Biography for Nicole Kidman
by Wikipedia

Nicole Mary Kidman, AC (born June 20, 1967) is an Academy Award-winning actress, a UN Citizen of the World award winning humanitarian and a UNIFEM and UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador. In 2006, Kidman was made a Companion of the Order of Australia, Australia's highest civilian honour. In 2006, she was also the highest-paid actress in the motion picture industry.

After making various appearances in film and television, Kidman received her breakthrough role in the 1989 thriller Dead Calm. Her performances in several films, such as To Die For (1995), Moulin Rouge! (2001), and The Hours (2002), have won her much critical acclaim. In 2003, Kidman received her Star on the Walk of Fame in Hollywood, California. She is also well-known for her former marriage to the actor Tom Cruise and her current marriage to the country musician Keith Urban. Because she was born to Australian parents in Hawaii, Kidman has dual citizenship of Australia and the United States.

Kidman was born in Honolulu, Hawaii. Her father, Dr Antony David Kidman, is a biochemist, clinical psychologist and author, with an office in Lane Cove, Sydney. Her mother, Janelle Ann (née Glenny), is a nursing instructor who edits her husband's books and was a member of the Women's Electoral Lobby. At the time of Nicole Kidman's birth, her father was a visiting fellow at the National Institute of Mental Health of the United States. The family returned to Australia permanently when Kidman was four years old and Kidman's parents now reside on Sydney's North Shore. Kidman has a younger sister, Antonia Kidman, who is a journalist.

Kidman attended Lane Cove Public School in her primary school years, and then she attended the North Sydney Girls' High School. She then studied at the Victorian College of the Arts in Melbourne, at the Phillip Street Theatre in Sydney, along with her friend Naomi Watts. This was followed by studies at the Australian Theatre for Young People.

Kidman's first appearance in film came in 1983 when, as a fifteen year-old, she appeared in the Pat Wilson music video for the song "Bop Girl". By the end of the year she had secured a supporting role in the television series Five Mile Creek and four film roles, including BMX Bandits and Bush Christmas. During the 1980s, she appeared in several Australian productions, including the soap opera A Country Practice, the mini-series Vietnam (1986), Emerald City (1988), and Bangkok Hilton (1989).

In 1989, Kidman starred in Dead Calm as Rae Ingram, the wife of naval officer John Ingram (Sam Neill), held captive on a Pacific Ocean yacht trip by the psychotic Hughie Warriner (Billy Zane). The thriller film garnered strong reviews; the staff of Variety.com commented: "Throughout the film, Kidman is excellent. She gives the character of Rae real tenacity and energy." Meanwhile, critic Roger Ebert noted the excellent chemistry between the leads, stating, "...Kidman and Zane do generate real, palpable hatred in their scenes together." In 1990, she appeared opposite Tom Cruise in Days of Thunder, a stock car racing movie. After this, Kidman starred with Cruise in Ron Howard's Far and Away (1992). In 1995, Kidman featured in the ensemble cast of Batman Forever. On November 20, 1993 she hosted Saturday Night Live.

Kidman met Tom Cruise on the set of their 1990 movie, Days of Thunder. Cruise was married to actress Mimi Rogers at the time, and later divorced her. Kidman and Cruise were married on Christmas Eve 1990 in Telluride, Colorado. The couple adopted two children, a daughter Isabella Jane and a son Connor Antony. They separated just after their 10th wedding anniversary. At the time she was 3 months pregnant and subsequently had a miscarriage. Tom Cruise filed for divorce in February 2001. The marriage was dissolved in 2001, with Cruise citing irreconcilable differences as the cause of the divorce. The reasons for the dissolution have never been made public. Also, in an interview for Marie Claire magazine, Kidman mentions that she had an ectopic pregnancy early in their marriage. In an interview in the June 2006 issue of Ladies' Home Journal, Kidman reported that she still loved Tom Cruise. Kidman told the magazine: "He was huge; still is. To me, he was just Tom, but to everybody else, he is huge. But he was lovely to me. And I loved him. I still love him." In addition, she has expressed shock about their divorce.

The 2003 film Cold Mountain was plagued by rumours that an on-set affair between Kidman and co-star Jude Law was responsible for the break-up of his marriage. Both vehemently denied the allegations, and Kidman eventually won an undisclosed sum from the British tabloids that published the story. She donated the money to a Romanian orphanage in the town where the movie was filmed. Robbie Williams confirmed that they had a short 'romance' on her yacht in summer 2004. Shortly after her Oscar win, there were unconfirmed rumours of a relationship between her and fellow Oscar winner Adrien Brody. She met musician Lenny Kravitz in 2003 and dated him into 2004.

Kidman met country singer Keith Urban at G'Day LA, an event honouring Australians in January 2005. Kidman and Urban were married on Sunday June 25, 2006, at the Cardinal Cerretti Memorial Chapel in the grounds of St Patrick's Estate, Manly in Sydney. They maintain homes in Sydney, Los Angeles and Nashville, Tennessee. In March 2008, they purchased mansions in both Los Angeles^[and Nashville within the span of a few days.

After constant speculation by the press, on January 8, 2008, it was confirmed that Kidman was 3 months pregnant. The couple welcomed their first child, daughter Sunday Rose Kidman Urban, on July 7, 2008, in Nashville, Tennessee. It was then revealed the next day by Nicole's father that their daughter's unusual first name was Sunday, and that her middle name was after Urban's late grandmother, Rose.^[

Kidman was raised a Roman Catholic and currently is a practicing Catholic.^[She attended Mary Mackillop Chapel in North Sydney. During her marriage to Tom Cruise, she had been an occasional practitioner of Scientology.

Kidman's name was included in an advertisement in the Los Angeles Times (August 17, 2006) that condemned organizations Hamas and Hezbollah, and supported Israel's efforts in the 2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict.^[

Kidman has made numerous donations to U.S. Democratic party candidates and endorsed John Kerry in the 2004 presidential election.

Kidman publicly supports a variety of charities and causes. She has been a Goodwill Ambassador for UNICEF Australia since 1994. She has worked to help raise money for and draw attention to the plight of the most disadvantaged children in Australia and around the world. In 2004, she was honoured as a "Citizen of the World" by the United Nations.

On January 26, 2006 (Australia Day), Kidman received Australia's highest civilian honour when she was made a Companion of the Order of Australia, for "service to the performing arts as an acclaimed motion picture performer, to health care through contributions to improve medical treatment for women and children and advocacy for cancer research, to youth as a principal supporter of young performing artists, and to humanitarian causes in Australia and internationally."^[ However, due to film commitments and her wedding to Urban, it wasn't until April 13, 2007 that she was presented with the honour.^[ She was also nominated goodwill ambassador for UNIFEM.^[

Kidman joined the 'Little Tee Campaign' for Breast Cancer Care to design T-shirts or vests to raise money for breast cancer. Kidman's mother, Janelle, is a breast cancer survivor who was diagnosed in 1984.