Cynthia Ann Crawford (born February 20, 1966) is an American
supermodel, MTV television personality, celebrity endorser, sex
symbol, cover girl, and actress.
Early Life
Born in DeKalb, Illinois to John Crawford and Jennifer Moluf in 1966,
Cindy Crawford's trademark is a visible mole on her face (although
most people refer to it as a "beauty mark"). 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.
She was discovered by chance by a newspaper photographer, who noticed
then-16-year-old Cindy at work during her summer job of pollinating
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 John Casablancas Look of the Year contest and was the
runner up.
Crawford graduated from high school as valedictorian with a 4.0 GPA.
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
New York City in 1986.
Career
From 1989 to 1995, Crawford was host of MTV's House of Style. In 1992,
roadside posters of her had to be removed in Norway when authorities
noticed a 300% increase in the accident rate as motorists were
in famous Pepsi and Pepsi Stuff advertising. In 1995 Crawford took her
first movie role in Fair Game. Her performance was dismissed 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, none of which have been
commercially or critically successful. The closest she has come to a
commercially successful acting job has been her series of exercise
videos.
Crawford is just over 5 feet 9 inches (175 cm) tall, has a slim,
well-toned figure, with brown hair and eyes. Her measurements are
34"-24"-35". She was the first modern supermodel to pose nude for
Playboy magazine. She was ranked number 5 on Playboy's list of the 100
Sexiest Stars of the 20th century. She has been featured on the cover
of more than 600 magazines worldwide including Vogue, W, People,
Harper's Bazaar, ELLE and Allure. 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.
She continues to provide celebrity endorsement for a variety of
projects and was featured as #26 in the 2006 Hot 100 issue of Maxim
magazine.
Personal Life
Crawford's marriage to actor Richard Gere lasted from 1991 to 1995. It
was heavily rumored that the marriage was a cover for homosexuality on
marriage, the rumors had been further fueled (and mocked) by Crawford
when she appeared on the cover of Vanity Fair in a semi-provocative
pose with popular and openly lesbian singer k.d. lang in August 1993.
According to a statement made by NBA star Shaquille O'Neal on a Los
Angeles radio show, O'Neal and Crawford had an affair in the
Crawford and current husband Rande Gerber have two children, Presley,
born July 2, 1999, and Kaia, born September 3, 2001. Crawford gave
birth to both her children through natural home birth.
Crawford owns her own production company, Crawdaddy Inc.
Filmography
* The Simian Line (2000) ... as Sandra
* Cindy Crawford: A New Dimension (2000)
* The Secret World of... Supermodels (1998)
* Beautopia (1998)
* Sesame Street: Elmopalooza! (1998)
* 54 (1998) ... as VIP Patron
* Frasier: Halloween (1997)
* Fair Game (1995) ... as Kate McQueen
* Catwalk (1995)
* Unzipped (1995)
* Cindy Crawford: The Next Challenge Workout (1993)
* Cindy Crawford: Shape Your Body Workout (1992)