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Nicole Mary Kidman AC (born June 20,
1967), is an Academy Award-winning Australian actress.
In addition to her Academy Award, Kidman is a three-time
Golden Globe winner for Best Actress. In 2006, she
became the highest paid actress in the film industry.
That same year, Kidman was made a Companion of the Order
of Australia (AC), Australia's highest civilian honour.
After making various appearances in film and television,
Kidman received her breakthrough role in the thriller
Dead Calm. Since then, Kidman's acting career has
developed greatly. Her performances in several films,
such as To Die For, Moulin Rouge!, and The Hours, have
won her not only critical acclaim but also many film
awards. In 2003, Kidman received her Star on the Walk of
Fame in Hollywood, California, certifying her as one of
the most successful actresses of her time. Kidman is
also a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador, a singer and a
successful recording artist.
She is also well-known for her former marriage to Tom
Cruise, as well as her current marriage to singer Keith
Urban. Because she was born to Australian parents in
Honolulu, Hawaii, Kidman has dual citizenship of
Australia and the United States.
Early life and education: Kidman's parents are
Janelle MacNeille and Dr Antony Kidman. Dr Kidman is a
clinical psychologist in Lane Cove and author, who is
also heavily involved with the labour movement.
MacNeille is a nursing instructor and edits her
husband's books. At the time Nicole Kidman was born, her
father was a Visiting Fellow at the National Institute
of Mental Health in Washington, D.C. The family returned
to Australia when Kidman was four years old, when her
father took on a lectureship at the University of
Technology, Sydney.
Kidman has a younger sister, Antonia, born in 1970.
Kidman's parents and sister both reside in Greenwich, a
suburb on Sydney's North Shore. Kidman, a Catholic,
attended Mary Mackillop Chapel in North Sydney with her
sister.
Kidman started taking ballet lessons when she was four.
This led to studies at Sydney's Australian Theatre for
Young People, where she is now Patron, then at the
Phillip Street Theatre, where she majored in voice
production and theatre history. Living in Longueville
she studied at St Marys, but dropped out when her mother
was diagnosed with breast cancer; Kidman concentrated on
her family responsibilities until her mother's recovery.
Early career in Australia (1983–1989): Kidman's
first appearance in film came in 1983 when, as a fifteen
year-old, she appeared in the Pat Wilson music video for
the song Bop Girl. By the end of the year she had
secured a supporting role in the television series Five
Mile Creek and four film roles, including BMX Bandits
and Bush Christmas. During the 1980s she appeared in
several Australian movies and TV series, notably
including the soap opera A Country Practice, the
mini-series Vietnam (1986), Emerald City (1988), and
Bangkok Hilton (1989).
Breakthrough (1989–1995): In 1989, Kidman
starred in the thriller Dead Calm as Rae Ingram, the
wife of naval officer John Ingram (Sam Neill), held
captive on a Pacific Ocean yacht trip by the psychotic
Hughie Warriner (Billy Zane). The horror film received
generally positive reviews; the staff of Variety.com
commented: "Throughout the film, Kidman is
excellent. She gives the character of Rae real tenacity
and energy." Meanwhile, critic Roger Ebert noted
the excellent chemistry between the leads, stating,
"...Kidman and Zane do generate real, palpable
hatred in their scenes together." In 1990, she
appeared opposite Tom Cruise in Days of Thunder, a stock
car racing movie. After this, Kidman starred with Cruise
in Ron Howard's Far and Away (1992). In 1995, Kidman
featured in the ensemble cast of Batman Forever. On
November 20, 1993 she hosted Saturday Night Live.
Critical success (1995–present): Her second
film in 1995, To Die For was a satirical comedy that
earned her praise from critics. She won a Golden Globe
Award, and five other best actress awards for her
portrayal of the murderous newscaster Suzanne Stone
Maretto. Kidman and Cruise portrayed a married couple in
Eyes Wide Shut in 1999, Stanley Kubrick's final film.
In 2002, Kidman received an Academy Award nomination for
her performance in the 2001 film Moulin Rouge!, in which
she played the courtesan Satine opposite Ewan McGregor.
Consequently, Kidman received her second Golden Globe
Award for Best Actress - Motion Picture Musical or
Comedy. The same year, she had a well-received starring
role in the horror film The Others. While in Australia
filming Moulin Rouge!, Kidman injured her knee; as a
result, Jodie Foster had to replace her in the film
Panic Room.
The following year, Kidman won critical praise for her
portrayal of Virginia Woolf in The Hours, in which the
prosthetics applied to her made her almost
unrecognizable. She won the Academy Award for Best
Actress for this role, along with a Golden Globe Award,
a BAFTA, and numerous critics awards. Kidman became the
first Australian actress to win an Academy Award. During
her Academy Award acceptance speech, after tearing,
Kidman made a statement about the importance of art,
even during times of war: "Why do you come to the
Academy Awards when the world is in such turmoil?
Because art is important. And because you believe in
what you do and you want to honor that, and it is a
tradition that needs to be upheld."
In the same year, Kidman took a hand at film production
in the film In the Cut. In 2003, Kidman starred in three
very different films. Dogville, by Danish director Lars
von Trier, an experimental film set on a bare
soundstage. Secondly, she co-starred alongside Anthony
Hopkins in the film adaptation of Philip Roth's novel
The Human Stain. Many critics felt that both Kidman and
Hopkins were miscast. Cold Mountain, a love story of two
Southerners separated by the Civil War, was her final
release that year, and garnered her a Golden Globe Award
nomination.
In 2004, Kidman appeared in the critically panned remake
of The Stepford Wives alongside Glenn Close, Faith Hill
and Bette Midler. In September of the same year, Birth,
in which the 37-year-old actress' character has an
encounter with a 10-year-old boy (played by Cameron
Bright) who attempts to convince her that he is a
reincarnation of her dead husband, was met with a mixed
reception primarily due to a scene where the boy strips
and joins Kidman in the bathtub. Despite this, the film
was nominated for the Golden Lion Award at the Venice
Film Festival, and Kidman was nominated for another
Golden Globe Award. Kidman's two movies in 2005 were The
Interpreter, directed by Sydney Pollack, and Bewitched,
co-starring Will Ferrell, based on the 1960s TV sitcom
of the same name; the latter fared abysmally with
critics and at the box office.
In conjunction with her success in the film industry,
Kidman became the face of the Chanel No. 5 perfume
brand. She starred in a campaign of television and print
ads with Rodrigo Santoro, directed by Moulin Rouge!
director Baz Luhrmann to promote the fragrance during
the holiday season in 2004, 2005, and 2006. The
three-minute commercial produced for Chanel No. 5
perfume made Kidman the record holder for the most money
paid per minute to an actor after she reportedly earned
$US3.71 million.
During this time, Kidman was also listed
as the 45th Most Powerful Celebrity on the 2005 Forbes
Celebrity 100 List. She made a reported US$14.5 million
in 2004-2005. On People magazine's list of 2005's
highest paid actresses, Kidman was second behind Julia
Roberts with a US$16 million to US$17 million per-film
price tag. She has since passed Roberts as the highest
paid actress, due in no small part to Roberts's recent
devotion to parenting and broadway theatre acting rather
than film work.
Kidman has at least five movies in production over the
next two years. She has completed filming the Diane
Arbus bio-pic Fur, director Oliver Hirschbiegel's
science fiction movie The Visiting and Noah Baumbach's
comedy-drama Margot at the Wedding. She has also
provided her voice for the animated movie Happy Feet.
She is currently working on the film adaptation of the
first part of the His Dark Materials trilogy in which
she plays the villainous Mrs. Coulter. She is also set
to star in director Wong Kar-wai's next film, The Lady
from Shanghai and Baz Luhrmann's Australian period film
titled Australia, which is set in the remote Northern
Territory during the Japanese attack on Darwin during
World War II. Kidman will play an English woman feeling
overwhelmed by the continent, opposite Hugh Jackman.
Singing: Not known as a singer prior to Moulin
Rouge!, Kidman had several well-received vocal
performances in the film. Her collaboration with Ewan
McGregor on the song "Come What May" from the
film's soundtrack debuted and peaked at 27 in the UK
Singles Chart. Later she collaborated with Robbie
Williams on the song "Somethin' Stupid", a
cover of the old swing song on Williams' swing covers
album Swing When You're Winning. It debuted and peaked
at 8 in the Australian ARIAnet Singles Chart, and at
number 1 for three weeks in the UK. It was the UK
Christmas number 1 Single for 2001.
In 2006, she provided her voice for the animated movie
Happy Feet, along with her vocals for her character
Norma Jean's 'heartsong', which was a slightly altered
version of "Kiss" by Prince.
Personal life, Relationships: Kidman met Tom
Cruise on the set of their 1990 movie, Days of Thunder.
Cruise was married to actress Mimi Rogers at the time,
and later divorced her. Kidman and Cruise were married
on Christmas Eve 1990 in Telluride, Colorado. The couple
adopted two children, daughter Isabella Jane (b.
December 22, 1993) and son Connor Anthony (b. January
17, 1995), and lived in Los Angeles, Australia,
Colorado, and New York City. They separated just before
their 10th wedding anniversary. At the time she was 3
months pregnant and subsequently had a miscarriage. The
marriage was dissolved in 2001, with Cruise citing
irreconcilable differences as the cause of the divorce.
The reasons for the dissolution have never been made
public. In an interview in the June 2006 issue of
Ladies' Home Journal, Kidman reported that she still
loved Tom Cruise. Kidman told the magazine: "He was
huge; still is. To me, he was just Tom, but to everybody
else, he is huge. But he was lovely to me. And I loved
him. I still love him." In addition, she has
expressed shock about their divorce.
The 2003 film Cold Mountain was plagued by rumours that
an on-set affair between Kidman and co-star Jude Law was
responsible for the breakup of his marriage. Both
vehemently denied the allegations, and Kidman eventually
won an undisclosed sum from the British tabloids that
published the story. She donated the money to a Romanian
orphanage in the town where the movie was filmed.
Shortly after her Oscar win, there were unconfirmed
rumours of a relationship between her and fellow Oscar
winner Adrien Brody. She met musician Lenny Kravitz in
2003 and dated him into 2004.
Kidman met country singer Keith Urban at a Hollywood
event honouring Australians in January 2005. Kidman and
Urban were married on Sunday June 25, 2006, at the
Cardinal Cerretti Memorial Chapel in the grounds of St
Patrick's Estate, Manly in Sydney. They maintain homes
in Sydney and Nashville, Tennessee.
Politics: Kidman's name was included an
advertisement in the Los Angeles Times (August 17, 2006)
that condemned organizations Hamas and Hezbollah, and
supported Israel's efforts in the 2006 Israel-Lebanon
conflict. The full-page advertisement was signed by 84
other Hollywood professionals and reads "We the
undersigned are pained and devastated by the civilian
casualties in Israel and Lebanon caused by terrorist
actions initiated by terrorist organisations such as
Hezbollah and Hamas. If we do not succeed in stopping
terrorism around the world, chaos will rule and innocent
people will continue to die. We need to support
democratic societies and stop terrorism at all
costs." Others who signed include actors Michael
Douglas, Dennis Hopper, Sylvester Stallone, Bruce
Willis, Danny DeVito, Don Johnson, James Woods, Kelly
Preston, Patricia Heaton and William Hurt; directors
Ridley Scott, Tony Scott, Michael Mann, Richard Donner
and Sam Raimi; as well as tennis player Serena Williams.
Kidman has made numerous donations to U.S. Democratic
party candidates and endorsed John Kerry in the 2004
presidental election.
Charitable work: Kidman publicly supports a
variety of charities and causes. She has been a Goodwill
Ambassador for UNICEF Australia since 1994. She has
worked to help raise money for and draw attention to the
plight of the most disadvantaged children in Australia
and around the world. In 2004, she was honoured as a
"Citizen of the World" by the United Nations.
On January 26, 2006 Kidman received Australia's highest
civilian honour when she was made a Companion of the
Order of Australia, for "service to the performing
arts as an acclaimed motion picture performer, to health
care through contributions to improve medical treatment
for women and children and advocacy for cancer research,
to youth as a principal supporter of young performing
artists, and to humanitarian causes in Australia and
internationally." However, due to film commitments
and her wedding to Urban, it wasn't until 13 April 2007
that she was presented with the honour. She was also
nominated goodwill ambassador for UNIFEM.
Kidman joined the 'Little Tee Campaign' for Breast
Cancer Care to design T-shirts or vests to raise money
for breast cancer. Kidman's mother, Janelle, is a breast
cancer survivor who was diagnosed in 1984. In January
2005, Kidman won interim restraining orders against two
Sydney-based paparazzi photographers. In 1982 she
appeared in the video for Roxy Music's song True To
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