Cindy Crawford Biography

Cindy Crawford
extracted from Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia, distributed under the GNU Free Documentation License

For the porn star of the same name, see Cindy Crawford (porn star).
Cindy Crawford
Birth name Cynthia Ann Crawford
Date of birth February 20, 1966 (1966-02-20) (age 42)
Place of birth DeKalb, Illinois, U.S.
Height 5 ft 9.5 in (1.77 m)
Hair color brown
Eye color brown
Measurements 34B"-26"-35" (86-66-89 cm)
Weight 130 lbs (59 kg)
Dress size 8 (US), 38 (EU)
Shoe size 9 (US)
Spouse(s) Richard Gere (1991-1995)
Rande Gerber (1998-present)
Official website

Cynthia Ann "Cindy" Crawford (born February 20, 1966) is an American furniture designer, actress, and former model. Known for her trademark mole just above her lip, she has adorned more magazine covers than any model in history. She was named #3 on Vh1's 40 Hottest Hotties of the 90's.

Contents

Early life

Crawford was born in DeKalb, Illinois, the daughter of Jennifer Sue (née Walker) and John Crawford. Crawford's trademark is a visible mole (or "beauty mark") above her upper lip. She is so closely associated with this physical feature that she appeared in an advertising campaign for chocolates featuring commercials wherein she "licked off" her own mole. During the beginning of her career, the mole was removed from many of her earlier modeling pictures, including her first Vogue cover.

She was discovered when she was 16 by a newspaper photographer who noticed Cindy at work during her summer job of detasseling corn and took a picture of her. The photo and the positive feedback she received were enough to convince her to take up modeling. She entered the Elite Model Mangement's Look of the Year contest at 17 and was the runner up. The Elite modeling agency in Chicago then started representing her.

Crawford graduated from DeKalb High School in 1984, as valedictorian [2]. She won an academic scholarship to study chemical engineering at Northwestern University, which she attended for only one quarter. She dropped out in order to pursue a full-time modeling career. After working for photographer Victor Skrebneski in Chicago, Cindy moved to Manhattan in 1986; she was signed with the Elite New York modeling agency.

In 1987 she briefly appeared during the opening credits of the Michael J. Fox film The Secret of My Success.

Career

Throughout the 80s and 90s, Cindy was repeatedly and frequently featured on the cover of many magazines, including: Vogue, W, People, Harper's Bazaar, ELLE, Cosmopolitan, and Allure. Crawford also appeared in many fashion campaigns during her career, including those for Gianni Versace, Escada, Revlon, Ink. She has also worked for Omega, Maybelline, and Clairol.

Crawford has also been on TV and in films. From 1989 to 1995, Crawford was host of MTV's House of Style. In the mid-1990s Crawford starred in famous Pepsi and Pepsi Stuff advertising. In 1995 Crawford broke into movies as the female lead in the movie Fair Game. Her performance was panned by critics, and the film was a financial failure, with expenses of $50 million and $11 million takings at the box office. She has had several other minor acting jobs since then, including The Simian Line, none of which have been commercially or critically successful.

Crawford is just over 5 feet 9 inches (177 cm) tall, with brown hair and eyes. Her measurements are 34"-26"-35".1 During the 1980s and 1990s, Cindy Crawford was among the most popular supermodels, first being known as "Baby Gia" and then becoming a ubiquitous presence on magazine covers, runways, and in fashion campaigns. In July 1988, she became the first modern supermodel to pose nude for Playboy magazine in a shoot by photographer Herb Ritts. In October 1998, Crawford returned to the pages of Playboy for a more revealing nude pictorial.

Crawford has consistently ranked highly on lists of the world's sexiest people. She was ranked number 5 on Playboy's list of the 100 Sexiest Stars of the 20th century. A 1997 Shape magazine survey of 4,000 picked her as the second (after Demi Moore) most beautiful woman in the world. In 2002, Crawford was named one of the 50 Most Beautiful People by People magazine. Even in her forties she claimed #26 in the 2006 Hot 100 issue of Maxim magazine. 2.

But Cindy Crawford did more than be beautiful, she redefined it in popular culture. Fashion designer Michael Kors summed up her impact:

"Cindy changed the perception of the ‘sexy American girl’ from classic blue eyed blonde to a more sultry brunette with brains, charm, and professionalism to spare."

After modeling

She continues to provide celebrity endorsement for a variety of projects. In 2005, Crawford created a line of beauty products with Dr. Jean-Louis Sebagh called Meaningful Beauty for Guthy-Renker. Though the product infomercials credit Dr. Sebagh and his mellon extract for the youthful appearance of her skin, Crawford has admitted to regularly receiving certain cosmetic procedures, including Botox, collagen, and vitamin injections. She first saw a plastic surgeon at the age of 29.3

Crawford recently launched a new line of furniture under the "Cindy Crawford Home Collection" name exclusively with Rooms To Go.4

Personal life

She was married to the actor Richard Gere between 1991 and 1995. She has been married to Rande Gerber since May 29, 1998, with whom she has two children, Presley Walker (born July 2, 1999) and Kaia Jordan (born September 3, 2001). She currently resides in Malibu, California.

Her brother died at a young age from leukemia, and Crawford has made childhood leukemia a focal point of her charity work, donating proceeds of her calendars to medical research.5 She is also an honorary board member of the Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation.6

In 2007, Cindy became an official supporter of the Ronald McDonald House Charities and is a member of their celebrity board, called the Friends of RMHC.7 Ms. Crawford is on the Honorary Committee of the California Wildlife Center.8

Filmography

See also

References

  1. ^ "Profile of Cindy Crawford". Retrieved on 2007-04-29.
  2. ^ Cindy Crawford of 2006 Hot 100 on Maxim.com
  3. ^ "Cindy Crawford: 'My 11 years of cosmetic surgery'", the Daily Mail [1]
  4. ^ "Rooms To Go Opens First Of Four Houston Area Stores". furninfo.com. Retrieved on 2008-11-13.
  5. ^ Crawford raises questions, awareness for leukemia society - DMNews
  6. ^ MMRF Honorary Board
  7. ^ "Celebrity Friends of RMHC". McDonald's Corporation.
  8. ^ "California Wildlife Center Way Wild 2008". californiawildlifecenter.org. Retrieved on 2008-10-31.

External links

Preceded by
none		 Host of House of Style
1989-1995		 Succeeded by
Amber Valletta and Shalom Harlow
Preceded by
Nick Nolte		 People's Sexiest Couple Alive
(shared with Richard Gere)
1993
 Succeeded by
Brad Pitt
(no award given in 1994)


Persondata
NAME Crawford, Cindy
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Crawford, Cynthia Ann
SHORT DESCRIPTION American fashion model
DATE OF BIRTH March 10, 1973
PLACE OF BIRTH DeKalb, Illinois, United States
DATE OF DEATH
PLACE OF DEATH