Rebecca De Mornay

Rebecca De Mornay (born Rebecca Jane Pearch; August 29, 1959)[1] is an American actress and producer. Her breakthrough film role came in 1983, when she starred as Lana in Risky Business. She is known for her role as Debby Huston in the Neil Simon film The Slugger's Wife. De Mornay is also known for her roles in Runaway Train (1985), The Trip to Bountiful (1985), Backdraft (1991), and The Hand That Rocks the Cradle (1992).

Rebecca De Mornay
De Mornay in 2006
Born	Rebecca Jane Pearch August 29, 1959 Santa Rosa, California, U.S.
Other names	Rebecca George
Occupation	Actress, producer
Years active	1981–present
Spouse(s)	Bruce Wagner ​ ​ (m. 1986; div. 1990)​
Partner(s)	Patrick O'Neal (1995–2002)
Children	2
Parent(s)	Wally George Julie Pearch

Her other film credits include The Three Musketeers (1993), Never Talk to Strangers (1995), Identity (2003), Lords of Dogtown, Wedding Crashers (both 2005), and Mother's Day (2010). On television, she starred as Wendy Torrance in the miniseries adaptation of The Shining (1997), and as Dorothy Walker on Marvel's Jessica Jones (2015–19).

Early life

De Mornay was born Rebecca Jane Pearch in Santa Rosa, California, in 1959[2] (although many sources erroneously list 1961 or 1962).[3][4][5][6][7] Her parents were Julie (née Eagar)[8] and Wally George (né George Walter Pearch), a disc jockey and later television host.[9] Her paternal grandmother was vaudeville performer and child film actress Eugenia Clinchard.

Her parents divorced when she was two years old.[10] She took her stepfather's surname, De Mornay, when she was five. She attended the independent Summerhill School in Leiston, Suffolk, England.[11] She later trained as an actress in New York at the Lee Strasberg Institute.[12]

Career

De Mornay's film debut was a small part in Francis Ford Coppola's 1981 film One from the Heart, which starred her real-life partner at the time, Harry Dean Stanton.[13][14] Her star-making role came two years later in Risky Business (1983), as a call girl who seduces a high-school student played by Tom Cruise. In 1985, she played the title role in The Slugger's Wife opposite Michael O'Keefe, and co-starred in The Trip to Bountiful and Runaway Train, both of which were nominated for several Academy Awards. That same year, she appeared with Starship's Mickey Thomas in the music video for the song "Sara". The song reached #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart on March 15, 1986.

She also appeared in Roger Vadim's provocative 1988 remake of And God Created Woman, and as the wife of Kurt Russell's character in Ron Howard's Backdraft (1991). One of De Mornay's most commercially successful films was the thriller The Hand That Rocks the Cradle, released in 1992. She starred as a defense lawyer in Sidney Lumet's murder drama Guilty as Sin (1993) with Don Johnson. Then she appeared in the 1995 drama film Never Talk to Strangers opposite Antonio Banderas, for which she was also the executive producer.

In 2003, she guest-starred as primary antagonist in the first two episodes of season 2 of Boomtown. In 2004, she guest-starred as attorney Hannah Rose for the last few episodes of The Practice and the following year, had a brief role alongside Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn in Wedding Crashers. De Mornay also starred in the 2007 drama American Venus.[1]

In June 2007, she appeared in the HBO series John from Cincinnati with a starring role as matriarch of a troubled Imperial Beach, California surfing family and the grandmother/guardian of a teen surfer on the brink of greatness. She appeared in Darren Lynn Bousman's Mother's Day (2010).

In 2012, De Mornay played the role of Finch's mom in the movie American Reunion where she portrayed an attractive older woman and a love interest of Stifler. From 2015 to 2019, she appeared in Marvel's Jessica Jones as Trish Walker's abusive mother.[15]

Personal life

De Mornay married writer Bruce Wagner on December 16, 1986; they divorced in 1990.[16]

De Mornay subsequently dated and was briefly engaged to singer Leonard Cohen.[17][18] She co-produced Cohen's 1992 album The Future, which is also dedicated to her with an inscription that quotes Rebecca's coming to the well from the chapter 24 Book of Genesis[19] and giving drink to Eliezer's camels, after he prayed for the help.[20]

De Mornay had a relationship with actor turned sportcaster Patrick O'Neal that produced two daughters: Sophia (born November 16, 1997) and Veronica (born March 31, 2001).[21][22]

Filmography

Film

Rebecca De Mornay film work

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1982	One from the Heart	Understudy	Credited as Rebecca de Mornay
1983	Risky Business	Lana
1983	Testament	Cathy Pitkin
1985	The Slugger's Wife	Debby Palmer
1985	Runaway Train	Sara
1985	The Trip to Bountiful	Thelma
1987	Beauty and the Beast	Beauty
1988	Feds	Elizabeth "Ellie" DeWitt
1988	And God Created Woman	Robin Shea Moran
1989	Dealers	Anna Schuman
1990	By Dawn's Early Light	Captain Moreau, USAF
1991	Backdraft	Helen McCaffrey
1992	The Hand That Rocks the Cradle	Mrs. Mott / Peyton Flanders	MTV Movie Award for Best Villain
1993	Guilty as Sin	Jennifer Haines
1993	The Three Musketeers	Milady de Winter
1995	Never Talk to Strangers	Dr. Sarah Taylor	Executive producer
1996	The Winner	Louise	Credited as Rebecca DeMornay
1999	Thick as Thieves	Petrone
1999	A Table for One	Ruth Draper
2000	The Right Temptation	Derian McCall
2003	Identity	Caroline Suzanne	Credited as Rebecca DeMornay
2004	Raise Your Voice	Aunt Nina
2005	Lords of Dogtown	Philaine
2005	Wedding Crashers	Mrs. Kroeger
2007	American Venus	Celia Lane
2007	Music Within	Mrs. Pimental
2010	Flipped	Patsy Loski
2010	Mother's Day	Natalie "Mother" Koffin
2011	A Fonder Heart	Dr. Bach
2011	Apartment 1303 3D	Maddie Slate
2012	American Reunion	Rachel Finch
2015	Collar	Mayor Ramona 'Nomi' Billingsley
2016	I Am Wrath	Vivian Hill
2018	Periphery	Vi Warner
2020	She Ball	Aggie

Television

Rebecca De Mornay television work

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1986	Tall Tales & Legends	Slew Foot Sue	Episode: "Pecos Bill"
1986	The Murders in the Rue Morgue (1986 film)	Claire Dupin	Television film
1990	By Dawn's Early Light	Captain Moreau	Television film
1991	An Inconvenient Woman	Flo March	Television film
1993	Blind Side	Linda Kaines	Television film
1994	Getting Out	Arlene Holsclaw	Television film
1995	The Outer Limits	Woman	Episode: "The Conversion". Also directed the episode.
1997	The Shining	Wendy Torrance	Miniseries
1998	The Con	Barbara Beaton / Nancy Thoroughgood	Television film
1999	Night Ride Home	Nora Mahler	Television film
1999	ER	Elaine Nichols	5 episodes
2000	Range of Motion	Lainey Berman	Television film
2001	A Girl Thing	Kim McCormack	Television film
2002	Salem Witch Trials	Elizabeth Parris	Television film
2003	No Place Like Home		Television film
2003	Boomtown	Sabrina Fithian / Jill Foster	2 episodes
2004	The Practice	Hannah Rose	4 episodes
2006	Law & Order: Special Victims Unit	Tessa McKellen	Episode: "Manipulated"
2007	John from Cincinnati	Cissy Yost	5 episodes
2013	Hatfields & McCoys	Mary Hatfield	Unaired pilot
2013	Hawaii Five-0	Barbara Cotchin	Episode: "A ia la aku"
2015–2019	Jessica Jones	Dorothy Walker	13 episodes
2016	Lucifer	Penelope Decker	2 episodes

Music videos

Rebecca De Mornay music video work

Year	Artist	Song	Role
1985	Starship	"Sara"	Sara

References

1. "Rebecca De Mornay reportedly arrested for DUI". USA Today. Associated Press. July 11, 2007. Retrieved 2010-12-11. Associated Press records indicate De Mornay's age is 45, while some other sources give it as 48.
2. "Rebecca J Pearch - Sonoma County Birth Records". familytreenow.com. Retrieved February 17, 2018.
3. "washingtonpost.com: Rebecca De Mornay Filmography". washingtonpost.com. Retrieved February 17, 2018.
4. "De Mornay, Rebecca 1961 (?)". encyclopedia.com. Retrieved February 17, 2018.
5. Kamarauskas, K. "Screenshots and Info on Actress Rebecca De Mornay". thespiannet.com. Retrieved February 17, 2018.
6. "Rebecca De Mornay Filmography and Movies - Fandango". fandango.com. Retrieved February 17, 2018.
7. Thomson, David (October 26, 2010). "The New Biographical Dictionary of Film: Completely Updated and Expanded". Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group – via Google Books.
8. "Person Details for Rebecca J Pearch, "California, Birth Index, 1905-1995" — FamilySearch.org". Familysearch.org. Retrieved 2014-12-25.
9. Hammer, Joshua (February 27, 1984). "Rabble-Rouser Wally George Is the New Pitchman and Great Right Hope of TV Squawk Shows". People. 21 (8). Retrieved 2010-12-11.
10. https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000360/bio
11. Smithers, Rebecca (March 24, 2000). "Radical boarding school escapes closure threat". The Guardian. London: Guardian News and Media Limited. Retrieved 2010-08-30.
12. "Rebecca De Morney — about this person". The New York Times. Retrieved 2010-12-11.
13. Catsoulis, Jeannette (2013-09-10). "Harry Dean Stanton Looks at the Actor's Life". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2017-10-02.
14. "Notes on the New Harry Dean Stanton Documentary". vice.com. September 20, 2013. Retrieved February 17, 2018.
15. Abad-Santos, Alex (November 23, 2015). "In Marvel's Jessica Jones, women get stuff done while men just talk about women". Vox. Vox Media. Retrieved 2015-11-24.
16. "Still Holding, Bruce Wagner — book review". New York Magazine. November 3, 2003. Retrieved 2010-12-11.
17. King, Randall (August 29, 2009). "Rebecca De Mornay joins film's killer cast". Winnipeg Free Press. Retrieved 2013-01-27.
18. Cohen, Leonard (June 1, 1993). "Knowing Rebecca de Mornay Like Only Leonard Cohen Can". Interview magazine. Archived from the original on September 19, 2012. Retrieved November 19, 2010.
19. Cohen, Leonard (2012). "The Future". A Record by Leonard Cohen. Leonardcohencroatia.com. Archived from the original on March 9, 2012. Retrieved February 20, 2012.
20. The Online Jewish Book Community (June 2006). "Book of Longing (Review)". Reviews & Articles. www.leonardcohencroatia.com. Archived from the original on March 9, 2012. Retrieved February 20, 2012.
21. "Passages". Archived from the original on 2016-04-03.
22. "Star Tracks". Archived from the original on 2016-04-03.

Further reading

• "The Key to Rebecca". Saturday Review. 12 (1): 30–34. January–February 1986.
• Tykus, Michael J. (2000). "Rebecca de Mornay". Contemporary Theatre, Film, and Television. 29. Gale Research Co. p. 135. ISBN 978-0-7876-3188-8.
• Room, Adrian (2010). "Rebecca de Mornay". Dictionary of Pseudonyms: 13,000 Assumed Names and Their Origins (5th ed.). McFarland. p. 141. ISBN 978-0-7864-4373-4.
• Segrave, Kerry; Martin, Linda (1990). "Rebecca de Mornay". The Post-Feminist Hollywood Actress: biographies and filmographies of stars born after 1939. McFarland & Co. pp. 265–269. ISBN 978-0-89950-387-5.
• Aylesworth, Thomas G.; Bowman, John S.; Fairbanks, Douglas (1992). "De Mornay, Rebecca". World Guide to Film Stars. Great Pond. p. 69. ISBN 978-1-56657-007-7.
• Sleeman, Elizabeth (2001). "De Mornay, Rebecca". The International Who's Who of Women 2002 (3rd ed.). Routledge. p. 131. ISBN 978-1-85743-122-3.
• Riggs, Thomas, ed. (2005). "De MORNAY, Rebecca". Contemporary Theatre, Film and Television: A Biographical Guide. 64. Gale / Cengage Learning. ISBN 978-0-7876-9037-3.

External links

• Rebecca De Mornay at IMDb
• Rebecca De Mornay at the TCM Movie Database
• Rebecca De Mornay at Rotten Tomatoes