Demi Moore

Born: November 11, 1962
Where: Roswell, New Mexico, USA

The former teenage pin-up put a broken home behind her to become one of the top female screen stars of the 1990s.

However, life hasn't been without its problems - she is a reformed cocaine addict, has endured two divorces and was saddled with a reputation in Hollywood for being difficult (her nickname was Gimme Moore).

Professionally, career highlights have ranged from the perpetual rom-com favourite Ghost to Adrian Lyne's erotic thriller Indecent Proposal.

Born in New Mexico, her father left her mother, Victoria, before she was born and she spent much of her childhood in Eastern Pennsylvania.

Her hard-drinking stepfather, Danny Guynes, frequently changed jobs and kept the family constantly on the movie before he committed suicide.

Moore quit school at the age of 16 to work as a pin-up-girl and at 18 married rock musician Freddie Moore; the marriage lasted four years.

After a series of jobs, including debt collecting, she made her big screen debut in 1981 in the drama Choices.

Subsequent appearances included the 3-D sci-fi horror yarn Parasite and an uncredited role in the Sean Young comedy Young Doctors in Love.

In 1982, she landed the role of Jackie Templeton on General Hospital after producers put out a casting call for a Margot Kidder-type actress.

At the same time she succumbed to the showbiz allure of cocaine but it didn't stop her starring as Michael Caine's vulnerable young daughter in Blame It On Rio and a callous model in No Small Affair.

In 1985, director Joel Schumacher's "no drugs" rule on the set of St Elmo's Fire - co-starring fellow brat packers Rob Loew and Emilio Estevez - helped her kick the habit when he fired her and she came back clean.

Moore graduated to adult roles as the prophecy-bearing mother in The Seventh Sign, a foul-talking hooker in Neil Jordan's misfire We're No Angels and the mourning, teary-eyed lover in the surprise hit Ghost.

With determination and a skill for publicity stunts, like the nude appearance on the cover of Vanity Fair while pregnant, she found her celebrity niche in Hollywood.

The extremely popular A Few Good Men kept her in the public eye and she shed more tears as Woody Harrelson's wife who sleeps with Robert Redford for a million dollars in Adrian Lyne's popular Indecent Proposal.

In Barry Levinson's thriller Disclosure she played a ruthless corporate executive who becomes the target of a sexual harassment suit lodged by a disappointed employee and former lover, played by Michael Douglas.

The Scarlet Letter, Now and Then and The Juror followed before she shed her clothes for the exotic dancing movie Striptease, making her the highest paid actress in Hollywood.

After a string of financial disappointments, Moore bounced back with number one box office success G.I. Jane in 1997), in which she played a female recruit training for the Navy SEALs.

Perhaps signaling an upswing in her career, Moore also had a featured role as a psychiatrist in Woody Allen's Deconstructing Harry.

In 2000, she and Bruce Willis announced their 13-year-old marriage was over and she subsequently remarried fellow actor Ashton Kutcher in 2003.

The same year she enjoyed a brief revival of her career in Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle as fallen angel Madison Lee, for which she reportedly spent £250,000 on a full body makeover.

Recent work includes the Scotland-set supernatural thriller Half Light.