Long before Julia Roberts became one of cinema’s most recognizable stars, her life began with an extraordinary gesture from Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King — the culmination of a friendship forged in an Atlanta theater that quietly challenged the racial boundaries of its time.
There are stories from Hollywood history that seem almost too perfectly constructed to be true. They contain coincidence, extraordinary characters and the kind of symmetry a screenwriter might hesitate to put on the page for fear of appearing sentimental. The story connecting Julia Roberts with Martin Luther King Jr. is one of them, except its most compelling elements occurred before Roberts had ever appeared before a camera — indeed, before she had even left the hospital in which she was born.
When Julia Fiona Roberts entered the world in Smyrna, Georgia, on October 28, 1967, her parents, Walter and Betty Lou Roberts, were struggling financially. They were actors, writers and teachers whose lives revolved around the theater, but artistic ambition did not necessarily translate into financial security. The medical expenses surrounding their daughter's birth represented a significant burden.
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