BIOGRAPHY
Mimi Rogers was born Miriam Spickler on 27 January 1956 in Coral Gables, Florida, USA. A gifted student, Mimi graduated high school at fourteen. A member of the Church of Scientology since childhood, she married Scientology counsellor Jim Rogers in 1977. They divorced in 1980.
It was about this time that Mimi embarked on her acting career. In 1981 she appeared as a guest star on Hill Street Blues. Guest roles on Hart To Hart and Magnum PI followed, and in 1982 she appeared in telemovies Divorce Wars and Hear No Evil. More telemovies followed in 1983. 1984 was a year for TV series, with roles in The Rousters and Paper Dolls. More telemovies followed. In 1987, her profile rose when she co-starred with Tom Berenger in Someone To Watch Over Me.
Also raising her profile that year was her marriage to fellow actor Tom Cruise, but she admits that the marriage probably hurt her career more than it helped. Her roles in the next few years were higher-profile, but there were fewer of them as she put her career on the backburner for the sake of her marriage. It was a sometimes difficult marriage, and the couple divorced in 1990. (They do not appear to hate each other, contrary to popular perception; Cruise accompanied Mimi to a charity event last year). The same year, Mimi became involved with director Chris Ciaffa; the couple are still together and have since had two children. They have collaborated on several projects.
A turning point came in 1991, when she took the lead role of Sharon in The Rapture. The Rapture was one of that year's most controversial films, exploring religious themes and dilemmas. It has since then been badly marketed as a film focused on sexual exploration, but in fact that was only a sidelight on the main issue. Mimi was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award for Best Female Lead for the role. This movie was very important to Mimi's career, in some ways, because it made some inroads on breaking through the inevitable Mrs Tom Cruise preconceptions which had been hampering her profile. It gave Mimi a valueable opportunity to demonstrate a much greater acting range than in her earlier roles.
More roles followed. In 1993, Mimi appeared in a gorgeous spread in Playboy magazine. She stated later that one of her motivations for the spread was a desire to capture her appearance as it was before she had children, suggesting that by this time in her life, she was planning a family. She and Chris had their first child, Lucy, two years later.
In 1994, Mimi starred in Reflections On A Crime, and she won the Golden Space Needle Best Actress Award at the Seattle International Film Festival, and in 1998 she was nominated for a Golden Satellite Award for Weapons Of Mass Destruction. The same year, Mimi returned to TV screens in the recurring role of Special Agent Diana Fowley on The X Files, and was reunited with The Rapture co-star David Duchovny. It was an unpopular role, written as a foil and a competing love interest for the female lead, but Mimi brought great warmth and humanity to the role nonetheless, particularly in her sequences with child actor Jeff Gulka (Gibson Praise). Her roles in this and other high-profile productions such as Austin Powers and Lost In Space brought her again to the attention of international audiences.
But Mimi's biggest professional development was taking place behind the scenes. In 1997 she branched out into production, and she has tended towards explorations of heavy and gritty subject matter. In 1999 she and her team were nominated for a daytime Emmy for the acclaimed production The Devil's Arithmetic.
In 2000, Mimi ventured again into serial television, with a recurring role on The Geena Davis Show. The show flopped, but Mimi received scattered good reviews. The following year, Mimi gave birth to son Charlie Rogers-Ciaffa.
Besides her entertainment credits, Mimi is a committed environmentalist. She chaired the One Planet conference last year, and she is a board member of the Earth Communications Office. She is a frequent participant in charity events. As well, she is a devoted parent and is often seen at the premiere screenings of children's movies with her own children and their friends.
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