Julianne Moore born Julie Anne Smith, was born in Fayetteville, North Carolina. The daughter of a military judge and a Scottish social worker, her family moved around a lot before Moore found a place for herself at Boston University and earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts (B.F.A.) degree in acting from the School of the Performing Arts. After graduating in 1983, Moore moved to New York and worked extensively in theater, including appearances off-Broadway in two Caryl Churchill plays, Serious Money and Ice Cream With Hot Fudge and as Ophelia in Hamlet at The Guthrie Theatre. From 1985 to 1988, she starred on the CBS daytime drama As the World Turns as half-sisters Sabrina and Frannie, for which she won a Daytime Emmy in 1988. After some forgettable television appearances, Moore made her big screen debut in the 1990 horror comedy Tales from the Darkside: The Movie, where she played a mummy’s victim. Two years later she was appearing in supporting roles such as in the 1992 thriller The Hand that Rocks the Cradle and the 1992 comedy The Gun in Betty Lou’s Handbag. She kept on winning small yet memorable roles such as the doctor who spotted Harrison Ford’s Dr. Richard Kimble in 1993’s The Fugitive. She then found her way into the RomCom genre with 1995’s Nine Months. Moore also isn’t afraid of a little action, which she displayed starring in 1997’s The Lost World: Jurassic Park and alongside Sylvester Stallone and Antonio Banderas in 1995’s Assassins. She’s been nominated four times for an Academy Award and shows no signs of slowing down. In honor or her 53rd birthday, here is a Top 10 list of Julianne Moore movies.
10. Far from Heaven: This 2002 drama was set in the 1950s and had Moore starring opposite Dennis Quaid, Dennis Haysbert, Viola Davis and Patricia Clarkson. Moore was nominated for the Best Actress in a Leading Role Academy Award for her portrayal of Cathy Whitaker, a seemingly perfect housewife and homemaker, but her husband, Frank Whitaker (Quaid) is a closet homosexual and Cathy begins having feelings for her late gardener’s adult son, Raymond Deagan (Haysbert.) Moore portrayed a woman caught up in a time where racial tensions were rampant and homosexuality was taboo brilliantly and Hollywood noticed in a big way.
9. Magnolia: This 1999 drama had Moore co-starring with Tom Cruise, who was nominated for the Best Supporting Actor Academy Award for his role in the movie, as well as William H. Macy, Jason Robards, John C. Reilly and Philip Seymour Hoffman. Moore played Linda Partridge, the “Trophy Wife” of the older, Earl Partridge (Robards,) the former producer of a child prodigy television program. Moore’s performance as a woman who married for money but ended up falling in love with her husband was mesmerizing.
8. The Fugitive: Moore’s part in this 1993 crime drama based on the 1960s television series of the same name was small but memorable. Moore played Dr. Anne Eastman, who Harrison Ford’s Dr. Richard Kimble runs into while posing as a janitor at Chicago’s Cook County Hospital. Even though on the run from being falsely convicted of his wife’s murder, Kimble saves a young bus crash victim and has a brief encounter with Moore’s character. Though she wasn’t on screen long, Moore portrayed a tough doctor determined to save lives and do it with style.
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7. Hannibal: This 2001 thriller directed by Ridley Scott and adapted from Thomas Harris’ novel of the same name was a sequel to the 1991 smash The Silence of the Lambs. Moore portrayed FBI Special Agent Clarice Starling, played by Jodie Foster in the 1991 movie. Sir Anthony Hopkins reprised his role as the cannibalistic serial killer Dr. Hannibal Lecter. Moore and Hopkins’ pairing was electrifying as he saved her from his one surviving victim, who was hellbent on revenge against the doctor yet Moore infused the character with own signature flair and drive, winning over audiences who were skeptical of her casting in the role.
6. The Kids Are All Right: This 2010 dramedy had Moore playing a lesbian and co-starring with Annette Bening, Mark Ruffalo, Mia Wasikowska and Josh Hutcherson. The film also won the Best Picture Academy Award. Moore played Jules, a housewife, who was married to Nic (Bening,) an obstetrician. They we’re a married lesbian couple living in California, who each had given birth to a child using the same sperm donor. When their children track down the sperm donor, Paul (Ruffalo) and try to form a relationship with him, Nic and Jules marriage hits the skids. Moore’s depiction of a lesbian who found herself drawn to a man while still in love with a woman was riveting. Moore displayed Jules’ conflicting emotions superbly which I’m sure helped the movie win its numerous accolades.
5. The Lost World: Jurassic Park: This 1997 action film was directed by Steven Spielberg and loosely based on Michael Crichton’s 1995 novel The Lost World. Moore starred opposite Jeff Goldblum, Vince Vaughn, Pete Postlethwaite and Richard Attenborough. Set four years after the events of the hit 1993 film, Moore played Sarah Harding, a paleontologist, who goes on an expedition to the second island inhabited with dinosaurs. Harding is Dr. Ian Malcolm’s (Goldblum’s) on and off girlfriend and he ventures to the island to rescue Harding from certain death, to which she’s oblivious. Moore showed her penchant for action and true physicality as she fought off lethal dinosaurs and made it look easy.
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4. Laws of Attraction: This 2004 romantic comedy had Moore co-starring with Pierce Brosnan, Parker Posey, Frances Fisher and Michael Sheen. Moore played attorney Audrey Woods, who battles fellow attorney Daniel Rafferty (Brosnan) in court and over potential clients. When they are opposing counsels in a divorce involving philandering rock music superstar Thorne Jamison (Sheen) and his fashion designer wife Serena (Posey,) the gloves really come off. When they go to Ireland to determine which party owns an Irish castle, liquor takes over and Rafferty and Woods end up married. Of course, while Audrey’s socialite mother Sara (Fisher) watches, Audrey and Daniel fall in love. Moore showed off her flair for romantic comedy is this role as she and Brosnan got into one hilarious scrape after another and moviegoers were laughing and falling in love along with them!
3. Nine Months: This 1995 romantic comedy directed by Chris Columbus was a remake of the French film Neuf Mois and had Moore co-starring Hugh Grant, Tom Arnold, Joan Cusack, Jeff Goldblum and Robin Williams. Moore played ballet teacher Rebecca Taylor, who was in an idyllic relationship with child psychologist Samuel Faulkner (Grant) until Rebecca learned she was pregnant. Samuel’s fears mount when they meet Marty and Gail Dwyer (Arnold and Cusack) and their out-of-control children. Moore displayed all the emotions a pregnant woman endures coupled with dealing with Samuel’s hilarious phobias. Moore and Grant’s scenes with Williams, who played Rebecca’s Russian OB-GYN Dr. Kosevich were downright uproarious.
2. Assassins: Directed by Richard Donner, this 1995 action thriller had Moore co-starring with Sylvester Stallone and Antonio Banderas. Moore played Electra, a skilled computer hacker that becomes the target of rival assassins Robert Rath (Stallone) and Miguel Bain (Banderas.) Moore held her own against these two, aligning with Rath, who wants to retire but who Bain still sees as a threat to his status as long as he’s alive. Moore and Stallone were a perfect action pair as they weaved through bullets, explosions and betrayals.
1. An Ideal Husband: Based on the Oscar Wilde play of the same name, this 1999 romantic comedy had Moore co-starring with a bevy of Hollywood stars like Minnie Driver, Rupert Everett, Cate Blanchett and Jeremy Northam. Moore played Mrs. Laura Cheveley, who possessed evidence of a past misdeed by the now successful and well-off English Government minister Robert Chiltern (Northam.) Moore infused her character with slick facial expressions and a conniving spirit but even with all that, she made the character charming. IMO, Moore’s best role to date!