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 and Kiss 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
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Nikon Girl music video, The Photo Club
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