1. Early life

2. Career

3. Personal life

4. Filmography
    Film   Television    Music videos  

5. References

6. Further reading

7. External links

Rebecca De Mornay (born Rebecca Jane Pearch; August 29, 1959)^[1] is an American actress and producer. Her breakthrough film role came in 1983, when she starred as Lana in Risky Business. She is also known for her portrayals of Sara in Runaway Train (1985), Thelma in The Trip to Bountiful (1985), Helen McCaffrey in Backdraft (1991), and Peyton Flanders in The Hand That Rocks the Cradle (1992).

Her other film credits include The Three Musketeers (1993), Never Talk to Strangers (1995), Identity (2003), Lords of Dogtown; Wedding Crashers (both 2005), and Mother's Day (2010). On television, she starred as Wendy Torrance in the miniseries adaptation of The Shining (1997), and as Dorothy Walker on Marvel's Jessica Jones (2015–18).

Early life

De Mornay was born Rebecca Jane Pearch in Santa Rosa, California in 1959^[2] (although many sources erroneously list 1961 or 1962^{[3][4][5][6][7]}). Her parents were Julie (née Eagar)^[8] and Wally George (né George Walter Pearch), a disc jockey and later television host.^[9] Her paternal grandmother was vaudeville performer and child film actress Eugenia Clinchard.

Her parents divorced when she was two years old. She took her stepfather's surname, De Mornay, when she was five. She attended the independent Summerhill School in Leiston, Suffolk, England.^[10] She later trained as an actress in New York at the Lee Strasberg Institute.^[11]

Career

De Mornay's film debut was a small part in Francis Ford Coppola's 1981 film One from the Heart, which starred her real-life partner at the time, Harry Dean Stanton.^[12][13] Her star-making role came two years later in Risky Business (1983), as a call girl who seduces a high-school student played by Tom Cruise. In 1985, she played the title role in The Slugger's Wife opposite Michael O'Keefe, and co-starred in The Trip to Bountiful and Runaway Train, both of which were nominated for several Academy Awards. That same year, she appeared with Starship's Mickey Thomas in the music video for the song "Sara". The song reached #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart on March 15, 1986.

She also appeared in Roger Vadim's provocative 1988 remake of And God Created Woman, and as the wife of Kurt Russell's character in Ron Howard's Backdraft (1991). One of De Mornay's most commercially successful films was the thriller The Hand That Rocks the Cradle, released in 1992. She starred as a defense lawyer in Sidney Lumet's murder drama Guilty as Sin (1993) with Don Johnson. Then she appeared in the 1995 drama film Never Talk to Strangers opposite Antonio Banderas, for which she was also the executive producer.

In 2003, she guest-starred as primary antagonist in the first two episodes of season 2 of Boomtown. In 2004, she guest-starred as attorney Hannah Rose for the last few episodes of The Practice and the following year, had a brief role alongside Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn in Wedding Crashers. De Mornay also starred in the 2007 drama American Venus.^[1]

In June 2007, she appeared in the HBO series John from Cincinnati with a starring role as matriarch of a troubled Imperial Beach, California surfing family and the grandmother/guardian of a teen surfer on the brink of greatness. She appeared in Darren Lynn Bousman's Mother's Day (2010).

In 2012, De Mornay played the role of Finch's mom in the movie American Reunion where she portrayed an attractive older woman and a love interest of Stifler. In 2015 and 2018, she appeared in Marvel's Jessica Jones as Trish Walker's abusive mother.^[14]

Personal life

De Mornay married writer Bruce Wagner on December 16, 1986; they divorced in 1990.^[15]

De Mornay subsequently dated and was briefly engaged to singer Leonard Cohen.^[16][17] She co-produced Cohen's 1992 album The Future, which is also dedicated to her with an inscription that quotes Rebecca's coming to the well from the chapter 24 Book of Genesis^[18] and giving drink to Eliezer's camels, after he prayed for the help.^[19]

De Mornay has two daughters with ex-boyfriend Patrick O'Neal: Sophia (born November 16, 1997) and Veronica (born March 31, 2001).^[20][21]

Filmography

Film

Television

Music videos

References

Further reading

• {{cite journal|ref=harv|title=The Key to Rebecca|magazine=Saturday Review|date=January–February 1986|pages=30–34|volume=12|issue=1}}
• {{cite book|ref=harv|title=Contemporary Theatre, Film, and Television|volume=29|chapter=Rebecca de Mornay|first=Michael J.|last=Tykus|isbn=978-0-7876-3188-8|page=135|publisher=Gale Research Co.|year=2000}}
• {{cite encyclopaedia|ref=harv|encyclopedia=Dictionary of Pseudonyms: 13,000 Assumed Names and Their Origins|first=Adrian|last=Room|edition=5th|publisher=McFarland|year=2010|isbn=978-0-7864-4373-4|article=Rebecca de Mornay|pages=141}}
• {{cite encyclopaedia|ref=harv|encyclopedia=The Post-Feminist Hollywood Actress: biographies and filmographies of stars born after 1939|first1=Kerry|last1=Segrave|first2=Linda|last2=Martin|publisher=McFarland & Co.|year=1990 |isbn=978-0-89950-387-5|article=Rebecca de Mornay|pages=265–269}}
• {{cite encyclopaedia|ref=harv|encyclopedia=World Guide to Film Stars|first1=Thomas G.|last1=Aylesworth|first2=John S.|last2=Bowman|first3=Douglas|last3=Fairbanks|publisher=Great Pond|year=1992 |isbn=978-1-56657-007-7|article=De Mornay, Rebecca|pages=69}}
• {{cite encyclopaedia|ref=harv|encyclopedia=The International Who's Who of Women 2002|first1=Elizabeth|last1=Sleeman|edition=3rd|publisher=Routledge|year=2001 |isbn=978-1-85743-122-3|article=De Mornay, Rebecca|pages=131}}
• {{cite encyclopaedia|ref=harv|encyclopedia=Contemporary Theatre, Film and Television: A Biographical Guide|volume=64|editor1-first=Thomas|editor1-last=Riggs|publisher=Gale / Cengage Learning|year=2005 |isbn=978-0-7876-9037-3|article=De MORNAY, Rebecca}}

External links

• {{IMDb name|360}}
• {{tcmdb name|id=46543|name=Rebecca De Mornay}}
• {{Rotten-tomatoes-person|rebecca_de_mornay|Rebecca De Mornay}}

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