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| Birth Name(s) : Paulina Porizkova |
Date of Birth: April 9, 1965 |
| Status:
Married
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Partner:
Ric Ocasek |
| Profession:
Actor |
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Full Paulina Porizkova Biography
Paulina Porizkova was born April 9, 1965, in Prostejov, Czechoslovakia. Paulina and her younger brother were left in the care of their grandmother, after their parents fled from their country.
The Porizkova family was reunited after 7 years, albeit not for long, as Paulina's parents got divorced. Since Paulina's mother was busy supporting her children and funding her own medical school education, a 10-year-old Paulina was forced to tend to herself and her brother.
Paulina's life was on the brink of change thanks to a chance encounter with an Elite modeling scout, who spotted her on the street while she was living in Sweden with her family for several years. The offer was extremely tempting for a teenage Paulina who was eager to get out of Sweden and support herself.
Her modeling career flew into high gear after she appeared on the cover of the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition in 1984, and followed up this appearance with a second cover in the 1985 issue of the coveted magazine. During her career, she has appeared in numerous magazines, including Cosmopolitan, Glamour, Harper's Bazaar, US, Self, and she did a topless shot in GQ.
Besides her 6-million/year contract for Estee Lauder (as Elizabeth Hurley's predecessor), Paulina has appeared in advertisements for Alma, Anne Klein Footwear, Capezio Bags, Episode, Escada, Giorgio Beverly Hills Red fragrance, Macy's, Maybelline, and Mikimoto.
In 1987, Paulina appeared in Play.boy, and gave men a yearly dose of eye candy with Paulina Porizkova calendars in 1988 and 1989.
Although she had an illustrious career, Paulina was never one to fall into the glamour associated with being a model. Despite the perks that modeling provided, she wasn't proud or happy about her job, mostly because of the connotations that are associated with modeling, so she sought other outlets in which she could express herself more creatively.
With that, after appearing in a documentary about modeling called Portfolio, Paulina attempted to pursue an acting career. She was cast in Covergirl in 1984 and Anna in 1987, but it was in 1989 that she would land her biggest, and most known role to date, co-starring with Tom Selleck (hot off the trails of his Three Men and a Baby success), in the film Her Alibi.
Presently semi-retired as a model, Paulina does have a full-time career as wife of The Cars' lead singer and guitarist, Ric Ocasek; mother of their two sons, Jonathan Raven and Oliver Orion; as well as stepmother to Ocasek's children from a previous marriage.
She has appeared in films since the 80's, with roles in Arizona Dream, Wedding Bell Blues, Long Time Since, Thursday, The Intern, and Partners in Crime. Incidentally, she turned down the role of the Bond girl in 1995's GoldenEye.
Still searching for other film roles that will allow her to develop more as an actress, Paulina delved into the publishing industry by writing a children's book, and hopes to someday publish a book about her take on the fashion industry. |
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Additional Paulina Porizkova Biography
Paulina Porizkova (born April 9, 1965) is a Czech-born supermodel and actress. She holds both Swedish and United States citizenship.
Born Pavlína Pořízková IPA: in Prostějov (now in the Czech Republic), she was still a toddler when her father and mother left Czechoslovakia, fleeing the Soviet invasion in 1968, and moved to Lund in southern Sweden. They left Paulina under the care of their grandmother, believing that their daughter could be brought out later.
This left Paulina's mother to fund her own medical education, leaving Paulina and her brother Jachym (who was born in the Czech Republic during the mother's house arrest) very much to fend for themselves, including having to steal bread to have something to eat. Paulina hated her time in Sweden, as she was harassed by her peers for her poverty-stricken political refugee status.
A photographer friend took pictures of Porizkova and sent them to the Elite modeling agency in 1980. At 5 feet 10 1/2 inches (180 cm), she was the perfect height for a fashion model. Elite head John Casablancas noticed Porizkova's attractiveness and potential, and offered her a ticket to Paris. It was an extremely tempting offer for a teenager who was eager to get out of Sweden and to support herself.
Porizkova appeared on the cover of Playboy magazine in August 1987 to preview her new (non-nude) swimsuit calendar. A few years earlier she had appeared in a nude spread in GQ magazine, which had left her feeling dissatisfied.
Both of her calendars in 1988 and 1989 by photographer Marco Glaviano sold hundreds of thousands of copies, setting a standard that paved the way for other models like Cindy Crawford and Frederique for their own pictorial calendars.
Porizkova has appeared in the books Models and Sirens, by Marco Glaviano, and in Fashion Photography by Patrick Demarchelier. The latter includes some of the noted LIFE magazine swimsuit pictures from several years ago). She was also in Women by Herb Ritts.
During her early modeling career, Porizkova had noticeable gaps between her front teeth. For this reason, she usually appeared with a closed mouth rather than a smile during the period. One writer noted that her teeth were an eccentricity in an otherwise perfect face. The rarity of her smile became a trademark for her during that period of her career. Her gapped teeth were corrected (and filmed) during her movie debut Anna. Her other trademark was her "dreamy look", which she claims came from her squinting at the camera because of her extreme nearsightedness.
Although she had had an extraordinary career as a model, Porizkova was known to make disparaging remarks about the fashion and beauty industry, displeasing some in the field.
Porizkova's film debut was in the 1983 modelling pseudo-documentary Portfolio. Still only seventeen, she managed to look more mature and intelligent than the other more-established models, and she became the "covergirl" for the film.
Porizkova appeared in the 1987 film Anna (which starred Sally Kirkland), receiving good reviews from her patrons at Vogue magazine. It was in 1989 that she had her largest, and best-known role to date, co-starring with Tom Selleck in the film Her Alibi. However, she was nominated for a Golden Raspberry for worst actress for her appearance in that film.
She was rumored to be starring along with Robert De Niro in 1989 in the planned film by Sergio Leone about the siege of Leningrad during World War II, halted by the director's death.
She appeared in the bizarre cult film, Arizona Dream, with Johnny Depp and Jerry Lewis, in a minor role as Lewis's young Polish fiancee. She also appeared in the film Thursday.
She has also appeared on various television shows, including an April 18, 2007 appearance on The Colbert Report after remarks that she found Colbert "extremely attractive."
She has finished her debut novel, A Model Summer (ISBN 1401303269) (ISBN 978-1401303266). It is about a fifteen-year-old Swedish girl chosen by a modeling agent to spend a summer working in Paris. It is slated for release in April 2007.
In September 1992, her children's book The Adventures of Ralphie the Roach (ISBN 0385424027) (ISBN 978-0385424028) was published, along with co-authors Joanne Russell and illustrator step-son Adam Ocasek.
On August 23, 1989, Paulina married Ric Ocasek. They had met in 1984 during the filming for The Cars' music video, "Drive", directed by Timothy Hutton. Paulina was only 19 at their 1984 meeting, while Ocasek was already married at the time. The couple had two children, Jonathan Raven Ocasek, born on 23 May 1998, and Oliver Orion Ocasek, born in May 1993.
"It's about Paulina Porizkova, who is Rick Ocasek's wife, who used to come down to Electric Ladyland studios when we were recording the Blue album. And she would read our palms, and she was pregnant and she would just hang out. And we were like, "Wow, a pregnant supermodel is reading our palms." And then she would complain about how only bands like Warrant and all these '80s heavy metal bands are the only people who would write songs about her. And so she was really bummed out that nobody cool was writing songs about her now, so I wrote that song for her while we were at Electric Lady as an attempt to get her out of the '80s hair metal rut she was stuck in."
- Paulina was the cover model for the 20th Anniversary issue of Cosmopolitan magazine in November 1985. |
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| My boyfriend [now her husband] thinks I lost my true calling to be a librarian. |
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