Demi Moore
Moore at the 2010 Time 100 Gala
Born	(1962-11-11) November 11, 1962 (age 49) Roswell, New Mexico, U.S.[n 1]
Occupation	Actress, producer, director, songwriter, model
Years active	1981–present
Spouse	Freddy Moore (1980–1985) Bruce Willis (1987–2000) Ashton Kutcher (2005–present)
Children	Rumer Willis, Scout Willis, Tallulah Willis

Demi Guynes Kutcher ( /dəˈmiː/ də-MEE; born November 11, 1962),^{[n 1]} known professionally as Demi Moore, is an American actress, film producer, film director, former songwriter and model. Born in Roswell, New Mexico to teenage parents who divorced before she was born, Moore dropped out of high school at age 16 to begin modeling in Europe, and posed for a nude pictorial in Oui magazine in 1980. After making her movie debut in 1981, she appeared on the soap opera General Hospital and established her career with such films as St. Elmo's Fire (1985) and About Last Night... (1986). Following the successes of Ghost (1990), A Few Good Men (1992), Indecent Proposal (1993), and Disclosure (1994), Moore became Hollywood's highest-paid actress,^[12] receiving an unprecedented sum of $12.5 million for Striptease (1996).^[13]

Moore took her professional name from her first husband, musician Freddy Moore, and is the mother of three daughters from her second marriage to actor Bruce Willis. She married her third husband, actor Ashton Kutcher, in 2005, and separated from him in November 2011.

Early life[link]

Moore was born in Roswell, New Mexico. As a child, she had a difficult and unstable home life. Her parents split up before she was born, with her mother, Virginia, leaving Demi's biological father, Charles Harmon, Sr.,^[14][15] and marrying Dan Guynes, a newspaper advertising salesman who frequently changed jobs; as a result, the family moved a great many times.^[16] Moore said in 1991, "My dad is Dan Guynes. He raised me. There is a man who would be considered my biological father who I don't really have a relationship with."^[15] Moore learned of him at age 13, when she found her parents' marriage certificate and inquired about circumstances since "I saw my parents were married in February 1963. I was born in '62."^[15] Moore was cross-eyed as a child; this was ultimately corrected by two surgeries. She also suffered from kidney dysfunction.^[16] She has a maternal half-brother, Morgan Guynes, who in 1988 was a U.S. Marine stationed in North Carolina, and gave her away at her wedding that year;^[17] a paternal half-brother, James Craig Harmon (born 1974) who in 2006 was sentenced to 10 years in jail for aggravated assault;^[18] a paternal half-sister, Charlotte Harmon Eggar, who in 2012 said she had not seen Moore in 30 years;^[14] a paternal half-brother, Charles Harmon Jr.;^[14] and a sister, who in 1998 was named Carolyn Sneed and living in Farmington, New Mexico.^[19]

Virginia Guynes left her husband when Moore was 15 and moved to West Hollywood, California, where Virginia worked for a magazine-distribution company.^[15] Two years later, Dan Guynes committed suicide.^[15] Moore attended Fairfax High School there,^[15] and recalled, "I moved out of my family's house when I was 16 and left high school in my junior year."^[20] She decided to pursue a career in the entertainment industry after being inspired by 17-year-old German actress Nastassja Kinski, who lived with her own divorced mother in the same apartment building.^[21] In August 1979, three months before her 17th birthday,^[21] Moore met musician Freddy Moore at the Los Angeles nightclub The Troubadour.^[22] Freddy Moore was married to another woman at that time.^[21] In February 1980, six months after they met, Freddy and Demi were married^[23] and lived in an apartment in West Hollywood.^[22]

Career[link]

Moore with then-husband Bruce Willis at the Academy Awards in 1989

Demi Moore co-wrote three songs with Freddy Moore and appeared in the music video for their "It's Not a Rumor," performed by his band The Nu Kats.^[24] She continues to receive royalty checks from her brief songwriting career (1980-1981).^[25]

After training with John Casablancas — the founder of Elite Model Management — she posed for the adult magazine Oui,^[26] telling a reporter in 1988 she "only posed for the cover of Oui — I was 16; I told them I was 18."^[27] In 1990, she told another interviewer, "I was 17 years old. I was underage. It was just the cover."^[28] Moore made her film debut with a small supporting role in the deaf-teen drama Choices (1981), directed by Silvio Narizzano,^[29] which was still unreleased at the time her second film came out.^[30] This was the 1982 3-D science fiction/horror film Parasite, for which director Charles Band had instructed casting director Johanna Ray to "find me the next Karen Allen."^[26] Moore achieved greater exposure when she played the part of Jackie Templeton on the ABC soap opera General Hospital from 1982 to 1983. She made an uncredited cameo appearance as that character in the 1982 spoof Young Doctors in Love.

Moore's career took off following her appearances in the youth-oriented films Blame It on Rio (1984) and St. Elmo's Fire (1985), and she was often listed as part of the Brat Pack, a label she shunned at the time. Moore reached a professional turning point with the release of About Last Night... in 1986. Film critic Roger Ebert praised her performance, writing, "There isn't a romantic note she isn't required to play in this movie, and she plays them all flawlessly."^[31] In 1988, she starred in The Seventh Sign, directed by Carl Schultz. The following year, she acted with Robert DeNiro in We're No Angels.

Her most successful film as of 2012 was the supernatural romantic melodrama Ghost, a sleeper hit that became the highest-grossing film of 1990. The film included a memorable love scene between Moore's character and that of Patrick Swayze's, which begins in front of a pottery wheel. Moore's performance as Molly Jensen garnered her a Golden Globe Award nomination as Best Actress.

In 1991, Moore co-produced and starred in the mystery thriller Mortal Thoughts, and appeared as a blonde for the first time in the romantic comedy The Butcher's Wife, with one review describing her as "warm and cuddly".^[32] Both films were box-office disappointments, but her next three films (A Few Good Men, Indecent Proposal and Disclosure) all opened at #1 at the box office and became hits.^[33]

By 1995, Moore was the highest-paid actress in Hollywood.^[12] However, she subsequently had a string of unsuccessful films with The Scarlet Letter, The Juror, Striptease, and G.I. Jane. Moore's Passion of Mind co-star Joss Ackland lambasted her by describing her as being "not very bright or talented",^[34] although he worked with her again on Flawless in 2008. Moore produced and starred in a controversial miniseries for HBO, If These Walls Could Talk, a three-part omnibus telefilm about abortion. Its scriptwriter, Nancy Savoca, directed two segments, including one in which Moore played a single woman in the 1950s seeking a back-alley abortion. For that role, Moore received a second Golden Globe nomination as Best Actress.

Moore was a founding "celebrity investor" in the Planet Hollywood chain of international theme restaurants (modeled after the Hard Rock Cafe and launched in New York on October 22, 1991) along with Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and then-husband Bruce Willis.

After a break from her acting career, Moore returned to the screen as the villain of the 2003 film Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle. In 2006, she appeared in Bobby which featured an all-star cast, including her husband Ashton Kutcher, although they did not appear in any scenes together. As of 2012, her last appearance in a widely released film was in Mr. Brooks, which was released on June 1, 2007. She appeared in Jon Bon Jovi's longform video "Destination Anywhere" as Janie.^[35]

After modeling in a Versace ad campaign in 2005, Moore signed on as the face of the Helena Rubinstein brand of cosmetics the following year.^[36]

Moore had been cast to play feminist activist Gloria Steinem in the Linda Lovelace film biography Lovelace^[37] but within a month of being announced for the role, she dropped out of the production in the wake of a January 23, 2012, hospitalization and what her representative called "professional assistance to treat her exhaustion and improve her overall health."^[38] Sarah Jessica Parker took over the role.^[39]

[edit] Vanity Fair controversy

In August 1991, Moore appeared nude on the cover of Vanity Fair under the title More Demi Moore. Annie Leibovitz shot the picture while Moore was seven months pregnant with her daughter Scout LaRue, intending to portray "anti-Hollywood, anti-glitz" attitude.^[40] The cover sparked an intense controversy for Vanity Fair and Moore. It was widely discussed on television, radio, and in newspaper articles.^[41] The frankness of Leibovitz's portrayal of a pregnant sex symbol led to divided opinions, ranging from complaints of sexual objectification to celebrations of the photograph as a symbol of empowerment.^[42]

The photograph was subject to numerous parodies, including the Spy magazine version which placed Moore's then-husband Bruce Willis' head on her body. In Leibovitz v. Paramount Pictures Corp., Leibovitz sued over one parody featuring Leslie Nielsen, made to promote the 1994 film Naked Gun 33⅓: The Final Insult. In the parody, the model's body was attached to what is described as "the guilty and smirking face" of Nielsen. The teaser said "Due this March".^[43] The case was dismissed in 1996 because the parody relied "for its comic effect on the contrast between the original".^[43] In November 2009, the Moroccan magazine Femmes du Maroc emulated the infamous pose with Moroccan news reporter Nadia Larguet, causing controversy in the majority Muslim nation.^[44] In August 1992, Moore would again appear nude on the cover of Vanity Fair, modeling for body painting artist Joanne Gair in Demi's Birthday Suit.^[45][46]

Personal life[link]

Marriages and children[link]

Moore and Kutcher in September 2008

On February 8, 1980 (three months after her 17th birthday), she married singer Freddy Moore, adopting his surname.^[23] The pair had met six months prior to their wedding.^[25] Demi filed for divorce in September 1984; it was finalized on August 8, 1985.^[25]

In 1987, Moore met and married her second husband, actor Bruce Willis.^[47] She stated on her marriage license that this was her first marriage, explaining in an interview the following year, "I did it only because I thought it was going to take longer if I put that [first marriage] on there."^[17] She and Willis had three daughters together: Rumer Glenn Willis (born August 16, 1988), Scout Willis and Tallulah Willis.^[47] The couple divorced in 2000.^[47]

After two years of dating, Moore wed actor Ashton Kutcher on September 24, 2005.^[48] The couple separated in November 2011, and Moore announced her intention to divorce Kutcher.^[49]

Charity work[link]

In April 2011, Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher launched their "Demi and Ashton Foundation", a non-profit, non-governmental organization directed towards fighting child sexual slavery.^[50][51] Its first campaign was "Real Men Don't Buy Girls".^[52]

Interests[link]

Moore's primary residence is in Hailey, Idaho, near the Sun Valley resort, although she spent much time in the Los Angeles area during her marriage to Kutcher. She also owns a waterfront mansion on Sebago Lake, Maine. She is a follower of Philip Berg's Kabbalah Centre religion, and initiated Kutcher into the faith, having said that she "didn't grow up Jewish, but ... would say that [she has] been more exposed to the deeper meanings of particular rituals than any of [her] friends that did".^[53]

According to The New York Times, Moore is "the world's most high-profile doll collector", and among her favorites is the Gene Marshall fashion doll.^[54]

Filmography[link]

Television[link]

Footnote[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Demi Moore

• Demi Moore on Twitter
• Demi and Ashton Foundation - official website
• Demi Moore at the Internet Movie Database
• Demi Moore at the Internet Broadway Database
• Demi Moore at the Internet Off-Broadway Database
• Demi Moore at AllRovi
• Demi Moore at People.com

Patrick Swayze
Swayze greeting fans after Guys and Dolls in 2006
Born	Patrick Wayne Swayze (1952-08-18)August 18, 1952 Houston, Texas, U.S.
Died	September 14, 2009(2009-09-14) (aged 57)[1] Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Cause of death	Pancreatic cancer
Nationality	American
Occupation	Actor, dancer, singer-songwriter
Years active	1978–2009
Spouse	Lisa Niemi (m. 1975–2009, his death)
Relatives	Don Swayze (brother)

Patrick Wayne Swayze ( /ˈsweɪziː/; August 18, 1952 – September 14, 2009)^[1] was an American actor, dancer and singer-songwriter. He was best known for his tough-guy roles, as romantic leading men in the hit films Dirty Dancing and Ghost, and as Orry Main in the North and South television miniseries. He was named by People magazine as its "Sexiest Man Alive" in 1991. His film and TV career spanned 30 years.

Diagnosed with Stage IV pancreatic cancer in January 2008, Swayze told Barbara Walters a year later that he was "kicking it".^[2] However, he died from the disease on September 14, 2009.^[3] His last role was the lead in an ill-fated A&E TV series, The Beast, which premiered on January 15, 2009. Due to a prolonged decline in health, Swayze was unable to promote the series. On June 15, 2009, Entertainment Tonight announced the show's cancellation.^[4]

Early life[link]

Patrick Swayze was born on August 18, 1952, in Houston, Texas, the second child of Patsy Yvonne Helen (née Karnes; born 1927), a choreographer, dance instructor, and dancer, and Jesse Wayne Swayze (1925–1982), an engineering draftsman.^[5][6][7] He had two younger brothers, actor Don Swayze (born 1958) and Sean Kyle (born 1962), and two sisters, Vickie Lynn (1949–1994) and Bambi.^[5][8] He was a sixth cousin once removed of news commentator John Cameron Swayze, and a relative of noted Texas Revolution soldier Henry Karnes.^[9] Swayze was raised Roman Catholic.^[10]

Until the age of twenty, Swayze lived in the Oak Forest neighborhood of Houston, where he attended St. Rose of Lima Catholic School,^[11] Oak Forest Elementary School,^[12] Black Middle School,^[12][13] and Waltrip High School.^[12] During this time, he also pursued multiple artistic and athletic skills, such as ice skating, classical ballet, and acting in school plays. He played football for his high school and was hoping to receive a football scholarship for college until a knee injury ended his career. He studied gymnastics at nearby San Jacinto College for two years.^{[citation needed]}

In 1972, he moved to New York City to complete his formal dance training at the Harkness Ballet and Joffrey ballet schools.

Career[link]

Swayze's first professional appearance was as a dancer for Disney on Parade. He then starred as a replacement playing the role of Danny Zuko in the long-running Broadway production of Grease^[14] before his debut film role as "Ace" in Skatetown, U.S.A.. He appeared as Pvt. Sturgis in the M*A*S*H episode "Blood Brothers"^[15] and had a brief stint in 1982 on a short lived TV series The Renegades^[16] playing a gang leader named Bandit. Swayze became known to the film industry after appearing in The Outsiders as the older brother of C. Thomas Howell and Rob Lowe. Swayze, Howell, and Howell's friend Darren Dalton reunited in Red Dawn the next year, and Lowe and Swayze reunited in Youngblood. He was considered a member of the Brat Pack.^[17] His first major success was in the 1985 television miniseries North and South, which was set during the American Civil War.^[18]

Swayze and Paula Abdul at the 1990 Grammy Awards

Swayze's breakthrough role came with his performance as dance instructor Johnny Castle in the 1987 film Dirty Dancing, alongside his Red Dawn co-star, Jennifer Grey. Dirty Dancing, a coming of age story, was a low-budget film that was intended to be shown in theaters for one weekend only and then go straight to video, but it became a surprise hit and achieved massive international success. It was the first film to sell one million copies on video, and as of 2009, it earned over $214 million worldwide and spawned several alternative versions, ranging from a television series to stage productions to a computer game. Swayze received a Golden Globe Award nomination for the role and also sang one of the songs on the soundtrack, "She's Like the Wind", which he had originally co-written with Stacy Widelitz for the film Grandview, U.S.A. The song became a top ten hit and has been covered by other artists.

After Dirty Dancing, Swayze found himself typecast and appeared in several flops, of which Road House was the most successful. His biggest hit came in 1990, when he starred in Ghost, with Demi Moore and Whoopi Goldberg.^[19] In 1991, he starred alongside Youngblood cast mate Keanu Reeves in another major action hit, Point Break, and was also chosen by People magazine as that year's "Sexiest Man Alive".

Swayze was seriously injured in 1998 while filming HBO's Letters from a Killer near Ione, California when he fell from a horse and hit a tree. Both of his legs were broken and he suffered four detached tendons in his shoulder. Filming was suspended for two months, but the film aired in 1999. Swayze recovered from his injuries, but he had trouble resuming his career until 2000, when he co-starred in Waking Up in Reno, with Billy Bob Thornton and Charlize Theron, and in Forever Lulu, with Melanie Griffith.

In 2001, he appeared in the cult classic Donnie Darko, where he played a famous motivational speaker revealed to be a closet pedophile, and in 2004, he played Allan Quartermain in King Solomon's Mines. He also had a cameo appearance in the Dirty Dancing sequel, Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights as an unnamed dance instructor.

Swayze made his West End theatre début in the musical Guys and Dolls as Nathan Detroit on July 27, 2006,^[20][21][22] alongside Neil Jerzak, and remained in the role until November 25, 2006. His previous appearances on the Broadway stage had included productions of Goodtime Charley (1975)^[23] and Chicago.

Swayze also provided the voice for Cash the country music band dog in The Fox and the Hound 2 and in 2007 starred in the film Christmas in Wonderland. Swayze played an aging rock star in Powder Blue, co-starring his younger brother Don in their first film together. Swayze starred in the A&E FBI drama The Beast,^[24] filmed in Chicago, as FBI Agent Charles Barker.^[25]

Personal life[link]

Swayze and his wife, Lisa Niemi, arrive at the 1989 Academy Awards ceremony

Swayze was married to Lisa Niemi from June 12, 1975, until his death. The couple first met in 1970 when Swayze was 18 years old. Niemi, 14 years old at the time, was taking dance lessons from Swayze's mother. Swayze and Niemi had no children.^[26] In a 2008 interview, Swayze stated that Niemi was the inspiration for his 1987 hit song, "She's Like the Wind".^[27]

As a reaction to his father's death at age 57 from a heart attack in 1982, Swayze began to drink heavily.^[28] In 1989, Swayze said, "I've always felt there was something different in there (my personality), but I was scared to look for fear I wouldn't find anything. That's the reason I got into Buddhism, took est training, was into therapy, into Scientology, into Transcendental Meditation. I was trying to support that side of myself. But, you know, in Texas there isn't much support for that part of you."^[29] His sister Vicky committed suicide by drug overdose in 1994,^[28] leading him to seek treatment for alcoholism. After initial recovery, he temporarily withdrew from show business, retreating to his ranches in California and Las Vegas, New Mexico, to breed Arabian horses. His best-known horse was Tammen, a chestnut Arabian stallion.^[30]

Swayze, who was a certified pilot with an instrument rating, made the news on June 1, 2000, while flying with his dogs in his twin-engine Cessna from Van Nuys, California to Las Vegas. His plane developed a pressurization problem, causing Swayze to make a precautionary landing on a dirt road in a housing complex in Prescott Valley. The plane's right wing struck a light pole, but Swayze was unharmed. He locked the cockpit, left the aircraft in the subdivision, and obtained a ride—with his dogs—from a passing vehicle, allegedly in order to telephone the authorities. According to the police report, witnesses said that Swayze appeared to be extremely intoxicated and asked for help to remove evidence—an open bottle of wine and a 30-pack of beer—from the crash site.^[31] He made himself unavailable to police for several hours. It was later determined that the alcohol in question was not in the cabin, but stored in external storage compartments inaccessible in flight and that the probable cause of the accident was Swayze's physical impairment due to the cumulative effects of carbon monoxide from engine exhaust by-products, carbon monoxide from heavy tobacco use, and the loss of an undetermined amount of cabin pressurization.^[32]

Illness and death[link]

Wikinews has related news: American actor Patrick Swayze dies at age 57

In late January 2008, Swayze was diagnosed with Stage IV pancreatic cancer (specifically, intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasm). He traveled to the Stanford University Medical Center for chemotherapy and treatment with the experimental drug Vatalanib, the latter of which doctors hoped would cut off the blood supply to the tumor.^[33] On March 5, 2008, a Reuters article reported that Swayze "has a very limited amount of disease, and he appears to be responding well to treatment thus far."^[34] Swayze's doctor confirmed that the actor was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, but insisted he was not as close to death as reports suggest. Despite repeated tabloid claims that his death was imminent, Swayze continued to actively pursue his career.^[35]

In early May 2008, it was widely reported in a number of tabloids that Swayze had undergone surgery to remove part of his stomach after the spread of the cancer and that he had rewritten his will, transferring his property to his wife.^[36][37] In a statement made on May 28, Swayze said that he continued to respond well to treatment at Stanford University Medical Center. In late May 2008, he was seen at a Los Angeles Lakers basketball game, his first public appearance since his diagnosis.^[38] In 2008 Swayze was treated with Cyberknife radiotherapy cancer treatment.^[39]

In late July 2008, six months after reportedly being given just weeks to live by medical experts, a healthy-appearing^[40] Swayze was asked by reporter in Los Angeles airport about this health. He replied, "I'm cooking. I'm a miracle dude. I don't know why".^[41]

Swayze appeared on the ABC, NBC, and CBS simulcast of Stand Up to Cancer in September 2008, to appeal to the general public for donations for the initiative. Swayze said to a standing ovation "I dream that the word 'cure' will no longer be followed by the words 'it's impossible'. Together, we can make a world where cancer no longer means living with fear, without hope, or worse".^[42] After the show ended, Swayze remained on-stage and talked to other cancer patients; executive producer Laura Ziskin said, "He said a beautiful thing: 'I'm just an individual living with cancer'. That's how he wants to be thought of. He's in a fight, but he's a fighter".^[42][43] In late 2008, Swayze denied claims made by tabloids that the cancer had spread to his liver.^[44] Swayze told Barbara Walters in January 2009 that he wanted the media to report that he was "kicking it".^[2]

When Barbara Walters asked him if he was using any holistic or alternative methods of treatment besides the chemotherapy, Swayze admitted to using some Chinese herbs, but not much. He then voiced his opposition to the unsupported claims made by proponents of alternative therapies, as noted by ABC News journalist Joseph Brownstein:

Because of the grim prognosis, many patients turn to alternative therapies without scientific evidence behind them. Swayze did not.

"That's one thing I'm not gonna do, is chase, is chase staying alive. I'm not, you know, you'll spend so much time chasing staying alive you won't live, you know? I wanna live. If anybody had that cure out there like so many people swear to me they do, you'd be two things: you'd be very rich, and you'd be very famous. Otherwise, shut up," he told Barbara Walters in an interview that aired in January [2009].^[45]

His last role was the lead in an A&E TV series, The Beast, which premiered on January 15, 2009. Owing to a prolonged decline in health, Swayze was unable to promote the series, and on June 15, 2009, Entertainment Tonight reported that the show had been cancelled.^[4] In an interview with Barbara Walters which aired in January 2009, Swayze admitted that he had a "tiny little mass" in his liver. On January 9, 2009, Swayze was hospitalized with pneumonia. The pneumonia was said to be a complication of chemotherapy treatments for Swayze's cancer.^[46] On January 16, he was released from the hospital to rest at home with his wife.^[47] On April 19, 2009, doctors informed Swayze that the cancer had again metastasized to his liver.^[48] Swayze stated that his chain smoking probably "had something to do with" the development of his disease. Photos taken of a gaunt Swayze in the months before his death showed him continuing to smoke.^[49][50]

Swayze died with family at his side on September 14, 2009, at age 57, 20 months after being diagnosed.^[51][52] Swayze's publicist, Annett Wolf, confirmed to CNN that he had died of pancreatic cancer.^[53] He was cremated and his ashes scattered over his New Mexico ranch. He is survived by his wife Lisa Niemi, along with his mother, both brothers and one sister.

Cultural impact[link]

Swayze's name has become a commonly used term in hip hop songs.^[54] Lyrics will use the phrase "...and I'm Swayze," meaning that the speaker has become "like a ghost", meaning he disappeared or is otherwise gone. This is a reference to the title character of Swayze's 1990 film Ghost. It is known to have begun in the early 1990s, by prominent rappers such as EPMD, Black Sheep, CL Smooth, and more recently by such rappers as The Notorious B.I.G. in 2Pac's song Runnin' (Dying to Live), Method Man, Aesop Rock, and in Mistah F.A.B.'s Ghost Ride It. The expression has become such a hip hop staple that it was even used in the Saturday Night Live hip hop parody, Lazy Sunday.

Filmography[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

Houston portal

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Patrick Swayze

• Patrick Swayze at the Internet Movie Database
• Patrick Swayze at the Internet Broadway Database
• Remembering Patrick Swayze - slideshow by LIFE magazine
• Patrick Swayze at Find a Grave