Jennifer Aniston

Name: Jennifer Aniston
Born: 11 February 1969 (Age: 42)
Where: Sherman Oaks, California USA
Height: 5' 5"
Awards: Won 1 Golden Globe, 1 Emmy.

When Forbes released their Global Celebrity 100 list for 2003, there were relatively few surprises in the Top 10. There were the usual suspects steven spielberg , Oprah Winfrey and Tiger Woods - with a bunch of big names currently in motion. The Rolling Stones were out on another mega-tour, tom hanks ' production company had just enjoyed a huge hit with My Big Fat Greek Wedding, Paul McCartney was enjoying a comeback, Eminem had never gone away, and the world was wondering exactly when jennifer lopez was going to get ben affleck up the aisle. So much for the runners-up. For the one shock came in the Number One position. She didn't make as much money as the others. She wasn't anything like as big a movie star as she'd have liked to be. But, due to her massive TV audience, the number of magazine covers she'd graced and constant tabloid interest in her private life, the winner was . . . Jennifer Aniston.

Now earning $1 million per episode of uber-hit Friends, Aniston had proved herself to be far more weighty than her sketchy character Rachel Green. Though she'd initially broken through by launching "the Rachel", a haircut purloined by millions of women the world over, she'd won an Emmy and a Golden Globe for her brilliant comic performances in the show. She'd married brad pitt , arguably cinema's most eligible bachelor. And she'd been nominated for an Independent Spirit award for her part in underground hit The Good Girl - a success that would lead to the $200 million smash Bruce Almighty. Her Friends co-star Courteney Cox might have struck cinema gold first (with Ace Ventura and the Scream series), but it looked like Aniston was the one in for the long haul.

She was born the 11th of February, 1969, in Sherman Oaks, a suburb of Los Angeles. Her Crete-born father, John (real name Anastassakis) had been brought to the US at age 10 when his parents opened a diner in Eddytown, Pennsylvania. He'd become an actor seeking work in LA (fellow Greek actor Telly Savalas would be Jennifer's godfather) and win bit parts in the likes of 87th Precinct, Combat! and I Spy. Her mother was born in upstate New York, moving with her family to California where she'd work at Universal Studios, at one point signing autographs for Rock Hudson. Extremely good-looking, she eventually won parts in such fare as The Red Skelton Show and The Beverly Hillbillies, but lack of confidence in her ability caused her to give up acting.

Things were looking good for the Aniston family (Jennifer also had an older half-brother, John, 9 years her senior).