Cynthia Ann "Cindy" Crawford (born February 20, 1966) is an American supermodel and occasional actress.
Famously bright (she graduated as valedictorian of her high school) and commercially minded, she could have gone on to study chemical engineering at college but chose to pursue modelling as a career, becoming hugely successful — in the late 1980s and '90s in particular — and, unlike many models, popular with both ladies and gentlemen (albeit for different reasons). Cindy was hired by MTV to front House of Style from 1989 to 1995, and in 1992 she released the fitness video Cindy Crawford: Shape Your Body (thus paving the way for Elle MacPherson and Claudia Schiffer to do similar tapes). Though criticized by experts, the tape was highly successful and led to the following year's Cindy Crawford: The Next Challenge.
She married Richard Gere in 1991, but the marriage came to an end four years later following personal differences (not helped by a famous newspaper ad taken out by the couple in The Times). Her second marriage in 1998, to longtime friend (and ex-model) Rande Gerber, subsequently produced two children (son Presley in 1999 and daughter Kaia in 2001 - both of whom have gone into modelling). She later produced two more fitness tapes: Cindy Crawford: A New Dimension (2000, aimed at women looking to reduce weight after giving birth) and Mini-Muscles with Cindy Crawford and the Fit-Wits, a shorter animated tape (with a live-action intro from guess who) aimed at children.
Cindy is also a dedicated supporter of cancer research, having lost her only brother Jeffrey to leukemia when he was four.
She is also, according to her Twitter page, good at bowling
.
Tropes associated with her:
- The Cameo: She appeared in the 1988 edition of the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue, and never did it again (because she and editor Jule Campbell didn't get along). It's not even her most famous work.
- Innocent Fanservice Girl: Photographed by the Paparazzi while sunbathing topless.
- Named After Somebody Famous: Averted in the case of her son - Presley is not named after the King.
- Non-Actor Vehicle: The 1995 movie Fair Game. And it showed.
- Older Than They Look: Still looks one if not two decades younger than her actual age of 58.
- One-Woman Song: "Cindy C." by Prince. She wasn't exactly flattered at the time.
- Pretty in Mink: Modeled furs a lot in the 80s, and in the 2000s, she modeled for Blackglama's "What Becomes a Legend Most" campaign.
- Self-Deprecation: Her famous line regarding the notorious photoshopping and airbrush is, "Even I don't wake up looking like Cindy Crawford."
- Sequel: Her 1990s Pepsi commercial got one, with her wearing the same outfit and saying, "Some things don't change," then her kids are shown in the car, and she says, "And some things do."
- Shameless Fanservice Girl: She is the first supermodel to pose nude in Playboy and has posed nude many times (she's very proud of her Playboy work as well). A few times, Cindy was sunbathing topless when she was photographed by the paparazzi. Photographer Arthur Elgort said "Cindy has the quintessential cover girl face. She's really the best for a non-fashion picture - she has the kind of shape that only gets better the more you take away the clothes."
- Walking Swimsuit Scene: Many photoshoots over her career and a few Paparazzi photos in which she's on the beach topless and wearing a bikini bottom.
- World's Most Beautiful Woman: She was on the cover of People Magazine's 1993 "Most Beautiful People" issue.
