Julie Anne Smith (born December 3, 1960), known professionally as Julianne Moore, is an American actress. Prolific in film since the early 1990s, she is particularly known for her portrayals of emotionally troubled women in independent films, as well as for her roles in blockbusters. She is the recipient of numerous accolades, including an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, two Golden Globe Awards, and two Emmy Awards.
After studying theatre at Boston University, Moore began her career with a series of television roles. From 1985 to 1988, she was a regular in the soap opera As the World Turns, earning a Daytime Emmy for her performance. She made her film debut in 1990, and continued to play supporting roles throughout the early 1990s. Moore made her breakthrough with Robert Altman's Short Cuts (1993), followed by critically acclaimed performances in Vanya on 42nd Street (1994) and Safe (1995). Starring roles in the blockbusters Nine Months (1995) and The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997) established her as a Hollywood leading lady.
Moore went on to receive Oscar nominations for her roles in the period films Boogie Nights (1997), The End of the Affair (1999), Far from Heaven (2002) and The Hours (2002); in the first of these, she played a 1970s pornographic actress, while in the other three, she starred as a mid-twentieth century unhappy housewife. Other notable films include The Big Lebowski (1998), Magnolia (1999), Hannibal (2001), Children of Men (2006), A Single Man (2009), The Kids Are All Right (2010), Crazy, Stupid, Love (2011), and Maps to the Stars (2014). She won a Primetime Emmy Award for her portrayal of Sarah Palin in the HBO film Game Change (2012), and the Academy Award for Best Actress for her portrayal of an Alzheimer's patient in Still Alice (2014). Among her highest-grossing releases are the final two films in The Hunger Games film series (2014, 2015) and the spy film Kingsman: The Golden Circle (2017).
In addition to her acting work, Moore has written a series of children's books about a character named Freckleface Strawberry. In 2015, Time named her one of the 100 most influential people in the world, and in 2020, The New York Times named her one of the greatest actors of the 21st century. She is married to director Bart Freundlich, with whom she has two children.
Early life and education
Moore was born Julie Anne Smith on December 3, 1960, at the Fort Bragg army installation in North Carolina. Her father, Peter Moore Smith, a paratrooper in the United States Army during the Vietnam War, attained the rank of colonel and became a military judge. Her mother, Anne (née Love 1940–2009), was a Scottish psychologist and social worker from Greenock, Renfrewshire, who had immigrated with her family to the United States in 1951. Moore has a younger sister, Valerie Smith, and a younger brother, the novelist Peter Moore Smith. Having a Scottish mother, Moore claimed British citizenship in 2011 in honor of her.
Because of her father's occupation, Moore frequently moved around the United States as a child. She was close with her family as a result, but says she never had the feeling of coming from one particular place. The family lived in multiple locations, including Alabama, Georgia, Texas, Panama, Nebraska, Alaska, New York, and Virginia, and Moore attended nine different schools. The constant relocating made her an insecure child, and she struggled to establish friendships. In spite of these difficulties, Moore later remarked that an itinerant lifestyle was beneficial to her future career: "When you move around a lot, you learn that behavior is mutable. I would change, depending on where I was ... It teaches you to watch, to reinvent, that character can change."
When Moore was 16, the family moved from Falls Church, Virginia, where Moore was attending Justice High School, to Frankfurt, West Germany, where she attended Frankfurt American High School. She was clever and studious, a self-proclaimed "good girl", and she planned to become a doctor. She had never considered performing, or even attended the theater, but she was an avid reader and it was this hobby that led her to begin acting at the school. Moore appeared in several plays, including Tartuffe and Medea, and with the encouragement of her English teacher, she chose to pursue a theatrical career. Her parents supported her decision, but asked that she train at university to provide the added security of a college degree. She was accepted into Boston University and graduated in 1983 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Theatre.
Career
Early work (1985–1993)