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Cynthia Ann Crawford was born
February 20, 1966, in De Kalb, Illinois. She was discovered by chance by a
newspaper photographer, who noticed then 16-year old Cindy at work during
her summer job of detasselling corn and took her a picture of her. The
photo and the positive feedback surrounding Cindy's photogenic talents
were enough to convince her to quit her day job and take up modelling.
Thanks to two summers of modelling, represented by Elite Model Management
in Chicago, the All-American beauty proved to also have brains -- she
traded in the glamorous life a model (at least temporarily) to study
chemical engineering at Northwestern University, on scholarship.
The former high school valedictorian pulled off the same exceptional
grades in college as in high school, but she didn't stick around long
enough to see where a degree in engineering would have taken her. She left
school in order to pursue a full-time modelling career. After working for
photographer Victor Skrebneski in Chicago and becoming a success, Cindy
took her supermodel assets to New York City in 1986.
To no great surprise, it didn't take long for Cindy to establish herself
as a model. After two years, she was walking down catwalks for the biggest
fashion designers and posing as a cover girl for fashion magazines. She
had become one of the first to enter the elite group of original
supermodels, along with models Naomi Campbell, Claudia Schiffer and Linda
Evangelista, and she had the salary to prove it.
In 1988, Cindy made more history as the first modern supermodel to appear
in Hugh Hefner's mag. Her Play.boy spread not only impressed men young and
old worldwide, but it lead to her 6-year stunt as host for MTV's House of
Style.
Always the entrepreneur, Cindy launched a series of swimsuit calendars and
fitness videos, which were both tremendously successful. Her business
savvy also came in handy when Naomi Campbell, Elle MacPherson and Claudia
Schiffer invested in the Fashion Café chain, but Cindy saw potential in
the then lucrative Planet Hollywood.
With contracts for Pepsi, Kay Jewelers, and most notably Revlon (a
multi-year, million dollar contract, that is), Cindy and her company,
Crawdaddy Inc. were seeing the fruits of her name, reputation and beauty.
Always one to take risks, Cindy decided to pose for a different kind of
cover shoot, on the cover of Vanity Fair posing with the "outed" K.D.
Lang.
Named the planet's highest paid model by Forbes magazine in 1995, Cindy
set out on more business ventures with her book, Cindy Crawford's Basic
Face: A Makeup Workbook.
She even ventured into the movies (albeit unsuccessfully), in the 1995
film Fair Game, co-starring Billy Baldwin.
Her personal life has been nothing short of exciting. In December 1991,
Cindy and Richard Gere were married after a 4-year courtship. Although
People Magazine named the pretty woman and Pretty Woman star the Sexiest
Couple Alive, the couple divorced after 3 years of wedded bliss.
After allegedly being romantically linked to Robert De Niro and Val
Kilmer, Cindy finally became Mrs. Rande Gerber in 1998, and the mother of
their son, Presley Walker.
The epitome of supermodel, Cindy has ventured into practically every field
possible, realizing that the lifespan of a model is relatively short. Also
a huge supporter of leukemia charities (her brother Jeff died from the
disease), Cindy has proved that a supermodel needs a lot more than beauty
to make it in the catty world of modeling; beauty, brawn and personality
are required -- and a million dollar mole can't hurt either |
