Courteney Cox is, of course, best known to us as Monica from Friends, but she first gained
attention as the girl Bruce Springsteen pulled onto the stage in the video for his song "Dancing
in the Dark" in 1984.
These days, Cox is reprising her role as Gale Weathers for the fifth Scream film, which
is set to be released in January 2022.
She's mom to 17-year-old Coco Arquette and has been dating Snow Patrol's Johnny McDaid
since late 2013.
Let's take a look at her incredible transformation.
Courteney Cox was born on June 15, 1964, in Birmingham, Alabama to Courteney and Richard
Cox.
She is the youngest of four kids, with two older sisters and a brother.
She grew up in Mountain Brook, Alabama, which is one of the most exclusive and wealthy towns
in the U.S. Cox's parents divorced when she was young, and her mother remarried.
After graduating from Mountain Brook High School, she enrolled at Mount Vernon College
in Washington, D.C., with plans to become an architect.
However, she landed a modeling contract and dropped out of college instead.
Her modeling contract led to being cast in a few commercials, and it wasn't long before
she started scoring guest roles on TV shows.
In 1987, Cox was cast in the recurring role of Lauren Miller, the girlfriend of Michael
J. Fox's character on Family Ties.
She appeared in 19 episodes of the sitcom through 1989.
Over the next few years, Cox appeared in a number of television shows, TV movies, and
films, most notably on an episode of Seinfeld and in Ace Ventura: Pet Detective.
But when Friends came around, Cox became a household name.
If the producers of Friends had followed through on their original plans, Jennifer Aniston
would not have been cast as Rachel Green.
Instead, Courteney Cox would have gotten the role.
One of the show's creators, Marta Kauffman, wanted Cox to play Rachel.
It was Cox who told producers she wanted to play Monica.
"Welcome to the real world.
It sucks.
You're gonna love it."
When she was cast as Monica, Cox was the best-known actor of the six main cast members.
The chemistry between Cox and her co-stars soon propelled Friends to the top of the TV
rating charts and made the entire cast superstars.
And the show financially paid off for its stars, too.
In 2002, the six core cast members all banded together in their salary negotiations so that
no one actor would be paid more than any of the others.
For the final two seasons of Friends, each of the six main cast members was paid $1 million
per episode.
And in 2015, USA Today reported that Cox and her co-stars make more than $20 million in
residuals every year from Friends, which is more than a little impressive.
In 1996, Cox played Gale Weathers in the slasher horror film Scream.
She returned for 1997's Scream 2, 2000's Scream 3, and 2011's Scream 4, and is set to reprise
her role in the fifth installment of the franchise.
Cox also met David Arquette, her future husband, on the set of the first Scream film.
Cox and Arquette married on June 12, 1999, in front of 250 guests at Grace Cathedral
in San Francisco.
All of the Friends cast were in attendance, as was Arquette's sister Patricia Arquette
and her husband at the time, Nicolas Cage.
In 2004, Cox and Arquette welcomed their daughter Coco.
Jennifer Aniston is her godmother.
Cox and Arquette announced their split in 2010, but they have stayed amicable co-parents
to Coco.
In 2009, Cox struck sitcom gold for the second time.
On Cougar Town, she played Jules Cobb, a recently divorced, 40-year-old mother on the hunt for
new experiences.
She was even nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Television Series Musical
or Comedy for her performance.
Cox also directed several episodes of the series.
Cougar Town ran for six seasons through March 2015.
While Cox was starring on Cougar Town, she and Arquette finalized their divorce, and
in 2013, the actor started dating musician Johnny McDaid.
They got engaged in 2014, and although they've since called off their engagement, Cox and
McDaid are still together.
More recently, Cox created and produced 9 Months with Courteney Cox for Facebook Watch
in 2019.
She's also working on an upcoming TV movie called Shining Vale.
And, of course, Cox appeared in HBOMax's Friends reunion special, over 25 years after the show's
premiere.
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