By the time she was 16, De Mornay had an agent who was selling her songs to German rock & roll musicians, and she had written the theme song for a kung fu movie called
Goodbye Bruce Lee: His Last Game of Death (1975). In 1980, She made her film debut with a small part in
Francis Ford Coppola's 1981 film
One from the Heart, which starred her real-life partner at the time,
Harry Dean Stanton. Her star-making role came two years later in
Risky Business (1983), as a
call girl who seduces a high-school student played by
Tom Cruise. In 1985, she played the title role in ''
The Slugger's Wife'' opposite
Michael O'Keefe, and co-starred in
The Trip to Bountiful and
Runaway Train, both of which were nominated for several
Academy Awards. That same year, she appeared with
Starship's
Mickey Thomas in the music video for the song "
Sara". The song reached No. 1 on the
Billboard Hot 100 chart on March 15, 1986. She also appeared in
Roger Vadim's provocative 1988 remake of
And God Created Woman, and as the wife of
Kurt Russell's character in
Ron Howard's
Backdraft (1991). In 1990, she enacted the role of a USAF Captain pilot in HBO's successful Cold War film ''By the Dawn's Early Light''. One of De Mornay's most commercially successful films was the thriller
The Hand That Rocks the Cradle, released in 1992. She starred as a defense lawyer in
Sidney Lumet's murder drama
Guilty as Sin (1993) with
Don Johnson. Then she appeared in the 1995 drama film
Never Talk to Strangers opposite
Antonio Banderas, for which she was also the executive producer. In 2003, she guest-starred as primary antagonist in the first two episodes of season 2 of
Boomtown. In 2004, she guest-starred as attorney Hannah Rose for the last few episodes of
The Practice and the following year, had a brief role alongside
Owen Wilson and
Vince Vaughn in
Wedding Crashers. De Mornay also starred in the 2007 drama
American Venus. ==Personal life==