- circa 1970
Aussie Love
Kidman moves to Sydney with her parents, Dr. Anthony Kidman, a biologist and psychologist, and Janelle, a nurse. She delights in her new surroundings. "There's something about the place," she later says in a Time article. "It's the smell of the gum leaves. Australia's in my blood, it's in my humor ...I love [Sydney's] zest for life and the openness of us Aussies."
- 1983
Best Mates
The aspiring actress meets Naomi Watts at an open call for a bikini ad, and Watts becomes a close friend and confidante. "We had to sit and wait, both in swimsuits, feeling incredibly embarrassed," Watts recalls to PEOPLE. "And neither of us got the job!" In 1991, they appear together in Flirting, also starring Thandie Newton.
Large and Small Screen
Local theater gigs help 16-year-old Kidman land a role in the 1983 teen crime caper movie, BMX Bandits. At the same time, Kidman appears in the television movie, Bush Christmas, which becomes a holiday classic in Australia, airing every December. By the end of the year, Kidman is one of the most famous faces in Australia.
- 1989
Calm Before the Tom
Kidman lands the lead role in the sea thriller Dead Calm, also starring Sam Neill and Billy Zane. The film is a modest hit but wins her recognition in the U.S. After seeing Kidman in Dead Calm, Tom Cruise creates a role for her in Days of Thunder as his love interest. When she meets him at the audition, "He took my breath away," Kidman later tells Rolling Stone.
- 1990
I Do
Kidman marries Cruise in Telluride, Colo., with self-written marital vows. Emilio Estevez is the best man and Kidman's sister Antonia, a television-entertainment reporter, is a bridesmaid.
- 1992
Labor of Love
Five months after getting married, the newlyweds begin work on Far and Away, a critically acclaimed film but a box office failure. For Kidman, acting alongside her superstar husband entangles her public persona with Cruise's. "I didn't realize when I made Far and Away how much I would then be defined and judged in relation to him," she tells the Boston Globe.
- 1993
Baby Makes Three, Then Four
Cruise, 30, and Kidman, 25, announce the adoption of a baby they name Isabella Jane Kidman Cruise. Two years later, in February 1995, Kidman and Cruise adopt son Connor Antony Kidman Cruise, who was born in January.
- 1995
Golden Girl
In Gus Van Sant's To Die For, Kidman shines as murderous TV weatherwoman Suzanne Maretto. "Even though Suzanne's totally wild and has a completely different moral code from the rest of us, I think there was something really cool about her," Kidman tells Time. She gets rave reviews and wins her first Golden Globe award.
- 1996
The Eyes Have It
Kidman and Cruise begin a 19-month shoot (November 1996 to June 1998) on Stanley Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut. Although success eluded them the last time they worked together, they find this script irresistible. "In your life there are certain times when it's the right time to work together," Kidman later tells PEOPLE at the film's L.A. premiere in 1999. "Who knows when the next time will be?"
- 1998
Truly Blue
Kidman makes headlines around the world with her London stage debut in The Blue Room, with one British theater critic dubbing her brief nudity "pure theatrical Viagra."
Photo Credits
BIOGRAPHY (top to bottom): COURTESY NICOLE KIDMAN; Samuel Goldwyn/Everett; Headpress/Retna; Warner Bros./Everett; Kevin mazur/London Features; Everett Collection; NEWSPIX AUSTRALIA; Mirek Towski/DMIPhoto; Everett Collection; Joan Marcus
- Name
- Nicole Kidman
- Birth Date
- June 20, 1967
- Birth Place
- Honolulu, Hawaii
- Heart Monitor
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Keith Urban, husband (2005 to present)
Lenny Kravitz, ex-boyfriend (July 2003 to Dec. 2003)
Tom Cruise, ex-husband (1990 to 2001)
