Beautiful Women

Uma Thurman

Mini Biography

Uma Karuna Thurman, daughter of Robert Thurman and Nena Thurman, was born in Boston, Massachusetts, on April 29, 1970. Uma grew up in Amherst, Massachusetts, where her father worked at Amherst College. She left boarding school at just 15, already determined to become an actress. She moved to New York to follow her dream.

A breakthrough role for the tall, blonde actress came when she played Cecile de Volanges in Dangerous Liaisons (1988). More attention came with the NC-17 rated Henry & June (1990), but it was Thurman’s role in the Quentin Tarantino classic Pulp Fiction (1994) that earned her an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress. Donning a short black wig to play femme fatale Mia Wallace opposite John Travolta’s hitman Vincent Vega, Thurman earned a place in film history.

After roles in The Truth About Cats & Dogs (1996) and the Ted Demme film Beautiful Girls (1996), Thurman met her future husband Ethan Hawke on the set of Gattaca (1997).

Thurman returned to smaller films after playing the villainess Poison Ivy in the reviled Joel Schumacher effort Batman & Robin (1997) and Emma Peel in a remake of The Avengers (1998). She worked with Woody Allen and Sean Penn on Sweet and Lowdown (1999), and starred in Richard Linklater’s drama Tape (2001) opposite Hawke. Thurman also won a Golden Globe award for her turn in the made-for-television film Hysterical Blindness (2002) (TV), directed by Mira Nair.

A return to the mainstream spotlight came when Thurman redeemed with Quentin Tarantino for Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003), a revenge flick the two had dreamed up on the set of Pulp Fiction (1994). She also turned up in the John Woo cautioner Paycheck (2003) that same year. The renewed attention was not altogether welcome because Thurman was dealing with the break-up of her marriage with Hawke at about this time. Thurman handled the situation with grace, however, and took her surging popularity in stride. She garnered critical acclaim for her work in Kill Bill: Vol. 2 (2004) and was hailed as Tarantino’s muse. Thurman reunited with Pulp Fiction (1994) dance partner John Travolta for the Get Shorty (1995) sequel Be Cool (2005) and landed a role in The Producers (2005) after Nicole Kidman backed out of the project.

Trivia

• French cosmetics firm Lancome have employed her as a spokesmodel for their company. [June 2000]
• Daughter, with Ethan Hawke, Maya Ray Thurman-Hawke born. [8 July 1998]
• Ranked #99 in Empire (UK) magazine’s “The Top 100 Movie Stars of All Time” list. [October 1997]
• Former model.
• Her father, Robert Thurman, is a professor of Indo-Tibetan Buddhist Studies at Columbia University School of Religion. He was the first westerner to become a Tibetan Buddhist monk. Uma was named for a Hindu goddess.
• Her mother, Nena Thurman, is a Swedish model-turned-psychotherapist, who was discovered at 16 in Stockholm by photographer Norman Parkinson. A nude statue of Nena’s mother, Brigit Holmquist, a famous beauty and later baroness, stands in the port town of Trelleborg. Salvador Dalí, introduced Nena to her first husband, Timothy Leary.
• Chosen by Empire magazine as one of the 100 Sexiest Stars in film history (#20). [1995]
• Granddaughter of Baron Karl von Schlebrugg.
• Uma’s middle name, Karuna, is one of the four sublime abodes in Buddhism. It means “compassion.” The other 3 sublime abodes are Metta (Loving kindness), Mudita (Sympathetic joy), and Upekkha (Equanimity).
• With husband Ethan Hawke, gave birth to 7lb. 15 oz. son, Roan, on 15 January 2002.
• Attended Northfield Mount Hermon boarding school in Northfield, Massachusetts, during her freshman and sophomore years, approximately twenty five miles from her home town at the time, Amherst, Massachusetts.
• Named after the goddess of light and beauty in Indian Mythology.
• Uma and Ethan Hawke’s daughter’s name is Maya; which is also the name of the character that Uma played in Duke of Groove (1996) (TV).
• Has shades of Lancome lipsticks named after her (available only in Asia).
• Her mother, Nena Thurman, was once married to LSD proponent Timothy Leary. The marriage lasted less than a year (1964-1965). Their marriage, which took place in Nepal, was the subject of a 15-minute documentary entitled “You’re Nobody Till Somebody Loves You”. Nena married Uma’s father, Robert Thurman, two years later in 1967.
• Has three brothers with equally unusual, exotic names: Ganden, Dechen (who is an actor and director) and Mipam.
• Sister of Dechen Thurman and Ganden Thurman and the daughter of Nena Thurman and Robert Thurman
• Wears a size 12 shoe.
• Measurements: 34C-24-35 (as an Elite model: 1988), 35 1/2C-24-35 (actress - 1995), (Source: Celebrity Sleuth magazine).
• In Portuguese, her name means “one.”
• She is on the Board of Directors of Room to Grow, a non-profit organization founded by Rob Reiner, dedicated to enriching the lives of babies born into poverty throughout their critical first 3 years of development.
• Her uncle, John Thurman, is a professional concert cellist who performs with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra.
• Supported the Junior Senator (John Kerry) from her native state (Massachusetts) for President of the United States.
• Originally cast for the part of Eowyn in the The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002).
• In Polynesian, her name means “kiss”.
• Former husband Ethan Hawke’s book was dedicated to her (”For Karuna”).
• Former sister-in-law of Laila Morse.
• Shares a birthday with actress Michelle Pfeiffer, actors Daniel Day-Lewis and Jerry Seinfeld, and was born on the same day as tennis star Andre Agassi.
• She attended Amherst Regional Middle School, Massachusetts, for grade 7 and 8 and had Ester Haskell as an English teacher. She later visited that school to contribute to the Women’s History assembly. The children were thrilled .
• Named #21 on the Maxim magazine Hot 100 of 2005 list.
• Followed in the footsteps of both her mother and grandmother into the world of modeling.
• She and her first husband, Gary Oldman, have both appeared in separate Batman films. Uma appeared in Batman & Robin (1997) as Poison Ivy. Gary Oldman appeared in Batman Begins (2005) as James Gordon.
• Was made a Commander of the Order of Arts and Letters (Commandeur Dans Ordre Des Arts Et Des Lettres) by France in February 2006. Presenting the prize on behalf of the French Ministry of Culture, Cannes Film Festival President Gilles Jacob told Thurman she was “admired throughout the world” and that her career would “make her the favorite actress of an entire generation.” The Order of Arts and Letters is given out twice annually to a few hundred people worldwide.
• Ranked as #67 in FHM’s “100 Sexiest Women in the World 2005″ special supplement. (2005)
• Quentin Tarantino considers her as his muse
• Named #59 in FHM magazine’s “100 Sexiest Women in the World 2006″ supplement. (2006).
• Member of the jury at the Venice Film Festival in 1994.

Personal Qoutes

• “Tall, sandy blonde, with sort of blue eyes, skinny in places, fat in others. An average gal.” - Uma Thurman, self description
• “I’m very happy at home. I love to just hang out with my daughter, I love to work in my garden. I’m not a gaping hole of need.”
• “It is better to have a relationship with someone who cheats on you than with someone who does not flush the toilet.”
• “I was not particularly bright, I wasn’t very athletic, I was a little too tall, odd, funny looking, I was just really weird as a kid.”
• “Desperation is the perfume of the young actor. It’s so satisfying to have gotten rid of it. If you keep smelling it, it can drive you crazy. In this business a lot of people go nuts, go eccentric, even end up dead from it. Not my plan.”
• “My washing machine overwhelms me with its options and its sophistication.”
• “Everyone looked the same, everyone had it down to such a perfect T. You get bored. That’s when you have to say, ‘I will be worst-dressed.’”, on her questionable choice of Oscar attire this year (2004)
• “I had to go to a mirror and look at it. I couldn’t picture myself in my own head. I had no image beyond a stick figure. I wasn’t a mean person as a kid, or dumb, and something has to be said to justify excluding you.”
• “Before I had my child, I thought I knew all the boundaries of myself, that I understood the limits of my heart. It’s extraordinary to have all those limits thrown out, to realize your love is inexhaustible.”
• I think we all exude essential truths about ourselves, and then, as an actress, there’s what you do with it. There’s your wit and your imagination, and what you can cook up from your experience and understanding of what makes a human being tick.
• In show business, to pry open doors in new areas is really tough. Until you have a successful comedy, people don’t think you could be funny, which is what makes a director like Quentin Tarantino so special. He sees beyond the things on the resume that you’ve done to date and opens up wonderful cans of worms for you to crawl into. That’s a cool thing.
• Having children flips the game from being about you to being about what you can create in a home and what your responsibilities are. I’ve thought about quitting, but I love what I do so much - it’s the big conundrum of my life…. So I’m fighting to keep my foot in the business, be creative and stimulated, and still take care of my children.
• I’ve known some great rock chicks, and it seems to me they’re allowed to have a lot more edge than movie people, where everybody’s got the latest youth serums going, the newest exercise and, if that won’t cover it, they’ll do something else. There’s this sort of improve-yourself aspect, whereas the music business seems to have this much more funky attitude, with, like, a slight respect for damage.

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