Courteney Cox
Courteney Bass Cox (born June 15, 1964) is an American actress, who achieved fame for her role as Monica Geller on the NBC sitcom Friends. Cox has also starred in Dirt and the Scream series of movies. She currently stars in the ABC sitcom Cougar Town, for which she earned her first Golden Globe nomination.
Cox was raised in the Birmingham, Alabama suburb of Mountain Brook, the daughter of businessman Richard Lewis Cox (January 28, 1931 – September 3, 2001) and his wife Courteney (née Bass, later Copeland). She has two older sisters, Virginia and Dottie, and an older brother, Richard, Jr. Her parents divorced in 1974 and her mother was remarried to businessman Hunter Copeland (uncle to music promoter and business manager Ian Copeland).After graduating from Mountain Brook High School in Mountain Brook, Alabama, Cox left for Mount Vernon College in Washington, D.C., but did not complete her architecture course, opting instead to pursue a career in modeling and acting.
Cox studied architecture at Mount Vernon College for Women in Washington, D.C., which is now part of The George Washington University, before she dropped out. She appeared in the 1984 music video for Bruce Springsteen's "Dancing in the Dark" as a girl pulled onstage to dance with Springsteen. Cox was the first person to use the word "period" on U.S. television to refer to menstruation in a 1985 advertising campaign for Tampax brand tampons.[10] Her early film roles include Masters of the Universe (1987) and Cocoon: The Return (1988). Her early television work includes a starring role in the short-lived television series Misfits of Science (1985), and later a recurring role (1987–89) on the TV series Family Ties as Lauren Miller, the girlfriend of Alex P. Keaton (Michael J. Fox). She had a supporting role as Jewel, the hard-as-nails assistant to James Belushi's character, in the 1990 fantasy film Mr. Destiny. In 1994, shortly before the debut of the sitcom, Friends, Cox appeared with Jim Carrey in the film Ace Ventura: Pet Detective and on Seinfeld in "The Wife" episode as Jerry's girlfriend named Meryl. In 1995, she was cast in Toad the Wet Sprocket's music video "Good Intentions". The song is also on the Friends Soundtrack.
Later in 1994, Cox was asked to audition for the part of Rachel Green on a new sitcom called Friends. She was cast as the character Monica Geller instead. At first the most famous cast member of the new show, Cox joined fellow castmates Jennifer Aniston (Rachel Green), Lisa Kudrow (Phoebe Buffay), Matt LeBlanc (Joey Tribbiani), Matthew Perry (Chandler Bing) and David Schwimmer (Ross Geller) for what would become her most famous role, lasting for 10 seasons until 2004. According to the Guinness Book of World Records (2005), Cox (along with her female costars) became the highest paid TV actress of all time with her $1 million-per-episode paycheck for the final two seasons of Friends.
Between seasons five and six, Cox married David Arquette and changed her name to Courteney Cox Arquette. An in-joke reference to this is made in the opening credits of the episode "The One After Vegas", where the rest of the cast and executive producers have "Arquette" added to their names. The dedication "For Courteney and David, who did get married"—a reference to Monica and Chandler's decision not to marry in the episode—appears during the fade out to the tag scene.
During her time on Friends, Cox appeared in the high-profile Hollywood films Scream (1996), Scream 2 (1997), and Scream 3 (2000), as the determined and driven reporter Gale Weathers. She met her husband, David Arquette, who played her on-screen love interest Dwight "Dewey" Riley, while filming the first Scream film. Both Cox and her husband David reprised their respective roles from the Scream trilogy in 2011's Scream 4. The movie was released in theaters April 15, 2011.
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 Studios (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, costarred 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's character. She supplied her voice for the animated film Barnyard. A Friends reunion film was rumored to be in production; following the success of Sex and the City: The Movie,but this has been denied by Warner Bros. and others.
Courteney Bass Cox (born June 15, 1964) is an American actress, who achieved fame for her role as Monica Geller on the NBC sitcom Friends. Cox has also starred in Dirt and the Scream series of movies. She currently stars in the ABC sitcom Cougar Town, for which she earned her first Golden Globe nomination.
Cox was raised in the Birmingham, Alabama suburb of Mountain Brook, the daughter of businessman Richard Lewis Cox (January 28, 1931 – September 3, 2001) and his wife Courteney (née Bass, later Copeland). She has two older sisters, Virginia and Dottie, and an older brother, Richard, Jr. Her parents divorced in 1974 and her mother was remarried to businessman Hunter Copeland (uncle to music promoter and business manager Ian Copeland).After graduating from Mountain Brook High School in Mountain Brook, Alabama, Cox left for Mount Vernon College in Washington, D.C., but did not complete her architecture course, opting instead to pursue a career in modeling and acting.
Cox studied architecture at Mount Vernon College for Women in Washington, D.C., which is now part of The George Washington University, before she dropped out. She appeared in the 1984 music video for Bruce Springsteen's "Dancing in the Dark" as a girl pulled onstage to dance with Springsteen. Cox was the first person to use the word "period" on U.S. television to refer to menstruation in a 1985 advertising campaign for Tampax brand tampons.[10] Her early film roles include Masters of the Universe (1987) and Cocoon: The Return (1988). Her early television work includes a starring role in the short-lived television series Misfits of Science (1985), and later a recurring role (1987–89) on the TV series Family Ties as Lauren Miller, the girlfriend of Alex P. Keaton (Michael J. Fox). She had a supporting role as Jewel, the hard-as-nails assistant to James Belushi's character, in the 1990 fantasy film Mr. Destiny. In 1994, shortly before the debut of the sitcom, Friends, Cox appeared with Jim Carrey in the film Ace Ventura: Pet Detective and on Seinfeld in "The Wife" episode as Jerry's girlfriend named Meryl. In 1995, she was cast in Toad the Wet Sprocket's music video "Good Intentions". The song is also on the Friends Soundtrack.
Later in 1994, Cox was asked to audition for the part of Rachel Green on a new sitcom called Friends. She was cast as the character Monica Geller instead. At first the most famous cast member of the new show, Cox joined fellow castmates Jennifer Aniston (Rachel Green), Lisa Kudrow (Phoebe Buffay), Matt LeBlanc (Joey Tribbiani), Matthew Perry (Chandler Bing) and David Schwimmer (Ross Geller) for what would become her most famous role, lasting for 10 seasons until 2004. According to the Guinness Book of World Records (2005), Cox (along with her female costars) became the highest paid TV actress of all time with her $1 million-per-episode paycheck for the final two seasons of Friends.
Between seasons five and six, Cox married David Arquette and changed her name to Courteney Cox Arquette. An in-joke reference to this is made in the opening credits of the episode "The One After Vegas", where the rest of the cast and executive producers have "Arquette" added to their names. The dedication "For Courteney and David, who did get married"—a reference to Monica and Chandler's decision not to marry in the episode—appears during the fade out to the tag scene.
During her time on Friends, Cox appeared in the high-profile Hollywood films Scream (1996), Scream 2 (1997), and Scream 3 (2000), as the determined and driven reporter Gale Weathers. She met her husband, David Arquette, who played her on-screen love interest Dwight "Dewey" Riley, while filming the first Scream film. Both Cox and her husband David reprised their respective roles from the Scream trilogy in 2011's Scream 4. The movie was released in theaters April 15, 2011.