Rebecca De Mornay spills the beans after her intense affair with Tom Cruise – this is her today
Rebecca De Mornay’s performance in Risky Business positioned her as a rising star in Hollywood. Her talent was undeniable and her future seemed bright.
Yet, while her co-star Tom Cruise skyrocketed to global superstardom, De Mornay’s path took a different turn — one that few could have predicted.
Not long ago, I came across a black-and-white photo of a beautiful young woman standing beside Tom Cruise. Her look was quintessentially 1980s, and her gaze instantly captivated me. At first, I thought it might be Heather Locklear, but I quickly realized it wasn’t her. Instead, I soon learned her name: Rebecca De Mornay.
Rebecca De Mornay was born in 1959 in Santa Rosa, California. Her upbringing has often been described as unconventional — some might even say chaotic.
Her parents were Wally George, a disc jockey who later became a right-wing TV personality, and Julie George, who dreamed of becoming an actress.
When Rebecca was just two years old, her parents divorced. Her mother remarried a scientist, but tragically, he passed away when Rebecca was only five.
After this loss, her mother decided to take Rebecca and her brother on a journey across Europe. They traveled around in a Volkswagen van, eventually settling in a small town in Austria, where Rebecca began school. Living like a nomad forced Rebecca to grow up quickly, and she was often seen as much older than her years.
She was courageous and mature, making her own decisions early on. By the age of 18, she returned to the U.S. to pursue a career. Initially, Rebecca had a passion for singing and aspired to make it as a folk singer or composer.
Acting came to her mind later on.
”I started thinking about acting one day when I was walking down Santa Monica Boulevard her in Las Vegas,” she said in 1994.
”The only thing I could relate to was that my mother had wanted to be an actress when she was very young. She hadn’t really done anything: she had just been a mother. She had told me as an early teenager: ’I think you could be very gifted as an actress’. Which sort of poisoned it for me, because anything your mother says, you don’t want to do”.
Breakthrough
In 1980, De Mornay moved to Los Angeles and enrolled at the famous Lee Strasberg Institute to study acting.
De Mornay made her film debut with a small role in Francis Ford Coppola’s 1981 film One from the Heart, but it was her breakthrough role in Risky Business just two years later that truly put her on the map.