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Uma

Uma Biography

Uma Karuna Thurman was born 29th April 1970 in Boston, Massachusetts. Her background is not only highly intellectual but also quite exotic and undeniably very interesting. Her mother, Nena von Schlebrügge (born 1941) who originates from Trelleborg, Sweden used to be a model in her youth, but these days works as a psychotherapist. Nena was spotted in a Stockholm playground by society photographer Norman Parkinson when she was just 16. She was taken to London to model for Vogue, from there moving off to New York to became a top fashionista. She was briefly married to the LSD guru Timothy Leary in 1964. Their marriage, which took place in Nepal, was the subject of a 15-minute documentary entitled You’re Nobody Till Somebody Loves You. Uma’s maternal grandmother, Brigit Holmquist, was a great Swedish beauty who, in 1930s Berlin, married the monocled Westphalian Baron Karl von Schlebrugge, who resisted the nazis. Uma’s father is Professor Robert Thurman, son of New York stage actress Elizabeth Farrar, who is a professor at the Columbia University, teaching Indo-Tibetan Buddhist knowledge. He was actually the first westerner to become a Tibetan Buddhist monk. It can be said that it was Uma’s very own father who actually introduced Buddhism to the USA. Uma’s parents were introduced to each other by nobody less then Salvador Dalí. In 1967 Nena and Robert Thurman were married and they are still going strong together today. Robert and Nena gave their children a Buddhist upbringing. Uma is named after an Uma Chenpo (in Tibetan; Mahamadhyamaka in Sanskrit, meaning “Great Middle Way”, in Polynesian; her name means “kiss”). She has three brothers, Ganden (born 1971), Dechen (1973) and Mipam (1978), and a half-sister named Taya (1960) from her father’s previous marriage.

Since Professor Thurman moved between various universities, the family often relocated during Uma’s childhood. She grew up mostly in Amherst, Massachusetts and Woodstock, New York. Uma and her siblings also spent extended amounts of time in India, and the Dalai Lama would sometimes come and visit their home. Uma is described as having been an awkward and introverted young girl who was frequently teased for her unique looks and unusual name (sometimes using the name “Uma Karen” instead of her birth-name). Because the family relocated often, it was difficult for her to make friends and Uma grew up as an outsider, describing herself as an angry child. When she was ten years old, a friend’s mother suggested for her to receive a nose job, something which bothered Uma for years. It was undoubtedly one of the many incidents that led to her suffer with body dysmorphic disorder, a psychiatric disorder that involves a disturbed body image, which she has later on discussed in the press. “I spent the first fourteen years of my life convinced that my looks were hideous. Adolescence is painful for everyone, I know, but mine was plain weird”, said Uma. “I was maybe 5ft 8in when I was 12, that’s pretty damn tall. When you’re a girl and you’re tall and you look much older and have a vocabulary and look people in the eye, it’s not out of confidence, it’s out of simple honesty and directness. It’s a challenge to be yourself because you’re not emotionally capable of dealing with what the world will throw at you just because they think you can take it.” Since the age of 14, Uma attended Northfield Mount Hermon, a college preparatory boarding school in Massachusetts. “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,” said Uma of her childhood. She was not interested in sports and earned average grades in school but during her Northfield Mount Hermon years she received her first acting experiences in school plays, excelling in acting from a young age. Poetry also appealed to her, a favorite being ee cummings. After performing in a production of The Crucible, Uma Thurman was noticed by talent scouts, and shortly persuaded to act professionally. At the age of 15, she left her school to pursue an acting career in New York and to attend the Professional Children’s School (from which Uma dropped out before actually graduating).

Uma Thurman did not have to wait for long to get noticed in the Big Apple as she began to seek for auditions. With her mother introducing her to famous modelling agencies, she was quickly signed by Click and found herself in Glamour and Vogue magazines. But it was an acting career that Uma wanted and at the tender age of 16 in 1998, she landed her first roles and found herself on the path to stardom. First to come were Johnny Be Good andKiss Daddy Goodnight, in which Uma already held her own opposite the likes of Robert Downey Jr. and Steve Buscemi. She also starred in Terry Gilliam’s The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (“She looks as though she floated down from the clouds,” said the director) and Stephen Frears’s Dangerous Liaisons, which saw her in the all star league of Glenn Close, John Malkovich and Michelle Pfeiffer. The movie was a huge success, and was Oscar-nominated as best film, bringing nominations also to Close and Pfeiffer. Uma received praise for her professionalism from her co-star Malkovich, who said of her, “There is nothing twitchy teenager-ish about her, I haven’t met anyone like her at that age. Her intelligence and poise stand out. But there’s something else. She’s more than a little haunted”. In 1989, she appeared on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine for the annual “Hot issue”. Uma became a big movie star and the ‘It Girl’ of the late 1980s almost overnight. Despite her efforts to engage in classy roles and challenge herself as an actress, she believed people wanted her to be “an inflatable sex doll”. “I’ve always found the idea of being a sex symbol amusing. It’s also the fastest way to becoming a mother!” She took to wearing baggy clothes and fled to London for a year.

In London Uma dated director Phil Joanou. She went to meet the stars of his latest project, State Of Grace. Sparks instantly flew when she encountered Gary Oldman – Joanou himself later said it was obvious that Oldman and Thurman were meant for each other, so he humbly stepped aside. In October 1990, Uma married Oldman, 12-years her senior. Her next movie was Where the Heart Is and she pulled another outstanding performance as June Miller in the provocative Henry & June. Uma next made waves in Robin Hood (1991), Final Analysis (1992) and Jennifer Eight (1992). In Mad Dog and Glory (1993) she starred alongside Robert De Niro and Bill Murray. She was also seen in Gus Van Sant’s Even Cowgirls Get the Blues. Sadly the film was a misstep for her, being a critical and financial disappointment – Uma was even nominated for a Worst Actress Razzie. And during the same time, Uma and Gary’s relationship was suffering because they were forced to spend so much time apart because of movie commitments. Uma was having a bad period and there were rumours of heavy drinking from his side. By 1992 the couple divorced. They just were not meant to be and Uma said herself that everything happened too fast and she was very young but ultimately Gary was her first love.

1994 was a huge year for Uma Thurman as she beat off Holly Hunter and Meg Ryan for the role of Mia Wallace in Pulp Fiction, the first collaboration between Uma and Quentin Tarantino. Tarantino originally had no intention of casting her, after seeing her performance in Mad Dog and Glory, but ultimately decided to cast her after having dinner with her: “And Uma and I were doing that scene. We were living the movie, all right? I left thinking… God, she could be Mia!” And of course, she was, receiving Oscar, BAFTA and Golden Globe nominations for her magnificent performance! Entertainment Weekly claimed that, “of the five women nominated in the Best Supporting Actress category this year, only [Thurman] can claim that her performance gave the audience fits”. Suddenly Uma was amongst the biggest actresses in Hollywood – not only as a star but also as a serious actress! And, naturally, Uma took no advantage of this, not making a big budget movie for another 3 years. Attempting to strenghten her versatility even further, Uma reunited with her Robin Hood director John Irvin for A Month By The Lake (1995). In 1996 she had a supporting role in Beautiful Girls, tested her comedic talents in The Truth About Cats & Dogs and appearanced in the short movie Duke of Groove by friend Griffin Dunne.

In 1997 Uma took on the role of Poison Ivy in Batman & Robin. Unfortunately the movie was a large failure at the box office and became one of the largest critical flops in the history of film. She next starred in Gattaga opposite Ethan Hawke, her husband to be. They had met earlier, once at an ATM machine, then at the premiere of Pulp Fiction but Uma had considered him too young for her (though he was only a year younger). Now she recognised him as an actor, writer and director, and an intense worker. Uma soon became pregnant with their daughter Maya Ray, who was born in July 1998, two months after the couple married in New York’s Cathedral of St John the Divine. Their union being blessed by none other than the Dalai Lama. Thurman herself acknowledged that they married early on because she had become pregnant. Meanwhile, she had smaller but impressive roles in Les misérables (1998) and Woody Allen’s Sweet and Lowdown (1999). In 1998 she appeared in another huge critical and financial failure as Emma Peel in The Avengers.

Uma Thurman took some time off from the spotlight in early 2000s to be with her family. She did appear in Vateland The Golden Bowl in 2000. In 2001 she starred with husband Hawke in Richard Linklater’s Tape and received an Independent Spirit Award nomination for her performance. Then came Hawke’s own directorial debut, Chelsea Walls. Even more acclaim arrived with Mira Nair’s Hysterical Blindness (2002) in which Uma acted as star and executive producer, having optioned the script after seeing the off-Broadway production. Uma earned herself a Golden Globe for the courageous performance. Her personal life was blooming also when, in January 2002, Uma and Ethan welcomed a son, Levon (often called Roan in the press because that is what Maya used to call him).

Uma next re-united with Tarantino to star as the retired assassin The Bride in her most high profile role to date in Kill Bill. Far too long but apparently impossible to cut, the film would be released in two parts (Vol. 1 and Vol. 2). Thurman became the most visible actress of 2003 and 2004, earning two Golden Globe nominations and a whole lot of hype! Sadly she was robbed from an Oscar nod but the film still holds one of her most impressive performances. Kill Bill will be released as the full version on DVD in late 2007.

Unfortunately a personal crisis came during the promo junket of the first film in 2003 as Uma and Ethan announced separation. Many news outlets reported that the cause of the divorce was because Hawke had cheated on her after he had suspected Thurman of cheating on him with Quentin Tarantino. Hawke denied that the cause of the divorce was infidelity, saying that it was caused by their busy work schedules. In a 2004 Rolling Stone cover story, both Uma and Quentin denied ever having a romantic relationship. When asked on The Oprah Winfrey Show if there was “betrayal of some kind” during the marriage, Uma responded, “There was some stuff like that at the end. We were having a difficult time, and you know how the axe comes down and how people behave and how people express their unhappiness.” Late on Uma has said: “I’ve worked so hard to keep everything on a positive note. Even when you get divorced, you’re still in a family. Even if you’re pissed off, or however you feel because of the guilt of separation, it doesn’t mean you’re not actually still a family. Whether you feel that or not, your children do. So if you create discord, they are the ones who really suffer.”

After taking on Kill Bill, Uma had smaller roles in Paycheck (2003) and Be Cool (2005). In 2005 she starred alongside Meryl Streep in Prime and sang and danced as Ulla in The Producers. In 2006 she scared Luke Wilson in My Super Ex-Girlfriend, which, unfortunately turned out to be a flop. Uma next worked on In Bloom (2007), which will premiere at the Toronto Film Festival in September 2007. In late 2006 Thurman filmed The Accidental Husband (2007), which she also produced, and is presently working on the TV movie My Zinc Bed (2008). In 2007 Uma also became the face of the UK’s Virgin Media and Pirelli Tyre SpA with the Kathryn Bigelow directed short film Mission Zero.

Uma currently resides in New York’s Hyde Park with her children, Maya, eight and Roan, five. In 2004, she began dating hotelier Andre Balazs. At one point, they lived in a loft apartment in Manhattan’s SoHo neighborhood but according to reports, they ended their relationship in early 2007. Thurman is now enjoying the single life.

Uma Thurman is one of the world’s most acclaimed actresses, having worked with Hollywood’s most visionary directors, such as Quentin Tarantino, Woody Allen, Terry Gilliam and Gus Van Sant and earned herself an Oscar nomination and a Golden Globe win. Thurman also dedicates herself to a variety of political and social causes. For example, she is a member of the United States Democratic Party, a strong supporter of gun control laws and women’s right to choose abortion and Room to Grow, an organization dedicated to enrich the lives of babies born into poverty. Uma has represented a variety of labels, such as Lancôme’s Miracle perfume and Louis Vuitton. On top of this and becide of all, the hardworking actress is a dedicated and loving mother of two.

Uma