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Jennifer Aniston (born February 11,
1969) is an Emmy- and Golden Globe-winning American film
and television actress. Aniston began appearing in stage
productions in the late 1980s. After several
lesser-known film and television roles during the early
1990s, Aniston came to fame playing Rachel Green on the
hugely popular television sitcom Friends for which she
won a Golden Globe and an Emmy Award.
She has since focused heavily on her film career, having
starred in several successful Hollywood films, including
Along Came Polly and The Break-Up. Aniston has also
become known for her marriage to, and eventual divorce
from, actor Brad Pitt.
Early life: Aniston was born in Sherman Oaks,
California and grew up in New York City. She is the
daughter of the Greek-American actor John Aniston
(originally Ioannis Anastasakis) and actress Nancy Dow.
Aniston has two half-brothers, John Melick and Alex
Aniston. Aniston's father was born in the island of
Crete, while her maternal grandfather, Gordon McLean
Dow, was of Scottish and English descent, and her
maternal grandmother, Louise Grieco, was of Italian
ancestry.
Aniston's godfather was the late Greek
American actor Telly Savalas, her father's best friend.
Aniston spent part of her childhood in Greece, but most
of it in New York City, where her father appeared in the
soap operas Love of Life and Search for Tomorrow. In
1985, the family moved to Los Angeles, where Aniston's
father starred on the soap opera Days of our Lives as
Victor Kiriakis. Aniston graduated from Manhattan's
Fiorello H. Laguardia High School of Arts and Performing
Arts. Among her high school friends was future gay
rights activist Chastity Bono. Aniston's desire to
become an actress grew as she worked in Off-Broadway
productions such as For Dear Life and Dancing on
Checker's Grave. During this time, she supported herself
with several part-time jobs, including working as a
telemarketer and bike messenger.
Career: Aniston appeared as a
"Nutri-System" girl on The Howard Stern Radio
Show in the late 1980s and early 1990s. She moved to
Hollywood and was cast in her first television roles in
1990, starring as a regular on the short-lived series
Molloy and in the TV movie Camp Cucamonga. She also
co-starred in Ferris Bueller, a television adaptation of
the 1986 teen movie Ferris Bueller's Day Off, the same
year; the series was quickly canceled. Aniston then
appeared in two more failed television comedy shows, The
Edge and Muddling Through, and guest-starred on Quantum
Leap, Herman's Head and Burke's Law. After the string of
cancelled shows, along with her appearance in the
critically derided 1993 Horror Film, Leprechaun, Aniston
seriously considered giving up acting.
Aniston's plans changed, however, after auditioning for
Friends, a sitcom that was set to debut on NBC's
1994-1995 fall line-up. The producers of the show
originally wanted Aniston to audition for the role of
Monica Geller, but she persuaded them that she was
better suited for the role of Rachel Green. She was cast
in the role and played the character from 1994 until the
show ended in 2004. The program was very successful and
Aniston, along with her co-stars, gained wide renown
among television viewers. Her hairstyle at the time,
which became known as the "Rachel", was widely
copied. Aniston received a salary of one million dollars
per episode for the last two seasons of Friends, as well
as five Emmy nominations, including a win for
"Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series".
According to the Guinness World Book of Records (2005),
Aniston (along with her female costars) became the
highest paid TV actress ever with her $1
million-per-episode paycheck for the tenth season of
Friends.
Aniston was the very first guest on The Ellen DeGeneres
Show. The gifts she brought her are featured on every
show. She appeared on a promotional video for Microsoft
about Windows 95 alongside her Friends co-star Matthew
Perry.
Aniston has starred in several theatrical films,
including the cult hit Office Space. She gained the most
critical acclaim for her role in the low-budget 2002
film, The Good Girl, directed by Miguel Arteta, playing
an unglamorous cashier in a small town. The film opened
in relatively few theaters - under 700 in total - taking
$14M in the U.S. box office. Jennifer's biggest box
office success was her appearance in 2003's Bruce
Almighty, in which she played the girlfriend of title
character (Jim Carrey); the film grossed $243M at the
United States box office and almost twice that
worldwide. Aniston's 2004 film, Along Came Polly
(opposite Ben Stiller), also did well at the box office
after opening at the #1 spot. In late 2005, Aniston
headlined two major studio films, Derailed and Rumor Has
It, both of which performed fairly at the box office,
grossing over $36 million each despite little support
from critics. In the same year, she appeared in a
European Heineken television commercial frequently aired
before UEFA Champions League matches.
In 2006, People magazine voted her Best Dressed. She was
also labeled "the natural" by the same
magazine. The same year, Aniston appeared in the
low-budget drama, Friends with Money, which was first
shown at the Cannes Film Festival, received a limited
release, and grossed over $13 million. Aniston's next
film, The Break-Up, which was released on June 2,
grossed approximately $39.17 million during its opening
weekend, despite lukewarm reviews. It has currently
grossed over $118 million at the U.S. box office and
over $203 million worldwide. Aniston was involved in a
controversy connected to this movie when outtakes from
The Break Up revealing her topless appeared over the
internet.
She will co-direct a hospital emergency room-set short
film named Room 10, starring Robin Wright Penn and Kris
Kristofferson; Aniston has noted that she was inspired
to direct by actress Gwyneth Paltrow, who directed a
short film in 2006.
Forbes listed Aniston as the 10th richest woman in the
entertainment industry for the year 2007. She is behind
such powerhouses as Oprah Winfrey, J. K. Rowling, and
Jennifer Lopez and is ahead of Britney Spears, Christina
Aguilera and the Olsen twins. Aniston's net worth is
approximately $110 million. Aniston was also included in
the annual Star Salary Top 10 of trade magazine
"The Hollywood Reporter" for 2006.
Personal life: Aniston has previously dated
musician Adam Duritz and was engaged to actor Tate
Donovan. Her high-profile relationship with actor Brad
Pitt was frequently publicized in the press. She married
Pitt on July 29, 2000, in a lavish Malibu wedding. The
two separated on January 7, 2005, and Aniston officially
filed for divorce on March 25, 2005. The divorce was
finalized on October 2, 2005.
Media reports have speculated that the split was due to
an affair on Pitt's part (with actress Angelina Jolie)
or due to Aniston's refusal to have children. Aniston
vehemently denied the latter in an August 2005 Vanity
Fair interview, stating, "I've never in my life
said I didn't want to have children... I've always
wanted to have children, and I would never give up that
experience for a career. I want to have it all."
She has also stated that the death of her longtime
therapist, whose work helped to make the separation from
Pitt easier, more than a year ago was
"devastating." Summing up her relationship
with Pitt, Aniston has said that their relationship,
which she does not regret, was "seven very intense
years together" and that "it was a beautiful,
complicated relationship."
Since the couple's divorce, Aniston has been
romantically linked with actor Vince Vaughn. In August
of 2006, Aniston denied rumors that the two were engaged
or that Vaughn had proposed. In October 2006, gossip
magazine Us Weekly quoted sources from Vaughn that the
couple had split. "Jen lives in a crazy world with
all the press. It's just not his world." In
December 2006, reps for both Aniston and Vaughn
confirmed that they had indeed split up a few weeks
before when Aniston visited Vaughn in London.
Courtney Cox Arquette is Aniston's best friend. In 2007,
Aniston was invited to guest star in an episode of
Arquette's new television show Dirt. Aniston played
Arquette's snobby rival Tina Harrod on March 27.
She has had two septoplastys to thin her deviated
septum: one incorrectly done in 1994 and one in early
2007. This is a simple medical procedure which helps
cure the common condition which can lead to breathing
difficulty and trouble sleeping. Tabloids reported this
as a "nose job." |
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