:''For the American country music singer, see Julie Roberts.''
'''Julia Roberts''' (born '''Julie Fiona Roberts''' on October 28, 1967) is an Academy Award-winning American actress and former fashion model, who 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 highest-paid actress in the world, topping the recent ''Hollywood Reporter's'' annual power list of top-earning female stars for the second year in a row.
This proved that even though she had taken a year off for personal reasons and had not been seen on screen since 2004's ''
Ocean's Twelve'', Roberts still had the appeal to remain the reigning Queen of Hollywood. Her impressive film career has also given her the title of most bankable actress in Hollywood, with box office receipts well over $2 billion on the strength of numerous blockbusters such as ''
Pretty Woman'', ''
Runaway Bride'', and ''
Ocean's Eleven''. She won the Best Actress Academy Award in 2001 for her critically praised turn as the title character in ''
''Erin Brockovich'''' after two previous nominations during the 1990s. For her fame and wholesome image, she is often referred to as "America's Sweetheart".
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 co-star, something few other actresses are able to do.
Roberts is the first of two actresses (the other is Cameron Diaz) 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).
Biography
Early life
Julia Roberts was born in Smyrna, Georgia as Julie Fiona Roberts. Her father, Walter Grady Roberts, was a water bed salesman, actor and writer of Irish, Scottish, and 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.
While Mrs.
