Date of Birth:
15 June 1964, Birmingham, Alabama
Birth Name:
Courteney Bass Cox
Nickname:
CeCe Coco
Height:
5' 5"
Spouse: David Arquette (12 June 1999 - present) 1 child
Courteney Cox
was born on June 15th, 1964 into an affluent Southern family. Her father Richard L Cox (1930-2001) was a business man married
to her mother Courteney. She was the baby of the family with two older sisters (Virginia and Dottie) and an older brother
Richard Jnr. She was raised in an exclusive society town, Mountain Brook, Alabama.
Courteney was the archetypal Daddy's girl, and therefore was understandably devastated when, in 1974 her parents divorced,
and her father moved to Florida.
She became a rebellious
teen, and did not make things easy for her mother, and new step-father, New York
businessman Hunter Copeland. Now, she is great friends with both. She attended Mountain
Brook High School, where she was a cheerleader, tennis
player and swimmer. In her final year, she received her first taste of modelling. She appeared in an advert for the store,
Parisians. Upon graduation, she left Alabama to study architecture and interior design at
Mount Vernon College.
After one year she dropped out to a pursue a modelling career in New York,
after being signed by the prestigious Ford Modelling Agency. She appeared on the covers of teen magazines such as Tiger Beat
and Little Miss, plus numerous romance novels. She then moved on to commercials for Maybeline, Noxema, New York Telephone
Company and Tampax.
While modelling, she attended acting classes, as her real dream and ambition was to be an actress.
In 1984, she landed herself a small part in one episode of "As the World Turns" (1956) as a young debutante named Bunny. Her first big break, however, was being cast by Brian De Palma in the infamous Bruce Springsteen video "Dancing in The Dark". In 1985, she moved to LA to star alongside Dean Paul Martin in "Misfits of Science" (1985). It was a flop, but a few years later, she was chosen out of thousands of hopefuls
to play Michael J. Fox's girlfriend, psychology major Lauren Miller in "Family Ties" (1982).
In 1989, "Family Ties" (1982) ended, and Cox went through a lean spell in her career, featuring in unmemorable
movies such as Mr. Destiny (1990) with Michael Caine. Fortunes changed dramatically for Cox, when in 1994, she starred alongside Jim Carrey in the unexpected hit Ace Ventura: Pet
Detective (1994), and a year later she was cast as Monica Geller on the hugely successful sitcom
"Friends" (1994). It was this part that turned her into an international superstar and led to an
American Comedy Award nomination. In 1996 Cox starred in Wes Craven's horror/comedy _Scream (1996)_ . This movie grossed over $100 million at the box office,
and won Cox rave reviews for her standout performance as the wickedly bitchy and smug TV reporter Gale Weathers. She went
on to play this character twice more, as Scream became The Scream Trilogy. Not only did her involvement in this movie lead
to critical acclaim, but it also led to her meeting actor husband David Arquette. He played her on screen love interest Dewey, and life imitated art as the two fell in
love for real. Their wedding took place in San Francisco,
at the historic Grace Cathedral atop Nob Hill, on June 12th, 1999. Joined by 200 guests, including Cox's film star friends
Liam Neeson and Kevin Spacey, the happy couple finally became Mr and Mrs Arquette.
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