Demi Moore (born Demetria Guynes on November 11, 1962 in Roswell, New Mexico) is an American actress with a trademark husky voice. She is of varied ancestry including French, Welsh, and Native American heritage.
Moore's father Charles Harmon left her mother, Victoria, before she was born. Because of this, Demi Moore did not share his last name on her birth certificate. Her stepfather, Danny Guynes, did not add much stability to her life, either. He frequently changed jobs and made the family move a total of 40 times. To make matters worse, operations on her left eye during childhood caused her to wear a patch. Although Moore was born in New Mexico, she spent much of her childhood and teenage years in the suburbs of Pittsburgh. Danny and Victoria kept on drinking, arguing and beating each other, until Danny finally committed suicide.
Her then-friend, Nastassja Kinski, persuaded Moore to drop out of Hollywood's Fairfax High School at age 16 to become an actress. After quitting school, Moore went to work as a pin-up girl. Her big break came playing the part of Jackie Templeton on the ABC soap opera, General Hospital, a role she played from 1982 to 1983.
From the first General Hospital salaries, Moore celebrated by partying and snorting cocaine. Moore's drug abuse lasted more than three years, until director Joel Schumacher fired her from the set of St. Elmo's Fire when she arrived on the set intoxicated. She soon received withdrawal treatment and returned clean after a week and stayed clean. (Incidentally, Moore's character in St. Elmo's Fire, Jules, was also a cocaine addict.) Moore had to sign a contract stipulating that she would stop her own alcohol and drug abuse, an agreement that caused her life to turn around.
She appeared nude on the cover of Vanity Fair magazine in August, 1991 while seven-months pregnant with her daughter Scout LaRue, with enormous attendant publicity. The image was endlessly parodied (including by Spy magazine, which placed her then-husband Bruce Willis's head on her body), but also spawned honest imitators as other pregnant celebrities posed nude. Moore again appeared on the cover of Vanity Fair in August 1992, wearing only a body painted "suit".
For a time during the 1990s, Moore was the highest paid actress in Hollywood; she was the first actress to reach the USD$10 million mark for salary. Moore was coming off of the heels of a string of box office hits such as Ghost, A Few Good Men, and Indecent Proposal. Not all of the attention she received during this period was positive, however; for example she was spoofed with a cartoon version (called "Dewmi Moore") in the popular video game Leisure Suit Larry, and had numerous other parodies played on her name and likeness. Moore's career suffered though when starring vehicles like The Scarlet Letter, The Juror, Striptease, and G.I. Jane (a movie in which Moore went as far as shaving her head) failed at the box office and mostly garnered poor reviews.
According to an article in the now defunct Buzz magazine, she was so demanding when it came to perks and fringe benefits, her nickname around Hollywood studio executives was "Gimme Moore."
After a break from her acting career, Moore returned to the screen as a former member of Charlie's Angels in the film Charlie's Angels 2: Full Throttle. As the film was about to be released, media attention focused on how the 40 year old mother of three repeatedly had plastic surgery to remove fat on her hips, abdomen and buttocks, as well as breast enlargement.
In addition, Moore became the subject of much tabloid fodder thanks to her romantic relationship with actor Ashton Kutcher, who happens to be 15 years Moore's junior. Both would eventually spoof the public's fascination with their age difference during the monologue on the March 19, 2005 episode of Saturday Night Live. Kutcher, who served as guest host, brought Moore on stage while Moore was made up to appear like a very elderly woman, who constantly babied Kutcher.
She has been married and divorced twice. Her first marriage was to musician Freddy Moore, who Moore married when she was 18 years old. She has three daughters from her marriage to Bruce Willis: Rumer Glenn, Scout LaRue, and Tallulah Belle. Moore was also briefly engaged to fellow Brat Pack member and occasional co-star Emilio Estevez.
Her primary residence is currently in Hailey, Idaho, near the famous Sun Valley resort, although she spends a lot of time in the L.A. area with Kutcher.
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