Everything about Demi Moore totally explained
Demi Kutcher (born
Demetria Gene Guynes on
November 11,
1962) is an
American actress. For most of her career, she's been known as
Demi Moore, using the surname of her first husband,
singer-songwriter Freddy Moore. (She pronounces her name "dem-EE," with the emphasis on the second syllable, just like it sounds in "Demetria"; this is often incorrectly pronounced "DEM-ee," with the emphasis on the first syllable.) She became well-known after a string of 1980s teen-oriented movies, and was one of the best known actresses of 1990s
Hollywood. Moore is also known for her husky voice. She is currently married to actor
Ashton Kutcher. She is of
Greek descent.
Biography
Early life
Moore was born
Demetria Gene Guynes in
Roswell, New Mexico, and spent much of her childhood years in
Perryopolis, Pennsylvania, a small town south of
Pittsburgh. As a child, she'd a difficult and unstable home life. Her biological father, Charles Harmon, left her mother, Virginia King (
27 November 1943 –
2 July 1998), after a two-month marriage, before Moore was born. As a result, Moore had the surname of her stepfather, Danny Guynes (
9 March 1943 – October 1980), on her birth certificate. Danny Guynes, who committed
suicide in 1980, frequently changed jobs; as a result the family moved a total of forty times. Moore's parents were also
alcoholics and often fought and
beat each other. Moore was
cross-eyed as a child, and wore an
eye patch in an attempt to correct the problem until it was eventually corrected by two surgeries. During this time, she also suffered from kidney dysfunction.
Moore's family settled in
Los Angeles in 1976. When Moore was sixteen, her friend, actress
Nastassja Kinski, persuaded her to drop out of
Hollywood's Fairfax High School, where her schoolmates included
Red Hot Chili Peppers frontman
Anthony Kiedis and actor
Timothy Hutton, to become an actress. In 1979, she met and married her first husband, songwriter
Freddy Moore. Though they divorced in 1985, she kept the last name Moore.
Career
After quitting school, Moore went to work as a
pin-up girl, modelled for
European photographers, and worked at a collection agency. In the early 1980s, Moore posed for a series of photographs for Christopher Marrin featuring full frontal nudity. These photos went unnoticed until after she became a star, and were eventually published in a German magazine and later in North America. Moore's film debut was in the 1982
3-D science fiction/horror film,
Parasite, which was a hit on the
drive-in circuit, ultimately grossing $7 million. However, Moore wasn't widely known until she played the part of Jackie Templeton on the
ABC soap opera,
General Hospital, from 1982-1983. Appropriately, she also had an uncredited
cameo at the end of the 1982 spoof
Young Doctors in Love.
In the mid-1980s, she appeared in the youth-oriented films
St. Elmo's Fire and
About Last Night, and she was often listed as one of the
Brat Pack, a name the media dubbed a certain group of top young actors at the time. For a time during the 1990s, Moore was the highest-paid actress in
Hollywood. She had a string of box-office successes, including
Ghost,
A Few Good Men,
Indecent Proposal,
Disclosure and
The Hunchback of Notre Dame for which she was the first actress to reach the $10 million salary mark. Among other films for which Moore was considered were
Basic Instinct,
Flashdance and
While You Were Sleeping.
Moore's reputation suffered in the mid 1990s when her starring vehicles
The Scarlet Letter,
The Juror,
Striptease, and
G.I. Jane (a movie in which Moore shaved off all her long hair on camera, leaving her head totally bald) failed at the box office and garnered mixed reviews. Meanwhile, Moore's
Passion of Mind co-star
Joss Ackland lambasted Moore by describing her as being "not very bright or talented". At the same time she produced and starred in a TV mini-series called
If These Walls Could Talk, written by
Nancy Savoca. A three-part series on abortion, Savoca directed two segments, including the one in which Moore played a single woman in the 1950s seeking a back-street abortion. She was nominated for a
Golden Globe for Best Actress for that role.
Demi Moore was a founding "celebrity investor" in the
Planet Hollywood chain of international theme restaurants (modeled after the
Hard Rock Cafe and launched in New York on October 22, 1991) along with
Sylvester Stallone,
Arnold Schwarzenegger and then-husband
Bruce Willis.
After a break from her acting career, Moore returned to the screen as a former member of
Charlie's Angels gone bad in the 2003 film . In 2006, she appeared in
Bobby which featured an all-star cast including her husband
Ashton Kutcher although they didn't appear in any scenes together. On
June 1,
2007, her most recent film,
Mr. Brooks, was released. She appeared in
Jon Bon Jovi's longform video "Destination Anywhere" as Janie.
In 2006, Demi becomes the new face of the prestigious Cosmetic brand Helena Rubinstein.
Vanity Fair controversy
In August 1991, Moore appeared nude on the cover of
Vanity Fair under the title
More Demi Moore.
Annie Leibovitz shot the picture while Moore was seven months pregnant with her daughter Scout LaRue, intending to portray "anti-Hollywood, anti-glitz" attitude. The cover sparked an intense controversy for
Vanity Fair and Demi Moore, it was widely discussed on television, radio, and in newspaper articles. Some retailers pulled the issue from newsstands, while others only sold it in a brown paper bag. The frankness of Leibovitz' portrayal of a pregnant sex symbol led to divided opinions, ranging from complaints of
sexual objectification to celebrations of the photograph as a symbol of
empowerment.
The photograph was subject to numerous parodies, including the
Spy magazine version, which placed Moore's then husband
Bruce Willis' head on her body. In
Leibovitz v. Paramount Pictures Corp., Leibovitz sued over one
parody featuring
Leslie Nielsen, made to promote the 1994 film . In the parody, the model's body was attached to what is described as "the guilty and smirking face of Mr. Nielsen appeared above". The
teaser said "Due this March". The case was dismissed in 1996 because the parody relied "for its comic effect on the contrast between the original".
Relationship with her mother
Moore's relationship with her mother Virginia King Guynes was rocky at the best of times, stemming from Moore's unhappy and difficult childhood. Guynes would later talk of times when the pair shared a Hollywood flat together in 1980, where
Rob Lowe,
Sean Penn and
Charlie Sheen would regularly come round for drinks. That era ended with Guynes checking into a drug-and-alcohol-recovery program. Guynes' recovery efforts failed and at Moore's 1987 marriage to Willis, she fell off the wagon with a champagne and vodka binge. The next day, she was picked up for drunk driving and Willis and Moore refused to bail her out.
In 1989, Guynes overdosed on pills and was again arrested for drunk driving. In 1990, Demi footed the bill for Guynes' eight month stay in rehab, but cut her off when Guynes sold the story of her recovery and tumultuous relationship with her daughter. Guynes embarrassed her daughter twice with pictorials in adult magazines, including her 1993 12-page spread in porn magazine High Society (after being turned down by
Playboy). She posed in front of a potter's wheel, parodying Moore's sex scene with Patrick Swayze in
Ghost, her translucent white panties glistening with wet clay. As well as the shoot, Guynes also alleged that her daughter's marriage to Willis was "in trouble" and that Moore called the shots. "The more famous she becomes", said Guynes, "the more bossy she becomes". She also posed in photos spoofing Moore's controversial
Vanity Fair pregnancy and body paint covers and said "I don't want to hurt her. This is my story, my life."
In 1994 Guynes pleaded no contest to a charge of setting fire to the home of a bartender who caught her swiping drinks. She was fined and ordered to go to rehab. In November 1995, a tabloid tracked her down at her then-home, a rat-infested shack in Las Vegas with a beaten-up '88 Honda Prelude (a one-time brand-new birthday present from Moore and Willis) parked out front. She was surviving on $250 a month from social security and $85 a month in food-stamps. In 1996, she was located in New Mexico, where she died two years later in 1998 at the age of fifty-four from a
brain tumor.
Moore later spoke of how her character in the
Emilio Estevez drama
Bobby made her draw on her own perception of Guynes. Her character called Virginia, like her mother, was an alcoholic.
"The fact that she was called Virginia grounded the part in something that was familiar," explained Moore. "And, although there were aspects of it that were painful, it was actually very liberating for me. Emilio knew my mother and she was a pained soul. But it was a great gift being able to go to the depths of the soul that lives underneath the pain of this character." She added, "I had an unusual childhood".
"I had a very young mother," Moore says. "But I know she tried to do the best she could and that in the mix of it all - and she was nutty, trust me - she really loved me. It wasn't always the kind of love I wanted but that doesn't necessarily mean it wasn't what I needed."
Personal life
Moore married singer Freddy Moore in 1980 before she was eighteen. They divorced in 1985 and in 1987 Moore met then
Moonlighting star
Bruce Willis. The two soon fell in love and married two months later. The star couple had three daughters together:
Rumer Willis (b. 1988),
Scout LaRue Willis (b. 1991) and
Tallulah Belle Willis (b. 1994). The pair separated in 1998 and divorced in 2000, but remain friends to this day. In 2003, Moore started dating actor
Ashton Kutcher, fifteen years her junior. After much press speculation and interest, the pair married in 2005.
Moore's primary residence is in
Hailey,
Idaho, near the famous
Sun Valley resort, although she spends much time in the
Los Angeles area with Kutcher. She is a practicing follower of the Rabbi
Philip Berg's trendy
Kabbalah Centre religion, and initiated Kutcher into the faith, having said that she "didn’t grow up Jewish, but... would say that [shehas] been more exposed to the deeper meanings of particular rituals than any of [her] friends ever did". Contrary to popular belief, Moore claims she's never been a
raw foodist and dispels the
vegan rumors by eating a
hamburger in a recent
Mario Testino photoshoot.
Moore legally changed her last name to Kutcher two years after marrying husband
Ashton Kutcher. However, she'll continue to use Moore in her professional life and her acting roles.
According to the
New York Times, she's "the world's most high-profile
doll collector", and among her favorites is the
Gene Marshall fashion doll.
Filmography
Further Information
Get more info on 'Demi Moore'.
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