Demi Moore Biography

DEMI MOORE

Date of Birth: November 11, 1962

Birth Name: Demetria Gene Guynes

A native to Roswell, New Mexico, Demi Moore led a troubled childhood. Born into the vagabond household of Danny and Virginia Guynes, a couple that married and divorced twice, Demi seemed destined for a white-trash existence. Along with her mother, half-brother and stepfather, she moved no less than 39 times before her adolescence, thanks to her stepfather's job as a newspaper ad salesman.

The problems that went along with such an itinerant lifestyle were compounded by the dysfunctional, sometimes abusive relationship between Demi's mother and stepfather. The latter committed suicide when Demi was 15, around the time that she discovered that he was not her biological father. As if that weren't enough, through part of her childhood, Demi had a cross-eyed condition that required two operations to correct.

By 16, Demi had quit school and was out on her own, doing a little modeling and putting her husky voice to use at a collection agency. At 18, she married Freddy Moore, a rock musician 12 years her senior. Though the marriage didn't last long, it held an unexpected key to her career: the Moores happened to live next door to an actress named Nastassja Kinski, who imposed upon Demi to help her rehearse scripts.

Eventually, Demi decided to try acting herself. A year later, she beat out 1,000 actresses for a continuing role on the daytime drama General Hospital.

Demi made her film debut in 1981, appearing in both the coming-of-age drama Choices and the schlocktastic Parasite. Following a bit role in 1982's Young Doctors in Love, she had her first lead role, in No Small Affair (1984), as an aspiring rock singer opposite Jon Cryer. Her real breakthrough came the next year, when she starred as an unstable member of a group of college friends in St. Elmo's Fire.

Apparently, her on-screen instability mirrored her off-screen condition at the time: she was reportedly fired from the film at one point and then re-hired after going into drug rehab. The film was a hit, and Demi, along with such co-stars as Emilio Estevez (to whom she was engaged for three years), Rob Lowe, and Ally Sheedy became a member of the infamous "Brat Pack."

Shortly after breaking up with Estevez for the last time, Demi crossed paths with Bruce Willis, the cheeky star of TV's Moonlighting. They married after a three-month courtship.

In 1990, Demi had her biggest hit to date with Ghost, a romantic drama that cast her as the grieving wife of the recently deceased Patrick Swayze. A huge success, Ghost secured Moore a place on the A-list, something she managed to sustain despite the subsequent twin flops of The Butcher's Wife and Mortal Thoughts, both released in 1991.

That same year, Demi gained exposure of a different sort when she appeared nude and hugely pregnant on the cover of Vanity Fair; the resulting hoopla gained her more attention than either of her movies that year.

She then won the lead in Indecent Proposal, the first in a string of controversial roles in films such as Disclosure (1994), The Scarlet Letter and Striptease, for which she received a sizable paycheck of $12.5 million for baring all.

Following The Scarlet Letter, Moore took refuge on safer grounds, lending her voice to Disney's animated The Hunchback of Notre Dame in 1996.

The actress' career suffered a further blow with the disappointment of G.I. Jane in 1997, and she found herself getting more attention for her off-screen life, as she was by that point embroiled in a very public divorce from Willis. In June 1998, Demi and Willis went public with their intention to separate, and were divorced in October 2003.

Although her career stalled for several years, Demi bounced back with a role in Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle (2003), gaining loads of publicity for her relationship with sitcom star Ashton Kutcher, almost 16 years her junior. They were married on September 24, 2005, but after Demi learned in 2011 that Ashton had cheated on her, they separated and were divorced in 2013.

Other credits include the comedy Wild Oats (2016) with Jessica Lange and Shirley MacLaine, and the female-driven comedy Rough Night (2017) with Scarlett Johansson.

In September 2019, Demi's memoir, Inside Out, was released by Harper Books.

Filmography:

Rough Night (2017)
Wild Oats (2016)
Forsaken (2015)
Very Good Girls (2013)
LOL (2012)
Margin Call (2011)
Another Happy Day (2011)
Bunraku (2010)
The Joneses (2009)
Happy Tears (2009)
Mr. Brooks (2007)
Flawless (2007)
Bobby (2006)
Half Light (2005)
Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle (2003)
Passion of Mind (1999)
Deconstructing Harry (1997)
G.I. Jane (1997)
Destination Anywhere (1997) (V)
Beavis and Butt-head Do America (1996) (voice) (uncredited)
Striptease (1996)
The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996) (voice)
The Juror (1996)
Now and Then (1995)
The Scarlet Letter (1995)
Disclosure (1994)
A Century of Cinema (1994)
Indecent Proposal (1993)
A Few Good Men (1992)
Mortal Thoughts (1991)
Nothing But Trouble (1991)
The Butcher's Wife (1991)
Ghost (1990)
We're No Angels (1989)
The New Homeowner's Guide to Happiness (1988) (V)
The Seventh Sign (1988)
About Last Night... (1986)
One Crazy Summer (1986)
Wisdom (1986)
St. Elmo's Fire (1985)
Blame It on Rio (1984)
Master Ninja I (1984)
No Small Affair (1984)
Young Doctors in Love (1982) (uncredited)
Parasite (1982)
Choices (1981)