Demi Moore was born in 1962 in Roswell, New Mexico. Her father, Charles Harmon, left her mother, Virginia King, before Demi was born. Her stepfather Danny Guynes didn’t add much stability to her life either. He frequently changed jobs and made the family move a total of 40 times. The parents kept on drinking, arguing, and beating until Guynes finally committed suicide. Demi quit school at the age of 16 to work as a pin-up-girl. At 18, she married rock musician Freddy Moore; the marriage lasted four years.

At 19, she became a regular on the soap opera General Hospital (1963). From the first salaries, she started partying and sniffing cocaine. That lasted more than three years until director Joel Schumacher threatened to fire her from the set of St. Elmo’s Fire (1985) when she turned up high. She got a withdrawal treatment and returned clean after a week and stayed clean. With determination and a skill for publicity stunts, like the nude appearance on Vanity Fair’s cover while pregnant, she made her way to fame. Since the vast commercial success of Ghost (1990) and the controversial pictures Indecent Proposal (1993) and Disclosure (1994), she’s one of Hollywood’s most sought-after and most expensive actresses.