Julia Roberts

Season 3, Episode 304

Original Airdate: June 22, 1997

Though she is now the highest paid actress in Hollywood (commanding $20 million for her Oscar-winning role in Erin Brockovich) Julia Roberts originally wanted to be a veterinarian.

Julia Roberts was born October 28, 1967 in Smyrna, GA. Her parents, a vacuum salesman and a church secretary, had both been actors when young. They divorced when Julia was a child, and her father died when she was only ten. After high school, she moved to New York pursue a career in acting, following in her brother and sister's footsteps. She worked at Baskin-Robbins scooping ice cream, sold shoes and modeled for the Click agency while she took acting classes.

In 1986, her brother Eric, also an actor, convinced director Eric Masterson to cast her in the drama Blood Red. The film wasn't even released until years later, when Julia was a name worth advertising. Julia's true professional debut came on an episode of Crime Story in 1988. That same year, Roberts landed roles in two feature films, Satisfaction and Mystic Pizza. Mystic Pizza was her breakthrough role, playing a waitress in a pizza place. Roberts stole the show and won critical raves.

She was Oscar-nominated as Shelby in 1989's Steel Magnolias, playing alongside such establish actresses as Shirley MacLaine, Sally Field and Olympia Dukakis. But Julia was truly catapulted into superstardom with the blockbuster hit, Pretty Woman, in 1990. The simple story of a hooker with a heart of gold charmed audiences, grossing nearly $300 million at the box office. Roberts, barely 23 years old, snagged a second Oscar nomination (for Best Actress) and was the hottest actress in Hollywood.

In 1990, Julia also starred in Flatliners with other top young actors, including Kevin Bacon and Keifer Sutherland, with whom she had an ill-fated romance. 1991 saw Julia take on a variety of roles. She played an abused wife in Sleeping with the Enemy, which was not critically well-received but was still a hit at the box office thanks to Roberts' name. She played a nurse in Dying Young, and Tinkerbell, in Steven Spielberg's Peter Pan retelling Hook.

Roberts was feeling the pressures of fame and the paparazzi, and took a two year haitus from making movies, aside from a brief but humorous cameo in Robert Altman's The Player. Roberts returned to the screen in 1993, with the top-grossing hit movie, The Pelican Brief, co-starring Denzel Washington. She continued working in a batch of mediocre films such as Ready to Wear (1994), I Love Trouble (1994), Something to Talk About (1995) Everyone Says I Love You (1996), Michael Collins (1996), Mary Reilly (1996), and Conspiracy Theory (1996). People were saying the former darling of Hollywood was all washed up.

That was before the 1997 summer release of My Best Friend's Wedding. The film opened to the highest-ever single weekend ticket sales for a romantic comedy and also earned critical respect with a Golden Globe nomination. Those who doubted Roberts' star power doubted no more. In 1998, she shared the screen with Susan Sarandon and Ed Harris in the family drama Stepmom.

1999 saw a slew of successful romantic comedies including Notting Hill with Hugh Grant and Runaway Bride with Richard Gere. Erin Brockovich (2000), based on a true story, earned her the Best Actress Golden Globe Award in January 2001, and then the Best Actress Oscar - not to mention a $20 million paycheck.

A co-headlining gig opposite Brad Pitt in The Mexican (2001) and the summer release of America's Sweethearts (2001), a showbiz comedy by Billy Crystal, followed on the heels of her Oscar win. She stars alongside George Clooney and Brad Pitt in the 2001 remake of Ocean's Eleven, and is set to team up with Brockovich director Steven Soderbergh yet again.