Uma Thurman is a well known American actress who ruled the Hollywood industry throughout the 1990s and part of millennium years. The academy award nominated actress has performed in movies of a variety of genre, be it romantic comedies, dramas, science fiction or action thrillers but all as a lead heroine. She is best known for her films directed by Quentin Tarantino and has some renowned work to her name like Dangerous Liaisons (1988), Pulp Fiction (1994), Gattaca (1997) and the two Kill Bill movies (2003–04). Thurman is currently the "face" of Virgin Media in the United Kingdom and models handbags and other fashion items for clothes designer Louis Vuitton.
Uma Karuna Thurman was born on April 29 1970 in Boston, Massachusetts to Nena Birgitte Caroline von Schlebrügge, a fashion model and Robert Alexander Farrar Thurman, a professor at Columbia University of Indo-Tibetan Buddhist studies. She has three brothers, Ganden, Dechen and Mipam, and a half-sister named Taya from her father's previous marriage. She and her siblings spent extended amounts of time in Almora, India as children, and the Dalai Lama would sometimes visit their home. Uma had a very bohemian Buddhist up bringing. She grew up mostly in Amherst, Massachusetts and Woodstock, New York.
Known as rather an introverted, lanky young girl with large feet, Uma had to endure criticism from her peers over her looks throughout childhood. Thurman attended Northfield Mount Hermon, a college preparatory boarding school in Northfield, Massachusetts, where she received her first acting experiences in school plays. In fact, her interests in acting usually overpowered over other areas like academics and sports. It was while performing for a stage production, The Crucible that she got noticed by talent scouts who encouraged her to pursue a career in acting. So Thurman left her high and shifted base to New York City and also attended the Professional Children's School which she dropped out from before completing graduation.
Career in Movies
She began her career with modeling just like her mother and grandmother and signed up with Elite Model Management at the age of 16. Her modeling credits included Glamour Magazine and Vogue and in 1989, she appeared on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine, for the annual “Hot issue”.
Thurman debuted in 1988 delivering four movies, high school comedy Johnny Be Good, teen thriller Kiss Daddy Goodnight (both were marginally successes), The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, where she played the goddess Venus (a commercial failure, but is now considered as an artistic cult movie) and her career’s break through movie, Dangerous Liaisons which gave her the much needed visibility and credential for her work.
In 1990, the 19-year-old Thurman co-starred with Fred Ward in the sexually provocative drama film Henry & June which brought her into the media’s attentive eye. Her next leading role in The New York Times also earned her great reviews from the critics. Thurman’s first starring role in a major production was 1993’s Even Cowgirls Get the Blues which was panned by both the audience and critics. She followed it up by working alongside Robert De Niro in the crime drama Mad Dog and Glory which proved to be disappointment.
But in 1994, she surprised everyone with her casting as Mia in highly acclaimed director Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction. The movie went on to become commercially as well as critically successful. She even got nominated for her performance as a Supporting Actress at the academy awards and became quite a fixture in Tarantino’s movies after that.
She starred opposite Janeane Garofalo in the 1996 romantic comedy The Truth About Cats & Dogs as a ditzy blonde supermodel and in 1998, opposite her future husband Ethan Hawke in the dystopian science fiction film Gattaca. Both of the movies were moderately successful.
The two biggest flops of Thurman’s career came in 1997 and 1998 in the form of Batman & Robin and The Avengers respectively. They were in fact cited as two of the biggest financial and critical flops of the decade. She closed out 1998 with the powerful tale Les Misérables, a film version of Victor Hugo’s classic novel of the same name, directed by Bille August, in which she played the role of Fantine.
After a gap of few months in 1998 during which she gave birth to her first child, she came back upon the acting scene with roles in low-budget and television films, including Tape, Vatel, and Hysterical Blindness. The latter one whom she executively produced also won her the Golden Globe award. She didn’t take any major roles in this period.
She returned to mainstream cinema in 2003 with John Woo's film Paycheck, followed by her next collaboration with Quentin Tarantino, Kill Bill. Paycheck was only moderately successful with critics and at the box office, but Kill Bill relaunched her career. In fact Tarantino wrote the role of one of the world's top assassins whose out on a revenge quest against her former lover with Thurman in mind and wouldn’t take anybody else in it. Uma on her part had to undergo intense training to prepare for her career’s most demanding role. The two-part action epic became an instant cult classic and scored highly with critics. Ultimately, it trickled down in her earning Golden Globe nominations for both entries, and three MTV Movie Awards for Best Female Performance and twice for Best Fight.
By 2005, Thurman had become one of Hollywood's highest paid actresses, commanding a salary of $12.5 million USD per film. She worked in 3 movies that year, Be Cool, the sequel to 1995's Get Shorty, Prime with Meryl Streep and a remake of The Producers. She even recorded her own songs for the movie The Producers where she was playing Ulla, a Swedish stage actress hoping to win a part in a new Broadway musical.
In 2005, she became a spokeswoman for the French fashion house Louis Vuitton and Cosmetics company Lancôme who named several shades of lipstick after her. On February 7, 2006, Thurman was named a knight of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres of France for outstanding achievement in the field of art and literature. In July 2006 Thurman starred opposite of Luke Wilson in My Super Ex-Girlfriend, where her performance was appreciated although the movie didn’t fare well at the box office.
Bollywood director Vishal Bharadwaj has announced his interest in Thurman to star in his latest film venture opposite Hrithik Roshan, in a biographical film of the life of actress Nadira. The film is still in its pre-production stage.
Thurman was earlier married to English actor Gary Oldman in 1990 with whom she separated after 2 years. She later dated and married her Gattaca co star, Ethan Hawke in 1998 with whom she had two daughters Maya Ray and son Levon Roan. The couple announced their separation in 2003 owing to busy work schedules.
In October 2007, Thurman was said to be engaged to Arpad Busson, supermodel Elle Macpherson's former husband, who she had been dating since summer. However, contrary to these reports, Thurman's rep has confirmed that Thurman and Busson are not engaged and currently have no marriage plans.
She had bought the rights of the movie, Swarm which is due to release in 2008. Besides that, this actress has her heart set out on maintaining her winning streak and popularity among the masses.
