Cameron Diaz
Cameron Diaz | |
|---|---|
 Cameron Diaz at Tribeca Film Festival 2010. | |
| Born | Cameron Michelle Diaz August 30, 1972 San Diego, California, U.S. |
| Occupation(s) | Actress, model |
| Years active | 1988–1993 (model) 1993–present (actress) |
Cameron Michelle Diaz (born August 30, 1972) is an American actress and former model. She became famous during the 1990s with roles in the movies The Mask, My Best Friend's Wedding, and There's Something About Mary. Other high-profile movie credits include the two Charlie's Angels movies and voicing the character Princess Fiona for the Shrek series. Diaz received Golden Globe award nominations for her performances in the movies There's Something About Mary, Being John Malkovich, Vanilla Sky, and Gangs of New York.
Early life
Diaz was born in San Diego, California, the younger daughter of Emilio Diaz (1949–2008), who worked for the California oil company UNOCAL for more than 20 years as a field gauger, and Billie (née Early), an import-export agent.[1][2] Her father was born in Los Angeles County, and his family came from Spain via Cuba (her paternal grandparents settled in Tampa's Ybor City).[3] Her mother is of English, German, Native American, and Dutch descent.[4][5][6] She attended Long Beach Polytechnic High School.[7]
Career
Modeling
At age 16, she began her career as a fashion model. Diaz contracted with modeling agency Elite Model Management. For the next few years she worked around the world for contracts with major companies. She modeled for designers such as Calvin Klein and Levi's. When she was seventeen years old she was featured on the front cover of the July 1990 issue of the magazine Seventeen.[8]
Acting
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At age 21, Diaz auditioned for the movie The Mask, even though she had no previous acting experience,[9] based on the recommendation of an agent for Elite who met the film's producers while they were searching for the female main actress. After obtaining the main female role, she immediately started acting lessons. The Mask became one of the top ten highest grossing films of 1994,[10] earned Diaz nominations for several awards[11] and launched her as a sex symbol.[12][13]
During the next three years, she had roles in low-budget independent films, such as The Last Supper (1995), Feeling Minnesota (1996), She's the One (1996), Keys to Tulsa (1996), and A Life Less Ordinary (1997), preferring to feel her way effectively into the business. She was scheduled to feature in the film Mortal Kombat, but had to resign after breaking her hand while training for the role.[14]
She returned to mainstream films with the major movie successes My Best Friend's Wedding (1997) and There's Something About Mary (1998), for which she was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for the category of Best Actress — Musical or Comedy. She received critical acclaim for her performance in Being John Malkovich (1999), which earned her Best Supporting Actress nominations at the Golden Globe Award, the British Academy of Film and Television Arts Awards, and the Screen Actors Guild Awards (SAG Awards). During 1990–2000, Diaz featured in many movies, such as Things You Can Tell Just by Looking at Her, Very Bad Things, Any Given Sunday, and the successful adaptation of Charlie's Angels. During 2001, she won nominations for Best Supporting Actress for the Golden Globe Awards, the SAG Awards, the Critics' Choice Awards, and the American Film Institute Awards for Vanilla Sky, and also voiced Princess Fiona in the movie Shrek, for which she earned $10 million.
During 2003, Diaz received another Golden Globe nomination for Martin Scorsese's epic Gangs of New York, and became the third actress (after Wedding costar Julia Roberts) to earn $20 million for a role, receiving the sum for Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle. Her next movies were In Her Shoes (2005), and The Holiday (2006). She was preparing to work again with The Mask co-star Jim Carrey for the film Fun with Dick and Jane, but resigned to feature in In Her Shoes. Diaz reportedly earned $50 million during the period of a year ending June 2008, for her roles in What Happens in Vegas opposite Ashton Kutcher, and the Shrek sequels.[15][16][17] In 2009, she starred in My Sister's Keeper and The Box.
During 2010, Forbes Magazine ranked Cameron Diaz as the richest Hispanic female celebrity, ranking number 60 among the wealthiest 100.[18][19] Also that year, Diaz was cast as the female lead in a live action/animation hybrid film version of The Smurfs, and as well as voicing Princess Fiona for the movie Shrek Forever After, also reunited with her Vanilla Sky co-star Tom Cruise in the action/comedy Knight and Day, and on January 14, she played "Lenore Case", the journalist in the remake of the 1940's film, The Green Hornet. She was listed among CEOWORLD magazine's Top Accomplished Women Entertainers.[20]
Personal life
Diaz received "substantial" defamation damages from suing American Media Incorporated, after The National Enquirer had claimed she was cheating on then-paramour Justin Timberlake.[21]
During 1992, Diaz featured in a soft-core sadomasochism video entitled "She's No Angel" filmed by photographer John Rutter. During 2003, she won an injunction against Rutter preventing him from distributing the video or accompanying photographs, but during 2004, the video was distributed online by a Russian internet website.[22][23][dead link]
When Diaz was asked if she can speak Spanish she said:
I go, 'God, you know, it all sounds so familiar. I know what you're saying, I really do. I just cannot respond to you back in Spanish. I can barely speak English properly.' I didn't grow up in a Cuban community. I grew up in Southern California on the beach, basically. And I'm third generation. I'm of Cuban descent.[24]
She endorsed Al Gore publicly during 2000. Diaz wore a t-shirt that read "I won't vote for a son of a Bush!" while making publicity visits for Charlie's Angels.[25]
Diaz has also been involved with the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA), the first and largest nonprofit organization for veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and has spoken as an advocate for military families.[citation needed]
Although she was quoted by a 1997 Time magazine article as saying she was germophobic,[26] Diaz specifically denied this on the June 26, 2009, edition of Real Time with Bill Maher, saying that a small comment she made 12 years earlier regarding public bathroom doorknobs was distorted out of proportion.[27] Furthermore, on the June 21, 2011 episode of The Daily Show With Jon Stewart, Diaz removed stitches from the wrist of Jon Stewart, on-camera.
On April 15, 2008, her father, Emilio Diaz, died of pneumonia, aged 58.[28]
Relationships
During 1995, she began a relationship with actor Matt Dillon, with whom she co-starred in There's Something About Mary; the relationship ended during 1998.[29]
Diaz dated singer Justin Timberlake from 2003 to 2006.[29] During October 2004, Diaz and Timberlake were in an altercation with a tabloid photographer outside a hotel. When the photographer and another man tried to photograph them, the couple snatched the camera. Pictures of the incident appeared in Us Weekly. Representatives for the pair claimed that they were acting a scene on a set.[30]
As of July 2010, Diaz has been in a romantic relationship with New York Yankees baseball star Alex Rodriguez.[31]
Filmography and awards
During 1996, Diaz received an award at the ShoWest Convention for "Female Star of Tomorrow."[citation needed] During 2006, she won a People's Choice Award for "Favorite Leading Lady."[citation needed] On June 22, 2009, she was commemorated by a star-figure on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.[citation needed]
Films
Television
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2005 | Trippin'[33] | Herself | MTV – Travel Documentary |
| 2007 | Shrek the Halls | Princess Fiona | Voice Made for television |
| 2008–2009 | Saturday Night Live | Kiki Deamore | 3 episodes |
| 2009 | Sesame Street | Herself | |
| 2010 | Top Gear | Star in a Reasonably-Priced Car | Series 15, Episode 5 – appeared alongside Tom Cruise |
| 2010 | Scared Shrekless | Princess Fiona | Voice Made for television |
References
- ^ "Family ties, Father & mother". People. May 20, 2004. Retrieved March 5, 2010.
- ^ FilmReference.com: Cameron Diaz Biography (1972–)
- ^ "CAMERON DIAZ: A Life Less Ordinary: Interview". Urbancinefile.com.au. Retrieved March 5, 2010.
- ^ Jenkins, David (January 9, 2003). "Girl, interrupted". The Daily Telegraph. UK. Retrieved March 6, 2008.
- ^ "Cameron Diaz: Hollywood crowd-pleaser". BBC News. July 29, 2005. Retrieved January 12, 2008.
- ^ Hawk, Mason (1998). "A Cheap Date With Cameron Diaz". NYRock. Retrieved January 12, 2008.
- ^ "Cameron Diaz biography". Yahoo! Movies. Retrieved June 9, 2011.
- ^ "Covers Throughout the Years – Historic Seventeen Magazine Covers". Seventeen. October 30, 2010. Retrieved February 22, 2011.
- ^ Actress of the week – Cameron Diaz askmen.com'.' Retrieved November 20, 2006.
- ^ "1994 DOMESTIC GROSSES, #1–50", Box Office Mojo
- ^ The Task (1994) – Awards IMDb
- ^ "Cameron Diaz: being a sex symbol is limiting". Topcelebrityheadlines.com. May 18, 2009. Retrieved July 21, 2011.
- ^ "The 100 Greatest Sex Symbols". Channel 4. February 13, 2009. Retrieved July 21, 2011.
- ^ "Cameron Diaz Was Almost In Mortal Kombat?". HEAVY. December 23, 2009. Retrieved February 22, 2011.
- ^ Rose, Lacy (August 7, 2008). "Hollywood's Top-Earning Actresses". Forbes Magazine. Retrieved November 2, 2008.
- ^ "Top 5 list of Hollywood's highest paid actresses." Hollyscoop.com 2008]
- ^ "Only women to make it into top earners." Adelaide Now
- ^ "Richest Hispanic Celebrities According to Forbes". Celestrellas.com. July 7, 2010. Retrieved February 22, 2011.
- ^ "Cameron Diaz Forbes 100 Celebrity list". Forbes. Retrieved February 22, 2011.
- ^ "Accomplished Women Entertainers". CEOWORLD magazine. May 18, 2011.
- ^ "Libel damages for US actress Diaz". BBC News. February 16, 2007. Retrieved February 16, 2007.
- ^ "Kinky Cameron Diaz video hits web". China Daily. July 9, 2004. Retrieved June 17, 2009.
- ^ "Topless Diaz hits internet". News24.com. July 9, 2004. Retrieved June 17, 2009.
- ^ James, Christine (1999). "Cameron Diaz: Bringing a Woman's Touch to Any Given Sunday". Reel.com. Archived from the original on December 10, 2007. Retrieved January 12, 2008.
- ^ "LiberalArtists.com". LiberalArtists.com. Retrieved March 5, 2010.
- ^ Cameron Diaz on OCD Time Magazine November 10, 1997
- ^ Real Time with Bill Maher, Episode 159 (June 26, 2009)
- ^ "Cameron Diaz's father succumbs to pneumonia". April 16, 2008. Retrieved April 16, 2008.
- ^ a b "Cameron Diaz Biography". Movies.yahoo.com. Retrieved February 22, 2011.
- ^ Justin, Cameron Go Camera Shy E-online Joal Ryan – November 10, 2004
- ^ Yankees' slugger Alex Rodriguez, Cameron Diaz keep romance low key at CC Sabathia's birthday bash DailyNews.com
- ^ Gambit at IMDb
- ^ "MTV.com Trippin' series Info". MTV. Retrieved January 20, 2011.
External links
- 1972 births
- Living people
- Actors from San Diego, California
- American female models
- American film actors
- American entertainers of Cuban descent
- American people of Dutch descent
- American people of English descent
- American people of German descent
- American people of Spanish descent
- American voice actors
- Hispanic and Latino American actors
- People from Long Beach, California