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Rebecca De Mornay (born Rebecca J. Pearch on August 29, 1959) is an American actress with Swiss roots. She was born in Santa Rosa, California and raised by her mother Julie and stepfather Richard De Mornay. Her birth father was the conservative radio and television commentator Wally George, but their relationship was famously stormy and they were estranged for the fifteen years before his death. Rebecca grew up in France and went to college in the United Kingdom. She studied acting at the Lee Strasberg-Institute in New York (which also at one time included veterans Mickey Rourke, Robert De Niro and Christopher Walken). Her film debut came with a small part in Francis Ford Coppola's One from the Heart (1982), which was followed by the very successful Risky Business (1983) with Tom Cruise. That film propelled her into a short-lived period of super-stardom, which deteriorated slightly after she began taking lesser roles.

De Mornay's most successful film to date was The Hand That Rocks the Cradle (1992). In 2004, she guest starred as attorney Hannah Rose for the final few episodes of The Practice and the following year had a brief role alongside Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn in Wedding Crashers.

She lived with Tom Cruise for 30 months after they met in Risky Business. In the early 1990s De Mornay was linked romantically to Leonard Cohen. She is credited as a producer and arranger on his critically acclaimed album The Future (1992).

She has the odd distinction of having had a character in a television series named for her: in Seinfeld episodes "The Muffin Tops" and "The Bookstore", actress Sonya Eddy played a thrift store clerk named Rebecca De Mornay.

She is currently married to Patrick O'Neal, whose father is Ryan O'Neal. They have two children.

Partial filmography

• Wedding Crashers (2005)
• Lords of Dogtown (2004)
• Raise Your Voice (2004)
• Identity (2003)
• The Salem Witch Trials (2001)
• The Right Temptation (2000)
• A Table for One (aka Wicked Ways) (1999)
• Thick as Thieves (1999)
• The Con (1998)
• The Winner (1996)
• Never Talk to Strangers (1995)
• The Three Musketeers (1993)
• Guilty as Sin (1993)
• The Hand That Rocks the Cradle (1992)
• Backdraft (1991)
• By Dawn's Early Light (1990)
• Dealers (1989)
• Feds (1988)
• And God Created Woman (1988)
• Beauty and the Beast (1987)
• Runaway Train (1985)
• "Sara (Jefferson Starship music video)" 1985
• The Slugger's Wife (aka Neil Simon's The Slugger's Wife) (1985)
• The Trip to Bountiful (1985)
• Testament (1983)
• Risky Business (1983
• One from the Heart (1982)

External links

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