Julia Karin Ormond was born in Epsom, Surrey, England on January 4th, 1965, to a wealthy family. Her father was a successful computer software designer who became a millionaire by age 30, but left his wife and children when Julia was still young.

Ormond attended a private school with mostly male classmates, which may have influenced her tomboy personality; rather than play with dolls, she enjoyed field hockey and other sports. Some performances in school plays piqued an interest in acting, and, after a brief stint in art school -- where she attempted to follow in the abstract-painting footsteps of her grandparents -- she attended acting school at the Webber-Douglas Academy of Dramatic Arts, in London, England.

Her early professional career was a pretty smooth transition from TV commercials (the first was for cottage cheese), to theatrical productions, to her 1991 breakthrough: the title role in Young Catherine. This TNT made-for-TV biopic of Catherine the Great brought Julia a lot of attention this side of the pond. On the set of the film she met Rory Edwards, who she married and ultimately divorced in 1993.

Through the early '90s, Ormond held a string of interesting roles, most notably in The Baby of Macon and Captives, co-starring Tim Roth In the HBO feature Stalin, in which Robert Duvall's portrayal of the dictator was much reviled, Julia shone as Stalin's wife Nadya Alliluyeva, and further drew attention to herself.

But her greatest breakthrough came in 1994, with Legends of the Fall. As the love interest of three brothers, Ormond held her own alongside Brad Pitt and Anthony Hopkins It was a great Hollywood start for Ormond. In 1995, she starred as Guinevere in First Knight, opposite Sean Connery and Richard Gere, followed by Sydney Pollack's remake of Sabrina, starring Harrison Fordand Greg Kinnear. That year, she was selected one of People magazine's 50 Most Beautiful People in the World.

After this flurry of success, Ormond took a two-year acting hiatus. She did not have a feature film until 1997, when Smilla's Sense of Snow failed to earn critical acclaim or box-office sales. The following year she appeared in a Russian film entitled The Barber of Siberia, which failed to make a mark in the film industry.

Meanwhile, Ormond kept busy by founding her own production company, Indican (the name is a play on the phrase "in the can"), and sealed a deal with Fox Searchlight Pictures in 1997. In 1999, she lent her voice to a TV production of George Orwell's Animal Farm, and the following year she returned to the Hollywood film scene with The Prime Gig, featuring Vince Vaughn.

The latest additions to Ormond's resume are 2003's Resistance and the HBO film, Iron Jawed Angels, with Anjelica Huston. As for charity work, Ormond co-chairs FilmAid International, a celebrated nonprofit organization that brings aid and relief to refugees. In 2003, she won a Crystal Award for using her art to transcend cultural boundaries.