Nicole Mary Kidman was born on June 20, 1967, in Honolulu, Hawaii. Though she spent the first few years of her life living in the States, Nicole Kidman, along with her parents and baby sister, moved permanently to Sydney, Australia, when she was just 4 years old. Nicole Kidman’s penchant for the theatrical became evident fairly early on, and her inherently graceful nature initially led her to the world of ballet.
It didn’t take long for Nicole Kidman to start dabbling in other stage-centric activities, though it wasn’t until she took on a role as a sheep in a school Christmas pageant that she first developed in interest in acting. As she progressed into her teens, Nicole Kidman devoted virtually all of her spare waking moments to improving her skills as an actress -- to such an extent that she dropped out of high school to pursue a career within the local film scene.
Nicole Kidman was just 16 years old when she landed a small role in the 1983 Australian drama Bush Christmas, which paved the way for her to work steadily over the next several years (in ’83 alone she appeared in three other films). Though she had become a familiar face among Australian viewers, Nicole Kidman was itching to make a similar impact within North America. Her opportunity came in 1989 when she successfully auditioned for a starring role opposite Sam Neill and Billy Zane in the hit thriller Dead Calm, which firmly established her as one of Down Under’s most promising imports.
On her very next project, 1990’s racing drama Days of Thunder, Nicole Kidman found herself falling for costar Tom Cruise, and their whirlwind romance culminated with a Christmas Eve marriage later that year. She went on to share the screen with her A-list husband twice more prior to their 2001 divorce in the 1992 Ron Howard drama Far and Away and the 1999 Stanley Kubrick thriller Eyes Wide Shut (the latter is suspected to have played a role in the disintegration of Nicole Kidman and Tom Cruise’s marriage, as the shoot went on for an arduous three years).
Though she had spent the 1990s appearing in such box-office hits as 1993’s My Life, 1995’s Batman Forever and 1997’s The Peacemaker, Nicole Kidman’s status as a bankable leading lady didn’t come about until the one-two punch of Moulin Rouge! and The Others in 2001. She followed those hits up with roles in acclaimed dramas like 2002’s The Hours, 2003’s Dogville and 2003’s Cold Mountain, although, in recent years, her box-office appeal has started to falter due to appearances in a string of critical and financial failures (including 2005’s Bewitched and 2007’s The Invasion). Her personal life fared far better during this time, however, as Nicole Kidman’s relationship with country singer Keith Urban led to a marriage and a child.