She was an actress who was there from the very beginning: Rebecca De Mornay landed an extremely coveted role for actresses in Hollywood before anyone realized the role would be one to wish for! De Mornay played the leading lady alongside a bright newcomer named Tom Cruise, in a film that would later become an era-defining film for the Eighties, Risky Business.

The risque comedy helped propel De Mornay into the spotlight as an actress to keep an eye on in her professional life, and De Mornay even turned heads in her personal life; she and Cruise fell for each other and started dating and their relationship grabbed some headlines of its own after it was revealed De Mornay had been seeing another Hollywood screen legend. According to Pens and Patron, De Mornay had been seriously involved with Harry Dean Stanton.

The legacy of Rebecca De Mornay's career is actually much bigger than her on-and-off-screen Cruise connection! The actress's career would turn out to last much longer than the amount of hairspray needed to maintain the hairstyles of the Risky Business cast, and she would go on to explore and have an influence on multiple entertainment avenues.

Related: What Happened To Tom Cruise's Ex Wife, Mimi Rogers?

What Happened To Rebecca De Mornay?

De Mornay's career has remained quite consistent over the years following her career-defining role in Risky Business. Following the film's 1983 release, De Mornay went on to gather more film credits to her name and even forayed into television for the first time two years later. The camera would really go on to favor De Mornay as the Eighties progressed; she even tapped into one of the decade's hottest commodities with the advent of a 24-hour television channel exclusively dedicated to music videos and music-related programming, MTV, when she starred in the music video for Starship's Sara.

Surprisingly the cover-gal would later begin to make the move to explore a world behind-the-scenes and at times would trade the camera for a soundboard in the recording studio. Her excursion further into the music world would turn out to be a notable one; she would meet and fall in love with legendary musician and poet Leonard Cohen, following her divorce from Bruce Wagner in 1990, and would even go on to receive a production credit on Cohen's 1992 album The Future.

His influence would be cemented on De Mornay long before she met Cohen. In an interview with Rolling Stone from that same year, she recalled hearing Cohen's music for the first time as a child after her mother decided to play one of his records, hoping Cohen's voice would lull her to sleep.

Cohen's voice would fail to do so, but would go on to have a profound influence on De Mornay's life; He would propose at a point in the Nineties, but the couple would later break their engagement.

De Mornay's Super Pivot Back To TV

After exploring music production and landing small screen roles in the Nineties, including a period where De Mornay was a series regular on the smash-hit success ER, the actress began to find herself settling into a more consistent career in television. In the early aughts, De Mornay would have roles in both Boomtown and The Practice before achieving a later career peak when she would land a role in the massively successful Netflix show, Marvel's Jessica Jones as Dorothy Walker. Dorothy had an underrated, albeit important role in Jessica Jones; she served as Jessica's guardian- a role with big shoes to fill!

Related: Krysten Ritter’s 10 Biggest Roles Outside Of Jessica Jones

Behind-The-Scenes Babe: Inside Her Personal Life

Between De Mornay's several successful career pivots, the actress took time off to focus on her personal life. As many public figures do, the actress dealt with a tough period when a private moment became public knowledge.

In October of 2007, De Mornay was arrested for driving under the influence one California night after it was discovered her blood alcohol level was over the legal limit. According to the Sun-Sentinel, De Mornay was charged two months after the arrest in December.

Luckily De Mornay's personal life has not been limited to a string of negative headlines! The actress took some time out of the spotlight to become a mother in the Nineties when she dated someone who was also in the public eye as well: De Mornay dated Patrick O'Neal, a sportscaster who had also shared De Mornay's line of work at one time as an actor. De Mornay and O'Neal were together from 1995 until 2002, via News.Amomama. The couple had two daughters together named Sophia and Veronica with Sophia being born first in 1997 and Veronica being born four years later in 2001.

What's Next For Rebecca?

While De Mornay found success on the small screen in Jessica Jones, she was cast in other coveted roles on television as well! She was cast in Lucifer in 2016 and would land a role in the film Periphery two years later, alongside Blake Lively's older half-sister Robyn!

Related: Lucifer: Ages, Heights and Relationship Statuses Of The Main Cast

De Mornay's latest project has another famous name already attached; the actress will appear in a sports dramedy called She Ball, directed by Nick Cannon.

Almost four decades after the role that made her famous, Rebecca De Mornay is proud of Risky Business and isn't opposed to looking back: Of the famous film she said, "Risky Business still stands up. It's timeless. They study that film in film school."

De Mornay's career still stands up, and we know the timeless beauty is not slowing down anytime soon!

 

Next: Here's Why Tom Cruise's Co-Star Like Working With Him