Demi Gene Moore[n 1] (/dəˈmiː/ də-MEE;[12] née Guynes; born November 11, 1962)[13] is
an American actress. She first gained attention on daytime television before breaking
out as a film star in the 1980s. By the mid-1990s, she was the highest-paid actress at
the time.[14] She has earned several accolades, including nominations for a Primetime
Emmy Award and two Golden Globes.
Moore began acting in 1981, and appeared on the soap opera General
Hospital (1982–1984).[15] After departing the show, she rose to prominence as a
member of the Brat Pack, starring in the films Blame It on Rio (1984), St. Elmo's
Fire (1985), and About Last Night... (1986).[16] She earned recognition and stardom for
her role in Ghost, which was the highest-grossing film of 1990. She had further box-
office successes with A Few Good Men (1992), Indecent Proposal (1993),
and Disclosure (1994), and received $12.5 million to star in Striptease (1996),
becoming the highest-paid actress to that point. Moore was considered to be one of
the most bankable stars of the 1990s.
Moore's career saw a downturn after the films The Scarlet Letter (1995), The
Juror (1996), and G.I. Jane (1997) fell below commercial expectations.[17][18] Since
then, she has played roles in Passion of Mind (2000), Charlie's Angels: Full
Throttle (2003), Bobby (2006), Mr. Brooks (2007), Flawless (2008), Margin
Call (2011), and Blind (2017).[19] Her television projects include If These Walls Could
Talk (1996), Empire (2015–2017), Brave New World (2020), and Feud: Capote vs.
The Swans (2024).
Moore has been married three times. From 1981 to 1985, she was married to
musician Freddy Moore. From 1987 to 2000, she was married to Bruce Willis, with
whom she has three daughters.[20] She was married to Ashton Kutcher from 2005 to
2013. Her memoir Inside Out (2019) became a New York Times Best Seller.[21][22][23]
Early life
Moore was born November 11, 1962, in Roswell, New Mexico. Her biological
father, Air Force airman Charles Foster Harmon Sr.,[24] left her then-18-year-old
mother, Virginia (née King),[25] after a two-month marriage before Moore's birth.
[26]
Charles came from Lanett, Alabama, and Virginia was born in Richmond,
California, but had grown up in Roswell.[27] Moore's maternal grandmother was raised
on a farm in Elida, New Mexico.[27] Moore has deep roots in the South
Central and Southern United States, particularly Oklahoma, Arkansas and Georgia.
When Moore was three months old, her mother married Dan Guynes, a newspaper
advertising salesman who frequently changed jobs; as a result, the family moved
many times.[28] In 1967 they had Moore's half-brother Morgan.[29] Moore said in 1991,
"My dad is Dan Guynes. He raised me. There is a man who would be considered my
biological father who I don't really have a relationship with."[26] Moore has half-siblings
from Charlie Harmon's other marriages, but she does not keep in touch with them
either.[30]
Moore's stepfather Dan Guynes married and divorced Virginia twice.[31] On October
20, 1980, a year after their second divorce from each other, Guynes
committed suicide.[26][32] Her biological father Harmon died in 1997 from liver cancer
in Brazoria, Texas.[33][34] Moore's mother had a long arrest record which included drunk
driving and arson.[35] Moore broke off contact with her in 1989, when Guynes walked
away halfway through a rehab stay Moore had financed at the Hazelden
Foundation in Minnesota.[2] Virginia Guynes posed nude for the magazine High
Society in 1993,[36] where she spoofed Moore's Vanity Fair pregnancy and bodypaint
covers and parodied her clay scene from Ghost. Moore and Guynes reconciled
shortly before Guynes died of a brain tumor on July 2, 1998.[37]
Moore spent her early childhood in Roswell, and later, Canonsburg, Pennsylvania.
[38]
Bob Gardner, a photographer for the Monongahela Daily Herald when Dan Guynes
was head of advertising, recalled that Moore "looked malnourished and not so much
abused as neglected. That haunting look as a child made me feel uneasy."[39] She
suffered from strabismus, which was corrected by two operations, as well as kidney
dysfunction.[28] Moore learned that Guynes was not her real father at age 13, when
she discovered a marriage certificate and inquired about the circumstances since she
"saw my parents were married in February 1963. I was born in '62."[26]
At age 14, Moore returned to her hometown of Roswell and lived with her
grandmother for six months before relocating to Washington state, where her
recently separated mother was residing near Seattle.[40] Several months later, the
family moved again to West Hollywood, California, where Moore's mother took a job
working for a magazine distribution company.[26] Moore attended Fairfax High
School there.[26] She moved out of her family's house the day after her 16th birthday
and quit high school in her junior year to work as a receptionist at 20th Century Fox,
a job she secured through her then-boyfriend Tom Dunston's mother.[27][41]
In 2019, she stated she was raped at 15 by landlord Basil Doumas, then 49.
[42]
Doumas claimed he had paid Moore's mother to get access to Moore to rape her,
although Moore said it is unclear if this were true.[43][44]
Career
1980s: Early roles and breakthrough
Moore at the 61st Academy Awards in 1989
Moore signed with the Elite Modeling Agency,[45] then enrolled in drama classes after
being inspired by her next-door neighbor, 17-year-old German actress Nastassja
Kinski.[46] In August 1979, at age 16,[46] Moore met[46] musician Freddy Moore, who was
married and at the time leader of the band Boy, at the Los Angeles nightclub The
Troubadour.[47] They lived in an apartment in West Hollywood.[47] Moore co-wrote three
songs with Freddy Moore and appeared in the music video for their selection "It's Not
a Rumor," performed by his band, The Nu-Kats. She continues to receive royalty
checks from her songwriting work (1980–1981).[48] Moore also sang in the films One
Crazy Summer and Bobby.
Moore appeared on the cover of the January 1981 issue of the adult magazine Oui,
[49]
taken from a photo session in which she had posed nude.[50] In a 1988 interview,
Moore claimed she "only posed for the cover of Oui—I was 16; I told them I was 18".
Interviewer Alan Carter said, "However, some peekaboo shots did appear inside. And
later, nude shots of her turned up in Celebrity Sleuth—photos that she once said
'were for a European fashion magazine'."[51] In 1990, she told another interviewer, "I
was 17 years old. I was underage. It was just the cover."[52] Moore made her film
debut with a brief role in the 1981 teen drama Choices, directed by Silvio Narizzano.
[53]
Her second film feature was the 3-D sci-fi horror film Parasite (1982), for which
director Charles Band had instructed casting director Johanna Ray to "find me the
next Karen Allen."[49] Moore then joined the cast of the ABC soap opera General
Hospital, playing the role of investigative reporter Jackie Templeton until 1983.
During her tenure on the series, she made an uncredited cameo appearance in the
1982 spoof film Young Doctors in Love. Moore's film career took off in 1984 following
her appearance in the sex comedy Blame It on Rio.[54] She also portrayed Laura
Victor in the comedy film No Small Affair (1984), opposite Jon Cryer.
Moore's commercial breakthrough came in Joel Schumacher's yuppie drama St.
Elmo's Fire (1985), which received negative reviews, but was a box office
success[55] and brought Moore widespread recognition.[56] Because of her association
with that film, Moore was often listed as part of the Brat Pack, a label she felt was
"demeaning".[57] Moore progressed to more serious material with About Last
Night... (1986), co-starring Rob Lowe, which marked a positive turning point in her
career,[58] as Moore noted that, following its release, she began seeing better scripts.
[59]
Film critic Roger Ebert gave the film four out of four stars and praised her
performance, writing, "There isn't a romantic note she isn't required to play in this
movie, and she plays them all flawlessly."[60]
The success of About Last Night... was unrivaled by Moore's other two 1986
releases, One Crazy Summer and Wisdom, the last youth-oriented films in which she
would star.[61] Moore was listed as one of twelve "Promising New Actors of 1986" in
John Willis's Screen World, Vol. 38. Moore made her professional stage debut in
an off-Broadway production of The Early Girl, which ran at the Circle Repertory
Company in fall 1986.[62] In 1988, Moore starred as a prophecy-bearing mother in the
apocalyptic drama The Seventh Sign—her first outing as a solo film star—[59] and in
1989, she played the quick-witted local laundress and prostitute in Neil
Jordan's Depression-era allegory We're No Angels, opposite Robert De Niro.
1990s: Rise to stardom and later fluctuations
Moore's most successful film to date is the supernatural romantic
melodrama Ghost (1990), which grossed over US$505 million at the box office and
was the highest-grossing film of the year.[63] She played a young woman in jeopardy
to be protected by the ghost of her murdered lover. The love scene between Moore
and Patrick Swayze that starts in front of a potter's wheel to the sound of "Unchained
Melody" has become an iconic moment in cinema history.[64] Ghost was nominated for
the Academy Award for Best Picture, and Moore's performance earned her a Golden
Globe Award nomination.[65] In 1991 Moore starred in the horror comedy Nothing but
Trouble, co-produced and appeared in the mystery thriller Mortal Thoughts, and
played a blonde for the first time in the romantic comedy The Butcher's Wife, with
Roger Ebert's review describing her as "warm and cuddly".[66] Moore sustained her A-
list status with her starring roles in Rob Reiner's A Few Good Men (1992), Adrian
Lyne's Indecent Proposal (1993), and Barry Levinson's Disclosure (1994)—all of
which opened at No. 1 at the box office and were blockbuster hits.[67]
By 1995 Moore was the highest paid actress in Hollywood.[68] Her portrayal of Hester
Prynne in The Scarlet Letter (1995), a "freely adapted" version of the historical
romance novel by Nathaniel Hawthorne, was met with harsh criticism.[69] The coming-
of-age drama Now and Then (1995) found moderate box office success. Moore was
paid a record-breaking salary of US$12.5 million in 1996 to star in Striptease.[68]
[70]
Much hype was made about Moore's willingness to dance topless for the part,
though this was the sixth time she had shown her breasts on film.[2] The film opened
to overwhelmingly negative reviews with Moore's performance being criticised. It was
a moderate financial success, grossing US$113 million worldwide,[71] and Moore
received the Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Actress.[14] Moore starred in the
thriller The Juror (1996). It was a box office bomb and was heavily panned by critics.
[72]
Moore produced and starred in a controversial miniseries for HBO called If These
Walls Could Talk (1996), a three-part anthology about abortion alongside Sissy
Spacek and Cher. Its screenwriter, Nancy Savoca, directed two segments, including
one in which Moore played a widowed nurse in the early 1950s seeking a back-alley
abortion. For that role, Moore received a second Golden Globe nomination as Best
Actress.[65] Also in 1996, she provided the speaking voice of the
beautiful Esmeralda in Disney's animated adaptation of The Hunchback of Notre
Dame, and starred in Mike Judge's comedy Beavis and Butt-head Do America,
alongside her then husband Bruce Willis. Moore shaved her head to play the first
woman to undergo training in the Navy SEALs in Ridley Scott's G.I. Jane (1997).
Budgeted at US$50 million, the film was a moderate commercial success,[73] with a
worldwide gross of US$97.1 million.[74][75]
During the production of G.I. Jane, it was reported that Moore had ordered studio
chiefs to charter two planes for her entourage and her,[76] which reinforced her
negative reputation for being a diva[77]—she had previously turned down the Sandra
Bullock role in While You Were Sleeping because the studio refused to meet her
salary demands,[78] and was dubbed "Gimme Moore" by the media.[75] Moore took on
the role of an ultrapious Jewish convert psychiatrist in Woody Allen's Deconstructing
Harry, also in 1997.[79]
2000s: Career downturn and hiatus
After G.I. Jane, Moore retreated from the spotlight and moved to Hailey, Idaho, on a
full-time basis to devote herself to raising her three daughters.[80] Moore was off
screen for three years before re-emerging in the arthouse psychological
drama Passion of Mind (2000), the first English-language film from Belgian
director Alain Berliner. Her performance as a woman with dissociative identity
disorder was well received,[81][82] but the film itself garnered mixed reviews and was
deemed "naggingly slow" by some critics.[82] Moore then resumed her self-imposed
career hiatus and continued to turn down film offers.[83] Producer Irwin Winkler said in
2001, "I had a project about a year and a half ago, and we made an inquiry about her
—a real good commercial picture. She wasn't interested."[75]
Moore returned to the screen playing a villain in the 2003 film Charlie's Angels: Full
Throttle,[84] opposite Cameron Diaz, Drew Barrymore and Lucy Liu. A commercial
success, the film made US$259.1 million worldwide, and Rolling Stone, on Moore's
role, remarked: "It's a relief when Demi Moore shows up as fallen angel [...] Moore,
40, looks great in a bikini and doesn't even try to act. Her unsmiling sexiness cuts
through the gigglefest as the angels fight, kick, dance and motocross like Indiana
Jones clones on estrogen".[85] Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle was followed by yet
another three-year absence. In the interim, Moore signed on as the face of
the Versace fashion brand[86] and the Helena Rubinstein brand of cosmetics.[87]
In Emilio Estevez's drama Bobby (2006), Moore portrayed an alcoholic singer whose
career is on the downswing, as part of an ensemble cast, about the hours leading up
to the Robert F. Kennedy assassination. As a member of the cast, she was
nominated for the Screen Actors Guild Award for Best Cast in a Motion Picture. The
film won the Hollywood Film Festival Award for Best Ensemble Cast.[88] Moore had a
lead role as grieving and tormented novelist in the mystery thriller Half Light (2006)
alongside Hans Matheson, then took on the role of a driven police officer
investigating a serial killer in the psychological thriller Mr. Brooks (2007), with Kevin
Costner. The film received mixed reviews and grossed $48.1 million worldwide.[89]
[90]
Rolling Stone wrote that "the cop on the case, played by Demi Moore with a
striking directness that deserved better than being saddled with an absurd back story
as an heiress with a fortune-hunting husband."[91]
Moore in 2009
Moore reunited with Blame It on Rio co-star Michael Caine for the British crime
drama film Flawless (2008),[92] which saw her portray an American executive helping
to steal a handful of diamonds from the London Diamond Corporation during the
1960s. Moore received positive reviews from critics; Miami Herald wrote: "The
inspired pairing of Demi Moore and Michael Caine as a pair of thieves in the
diamond-heist semi-caper movie Flawless goes a long way toward overcoming the
film's slack, leisurely pacing".[93][94]
2010s: Television roles
In 2010, Moore took on the role of a daughter helping her father deal with age-related
health problems in the dramedy Happy Tears, opposite Parker Posey and Rip Torn,
and starred as the matriarch of a family moving into a suburban neighborhood in the
comedy The Joneses, with David Duchovny. The latter film was largely highlighted
upon its theatrical release, with critics concluding that it "benefits from its timely satire
of consumer culture — as well as a pair of strong performances" from Duchovny and
Moore.[95] In Bunraku (2010), a film Moore described as a "big action
adventure,"[96] she played a courtesan and a femme fatale with a secret past.[97]
Moore portrayed a chief risk management officer at a large Wall Street investment
bank during the initial stages of the financial crisis of 2007–08[98][99] in the critically
acclaimed corporate drama Margin Call (2011), where she was part of an ensemble
cast that included Kevin Spacey, Simon Baker, and Paul Bettany. The cast garnered
nominations for the "Best Ensemble" award from the Gotham Awards, the Phoenix
Film Critics Society and the Central Ohio Film Critics Association.[100][101] Also in 2011,
Moore received a Directors Guild of America Award nomination for Outstanding
Directing – Miniseries or TV Film for her work as a director in a segment of the
2011 Lifetime anthology film Five,[102][103] and starred opposite Ellen Barkin, Ellen
Burstyn and George Kennedy in Sam Levinson's black comedy Another Happy
Day, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival.[104]
Moore appeared as the mother of Miley Cyrus' character in the romantic drama
film LOL (2012).[105][106][107][108] She played a similar mother role in her next film, the
likewise coming-of-age dramedy Very Good Girls (2013), which co-starred Dakota
Fanning and Elizabeth Olsen.[109] Her part as an old flame of a quick-draw killer in the
Western drama Forsaken (2015), with Donald Sutherland and Kiefer Sutherland, was
followed by the role of the daughter of a retired high school teacher in the road
comedy Wild Oats, which premiered on Lifetime in August 2016, and in a limited
release the following month.[110] In her next film, the drama Blind (2017), Moore
starred opposite Alec Baldwin, portraying the neglected wife of an indicted
businessman having an affair with a novelist blinded in a car crash.
In February 2017, Moore joined the cast of Empire, in the recurring role of a take-
charge nurse with a mysterious past.[111][112][113] The comedy film Rough Night (2017)
featured Moore as one half of a nymphomaniac couple seducing a member of a
bachelorette party gone wrong. The film was released in the United States on June
16, 2017, by Columbia Pictures, received mixed reviews and grossed $47 million
worldwide.[114] She played Selma in the Indian drama film Love Sonia (2018), which
tells the story of a young girl's journey to rescue her sister from the dangerous world
of international sex trafficking.[115] She portrayed Lucy, a superficial CEO in the
comedy horror film Corporate Animals (2019), which premiered at the Sundance Film
Festival on January 29, 2019.[116]
Moore's memoir, Inside Out, was published on September 24, 2019,
by HarperCollins.[117][118][119] On October 13, 2019, the book debuted at number one
on The New York Times' Combined Print & E-Book Nonfiction best-sellers list and
the Hardcover Nonfiction best-sellers list.[120][121][122] Moore discussed the book in an
exclusive interview with Diane Sawyer of ABC News on Good Morning America.[123]
[124]
Moore and her two daughters Rumer and Tallulah appeared on Jada Pinkett
Smith's web television talk show Red Table Talk on November 4, 2019.[125][126]
2020s
On June 24, 2020, Moore joined as Piper Griffin, the matriarch of a powerful family
"who will stop at nothing to protect her family and her way of life" in the pandemic-
themed thriller produced by Michael Bay, Songbird, alongside Craig Robinson, Paul
Walter Hauser and Peter Stormare.[127] Moore has a leading role as Diana
in Amazon's drama series, Dirty Diana, which is based on the podcast of the same
name.[128][129] The podcast is voiced by Moore and she also serves as producer with
screenwriter Shana Feste.[130][131] Moore was among the celebrities who made cameo
appearances modeling lingerie at Rihanna's Savage x Fenty Vol. 2 fashion show in
2020.[132]
In 2024, she was cast as socialite Ann Woodward in the Ryan Murphy created
anthology series Feud: Capote vs. The Swans on FX on Hulu. Moore acted
alongside Tom Hollander, Naomi Watts, Diane Lane, and Chloë Sevigny.[133] She also
appeared in Coralie Fargeat's body horror film The Substance, which premiered
at 2024 Cannes Film Festival, where she portrayed an aging star who used a black
market drug to make herself younger. Her performance was praised by critics.[134]
Media image
Status and persona
Moore in an advertisement for Swedish cosmetic
company Oriflame in 2012
Moore is viewed as a pioneer for equal salary for women in Hollywood.[135][136][137] She
was paid $12.5 million for her role in Striptease, which was more money than any
other woman in Hollywood had ever been offered at the time.[138][139] Producers
for Striptease and G.I. Jane got into a bidding war to see who could get Moore to film
first. Striptease won and Moore became the highest paid actress in Hollywood in
1995.[140] "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," Lifetime wrote.[141] "Her screen persona always has something
indestructible about it. There's a toughness, a strength, a determination," The
Guardian described in 2007.[142] She was also the subject of an E! True Hollywood
Story special in 2003 and of Celebrity Style Story special in 2012.[143]
Moore has been included in magazine lists of the world's most beautiful women. She
was selected as one of People magazine's 50 Most Beautiful People in the world in
1996. In 1999, Moore became a guest editor for the November issue of Marie Claire.
[144]
In 1999, she was ranked eighth on Forbes' list of Top 20 Actresses, based on
three separate lists of box office receipts.[144] In 2004, People ranked her ninth on their
list of All-Time Most Beautiful Women.[145] She was voted seventh on Life &
Style magazine's Best Dressed Female poll in December 2006. On December 31,
2019, The Wall Street Journal listed a cover story about Moore as one of their most-
read stories in 2019.[146][147]
Moore has 4.5 million followers on Twitter as of January 2020.[148] She uses Twitter as
a platform to raise awareness of sexual trafficking and slavery. "She is practicing
what she preaches: More than half of her posts are on the subject, directing followers
where to get involved," Harper's Bazaar reported in August 2010.[149] "I like to connect
to people in the virtual world.. exchanging thoughts and ideas, when in the physical
world we might never have the opportunity to cross paths," Moore told Harper's
Bazaar.[149] As of February 2024, Moore has 5 million Instagram followers.[150]
Moore has graced the cover of numerous international fashion magazines, including
France's Elle; UK's Grazia; US' W, Vanity Fair, Interview, Rolling
Stone, Glamour and InStyle; Australia's Harper's Bazaar and Turkey's Marie Claire.
[151]
She has also appeared on the front cover of Vogue (Portugal, France and US).
Moore has appeared in commercials and print ads throughout her career. She has
appeared in television commercials for Keds, Oscar Mayer, Diet Coke, Lux, Jog Mate
and Seibu Department