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Rebecca De Mornay is living proof that brains and beauty can co-exist in harmony. Unfortunately, she's
also proof that there's a lot more acting talent in Hollywood than there is writing talent; over the past twenty years,
she's struggled to find roles worthy of her abilities. She was born in Santa Rosa, California, a gorgeous town
north of San Francisco. (Alfred Hitchcock's film "The Birds" was set a few minutes away in Bodega Bay.) Her
primary education was at Summerhill School (a prestigious, though unconventional, English boarding school); she went on to earn her high school
degree (summa cum laude) in Kitzbuhel, Austria. She's fluent in French and German. Like most other guys my age, I saw her first in "Risky Business" (1983), where she looked about as good
as a girl can look. That same year, she had a small part in the post-apocalypse drama "Testament" (playing Kevin
Costner's wife). In 1985, De Mornay played a grime-covered railroad employee in the intense "Runaway Train" (with Jon
Voight). That same year, she was in the much-praised "The Trip To Bountiful" with Geraldine Page. But since then,
her film career has suffered some inexplicable lapses, with a couple high points in 1992's "The Hand That Rocks
The Cradle" (a film that may have unfortunately typecast her) and 2003's "Identity". In recent years, I've seen
her on the small screen guest-starring on E.R., and also in a remake of Stephen King's "The Shining". To say that
she's aged well would be an understatement.
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