Rebecca De Mornay was born Rebecca Jane Pearch in 1959 in Santa Rosa, California, to Wally George and Julie Eager. Her parents divorced when she was young, and her mother, Julie, married Richard De Mornay, who adopted her. After her stepfather's untimely death in 1962, Rebecca's mother, Julie, moved her and her half-brother, Peter, to Europe, where she was primarily raised in England and Austria.
Rebecca's early life was marked by her mother's remarriage and subsequent move to Europe. She was raised primarily in the Austrian Alps, where she graduated "summa cum laude" from a German-speaking high school in 1977. She is fluent in German and French, skills she honed during her time in Europe.
Rebecca's interest in acting led her to begin her training in Los Angeles at Lee Strasberg's Institute. She later became an apprentice at Francis Ford Coppola's Zoetrope Film Studio, where she made her film debut in One from the Heart (1981). Her breakthrough performance came in the box office hit Risky Business (1983),in which she played a seductive and critically acclaimed role as a streetwise prostitute opposite Tom Cruise.
Her subsequent film work includes Runaway Train (1985) with Jon Voight, The Trip to Bountiful (1985) with Geraldine Page, Backdraft (1991) with Kurt Russell, and The Hand That Rocks the Cradle (1992),in which she played a chillingly twisted nanny. Her portrayal of the nanny earned her international stardom and critical acclaim.
In addition to her film work, Rebecca has also made significant contributions to network television. She has appeared in a number of notable roles, including Arlie in the Getting Out (1994),the title character in Dominick Dunne's An Inconvenient Woman (1991) with Jason Robards, and a multi-episode story arc about a cancer survivor on ER (1994). She has also appeared in Hallmark Hall of Fame's Night Ride Home (1999) with Ellen Burstyn.
On stage, Rebecca has starred in a number of productions, including Billie Dawn in "Born Yesterday" (1988) at the Pasadena Playhouse, Charlotte Corday in "Marat/Sade" (1990) at the Williamstown Festival, and Anna in "Closer" (2000) at the Mark Taper Forum.
Rebecca made her directing debut with a segment of Showtime's The Outer Limits (1995) starring John Savage and Frank Whaley. She is divorced from producer/screenwriter Bruce Wagner and has two daughters, Sophia DeMornay-O'Neal and Veronica De Mornay-O'Neal, both fathered by sportscaster Patrick O'Neal, who is eight years her junior.
