Australian actress Nicole Kidman is one of modern cinemas most recognisable and glamorous faces who is an Oscar winner and, in 2006, became the film industry’s highest paid actress.Nicole was born in America but her family returned to their native Australia when she was just four years old.After helping her mother recover from breast cancer she trained at the Philip Street Theatre before going on to study at Sydney’s Australian Theatre for Young People.Like many young Australian actors Nicole began her career in the Australian film and television industry. She appeared in a several film including BMX Bandits and Bush Christmas and a string of television roles including Vietnam and Emerald City throughout the eighties. Her breakthrough came in 1989 when she starred alongside Sam Neill and Billy Zane in Dead Calm. She played Rae Ingram who, along with her husband John (Neill), is held captive on a yacht trip by Hughie Warriner (Zane).

More American roles came her way in the early nineties including two movies with future husband Tom Cruise; stock car racing movie Days of Thunder came first in 1990 then they teamed up again two years later in Ron Howard’s Far and Away.

Critical success came in 1995 for her portrayal of Suzanne Stone Moretto a murderous news caster. Her performance led to her first Golden Globe Award.

But the actress had to wait until 2002 to receive her first Academy award nomination and it came for her role as courtesan Stine in Baz Lurhrmann’s Moulin Rouge.

Despite losing out in the Oscar race she did however win her second Golden Globe.

But just a year later she won the Best Actress Oscar for her critically acclaimed performance as Virginia Woolf n The Hours.

She became the first Australian actress to win at the Oscars. For her role she also won her third Golden Globe and a BAFTA.

But Nicole Kidman’s private life has caused as many headlines as her movie roles.

She married actor Tom Cruise after they met on the set of their 1990 movie Days of Thunder, they married on Christmas Eve later that same year.

They adopted two children Isabella and Connor.

Cruise and Kidman split just before their tenth wedding anniversary with Cruise filing for divorce, citing irreconcilable differences, in 2001.

It later emerged that at the time Kidman was 3 months pregnant but she went on to miscarry.

In an interview Kidman also revealed that she had suffered an eptopic pregnancy early in her marriage to Cruise.

Since her divorce she has been linked with a string of men including actor Jude Law and Adrien Brody.

She dated rocker Lenny Kravitz between 2003 and 2004. She revealed that before meeting current husband Keith Urban she was engaged to someone else although she never disclosed his identity.

The actress met singer Keith Urban early in 2005 and the couple married in the summer if 2006.

Nicole can next be seen in the adaptation of Philip Pullman’s The Golden Compass, the first in the trilogy His Dark Materials, as the villainous Mrs Coultier.

In the new year she will also star alongside Jennifer Jason Leigh in Margot At The Wedding.

The Golden Compass is released 7th December.

Helen Earnshaw

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