Julia Roberts

Julia Roberts (28.10.1967)

Julia Roberts is one of America's highest paid actresses and is best known for her roles in films such as Pretty Woman and Erin Brockovich.

Julia Roberts: Childhood

Julia Roberts was born in Crawford Long Hospital in Atlanta, Georgia, to Walter Grady Roberts and Betty Lou Motes. Her parents were once actors and playwrights. They also founded the Atlanta Actors and Writers Workshop.

Her parents divorced in 1971 and her father passed away after suffering from cancer, when Julia was 10 years old. Her brother, Eric Roberts and sister, Lisa Roberts Gillan are also actors.

After graduating from Campbell High School, Roberts moved with her sister to New York to enroll in acting classes and signed with the Click modelling agency.

Julia Roberts: Acting Career

Julia Roberts' film debut came in 1989, with two scripted words spoken in the film Blood Red. Her TV debut was a role as a young victim of rape in the Crime Story series with Dennis Farina.

In 1988, Roberts landed a role in the independent film Mystic Pizza as well as featuring in the fourth season of Miami Vice. The next year, she had a role in Steel Magnolias that earned her a Best Supporting Actress Oscar nomination. The film also starred Shirley MacLaine, Dolly Parton, Daryl Hannah and Sally Field.

Julia Roberts' big break came in 1990 when she was cast in Pretty Woman, after Meg Ryan and Molly Ringwald both turned down the role, opposite Richard Gere. Her performance landed her a second Oscar nomination and the film was a huge global success.

The following year, Roberts starred in another box office success, Sleeping With The Enemy. The psychological thriller also starred Patrick Bergin as her disturbed husband. That same year, she took the role of Tinkerbell in Steven Spielberg's Hook. The film also starred Robin Williams and Dustin Hoffman. 1991 was a busy year for Roberts, as she also starred in Dying Young, with Campbell Scott.

After a brief break, Roberts returned in Robert Altman's The Player in 1992, with a cameo appearance and then in 1993, she co-starred with Denzel Washington in The Pelican Brief. The film was an adaptation of a John Grisham novel and was a huge box office success. 1995 saw Roberts take on a brief appearance in the TV sitcom Friends, which starred Jennifer Aniston and David Schwimmer. In 1996, Roberts starred in Michael Collins, opposite Liam Neeson.

Following a few commercial flops, Julia Roberts returned with Notting Hill, in which she starred opposite Hugh Grant. The film was directed by Richard Curtis and also starred Rhys Ifans and Gina McKee. Later on in 1999, The Runaway Bride was released; a lighthearted comedy in which she was reunited with Richard Gere. That year, she also appeared in Stepmom, a drama that also starred Susan Sarandon but was badly received by film critics.

2001 saw an improvement in Robert's fortune when she won the Best Actress Oscar for her performance as Erin Brockovich in the film of the same name. This was followed with a starring role in Steven Soderbergh's Ocean's Eleven and Ocean's Twelve as well as Full Frontal, Soderbergh's ill-received blurring of fiction and reality in the lives of Hollywood's stars.

Later in 2001, Roberts also worked with her long-time friend Brad Pitt, when they both starred in the gangster road movie The Mexican.

In 2006, Roberts provided her voice for two animated features, The Ant Bully and Charlotte's Web.

Her next traditional feature film was Charlie Wilson's War, starring Tom Hanks and Philip Seymour Hoffman.

Julia Roberts has also undertaken a number of stage roles, including her debut Broadway performance, in Three Days of Rain, with Bradley Cooper and Paul Rudd.

Julia Roberts: Personal Life

Julia Roberts has been romantically linked with a number of high profile actors, including Kiefer Sutherland, Benjamin Bratt, Matthew Perry and Liam Neeson. She was once engaged to Dylan McDermott but the pair never married. She was also engaged to Keifer Sutherland, but broke off the engagement just three days before they were due to wed.

In 1993, Roberts married Lyle Lovett, though the marriage only lasted two years.

In 2002, Roberts re-married, this time to Daniel Moder. The pair have twins, Hazel Patricia and Phinnaeus Walter as well as another son, Henry Daniel.