Actors - Julia Roberts

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	Actors - Julia Roberts

Julia Roberts (born Julie Fiona Roberts on October 28, 1967) is an Academy Award-winning American actress.

Roberts shot to fame during the early 1990s after starring in the romantic comedy Pretty Woman
opposite Richard Gere. Since then, Roberts has gone on to become the second highest-paid actress in the world (the first being Reese Witherspoon). Her impressive film career has also given her the title of most bankable actress in Hollywood, with box office receipts well over two billion dollars on the strength of numerous blockbusters such as Pretty Woman
, Runaway Bride, and Ocean's Eleven
. She won the Best Actress Academy Award in 2000 for her critically praised turn as the title character in Erin Brockovich
after two previous nominations during the 1990s.

She was also placed at the pinnacle of the Ulmer Scale, a comprehensive guide to the global star power of actors and directors in independent and studio films created by James Ulmer, ahead of such other luminaries as Tom Cruise and Tom Hanks. This was partly due to her ability to open a film based solely on her name above the title without the support of a male costar, something few other actresses are able to do.

Roberts is the first of four actresses (as of March 2006, the others are Reese Witherspoon, Cameron Diaz and Angelina Jolie) to join the coveted "$20 Million Club", when she signed to do Erin Brockovich for that amount. An unprecedented $25 million was paid to Roberts' for her role in 2003's Mona Lisa Smile
. As of 2005, Roberts' net worth was over $250,000,000 (USD).

Family background

Roberts was born in Smyrna, Georgia as Julie Fiona Roberts. Her father, Walter Grady Roberts, was a vacuum cleaner salesman, actor and writer of Irish, Scottish, Welsh extraction on behalf of his father, Walter Thomas Roberts, and English-Scottish descent on the part of his mother, Beatrice Beal. Julia's mother, Betty Lou Bredemus, a church secretary and actress, was born in Minneapolis in 1934, daughter of football player Wendell John Bredemus (whose mother Eleanor Johnson was born in Sweden) and Elizabeth Ellen Billingsley. Her parents divorced when she was five, and her mother remarried. Her father died of cancer when Roberts was nine. Her elder brother Eric Roberts, from whom she is estranged, is also an actor. So is her niece, Emma Roberts, whom she would often take along on sets when she was younger.

Roberts wanted to be a vet as a child, but soon after graduating from Smyrna's (see ) Campbell High School, she headed to New York to join her sister and pursue a career in acting. Once there she signed with (see ) Clicks modeling agency and enrolled in acting classes.

The King Family

While Mrs. Roberts was pregnant with Julia, she and her husband taught acting to the children of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Coretta Scott King. As a thank-you for their service, Mrs. King paid the hospital bill when Mrs. Roberts gave birth to Julia.

Films

Julia Roberts made her film debut playing a supporting role opposite her brother, Eric, in Blood Red (she gets just two words dialog), which although completed in 1986 was not released until 1989. Roberts first caught the attention of moviegoers with her performance in the film Mystic Pizza
in 1988. The following year she was featured in Steel Magnolias
as a young bride battling diabetes, garnering her first Oscar nomination (as Best Supporting Actress) for her performance. She catapulted to worldwide fame when she co-starred with Richard Gere in the Cinderella story Pretty Woman in 1990.

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