Cameron Diaz

Cameron Diaz
Diaz receiving a star at the Hollywood Walk of Fame, June 2009
Born	Cameron Michelle Diaz August 30, 1972 (1972-08-30) (age 38) San Diego, California, U.S.
Occupation	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 gained fame in the 1990s with roles in the blockbuster films The Mask, My Best Friend's Wedding, and There's Something About Mary. Other notable film credits include Charlie's Angels, Vanilla Sky, Gangs of New York, and voicing Princess Fiona in the Shrek film series. Diaz received Golden Globe nominations for her performances in There's Something About Mary, Being John Malkovich, Vanilla Sky, and Gangs of New York.

Early life

Diaz was born in San Diego, California and is the daughter of Billie (née Early), an import-export agent, and Emilio Diaz (1949–2008), who worked for the California oil company UNOCAL for more than 20 years as a field gauger.^[1][2] Her father, who was born in Los Angeles County, was a second-generation Cuban American (her grandparents settled in Tampa's Ybor City)^[3] and her mother is of English, German and Cherokee ancestry.^[4][5][6] She is a blond and blue-eyed Hispanic, next to Anita Page, standing 5'9" tall^[7]. She has one older sister, Chimene, and one older brother, Michael. She attended Long Beach Polytechnic High School at the same time as rapper Snoop Dogg.

Career

Modeling

At 16, she began her career as a fashion model. Diaz signed with top modeling agency Elite Model Management. For the next few years, her modeling took her around the world, working for contracts with major companies. She modeled for designers such as Calvin Klein and Levi's. When she was seventeen she was featured on the cover of the July 1990 issue of Seventeen magazine.

Acting

Cameron Diaz on the red carpet of the 2002 Cannes Film Festival with Martin Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio for the film Gangs of New York

At 21, Diaz auditioned for The Mask, even though she had no previous acting experience,^[8] based on the recommendation of an agent for Elite who met the film's producers while they were searching for the female lead. After obtaining the lead female role, she immediately started acting lessons. The Mask became one of the top ten highest grossing films of 1994,^[9] and earned Diaz nominations for several awards.^[10]

Over the next three years, she took 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 returned to mainstream films with the major box office successes My Best Friend's Wedding (1997) and There's Something About Mary (1998), for which she was nominated for a Golden Globe in 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 Globes, the BAFTA Awards, and the SAG Awards. During 1990–2000, Diaz starred in many films, such as Things You Can Tell Just by Looking at Her, Very Bad Things, Any Given Sunday, and the hit adaptation of Charlie's Angels. In 2001, she won nominations for Best Supporting Actress at the Golden Globes, the SAG Awards, the Critics' Choice Awards, and the AFI Awards for Vanilla Sky, and also voiced Princess Fiona in Shrek, for which she earned $10 million.

In 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 films were In Her Shoes (2005), and The Holiday (2006). She was set to team up again with The Mask co-star Jim Carrey in the film Fun with Dick and Jane, but dropped out to star in In Her Shoes. Diaz reportedly earned $50 million in the period of a year ending June 2008, for her roles in What Happens in Vegas opposite Ashton Kutcher, and the Shrek sequels.^[11][12][13] In 2009 she starred in the films My Sister's Keeper and The Box.

In 2010, Diaz again voiced Princess Fiona in Shrek Forever After, and reunited with her Vanilla Sky costar Tom Cruise in the action/comedy Knight and Day.

Personal life

Diaz in June 2007

Diaz received "substantial" defamation damages from suing American Media Incorporated, after The National Enquirer had claimed she was cheating on then-boyfriend Timberlake.^[14]

In 1992 Diaz appeared in a soft-core S&M video entitled "She's No Angel" shot by photographer John Rutter. In 2003 she won an injunction against Rutter preventing him from distributing the video or accompanying photographs, but in 2004 the video began being distributed online through a Russian website.^[15][16]

When Diaz was asked if she can speak Spanish she said:

She was vocal in her support for Al Gore in 2000. Diaz went so far as sporting a t-shirt that read "I won't vote for a son of a Bush!" while making the publicity rounds for Charlie's Angels.^[18]

Diaz has also been involved with the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA), the first and largest nonprofit for veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan, and has spoken as an advocate for military families.

Although she was quoted in a 1997 Time Magazine article saying she was germophobic,^[19] 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 blown out of proportion.^[20]

On April 15, 2008, her father, Emilio Diaz, died of pneumonia, aged 58.^[21]

Relationships

From 1990 to 1995, Diaz dated video director Carlos de la Torre.^[22] In 1995 she began a relationship with actor Matt Dillon, with whom she co-starred in There's Something About Mary and broke up with in 1998.^[23] She then had a relationship with singer/actor Jared Leto from 1999 to 2003. Diaz dated singer Justin Timberlake from 2003 to 2006.^[24] In 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 ambushed and acting out. ^[25] As of July 2010, Diaz has been carrying on a romantic relationship with New York Yankees baseball star Alex Rodriguez. ^[26]

Filmography and awards

In 1996 Diaz received an award at the ShoWest Convention for "Female Star of Tomorrow." In 2006 she won a People's Choice Award for "Favorite Leading Lady." On June 22, 2009, she received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Television

2009 Sesame Street

References

External links

• Cameron Diaz at the Internet Movie Database
• Cameron Diaz at Yahoo! Movies
• Cameron Diaz at TV.com
• Cameron Diaz at People.com