Courteney Cox Arquette (born June 15, 1964 in Birmingham, Alabama, USA) is an American actress, best known for her role in the long-running television series Friends. (While she has occasionally used her full married name professionally, she continues to be generally known simply as Courteney Cox.) She is the daughter of Archibald Cox, famous Watergate special prosecutor, and granddaughter of comedian Wally Cox.
Cox was born into an affluent Southern family and was raised in Mountain Brook, Alabama. She attended Mountain Brook High School, where she was a cheerleader, tennis player and swimmer. Upon graduation, Cox went to study architecture and interior design at Mount Vernon College. She dropped out after one year to a pursue a modelling career after being signed by the Ford Modelling Agency in New York. While modelling, she also took acting classes.
After coming to prominence in the Bruce Springsteen music video for "Dancing in the Dark" (1984), she appeared in several movies including Masters of the Universe (1988), Cocoon: The Return (1988) and Blue Desert (1991).
Cox had a starring role in the short-lived TV series, Misfits of Science (1985) and later had a recurring role (1987 - 1989) on the television series Family Ties (1982 - 1989).
Cox is best known for playing Monica Geller Bing on the hit TV series Friends (1994 - 2004).
Cox has also appeared in many Hollywood films including Ace Ventura: Pet Detective (1994), Scream (1996), Scream 2 (1998), Scream 3 (2000) and 3000 Miles to Graceland (2001). She met actor David Arquette on the set of Scream and the couple married on June 12, 1999. In June 2004 she gave birth to a baby girl, Coco Arquette.
Trivia
- She had a long relationship with American actor Michael Keaton.
- She was the first person to use the word "period" on US TV in its physiological sense, in a 1980s advertising campaign.
- She is the only principal member of the Friends cast not to be nominated for an Emmy Award.
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