COURTENEY COX-ARQUETTE Biography - Actors and Actresses

 
 

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COURTENEY COX-ARQUETTE

Name: Courteney Bass Cox                                                                     
Born: 15 June 1964 Birmingham, Alabama United States                                         
                                                                                             
Courteney Bass Cox Arquette (born June 15, 1964) is an American actress and                   
former model, known for her role as Monica Geller in the popular television                   
sitcom Friends. She currently plays Lucy Spiller, an executive editor of a                   
tabloid magazine, on the popular drama Dirt on FX Networks.                                   
                                                                                             
Cox was born Courteney Bass Cox in Birmingham, Alabama to a wealthy Southern                 
family. Her mother, also named Courteney (née Bass) and her late father, Richard             
Lewis Cox, was a contractor. Cox has two older sisters (Virginia McFerrin and                 
Dottie Pickett), an older brother (Richard, Jr.) and nine half-brothers and half-sisters.     
Her parents divorced in 1974, and her father eventually wound up in Panama City,             
Florida, where he opened a company called Cox Pools, while Cox grew up with her               
mother and her stepfather, New York businessman Hunter Copeland.                             
                                                                                             
Cox was raised in a wealthy suburb of Birmingham, Mountain Brook, Alabama where               
she was known as CeCe. She attended Mountain Brook High School, where she was a               
cheerleader, tennis player and swimmer. Upon graduation, Cox went to study                   
architecture and interior design at Mount Vernon College for Women. She dropped               
out after a year to pursue a modeling career, after being signed by the Ford                 
modeling agency in New York City. While modeling, she also took acting classes               
and acquired a Northern accent.                                                               
                                                                                             
Cox first came to prominence in the 1984 music video for Bruce Springsteen's "Dancing         
in the Dark" (in which she was the pulled-on-stage girl who danced onstage with               
Springsteen for 26 seconds). Cox is also notable for being the first person to               
use the word "period" on U.S. television in its physiological sense, in a 1985               
advertising campaign for Tampax brand tampons. Her early film roles include                   
Masters of the Universe (1987) and Cocoon: The Return (1988). Cox's early                     
television work include a starring role in the short-lived television series                 
Misfits of Science (1985), and later a recurring role (1987 - 1989) on the                   
television series Family Ties as the last girlfriend of Alex P. Keaton (Michael               
J. Fox). She had a supporting role as Jewel, the hard-as-nails assistant to Jim               
Belushi's character in the 1990 fantasy film Mr. Destiny. In 1994, Cox appeared               
as Meryl, Jerry's girlfriend/pretend wife on the hit TV sitcom Seinfeld.                     
                                                                                             
After appearing in the Jim Carrey comedy Ace Ventura: Pet Detective (1994), Cox               
found fame playing Monica Geller on the hit TV series Friends (1994-2004). This               
was the role for which she would become most famous although she did audition                 
for the part of Rachel Greene. The six principal cast members, including Cox,                 
became household names.                                                                       
                                                                                             
During her time on Friends, Cox appeared in the highly successful and high-profile           
Hollywood films Scream (1996), Scream 2 (1997), and Scream 3 (2000) as the                   
ruthless reporter Gale Weathers. While filming the first of this trilogy, she                 
met her future husband David Arquette. Although she starred in several other                 
films during her time on Friends, none achieved the same level of success as the             
show. Such films include The Runner, 3000 Miles to Graceland and The Shrink Is               
In. In late 2003, Cox produced the television series Mix It Up. The lifestyle                 
show received low ratings and was not renewed for a second season.                           
                                                                                             
After her Friends role, Cox was producer Marc Cherry's first choice to be                     
offered a starring role as Susan Mayer on Desperate Housewives. However, Cox was             
unavailable due to her pregnancy and the role went to Teri Hatcher. A couple of               
years later, Cox signed a deal with ABC Television Studio (formerly Touchstone               
Television), to star in her own series.                                                       
                                                                                             
Since Friends, Cox has primarily concentrated on her family but has starred in               
the independent film November (2005), which had a limited theatrical release, co-starred     
with Tim Allen in the critically derided Zoom and cameoed in the big budget                   
remake of The Longest Yard, as the girlfriend of Adam Sandler. Cox later said                 
her breasts were digitally enhanced to portray her role as the wife of a                     
quarterback. She has recently supplied her voice for the animated film Barnyard.             
                                                                                             
As of 2007, Cox plays Lucy Spiller, a tabloid editor, in Dirt, a television                   
drama for the FX Networks. Cox and her husband, David Arquette, are the                       
executive producers of the series.