Julia Ormond Biography
Summary
"Julia Karin Ormond" (born January 4 1965) is a British actress who, like her fellow thespian Britons, Helena Bonham Carter and Emma Thompson, has taken her acting talents from the London stage to the Hollywood big screen. In 1995 she was named one of the World's 50 Most Beautiful People by "People" magazine.
Biography
Early life
Ormond was born in Epsom, Surrey, England, to Josephine, a laboratory technician, and John Ormond, a successful computer software designer who became a millionaire by age thirty. Ormond's father left his wife and children when Julia was still young. She attended Guildford High School and Cranleigh School (a private school), and then studied acting in London, England at the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art, from which she graduated in 1988.
Career
Ormond's stage credits include 'The Rehearsal', 'Wuthering Heights', 'The Crucible', Christopher Hampton's 'Faith, Hope and Charity', for which she won the London Drama Critics' Award for Best Newcomer, and David Hare's 'My Zinc Bed', for which she earned a Laurence Olivier Award nomination. Her film credits include Jerry Zucker's 'First Knight', 'Captives', with Tim Roth, 'Legends of the Fall', with Brad Pitt, Anthony Hopkins and Aidan Quinn, Sydney Pollack's 'Sabrina', 'Resistance' and 'Smilla's Sense of Snow.' Her TV credits include HBO's 'Stalin' and 'Iron-Jawed Angels', the drama series 'Traffik', 'Varian's War' and 'Animal Farm.' She also has an independent production company, Indican Productions, based in New York City, and she executive produced the Cinemax Reel Life documentary 'Calling the Ghosts: A Story of Rape, War and Women', which won a CableACE Award and a Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award, and was an official selection of the Toronto and Berlin Film Festivals.
In the mid and late 2000s, Ormond has started to work in various projects, albeit in more supporting roles, starting in 2006, where she had a small role in Inland Empire and in 2007 in the Lindsay Lohan vehicle, I Know Who Killed Me. She will be featured in four projects slated to release in 2008. She will be working with other actors such as Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett in "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button", Benicio del Toro in "Guerrilla", Abigail Breslin in "Kit Kittredge: An American Girl Mystery" and Bill Pullman in "Surveillance", and working with acclaimed directors such as David Fincher and Steven Soderbergh in two of the abovementioned projects.
She has been quoted as explaining, 'My sense is that Hollywood is something in the past - I've escaped it'.
Personal life
Ormond married Rory Edwards, an actor she had met while performing in a production of "Wuthering Heights". The marriage ended in 1994. She was romantically linked to actor Gabriel Byrne during the filming of "Smilla's Sense of Snow" in 1996. In 1999 she married political activist Jon Rubin. The couple's first child, a daughter Sophie, was born in the autumn of 2004.
Ormond has been an activist engaged with fighting human trafficking since the mid-1990s, and has recently partnered with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. She is also an advocate for Transatlantic Partners Against Aids, which attempts to raise awareness about Aids in Russia and Ukraine, and is founding co-chairman of FilmAid International.
On December 2 2005, Ormond was appointed as a United Nations Goodwill Ambassador by Executive Director Antonio Maria Costa. During her service, Miss Ormond has made a focus on anti-human trafficking initiatives, raising awareness about this modern form of slavery and promoting efforts to combat it. In her capacity as ambassador, Ormond has appeared as council to the United States House of Representatives, Committee on International Relations, Subcommittee on Africa, Global Human Rights and International Operations>, and has traveled across nations of the world, participating as ambassador.==Filmography==*"I Know Who Killed Me" (2007)*"Guerrilla" (2007)*"Inland Empire" (2006)*"Beach Girls" (2005 TV mini-series)*"Iron Jawed Angels" (2004) (TV)*"Resistance" (2003)*"Varian's War" (2001) (TV)*"The Prime Gig" (2000) *"Animal Farm" (1999) (TV) (voice)*"The Barber of Siberia" (1998)*"Smilla's Sense of Snow" (1997)*"Sabrina" (1995)*"First Knight" (1995)*"Legends of the Fall" (1994)*"Nostradamus" (1994)*"Captives" (1994)*"The Baby of Mācon" (1993)*"Young Catherine" (1991)*"Traffik" (1989) (miniseries)===As a producer===*"Calling the Ghosts: A Story of Rape, War and Women " (1996)==Awards==*1989 London Drama Critics' Award for best newcomer*1996 Nestor Almendros Award*2001 Laurence Olivier Award nomination==References==# # # ==External links==** (Julia Ormond - The Undefinitive Page) - Jack's fan site* (Julia Ormond Picture Galleries) * (Julia Ormond Czech fansite)
Credit
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article about Julia Ormond.
