Nicole Kidman

NAME

Nicole Kidman

DATE OF BIRTH

June 20, 1967

BIRTH PLACE

Honolulu, Hawaii

Nicole Kidman: Snapshot

Don't be fooled by the porcelain skin and To Die For looks. Nicole Kidman's got acting chops. The Oscar winner proves that perfection in skill and beauty can both be had. 

After her 10-year marriage to Tom Cruise ended in 2001, the media was waiting for Kidman to break a sweat, instead, she kept working, avoiding the media tsunami set off by her ex and his frenzied courting of Katie Holmes. Kidman continued to get richer, literally (earning $3.71 million for a Chanel commercial) and figuratively (winning an Oscar for Best Actress in The Hours in 2003).

Shortly after marrying country music sensation Keith Urban in 2006, Kidman stood by her man when he entered rehab for alcohol abuse. Now, the regal movie star is living her domestic dream with Urban and their two daughters, Sunday Rose and Faith Margaret.

Nicole Kidman: Five Fun Facts

1. In 1973, Nicole Kidman was passed over for the role of Little Orphan Annie in the musical Annie because she was taller than the boy playing Daddy Warbucks.

2. Nicole Kidman is a lepidopterophobe: she is terrified of butterflies. "It's so bizarre. I'm not afraid of snakes or spiders. But I'm scared of butterflies," she told In Style.

3. Nicole Kidman's mother was a feminist and wouldn't let her daughter have a Barbie doll. "She thought it was sexist. A male fantasy figure," Kidman told Entertainment Weekly. "So I stole one."

4. Nicole Kidman had her first kiss onstage in a production of the play Spring Awakening when she was 14. "It was a really, really great kiss, and I would look forward to it every night," she told In Style. "I tell you, I learned that I loved to kiss."

5. When she was 17, Nicole Kidman sang in an Australian band called Divine Madness. "Three girls and four guys. We did a lot of '70s stuff. I did Kate Bush, I did Blondie, I did Chaka Khan...We played at parties and one pub gig. We never got paid," she told In Style.

Nicole Kidman: Biography

circa 1970

Aussie Love

Kidman moves to Sydney with her parents, Dr. Anthony Kidman, a biologist and psychologist, and Janelle, a nurse. She delights in her new surroundings. "There's something about the place," she later says in a Time article. "It's the smell of the gum leaves. Australia's in my blood, it's in my humor ...I love [Sydney's] zest for life and the openness of us Aussies."

1980s

Best Mates

The aspiring actress meets Naomi Watts at an open call for a bikini ad, and Watts becomes a close friend and confidante. "We had to sit and wait, both in swimsuits, feeling incredibly embarrassed," Watts recalls to PEOPLE. "And neither of us got the job!" In 1990, they appear together in Flirting, also starring Thandie Newton. 

1983 

December

Big and Small Screens

Local theater gigs help Kidman land a role in the 1983 teen crime caper movie, BMX Bandits. At the same time, Kidman appears in the movie, Bush Christmas, which becomes a holiday classic in Australia, airing every December. Kidman becomes one of the most famous faces in Australia.

1989 

April 07

Calm Before the Tom

Kidman lands the lead role in the sea thriller Dead Calm, also starring Sam Neill and Billy Zane. The film is a modest hit but wins her recognition in the U.S. After seeing Kidman in Dead Calm, Tom Cruise creates a role for her in Days of Thunder as his love interest. When she meets him, "He took my breath away," Kidman later tells Rolling Stone.

1990 

December 24

Nic & Tom Say I Do!

Kidman marries Cruise in Telluride, Colo., with self-written marital vows. Emilio Estevez is the best man and Kidman's sister Antonia is a bridesmaid. "We have so much in common that it's almost as it we are the same person," Kidman says. "We know what it takes to make each other happy."

1992 

May 22

Labor of Love

Five months after getting married, the newlyweds begin work on Far and Away, a critically acclaimed film but a box office failure. For Kidman, acting alongside her superstar husband entangles her public persona with Cruise's. "I didn't realize when I made Far and Away how much I would then be defined and judged in relation to him," she tells the Boston Globe.

1993 

January 22

Welcoming Isabella & Connor!

Cruise, 30, and Kidman, 25, announce the adoption of a baby they name Isabella Jane Kidman Cruise. Two years later, in February 1995, Kidman and Cruise adopt son Connor Antony Kidman Cruise.

1995 

September 27

Golden Girl

In Gus Van Sant's To Die For, Kidman shines as murderous TV weatherwoman Suzanne Maretto. "Even though Suzanne's totally wild and has a completely different moral code from the rest of us, I think there was something really cool about her," Kidman tells Time. She gets rave reviews and wins her first Golden Globe award.

1996 

November

The Eyes Have It

Kidman and Cruise begin a 19-month shoot (November 1996 to June 1998) on Stanley Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut. Although success eluded them the last time they worked together, they find this script irresistible. "In your life there are certain times when it's the right time to work together," Kidman later tells PEOPLE at the film's L.A. premiere in 1999. "Who knows when the next time will be?"

1998 

September

 Truly Blue

Kidman makes headlines around the world with her London stage debut in The Blue Room, with one British theater critic dubbing her brief nudity "pure theatrical Viagra."

2000 

Injured on Set

Kidman breaks a rib and tears cartilage in her knee while filming the musical Moulin Rouge!. "I had to do these kicks down the stairs in incredibly high heels," she tells In Style, "and I slipped and continued to dance all that night. And worked for three more weeks on it. I just shredded it."

2001 

February 07

Shocking Split!

Six weeks after celebrating their 10-year wedding anniversary, Kidman is taken totally by surprise when Cruise files for divorce. Cryptically, Cruise tells a source on the set of Minority Report that "Nic knows exactly why we are getting the divorce," providing fodder for much speculation. In March, Kidman suffers a miscarriage that sparks chatter of her cheating, but she denies any infidelity and friends insist Cruise was the father. 

August 08

It's Final

The Kidman-Cruise divorce is finalized. From a combined estate of $350 million, Kidman keeps the couple's $4.3 million home in Pacific Palisades and a house in Sydney worth $4 million. Cruise keeps the 280-acre estate in Telluride, Colo., and his airplanes, including a $100,000 Pitts S-2B, a $1.2 million Beech F90 and a $28 million-plus Gulfstream IV jet. All other details of the settlement are sealed. Kidman and Cruise share custody of the children.

December

Alone and on Top

Entertainment Weekly names Kidman Entertainer of the Year for her "stamina, her resilience and her talent, her ability to bewitch and surprise us with every new performance, and her constant fight to exceed all expectations – including her own." In 2002, Kidman will top PEOPLE's annual 50 Most Beautiful list, a choice managing editor Martha Nelson calls a "natural one." In 2007, she makes her eighth appearance on the annual list.

2002 

July 15

Cold Call Time

Kidman begins working on Cold Mountain, which also stars Renée Zellweger, Natalie Portman and Jude Law. Kidman's portrayal of a Southern belle in the epic Civil War romance earns her another Golden Globe nod.

2003 

March 23

Kidman's Oscar Win

Kidman wins the Best Actress Oscar for her portrayal of Virginia Woolf in The Hours, a role that had her wearing a prosthetic nose and made her virtually unrecognizable. When Kidman's name is called, "I just went blank," she tells PEOPLE. "Everything I had thought in my head that I might say was gone. Gone. I couldn't think of anyone's names. Nothing. It was terrifying, and my hands started to shake."

September 30

A Rockin' New Love

After she is seen with Lenny Kravitz all summer in Manhattan, Kidman announces that she is indeed dating the rocker. "They're very close," spokeswoman Leslee Dart says to PEOPLE. "He's very important to her." A ring on one of Kidman's left fingers sparks engagement rumors, but her rep says, "I think it's a ring she [already] had." The relationship does not last. 

Channeling Chanel

Kidman wins a libel suit against a British tabloid that suggested she had an on-set affair with Jude Law during filming of Cold Mountain. Later that year, Kidman becomes the new face of Chanel No. 5 and stars in a three-minute commercial for which she is paid a whopping $3.71 million.

2006 

May 16

Kidman's Fiancé

After meeting country singer Keith Urban in January 2005, Kidman hosts the 30th Anniversary gala for UNIFEM (United Nations Development Fund for Women), where she serves as Goodwill Ambassador, in New York City. She brings Urban who turns out to be more than her boyfriend. "He's actually my fiancé," Kidman tells PEOPLE exclusively. 

June 25

An Aussie Good Time

Kidman and Urban tie the knot in a candlelit ceremony at Cardinal Cerretti Memorial Chapel on St. Patrick's Estate at Manly, in Australia. The bride wears a dress by Nicolas Ghesquière for Balenciaga. In addition to family members, Kidman welcomes members of Hollywood's "Aussie Posse" including Russell Crowe, Hugh Jackman and Naomi Watts. 

October 19

The Honeymoon is Over

Kidman stands by her husband's side as he checks into a rehab for alcohol abuse. "I deeply regret the hurt this has caused Nicole and the ones that love and support me," Urban says in a statement. "One can never let one's guard down in recovery, and I'm afraid that I have." Kidman visits Urban in rehab. The two are reunited when he is released from rehab in January.

2007 

October

'I Needed to Get a Life'

In an interview with Vanity Fair, Kidman recounts her attempts to bear a child with Tom Cruise and the loneliness she felt when she won the Best Actress Oscar in 2003: "It felt big. It felt lonely and big. You're in a hotel and you're like, okay well, I'm sitting in this big suite with an Oscar, and I still don't have a life. What is wrong with me? It hit home that I needed to get a life. Who do I jump on the bed with, and celebrate with, and order pancakes with?"

2008 

July 07

Nicole & Keith Welcome Sunday

After years of struggling to have a baby, Kidman gives birth to her and Urban's first child together, a daughter they name Sunday Rose. "We feel immensely blessed and grateful to be given this beautiful baby girl," the couple says in an exclusive statement to PEOPLE. "She's an absolute delight."

2009 

December 25

Back to Work

In director Rob Marshall's dazzling all-star showdown, Nine, Kidman returns to her movie-musical ways, as leading man Daniel Day-Lewis' movie star muse. "I was not looking to go back to work. I went back to work because this was ... the perfect kind of scenario," she says of the film – which also stars Kate Hudson, Penélope Cruz and Fergie.

2010 

December 17

Passion Project

Kidman earns a Best Actress Oscar nomination for her role as a grieving mother mourning the loss of her young son in Rabbit Hole, which she also produces. "This is a passion project for Nicole," Aaron Eckhart, who plays Kidman's husband, tells the New York Times. "The reason why I'm in the movie is Nicole. If she wants to work with somebody, then that's what happens." 

December 28

A Little 'Faith'

Kidman and Urban welcome their second daughter together, Faith Margaret, via surrogate. "Our family is truly blessed, and just so thankful, to have been given the gift of baby Faith Margaret," the couple says in a statement. "No words can adequately convey the incredible gratitude that we feel for everyone who was so supportive throughout this process, in particular our gestational carrier."

2012 

May 28

Historic Heroine

Kidman stars in the HBO film Hemingway & Gellhorn as Martha Gellhorn, a fearless World War II journalist and third wife of Ernest Hemingway, played by Clive Owen. The movie highlights the romantic yet tumultuous relationship between the novelist and his publicly revered lover. "Her main thrust as a woman was not as a mother or a wife," the actress tells USA Today. "It was as a career woman, a journalist and a war correspondent, and I think that was important for her,that she was recognized as that. We need women like that in the world."

Photos

NICOLE KIDMAN

It's summer Down Under and Nicole is dressed appropriately! She arrives at Sydney's AACTA Awards in a strapless pale yellow Erdem dress with floral embroidery, dangling earrings and Brian Atwood heels.

AUSSIE ARRRIVAL

G'day, baby! Nicole Kidman gets a warm welcome from hubby Keith Urban – and a helping hand from buddy Russell Crowe – after touching down in Sydney, Australia, on Wednesday with daughters Sunday, 4½, and Faith, 2, in tow.

TRIPLE TEAM

After a glamorous appearance at Sunday's SAG Awards, an exhilarated Nicole Kidman gets back to her beaming beauties, 2-year-old daughter Faith and 4½-year-old Sunday, for a flight out of LAX on Monday.

GIRL POWER

Close friends Nicole Kidman and Naomi Watts display their bond with matching black dresses at the 24th Annual Producers Guild Award in Beverly Hills on Saturday.

CLOSE ENCOUNTER

Besties Naomi Watts and Nicole Kidman make it a girls' night out on the red carpet before heading into the Beverly Hilton.

ILLUSION NECKLINES

Another major relief: The sheer skirts trend seems to have abated a bit in favor of the sheer neckline, as spotted on Anne Hathaway (in Giambattista Valli Couture), Nicole Kidman (wearing Vivienne Westwood Couture) and Ellie Kemper (in seafoam Reem Acra).

COZY KIWIS

Good mates Russell Crowe and Nicole Kidman share a squeeze inside the Shrine.

COLD MOUNTAIN

Costar: Nicole Kidman

Before washing up in the '60s as a jailhouse groupie, the two-time nominee (for The Paperboy and Hemingway & Gellhorn) traveled even further back in time to the Civil War era in 2003's Cold Mountain. Hoffman also starred in the war drama, playing a crooked preacher who befriends Kidman's confederate soldier lover.

MIA WASIKOWSKA & NICOLE KIDMAN

Mulroney's Stoker costars – and on-screen mother-daughter duo – put their heads together for some photo booth fun on Monday.

NICOLE KIDMAN

We should have known she'd end up in our Golden Globes gallery of risk takers when we spotted Nicole earlier in this cropped white pantsuit, dangling Cathy Waterman earrings and funky Nicholas Kirkwood heel, all chosen for to the "Gold Meets Golden" event in L.A.

"I felt shy singing in Moulin Rouge! But peeing – no, not shy."

– Nicole Kidman, on her urination scene with costar Zac Efron in The Paperboy, to The Hollywood Reporter

NICOLE KIDMAN

Nominated for: SAG Award for actress in a supporting role (The Paperboy)

But in 1983...: The Oscar winner made her way to the farmland of rural Australia to hunt down a pair of thieves in the '80s remake of 1947 holiday flick Bush Christmas, which was only the teen's third credited film project.

GOOD SPORTS

Golden Globe nominee Nicole Kidman and her husband, Keith Urban, remain in 'hi' spirits on Friday after attending an L.A. event supporting Olympic athletes.

ALL FOR MWAH!

Best actress nominee for her role in Hemingway & Gellhorn Nicole Kidman gets cheeky with hubby Keith Urban at the HBO after-party.

NICOLE KIDMAN

In case you didn't get the message loud and clear when Gwyneth Paltrow did it, Nicole (in Alexander McQueen) is here to remind you that blondes over the age of 40 can flaunt their midriffs on the red carpet and still look classy.

NICOLE & KEITH

The eyes have it! The Paperboy nominee and her American Idol judge hubby stay locked in on each other.

FAITH URBAN

Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban enjoy some family time Feb. 1 with their littlest girl – she’s turning 2 on Dec. 28 – at lunch in L.A.

NICOLE KIDMAN

Just one Aussie paying homage to other Aussies: The actress from Down Under attends an L.A. event for Australians in an understated black sheath with bright red pumps and a pretty half-up do.

ROYAL WELCOME

Nicole Kidman makes a demure arrival as Princess Grace while on location for the upcoming biopic Grace of Monaco Monday evening in Monaco.

CAPPED OFF

Both taking a break from their busy schedules, Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban stroll through Monaco on Monday, where the actress is currently filming her latest movie, Grace of Monaco.

Source: People