Cindy Crawford Biography

Cindy was born to Jennifer Sue Crawford-Moluf and John Dan Crawford. She claims to be of German, English, and French descent.

She was 16 when a newspaper photographer found her and took a photograph of her. Her photo was appreciated and soon she took up modeling. She participated in the Elite Model Management's Look of the Year contest at 17 and finished as a runner-up.

Following the contest, she became the face of the Elite modeling agency in Chicago. Cindy completed her education at DeKalb High School in 1984 and also received a scholarship in chemical engineering at Northwestern University. However, she studied there only for the first quarter before dropping out to pursue modeling.

She worked for Victor Skrebneski, a famous photographer in Chicago. She moved to Manhattan in 1986 to work with the Elite New York modeling agency.

Through the 1980s and 1990s, she became one of the most established supermodels and was often seen on the cover pages of fashion and lifestyle magazines like Vogue, W, People, Harper's Bazaar, Elle, Cosmopolitan, and Allure.

She also represented some of the most well-known brands including Gianni Versace, Escada, Revlon, and Ink. In 1987, her name appeared on the opening credits of the film ‘The Secret of My Success’.

In July 1988, she posed for Playboy magazine (for the first time) and posed once again, later that year, in a second shoot.

She hosted MTV's ‘House of Style’, a show about the lives of models and the fashion industry, starting in 1989.

She also appeared in singer George Michael’s video ‘Freedom '90’ in 1990, alongside other supermodels Christy Turlington, Linda Evangelista, Tatjana Patitz, and Naomi Campbell.

In 1994, she played the long-lost love of singer Jon Bon Jovi in his video ‘Please Come Home for Christmas’.

She came up with an exercise video ‘Cindy Crawford: Shape Your Body’, with Radu Teodorescu in 1992, which was hugely successful.

The success prompted her to make another sequel to her previous exercise video titled, ‘Cindy Crawford: The Next Challenge’ in 1993.

She debuted in Hollywood with the 1995 unsuccessful film ‘Fair Game’, as the female protagonist.

In 2000, she made the exercise video, ‘Cindy Crawford: A New Dimension’ which was aimed more towards women trying to get back in shape post-pregnancy. A year later, she recorded an exercise video for children named ‘Mini-Muscles with Cindy Crawford and the Fit-wits’. The same year, she quit modeling.

She appeared in the American improvisational film ‘The Simian Line’ in 2001 which like her first film was not successful.

In 2005, she joined hands with famous Dr. Jean-Louis Sebagh to create her own line of beauty products, which she sold as ‘Meaningful Beauty’. She also launched her furniture line, ‘Cindy Crawford Home Collection’.

She launched her own home goods line with J. C. Penney Company, Inc., a chain of departmental stores, in 2009.

Cindy returned to modeling in May 2011 and appeared on the cover page of ‘Vogue’ Mexico. In 2013, she starred in season 4 of the American genealogy documentary series ‘Who Do You Think You Are?’

She played the role of a headmistress in Taylor Swift’s 2015 song ‘Bad Blood.’ That same year, she also made an appearance on the American sitcom ‘Cougar Town.’ She continued to appear in television shows like ‘Lip Sync Battle,’ ‘BoJack Horseman,’ ‘Friends: The Reunion,’ and Pepsi, ‘Where's My Jet?’

In 2023, she starred in the American documentary series ‘The Super Models.’ The series gave a glimpse into the lives and careers of Cindy and other famous models such as Linda Evangelista, Naomi Campbell, and Christy Turlington Burns. She also served as one of the executive producers of the series.

Cindy hosted the MTV show ‘House of Style’ for 6 years. The show was about the lives of models in the fashion business and controversies surrounding their lifestyles.

She earned a lot of success with her three exercise videos, ‘Cindy Crawford: Shape Your Body’, ‘Cindy Crawford: The Next Challenge’, and ‘Mini-Muscles with Cindy Crawford and the Fit-wits’.

After posing twice for Playboy, she was ranked number 5 on the magazine’s list of the ‘100 Sexiest Stars of the 20th Century’.

In 1997, she was selected as the second most beautiful woman in the world by the magazine, ‘Shape’.

‘People’ magazine also listed her as one of the ‘50 Most Beautiful People’.

From 1991 to 1995, the model was married to actor Richard Gere.

She got married to Rande Gerber, a former model, on May 29, 1998, and has two children with him.

She is an active promoter of the pediatric oncology program. As her career began to escalate, she involved herself in several other charitable programs as well.

Cindy Crawford was the highest-paid model in the world during the 1990s.