- Born
- Birth nameRebecca Jane Pearch
- Height5′ 5½″ (1.66 m)
- Rebecca De Mornay was born 1959 as Rebecca Jane Pearch, in Santa Rosa, CA, to Wally George and Julie Eager. Her parents divorced when she was young, and her mother moved to Pasadena and married Richard De Mornay, who adopted her. After her stepfather's untimely death in 1962, Rebecca's mother moved her and her half-brother Peter to Europe, where she was raised primarily in England and Austria. In 1977, Rebecca graduated "summa cum laude" from a German-speaking high school in the Austrian alps, and still speaks fluent German and French.
She began her acting training in Los Angeles at Lee Strasberg's Institute, became an apprentice at Francis Ford Coppola's Zoetrope Film Studio, and soon thereafter made her film debut in One from the Heart (1981). Her breakthrough came in the box office hit Risky Business (1983), in which she gave a seductive and critically acclaimed performance as a streetwise prostitute opposite Tom Cruise. She went on to international stardom with her portrayal of a chillingly twisted nanny in the hugely popular The Hand That Rocks the Cradle (1992). Other acclaimed film work includes Runaway Train (1985) (with Jon Voight), The Trip to Bountiful (1985) (with Geraldine Page), Backdraft (1991) (with Kurt Russell).
Network television work includes the tour-de-force role of Arlie in the stellar Getting Out (1994) (based on Marsha Norman's play), the tragic title character in Dominick Dunne's An Inconvenient Woman (1991) (with Jason Robards), the remake of The Shining (1997) (produced by Stephen King), a multi-episode story arc about a cancer survivor on ER (1994) and Hallmark Hall of Fame's Night Ride Home (1999) (with Ellen Burstyn).
On stage, she starred as Billie Dawn in "Born Yesterday" (1988) at the Pasadena Playhouse, as Charlotte Corday in "Marat/Sade" (1990) at the Williamstown Festival, and as Anna in "Closer" (2000) at the Mark Taper Forum.
Rebecca's directing debut was with a segment of Showtime's The Outer Limits (1995) starring John Savage and Frank Whaley. Divorced from producer/screenwriter Bruce Wagner, Rebecca has two daughters, Sophia DeMornay-O'Neal and Veronica De Mornay-O'Neal, both fathered by sportscaster Patrick O'Neal, who is eight years her junior.
- IMDb mini biography by: A. Nonymous
- SpouseBruce Wagner(December 16, 1989 - December 2, 1990) (divorced)
- Children
- ParentsPatricia Jane "Julie" EagarRichard Engle De Mornay
- RelativesEugenia Clinchard(Grandparent)Peter Richard De Mornay(Half Sibling)Dey Young(Aunt or Uncle)
- Frequently cast as an older woman involved romantically with a younger man
- Speaks German fluently.
- Her last name was changed as a child, when she was adopted by her stepfather, Richard De Mornay (1914-1962).
- Was engaged to Leonard Cohen.
- Sentenced to a three-month program for DUI offenders, three years summary probation and a $350 fine, after pleading no contest to one count of DUI on February 5, 2008. Was pulled over and arrested on October 30, 2007 on Sunset Blvd. in Los Angeles.
- She attended the radically alternative English boarding school Summerhill.
- I feel a terrifically painful disturbance in the natural law of things between men and women that must be balanced in the next few thousand years. What has been done in the name of holding up masculine energy as God and feminine energy as subservient has really wiped out everything.
- I've made some great movies. Risky Business (1983) still stands up. It's timeless. They study that film in film school.
- [Referring to Patrick John Flueger, Deborah Ann Woll, Warren Kole and Matt O'Leary, while working on the remake of Mother's Day (2010)] Just want to say, the actors playing my 4 kids are fantastic, and I'm very proud of them, as Mother, but also as Rebecca.
- Leonard Cohen was one of the greatest poets, but for me, he was also one of the most important people in my life, and losing him is like losing a limb. He was my ground, he was my aerial, as he wrote in his song 'Treaty.' I really cannot fathom what life will be like without him in it. At least I was able to spend time with him in his last year. He faced death as he faced life: straight on, with honesty, grace, and breathtaking depth of perception. He enjoyed the quiet, simple moments with friends, and being immersed in working on songs. He said in his last interview that he was ready to die, and he said in his last public outing that he would live forever. Both are true. There was no one like him, and there never will be.
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