The Biography Channel - Demi Moore Biography

She burst onto the scene in About Last Night before starring in Hollywood smash Ghost. The wife of Ashton Kutcher and former bratpacker remains one of cinema's most recognisable faces.

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Demi Moore
born: 11-11-1962
birth place: Roswell, New Mexico, USA

Demi Kutcher, best known as Demi Moore, is an American actress who rose to stardom amongst a group of peers who were dubbed the Brat Pack.

Moore was born Demetria Gene Guynes in 1962, in Roswell, New Mexico and spent much of her childhood and teenage years in Perryopolis, Pennsylvania. She had a difficult and unstable childhood culminating with her step-father’s suicide in 1980.

Her mother was abandoned by Moore’s birth father while she was still pregnant with Moore. However she soon married Danny Guynes, a newspaper advertising salesman. Guynes, a gambler with an unstable job history, made his new family move from town to town on numerous occasions.

Moore's mother and step-father were alcoholics who often fought and beat each other. Besides these personal setbacks the young Moore also suffered medical problems which included kidney dysfunction and an eye condition. She had ‘crossed eyes’, requiring two separate operations to correct.

Moore's family finally settled in Los Angeles in 1976. When she was sixteen and ambitious to become a model, her friend and future actress Nastassja Kinski persuaded her to drop out of Hollywood's Fairfax High School to become an actress. In 1979, she met and married her first husband songwriter Freddy Moore. The marriage lasted six years and they divorced in 1985.

In the early 1980s Moore posed for a series of nude photographs. Although at first unnoticed, these photographs were eventually published in a German magazine and later in North America.

Moore’s first major acting role was in the made-for-TV soap opera General Hospital on ABC. She played the part of Jackie Templeton during 1982 and 1983. Her initial movie break came with the Silvio Narrizano directed Choices in 1981. This was followed by the 3-D science fiction/horror film Parasite and a bit part in Young Doctors in Love in 1982. A further career-building movie was the Blame it on Rio (1984), in which she played the daughter of Michael Caine’s character.

Fame followed in 1985 when Moore starred in Joel Schumacher’s era-defining hit St. Elmo's Fire. A string of commercially successful movies in the 90s (Ghost, A Few Good Men, Indecent Proposal, Disclosure and The Hunchback of Notre Dame) turned Moore into one of Hollywood’s most sought after and expensive actresses. Moore became a household name and was rated as the highest paid actress in Hollywood. The role in The Hunchback of Notre Dame made her the first Hollywood actress to reach the US$10 million salary mark. She became a pioneer for other actresses by being the first female lead to demand the same salary, benefits and billing as her male counterparts.