“Comedy is ridiculously hard. And if the rhythm is not right, if the music or the line is not right, it’s not funny.” –Julianne Moore

Julie Anne Smith was born on this day in Fort Bragg, North Carolina in 1960. She is 53  years old.

The eldest daughter of three children born to an army officer, Peter Moore Smith, and psychologist /social worker, Anne Smith, Julie moved a lot as a child (as the family moved from base to base for her father’s career). She considered medicine, but in high school she began to do theatre.

She earned a BFA in Acting from Boston University’s School of Performing Arts in 1983 and moved to New York. It was there, when she applied for her Equity Card, that she knew she’d have to change her name. With a “Julie Smith” and a “Julie Anne Smith” already on the roles she chose to honor her father by taking his middle name as her last name. She mashed up her first and middle names to make Julianne and “Julianne Moore” was born.

She paid her dues working as a waitress and in off-Broadway plays for a few years before landing a couple of gigs on day time dramas. Her tenure on The Edge of Night was brief, but her stint as  twins Frannie and Sabrina on As The World Turns ran for three years and earned her a an Outstanding Ingenue Daytime Emmy Award in 1988.

She followed that with four movies in 1993:

• Body of Evidence
• Benny & Joon
• The Fugitive
• Short Cuts

She took on Uncle Vanya again in the movie version Vanya on 42nd Street in 1994.

Vanya on 42nd Street (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Julianne moved to bigger roles in bigger movies, including the blockbuster second installment of Jurassic Park — The Lost World: Jurassic Park in 1997.  She picked up  her first Oscar nomination the same year for her role of Amber Waves in Boogie Nights.

She took on several more sequels and remakes, like the 1998 remake of Psycho, and the sequel to Silence of the Lambs, Hannibal.

Never afraid to swing from comedy to drama she’s been in movies as diverse as The Big Lebowski and Children of Men.

Children of Men (Photo credit: nata2)

She has been nominated for 4 Academy Awards. Besides Boogie Nights she’s gotten the nomination for After The Affair, Far From Heaven, and The Hours.

She can currently be seen the reboot of the Stephen King classic Carrie.

English: Actress Julianne Moore – 66th Venice International Film Festival (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Coming up Moore will be seen as:

• Jenn Summers in Non-Stop (2014)
• Havana Segrand in Maps to the Stars (2014)
• Mother Malkin in Seventh Son (2015)
• President Alma Coin in The Hunger Games: Mocking Jay (Part 1 — 2014, Part 2 — 2015)