a homemaker who later in life became a psychiatric social worker. Moore's father, Peter Moore Smith, was born in New Jersey, to Charles Edward Smith, Jr. and Frances Mervil Haas; Julianne's father's ancestry is German, as well as Irish, English, Welsh, and one-eighth German-Jewish. Moore's mother, Anne Love, was born in Greenock, Scotland, to Henry McNeil Love and Flora McMillan McLean. Her mother's family moved to New Jersey in 1951. Since her father was working with the army, she spent the early years of her life at two dozen locations and hence attended different schools. Always changing schools, Moore found herself targeted by bullies who picked on her for her now-famous traits. "When I was 7, these kids in the alley behind our house in Omaha called me 'Freckleface Strawberry.' I hated my freckles and I hated that name," she explained to Redbook. Her younger brother, Peter Moore Smith, is an author and has written the book "Raveling", for which Moore has bought the film rights. She also has a younger sister named Valerie.

Education

Julianne Moore studied at J.E.B. Stuart High School until 1977 when she had to move to Frankfurt where her father was then stationed. There she attended Frankfurt American High School graduating in 1979. She was clever and studious in school and wanted to become a doctor. She had never thought that she will make a career in acting. It was her English teacher who encouraged her to take up acting as a career. In 1983, she graduated from the School of Performing Arts, Boston University, with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree. Thereafter, she moved back to New York City to start her career in theaters.

Career

Arriving in New York in 1983, Julianne Moore briefly worked as a waitress. She assumed the stage name Julianne Moore, the latter portion of which was her father's middle name because all variations of her own name were already registered with the Actors' Equity Association. She appeared in several plays and television programs before beginning a three-year arc on the soap opera As the World Turns in 1985. Her portrayals of a psychologist and, eventually, her half-sister, earned her a Daytime Emmy Award in 1988. Meanwhile, she had appeared in Caryl Churchill's Serious Money at the New York Shakespeare Festival Public Theater (1987) and trod the boards as Ophelia in a production of Hamlet (1988) staged by the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis, Minnesota. She returned to the Public Theater in two Churchill one-acts - staged as Ice Cream with Hot Fudge - in 1990.

A supporting role in the domestic thriller film The Hand That Rocks the Cradle (1992) brought Moore to wider attention. Her bold turn as an artist in director Robert Altman's ensemble drama Short Cuts (1993) was particularly remarked upon. Altman had cast Moore after seeing her in a long-running New York workshop production of Anton Chekhov's Uncle Vanya, which was filmed by Louis Malle as Vanya on 42nd Street (1994). Her first starring role was in Todd Haynes's Safe (1995), in which she played a woman succumbing to an indeterminate malady.

Though Moore had bit roles in mainstream fare such as The Fugitive (1993), her first marquee billing came with the Jurassic Park sequel The Lost World (1997), in which she played a paleontologist. She returned to her indie roots with the family drama The Myth of Fingerprints (1997), which was directed by future husband Bart Freundlich (they married in 2003). That performance, however, was eclipsed by her turn as kindly pornographic actress Amber Waves in Paul Thomas Anderson's Boogie Nights (1997); her complex and sympathetic portrayal earned Moore her first Academy Award nomination, for best supporting actress. She then played a narcissistic artist in the Coen brothers' The Big Lebowski (1998) and calculating Mrs. Cheveley in the film adaptation (1999) of Oscar Wilde's An Ideal Husband.

In both Neil Jordan's adaptation (1999) of Graham Greene's The End of the Affair and Anderson's Magnolia (1999), Moore's characters dealt with the ramifications of adultery. The former film earned her an Oscar nomination for best actress. In 2001 she assumed the role of FBI agent Clarice Starling - originated by Jodie Foster in The Silence of the Lambs (1991) - in its sequel, Hannibal. Her renderings of women suffocated by the repressive social mores of the 1950s in Haynes’s Far from Heaven (2002) and Stephen Daldry's The Hours (2002) led to best actress and best supporting actress Oscar nods, respectively.

Moore followed several tepidly received relationship comedies with Alfonso Cuarón's much-lauded futuristic dystopia Children of Men (2006) and later a vampy turn as the unstable Barbara Baekeland (who married the heir to the Bakelite fortune and was murdered by her son) in Savage Grace (2007). She gave more-subdued performances as a woman in love with her gay best friend (played by Colin Firth) in fashion designer Tom Ford's directorial debut, A Single Man (2009); a woman who cheats on her lesbian partner in The Kids Are All Right (2010); and an unhappy woman married to Steve Carell's character in Crazy, Stupid, Love. (2011).

In 2012 Moore delivered an Emmy-winning performance as 2008 Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin in the HBO film Game Change before starring in What Maisie Knew, a modern-day adaptation of the Henry James novel. Her later films included the dramedy The English Teacher (2013); Carrie (2013), a horror film based on Stephen King's classic novel; Non-Stop (2014), an action thriller set on an airplane; and The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 (2014) and The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2 (2015), adaptations of a young-adult novel from the series by Suzanne Collins. Moore was particularly praised for the subtlety with which she depicted the struggles of a linguistics professor diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer's disease in Still Alice (2014). For her performance, she earned an Oscar for best actress. Moore then gleefully stalked the screen as a vengeful witch in the fantasy adventure Seventh Son (2014) and as an unstable actress in David Cronenberg's trenchant Hollywood satire Maps to the Stars (2014). She evoked the anguish of a dying woman who must fight to pass her pension benefits on to her domestic partner (played by Ellen Page) in Freeheld (2015), which was based on a true story.

In 2017 Moore reteamed with Todd Haynes for Wonderstruck, portraying a glamorous film actress, and then played a wife and her twin sister in the dark comedy Suburbicon. The following year she starred as a renowned opera singer caught in a hostage situation in the adaptation of Ann Patchett's novel Bel Canto and as a divorced woman seeking love on her own terms in Gloria Bell. Moore later portrayed a wealthy media mogul who makes a series of startling revelations when she considers donating a large sum to an orphanage in After the Wedding (2019). In the biopic The Glorias (2020), she played a feminist icon, Gloria Steinem.

Moore wrote the children’s book Freckleface Strawberry (2007), about her experiences with childhood bullying because of her red hair and freckles. She penned several sequels, and in 2010 the first volume was adapted as a stage musical. Her other children's books included My Mom Is a Foreigner, but Not to Me (2013).

Achievements

• Julianne Moore has proven herself equally adept in both mainstream blockbusters and smaller, more intelligent films. She was nominated for Oscar in 1998, 2000, and 2003. However, she could win this prestigious award in 2015 for her splendid performance in Still Alice. This movie also won her the BAFTA award as well. Chosen as one of People Magazine's "50 Most Beautiful" list. She received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6250 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, California on October 3, 2013.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Freckleface Strawberry: Lunch, or What's That?

    (Picky eaters everywhere will laugh along as Freckleface S...)

    2015
  • Freckleface Strawberry and the Dodgeball Bully

    (Freckleface Strawberry and the Dodgeball Bully Frecklefac...)

    2009
  • Freckleface Strawberry: Backpacks!

    (Freckleface and her best friend, Windy Pants Patrick, eac...)

    2015
  • Freckleface Strawberry: Loose Tooth!

    (Everyone’s favorite red-haired seven-year-old has a loose...)

    2016
  • My Mom Is a Foreigner, But Not to Me

    (In My Mom Is a Foreigner, But Not to Me, Julianne Moore p...)

    2013
  • Freckleface Strawberry: Best Friends Forever

    (Freckleface Strawberry and Windy Pants Patrick are as dif...)

    2011
  • Freckleface Strawberry and the Really Big Voice

    (Freckleface Strawberry’s very best friend, Windy Pants Pa...)

    2016
  • Freckleface Strawberry

    (If you have freckles, you can try these things: 1) Make t...)

    2007

• movie

  • The Lost World: Jurassic Park

    (Director Steven Spielberg takes us back to the scene of J...)

    1997
  • Evolution

    (A firefighting cadet, two college professors, and a geeky...)

    2001
  • Far From Heaven

    (Forbidden love - a husband stuck in the closet and his wi...)

    2002
  • Kingsman: The Golden Circle

    (In this action-filled installment of the Kingsman series,...)

    2017
  • Hannibal

    (An Italian police inspector and FBI agent Starling pursue...)

    2001
  • The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2

    (One of the most celebrated series in movie history comes ...)

    2015
  • Gloria Bell

    (Gloria (Julianne Moore) spends her nights joyfully lettin...)

    2018
  • Vanya On 42nd Street

    (Wallace Shawn and Julianne Moore head an extraordinary en...)

    1994
  • Still Alice

    (Alice Howland, a linguistics professor, receives a diagno...)

    2014
  • The Big Lebowski

    (The hilariously twisted comedy-thriller stars Jeff Bridge...)

    1998
  • The Hours

    (Three women in different times, related by a parallel in ...)

    2002
  • The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1

    (The worldwide phenomenon continues. Katniss (Jennifer Law...)

    2014

Religion

Julianne Moore is an atheist. When asked on Inside the Actors Studio what God might say to her upon arrival in heaven, she gave God's response as, "Well, I guess you were wrong, I do exist."

Politics

Julianne Moore is a person with liberal political views and she supported Barack Obama during his presidential elections.

Views

In addition to actively supporting Save the Children's United States programs (she initiated its "Hopeful Hearts" Valentine's Day campaign this year), Moore sits on the board of advocates of Planned Parenthood. Like lots of pro-choice women, she worries about the election, what will happen if John McCain wins.

Moore participated in the 3rd Munchkin's Project Pink annual breast cancer awareness campaign to raise money for breast cancer research. The project consists of the donation of celebrity-decorated and autographed bath ducks, put up for auction.

Personality

Julianne Moore is a lover of home decor and frequently dips into such websites as 1stdibs and Remodelista. She also collects photographs. Moore appreciates humor makes friends readily.

Physical Characteristics: Julianne Moore is a natural redhead.

Interests

• photography, renovation

• Politicians

  Barack Obama

• Artists

  Philip-Lorca diCorcia, Gregory Crewdson, Nan Goldin

Connections

In 1986, Julianne Moore got married to actor and stage director John Gould Rubin. However, they separated in 1993. She got into a relationship with her current husband Bart Freundlich in 1996 when she was working on the film The Myth of Fingerprints. Freundlich was the director of the film. Moore and Freundlich got married in August 2003. The couple has a son named Caleb, born in 1997 and a daughter Liv, born in 2002. They live in Greenwich Village, New York City.

Father:

Peter Moore Smith

Mother:

Anne Love

Brother:

Peter Moore Smith

Sister:

Valerie Smith

Ex-husband:

John Gould Rubin

husband:

Bart Freundlich

Son:

Caleb Freundlich

Daughter:

Liv Freundlich

Friend:

Ellen Barkin

Friend:

Colin Firth

Friend:

Ellen Philpotts-Page

References

• Departures Magazine: September 2020
  2020
• Dujour Magazine: Fall 2020
  2020