Rebecca De Mornay was born 1959 as Rebecca Jane Pearch, in Santa Rosa, CA, to Wally George and Julie Eager. Her parents divorced when she was young, and her mother moved to Pasadena and married Richard De Mornay, who adopted her. After her stepfather's untimely death in 1962, Rebecca's mother moved her and her half-brother Peter to Europe, where she was raised primarily in England and Austria. In 1977, Rebecca graduated "summa cum laude" from a German-speaking high school in the Austrian alps, and still speaks fluent German and French.
She began her acting training in Los Angeles at Lee Strasberg's Institute, became an apprentice at Francis Ford Coppola's Zoetrope
Film Studio, and soon thereafter made her film debut in Einer mit Herz (1981). Her breakthrough came in the box office hit Lockere Geschäfte (1983), in which she gave a seductive and critically acclaimed performance as a streetwise prostitute opposite Tom Cruise. She went on to international stardom with her portrayal of a chillingly twisted nanny in the hugely popular Die Hand an der Wiege (1992). Other acclaimed film work includes Runaway Train (1985) (with Jon Voight), A Trip to Bountiful - Reise ins Glück (1985) (with Geraldine Page), Backdraft - Männer, die durchs Feuer gehen (1991) (with Kurt Russell).
Network television work includes the tour-de-force role of Arlie in the stellar Die Fesseln der Vergangenheit (1994) (based on Marsha Norman's play), the
tragic title character in Dominick Dunne's Späte Leidenschaft (1991) (with Jason Robards), the remake of The Shining (1997) (produced by
Stephen King), a multi-episode story arc about a cancer survivor on Emergency Room: Die Notaufnahme (1994) and Hallmark Hall of Fame's Das Herz einer Familie (1999)
(with Ellen Burstyn).
On stage, she starred as Billie Dawn in "Born Yesterday" (1988) at the Pasadena Playhouse, as Charlotte Corday in "Marat/Sade" (1990) at the
Williamstown Festival, and as Anna in "Closer" (2000) at the Mark Taper Forum.
Rebecca's directing debut was with a segment of Showtime's Outer Limits: Die unbekannte Dimension (1995) starring John Savage and Frank Whaley. Divorced from producer/screenwriter Bruce Wagner, Rebecca 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.
