Cindy Crawford

Cindy Crawford

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Birth name: Cynthia Ann Crawford
Date of birth: 20 February 1966
Place of birth: DeKalb, Illinois, USA 
Nickname: Baby Gia, Cindy
Height: 5′ 9½” (1.77 m)
Spouse: Rande Gerber (29 May 1998 – present) 2 children, Richard Gere (12 December 1991 – 1995) (divorced)

Famous Quote: “The other models looked at me with a little too much awe like, “Oh my God, I’ve been your biggest fan for over 20 years!” And I’m like, How old are you? Shut up!, Fashion and style is just that. Fashion and style. It’s not brain surgery. Even in normal life, I’m not the skinniest model.”

Contact Address and Autograph: Addresses and fan mail information

Cindy Crawford
Crawdaddy Productions
3340 Ocean Park Blvd. 3rd Floor
Santa Monica, CA 90405, USA 

Biography:  Cynthia Ann “Cindy” Crawford (born February 20, 1966) is an American supermodel, MTV television personality, celebrity endorser, cover girl, and actress. No one before or since had made a facial mole such a beautiful feature, and Cindy Crawford and her famous mole graced more magazines than anyone else in the world, boasting over 600 covers during her supermodel peak years throughout the 1990s. With her unique All-American look in a sea of exotic-looking Naomi Campbell’s, Linda Evangelista’s and Christy Turlington’s, she stood out from the pack. 

It did not hurt that her effervescent personality translated effectively to the small screen, most especially when hosting the then popular MTV program, “House of Style” (1989- ). Her personal life transfixed the public, most especially her romance with Hollywood leading man, Richard Gere. In fact, of all her supermodel peers, Crawford continued to fascinate and work consistently past the usual retirement years of her 30s – without having cocaine arrests or assault charges keeping her in the news.

Crawford was born in DeKalb, Illinois, the daughter of Jennifer Sue (née Walker) and John Crawford. Crawford’s trademark is a visible mole (or “beauty mark”) on her upper lip. She is so closely associated with this physical feature that she appeared in an advertising campaign for chocolates featuring commercials wherein she “licked off” her own mole. During the beginning of her career, the mole was removed from many of her earlier modeling pictures, including her first Vogue cover.

She was discovered by chance by a newspaper photographer, who noticed then-16-year-old Cindy at work during her summer job of detasseling corn and took a picture of her. The photo and the positive feedback she received were enough to convince her to take up modeling. She entered the John Casablancas Look of the Year contest and was the runner up. At 5′ 9½”, with measurements of 34”-24”-35” the well-toned brunette made a huge splash in the New York modeling world, earning the complimentary nickname “Baby Gia,” due her resemblance to the late supermodel Gia Carangi. After two years, she was walking down catwalks for the biggest fashion designers and posing as a cover girl for such fashion magazines as Vogue, W, Harper’s Bazaar, Elle, Cosmopolitan and Allure. She had become one of the first to enter the elite group of original late-1980’s supermodels, keeping company with the likes of models Naomi Campbell, Christy Turlington, Claudia Schiffer and Linda Evangelista.

Crawford graduated from DeKalb High School in 1984, as valedictorian with a 4.0 GPA. She won an academic scholarship to study chemical engineering at Northwestern University, which she attended for only one quarter. She dropped out in order to pursue a full-time modeling career. After working for photographer Victor Skrebneski in Chicago, Cindy moved to Manhattan in 1986. Her brother died at a young age from leukemia, and Crawford has made childhood leukemia a focal point of her charity work, donating proceeds of her calendars to medical research.

From 1989 to 1995, Crawford was host of MTV’s House of Style. In the mid-1990s Crawford starred in famous Pepsi and Pepsi Stuff advertising. her personal life was also just as titillating. In December of 1991, Crawford married actor Richard Gere after a well-chronicled four-year courtship. Although People magazine named them the “Sexiest Couple Alive,” they divorced after three years of wedded (and sexually questionable) bliss. In 2002, she was named one of the “50 Most Beautiful People” by the same magazine. In 1995 Crawford took her first movie role in Fair Game. Her performance was panned by critics, and the film was a financial failure, with expenses of $50 million and $11 million takings at the box office. She has had several other minor acting jobs since then, none of which have been commercially or critically successful.

Crawford is just over 5 feet 9 inches (177 cm) tall, with brown hair and eyes. Her measurements are 34″-26″-35″. During the 1980s and 1990s, Cindy was among the most popular supermodels, a ubiquitous presence on magazine covers, runways, and in fashion campaigns. In July, 1988, she became the first modern supermodel to pose nude for Playboy magazine, in a shoot by photographer Herb Ritts. In October, 1998 Crawford returned to the pages of Playboy for a second, more revealing nude pictorial. No one before or since had made a facial mole such a beautiful feature, and Cindy Crawford and her famous mole graced more magazines than anyone else in the world, boasting over 600 covers during her supermodel peak years throughout the 1990s. With her unique All-American look in a sea of exotic-looking Naomi Campbell’s, Linda Evangelista’s and Christy Turlington’s, she stood out from the pack. It did not hurt that her effervescent personality translated effectively to the small screen, most especially when hosting the then popular MTV program, “House of Style” (1989- ). Her personal life transfixed the public, most especially her romance with Hollywood leading man, Richard Gere. In fact, of all her supermodel peers, Crawford continued to fascinate and work consistently past the usual retirement years of her 30s – without having cocaine arrests or assault charges keeping her in the news.

Cynthia Ann Crawford was born on Feb. 20, 1966, in De Kalb, IL. By chance, she was discovered by a newspaper photographer who noticed the then 16-year old hard at work during her summer job of sheering corn and took her picture. The photo and the positive feedback surrounding her photogenic talents were enough to convince her to quit her day job and take up modeling. She entered the prestigious John Casablanca Agency’s “Look of the Year” contest and came in as runner-up. Debunking most model stereotypes, Crawford graduated from high school as her class valedictorian, winning an academic scholarship to study chemical engineering at Northwestern University. Making a major career choice, she attended only one quarter of school before dropping out to pursue modeling full time. After working for photographer Victor Skrebneski in Chicago, she moved to the modeling mecca of New York City in 1986.

At 5′ 9½”, with measurements of 34”-24”-35” the well-toned brunette made a huge splash in the New York modeling world, earning the complimentary nickname “Baby Gia,” due her resemblance to the late supermodel Gia Carangi. After two years, she was walking down catwalks for the biggest fashion designers and posing as a cover girl for such fashion magazines as Vogue, W, Harper’s Bazaar, Elle, Cosmopolitan and Allure. She had become one of the first to enter the elite group of original late-1980’s supermodels, keeping company with the likes of models Naomi Campbell, Christy Turlington, Claudia Schiffer and Linda Evangelista.

In 1988, Crawford made more history as the first modern supermodel to appear in Playboy. The impressive pictorial led to her six-year stint as host for MTV’s “House of Style” (1989-2002) – a show which was cashing in on the new supermodel-as-personality craze. In no instance was this phenomenon more obvious than when singer George Michael, in lieu of showing himself singing his song, populated his video for the 1990 single “Freedom” with Crawford (who was the naked girl in the tub) and her fellow supermodel peers lip-synching their way through the anthem. The success of “House of Style,” coupled with that unique mole, provided her a platform with which to brand herself apart from the catwalk pack. In addition to investing in the then-lucrative and high-profile Planet Hollywood chain of restaurants, she marketed several successful swimsuit calendars and fitness videos, as well as nabbing million dollar contracts from Pepsi, Kay Jewelers and most notably Revlon. By the early to mid 1990s, Crawford – through her company Crawdaddy, Inc. – watched her name, reputation and beauty become an industry, unto itself. In the midst of all her mainstream success, the risk-taker Crawford made the bold move to pose suggestively on the cover of Vanity Fair with the “outed” singer K.D. lang. This minor uproar only strengthened her appeal.

At this time, her personal life was also just as titillating. In December of 1991, Crawford married actor Richard Gere after a well-chronicled four-year courtship. Although People magazine named them the “Sexiest Couple Alive,” they divorced after three years of wedded (and sexually questionable) bliss. In 2002, she was named one of the “50 Most Beautiful People” by the same magazine. In 1995, Crawford ventured (albeit unsuccessfully) into the movies, starring with Billy Baldwin in the egregious flop “Fair Game” – costing upwards of $50 million and only grossing $11 million at the box office. The reviews were also less than kind, when it came to Crawford’s thespian skills. However, this did not deter her from continuing to act; she appeared in episodes of “Frasier” (NBC, 1993-2004) in 1997, a two-part “3rd Rock From The Sun” (NBC, 1996 – 2001) in 1998, “According to Jim” (ABC, 2001 -) in 2002, and in the ‘80s New York fashion/party scene movie “54” (1998). The closest she came to a commercially successful acting job were her series of exercise videos. She was named the highest paid model by Forbes magazine that same year and set out on more business ventures with her book, Cindy Crawford’s Basic Face: A Makeup Workbook.

She has been featured on the cover of many magazines, including Vogue, W, People, Harper’s Bazaar, ELLE, Cosmopolitan, and Allure. Cindy also appeared in many fashion campaigns during her career, including those for Gianni Versace, Escada, Revlon, Ink. She has also worked for Omega, Maybelline, and Clairol. Of her, famous designer Karl Lagerfeld has said: “She is a classical beauty and the all-American dream girl.” Other accolades followed Crawford throughout her peak modeling years and even beyond. In 1997, a Shape magazine survey of 4,000 picked her as the second (after Demi Moore) most beautiful woman in the world. In 2006, she ranked number 26 in Maxim magazine’s famous “Hot 100” list. Crawford even ranked #5 on a Playboymagazine list of the “100 Sexiest Stars of the Century.” The epitome of supermodel, she ventured into practically every field possible, realizing that the lifespan of a model remains relatively short. 

She was ranked number 5 on Playboy’s list of the 100 Sexiest Stars of the 20th century. A 1997 Shape magazine survey of 4,000 picked her as the second (after Demi Moore) most beautiful woman in the world. In 2002, Crawford was named one of the 50 Most Beautiful People by People magazine. She continues to provide celebrity endorsement for a variety of projects and was featured as #26 in the 2006 Hot 100 issue of Maxim magazine. In 2005, Cindy created a beauty product with Dr. Jean-Louis Sebagh called Meaningful Beauty for Guthy-Renker.

She was married to the actor Richard Gere between 1991 and 1995. She is currently married to Rande Gerber, with whom she has two children, Presley and Kaia. She currently resides in Los Angeles, California.

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