Cindy Crawford was born on February 20,
1966 in DeKalb, Illinois and grew up in DeKalb and Chicago, she
was raised in the farming town of DeKalb by her dad, an electrician,
and her mom, a hospital lab worker. At the age of 16 she worked
a summer job detasselling corn, and was noticed one day by a newspaper
photographer who took a picture of her. The photo had such positive
feedback, Cindy was convinced to quit her day job and take up
modelling.
After two summers of modelling, represented
by Elite Model Management in Chicago, the All-American beauty
proved to also have brains and temporarily traded in the glamorous
life of a model to study chemical engineering at Northwestern
University, on a 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.
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 was the first modern supermodel
to appear in Hugh Hefner's mag. Her Playboy 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 Cafe
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.
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 (and sexually questionable)
bliss.
In 1995 she ventured into the movies (albeit
unsuccessfully), in the film Fair Game, co-starring Billy Baldwin.
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.
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 dies 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.
