All All. Sign In. IMDbPro Starmeter 66 Play clip Nicole Kidman Through the Years. Elegant blonde Nicole Kidman, known as one of Hollywood's top Australian imports, was actually born in Honolulu, Hawaii to Anthony a biochemist and clinical psychologist and Janelle a nursing instructor Kidman.
The family moved almost immediately to Washington, D. Young Nicole's first love was ballet, but she eventually took up mime and drama as well her first stage role was a bleating sheep in an elementary school Christmas pageant. In her adolescent years, acting edged out the other arts and became a kind of refuge - as her classmates sought out fun in the sun, the fair-skinned Kidman retreated to dark rehearsal halls to practice her craft.
She worked regularly at the Philip Street Theater, where she once received a personal letter of praise and encouragement from audience member Jane Campion then a film student. Kidman eventually dropped out of high school to pursue acting full-time. She broke into movies at age 16, landing a role in the Australian holiday favorite Bush Christmas That appearance touched off a flurry of film and television offers, including a lead in BMX Bandits and a turn as a schoolgirl-turned-protester in the miniseries Vietnam for which she won her first Australian Film Institute Award.
Kidman's next casting coup scored her more than exposure. After a whirlwind courtship and decent box office returns , the couple wed on December 24, Determined not to let her new marital status overshadow her fledgling career, the actress pressed on. She appeared as a catty high school senior in the Australian film Flirting , then as Dustin Hoffman 's moll in the gangster flick Billy Bathgate She reunited with Cruise for Far and Away , the story of young Irish lovers who flee to America in the late s, and starred opposite Michael Keaton in the tear-tugger My Life Despite her steady employment, critics and moviegoers still had not quite warmed to Kidman as a leading lady.
As a fame-crazed housewife determined to eliminate any obstacle in her path, Kidman proved that she had an impressive range and deadly comic timing. She took home a Golden Globe and several critics' awards for the performance. In , Kidman stepped into a corset to work with her countrywoman and onetime admirer, Jane Campion , on the adaptation of Henry James 's The Portrait of a Lady A few months later, she tore across the screen as a nuclear weapons expert in The Peacemaker , adding "action star" to her professional repertoire.
