Nicole Kidman
Kidman, Nicole (1967- ), Australian American motion-picture actor, whose
willowy elegance and redheaded beauty quickly made her a Hollywood
celebrity. Critical acclaim for her acting, however, came only after
honing her craft in a variety of different movie roles.
Kidman was born to Australian parents in Honolulu, Hawaii, and lived in
the United States until four years of age when her family returned to
Australia and settled in Sydney. As a child she took ballet, mime, and
drama lessons. She performed regularly at Sydney’s Philip Street Theatre
as a teenager and dropped out of high school to pursue acting full time
at the age of 16.
In 1986 Kidman won an Australian Film Institute award for her role as a
schoolgirl who becomes an antiwar protester in the television miniseries
Vietnam. She starred in several other Australian dramas before gaining
international attention in Dead Calm (1989), a thriller about a woman
trapped aboard a yacht with a psychopath.
Kidman then moved to California. Her first American film performances
met with lukewarm critical reception. One of these was Days of Thunder
(1990), a film starring American actor Tom Cruise, and the two were
married by the end of the year. They teamed up again as young Irish
immigrants in Far and Away (1992) by director Ron Howard. Seeking more
complex roles, in 1995 she starred as a manipulative, homicidal
journalist in the black comedy To Die For. The film showcased her
comedic talent and brought Kidman a Golden Globe Award for best actress.
The same year she also starred as a seductive criminal psychologist in
the star-studded Batman Forever.
In 1996 Kidman landed the coveted lead role in The Portrait of a Lady
(1996), the story of a headstrong young American woman adapted from the
Henry James novel and directed by New Zealander Jane Campion. The
following year Kidman took on an action role in a movie about nuclear
terrorism, The Peacemaker.
Kidman and Cruise teamed up again to work on the highly anticipated
Stanley Kubrick film Eyes Wide Shut (1999), a film about infidelity and
sexual fantasy that received mixed reviews. Kidman followed this up with
a starring role in Moulin Rouge! (2001), an elaborate musical hit for
which she received another Golden Globe Award as well as an Academy
Award nomination for best actress. Kidman and Cruise were divorced in
2001. In 2002 Kidman played British writer Virginia Woolf in the
critically acclaimed film The Hours, a role that earned her an Academy
Award for best actress.