Julia Roberts
The megawatt smile that owned the 90s box office. From Pretty Woman through Notting Hill and Runaway Bride, Julia Roberts was the romantic-comedy lead every studio wanted and every video store shelved face-out — then she capped the run by winning the Oscar as Erin Brockovich.
Julia Roberts arrived fast: Mystic Pizza (1988) made critics notice, and Steel Magnolias (1989) won her a Golden Globe and a first Oscar nomination before she turned 23. Then came Pretty Woman in 1990. The Cinderella story with Richard Gere sold more tickets in the U.S. than any romantic comedy ever had, grossed $463.4 million worldwide, and earned Roberts a second Oscar nomination — for a role that had paid her just $300,000. Practically overnight she was the biggest female star in the world.
She spent the decade proving it wasn't a fluke, and not only in comedies — the thrillers Sleeping with the Enemy (1991) and The Pelican Brief (1993) pulled in $175 million and $195.2 million worldwide on her name. After a mid-decade cooling-off, My Best Friend's Wedding (1997) roared back with $299.3 million, and 1999 delivered a one-two punch: Notting Hill ($363 million) and Runaway Bride ($309.4 million) in the same summer. She was the world's highest-paid actress for most of the 90s, and People magazine has named her its World's Most Beautiful Woman five times.
The capstone came right at the decade's edge. For Erin Brockovich (2000) she became the first actress ever paid $20 million for a film, then won the Academy Award for Best Actress at the 73rd Oscars — the crowning moment of a run that had made her Hollywood's default leading lady. For anyone who grew up renting VHS tapes in the 90s, the laugh, the hair, and that smile are shorthand for an entire era of Friday-night movies.
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