Jennifer Aniston |
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Born 11th February 1969
An American screen and movie actress. Jennifer Joanna Aniston was born in Sherman Oaks, California, and grew up in New York City. She is the daughter of actor John Aniston, a Greek American and actress Nancy Dow who is of Italian-Scottish descent. Aniston’s godfather was the actor Telly Savalas, her father’s best friend. She lived in Greece for one year as a child with her family, and they later relocated to New York City.
Jennifer attended the New York Rudolf Steiner School and graduated from Manhattan’s Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts. She worked in Off Broadway productions such as For Dear Life and Dancing on Checker’s Grave. She supported herself with several part-time jobs, including working as a telemarketer and bike messenger. In 1989, she moved to Los Angeles, California.
Jennifer appeared in a couple of failed television comedy shows, The Edge and Muddling Through. After her appearance in the critically derided 1992 horror film, Leprechaun, she considered giving up acting. Her plans changed, however, after auditioning for the sit com Friends. The producers of the show originally wanted Aniston to play the role of Monica Geller, but Courteney Cox was considered more suited for the part of Monica. As a result, Jennifer was cast as Rachel Green and played the character from 1994 until the show ended in 2004.
The program was very successful and she became a popular actress. Her hairstyle at the time, which became known as the “Rachel”, was widely copied. Although Jennifer has since admitted she disliked the hairstyle she wore during her first two years on Friends. Jennifer received a salary of one million dollars per episode for the last two seasons of Friends (2005). She won an Emmy Award, a Golden Globe Award, and a Screen Actors Guild Award for her role in the series.
Jennifer has also enjoyed a successful film career. Her biggest box office success to date was her appearance in 2003’s Bruce Almighty, in which she played the girlfriend of title character Jim Carrey.
In the 2004, Jennifer starred in Along Came Polly opposite Ben Stiller. A year later, she appeared in two major studio films, Derailed and Rumour Has It…. Her next film, The Break-Up, grossed approximately $39.17 million during its opening weekend.
In December, 2008, Jennifer starred alongside Owen Wilson in Marley & Me. It set a record for the largest Christmas Day box office ever with $14.75 million in ticket sales. It earned a total of $51.7 million over the four-day weekend and placed No.1 at the box office. The total worldwide gross was $242,717,113. Her next film in wide release, He’s Just Not That into You, where she starred opposite Ben Affleck, opened in February 2009.
In March 2010, she released The Bounty Hunter, which co-starred Gerard Butler. By June, 2010, Jennifer’s movies have grossed more than $1 billion in the United States and over $1,7 billion worldwide. Jennifer’s film, Just Go with It, with Adam Sandler, was released on Valentine’s Day weekend in 2011.
Jennifer worked for over a year on a new perfume, which was released in July 2010, at Harrods, London. Original plans called for the perfume to be named Lolavie by Jennifer Aniston, but to avoid confusion with a similarly named perfume, the name was changed to simply Jennifer Aniston. In an interview following the launch, she said that she would also like to create a fragrance for men.
Jennifer has also been in commercials for L’Oreal hair products. In 2008, she and partner Kristin Hahn formed the production company Echo Films.
Since 2007, Jennifer has worked in a publicity campaign for the drink SmartWater; on March 7, 2011, she released a YouTube video, titled "Jennifer Aniston Goes Viral", for SmartWater, tripling online interest in the product within 24 hours of the release.
Jennifer supports many charity foundations. She is a supporter of Friends of El Faro, a grassroots non-profit organization that helps raise money for Casa Hogar Sion, an orphanage in Tijuana, Mexico. She has appeared in many TV commercials for St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital, which she supports.
She married Actor Brad Pitt in 2000, but separated in 2005. They were seen together publicly after announcing their separation, even at a dinner party for Aniston’s 36th birthday, and friends of the couple had declared they were reconciling. However, Jennifer filed for divorce on March 25, 2005 and it was finalised in October, 2005. During this period there was intense speculation in the media that Pitt had been unfaithful to Jennifer, with his Mr. & Mrs. Smith co-star, Angelina Jolie. By Jan 2006 Angelina was expecting Brad’s first child.
The story became the headline news of media shows and made the front-pages of tabloid magazines for years, continuing till this day. ’Team Aniston’ and ’Team Jolie’ T-shirts appeared, with ’Team Aniston’ shirts out-selling the ’Team Jolie’ shirts 4:1. Jennifer has said that her relationship with Brad, which she does not regret, was "seven very intense years together" and that "it was a beautiful, complicated relationship."
Since her divorce, Jennifer has dated actor Vince Vaughn, with whom she co-starred in The Break Up; British model Paul Sculfor in 2007 and singer John Mayer in 2008.
Forbes listed Jennifer as the 10th richest woman in the entertainment industry for 2007 and estimated her net worth to be about $110 million. She is also one of Hollywood’s most profitable actresses. She has been on the Forbes Celebrity 100 list, based on "earnings and fame", every year since 2001, topping the list in 2003. For the year of 2008, Forbes listed Jennifer’s earnings as $27 million. She has appeared on Peoples annual list of The Most Beautiful every year since 1995, and came in at No.1 in 2004. She has been a regular on FHM’s 100 Sexiest Women list since 1996, ranking at No.81 in 2010, No.24 in 2009 and No.27 in 2008.
In 2011 The Telegraph reported the most sought after body parts of the rich and famous revealed by two Hollywood plastic surgeons who carried out a survey among their patients to build up the picture of what the perfect woman would look like. Under the category of the most sought after body shape Aniston was voted in the top three alongside Gisele Bundchen and Penelope Cruz.
