Bio
Lindsay Lohan is an American actress and pop music singer.
Lohan started in show business as a child fashion model for magazine ads and television commercials. At age ten, she began her acting career in a soap opera; at eleven, she made her motion picture debut by playing both twins in Disney's 1998 remake of The Parent Trap.
Lohan's breakout role as a leading actress came six years later with 2004's Mean Girls, which shone the media spotlight on her professional and personal lives — including her nightlife and her parents' marital and legal struggles.
As an adult, Lohan began to take on more varied roles and projects, including Robert Altman's final film, A Prairie Home Companion.
While filming Herbie: Fully Loaded in 2004, Lohan launched her career in music, recording and releasing her first studio album, Speak; her second album, A Little More Personal (Raw), was released in 2005.
Biography
Childhood
Lindsay Lohan was born in The Bronx and grew up in Merrick and Cold Spring Harbor on Long Island in New York.
She is the eldest child of Michael Lohan, a onetime actor, and the former Donata "Dina" Sullivan, who has claimed that she worked as a Rockette, though Radio City Music Hall records have failed to verify this claim.
She has three younger siblings: brother Michael had a role as "Lost Boy at Camp" in The Parent Trap (1998), sister Aliana is an aspiring model and actress, and brother Dakota (Cody) has modeled fashions.
Lohan is of Irish and Italian heritage and was raised as a Catholic.
Lindsay's family was financially comfortable; her father Michael Lohan had inherited his family's pasta business, which he later sold to trade in futures (briefly becoming President of New York Futures Traders).
More recently, he worked as an investment banker, securing funding for independent films. Lohan's mother Dina, was a Wall Street analyst before becoming her daughter's manager.
Despite the family's wealth, Lohan — when she wasn't tutored on film sets — attended public schools on Long Island until just before her high school graduation, finishing her studies at home.
It was revealed in 2004 that Michael Lohan had spent much of his daughter's preteen years in prison for securities fraud. In 2005, he was sent back to prison for "aggravated unlicensed driving" and attempted assault.
Later that year, Lohan's parents settled their divorce case; her mother's attorney said, "Dina and the children are delighted that this chapter in their lives is finally over," while her father (through his lawyer) said, "[I] look forward to the opportunity to rebuild my relationship with my children."
Early work
Lohan began her career with Ford Models at age three and, at a time when blue-eyed blondes were in highest demand, the freckle-faced, auburn-haired child found little work as a fashion model.
She persisted and eventually appeared in more than 100 print ads for Toys "R" Us. She also modeled for Calvin Klein Kids (usually with siblings Michael and Ali) and Abercrombie Kids.
Through young adulthood, Lohan was featured in such diverse magazines as Vogue, Elle, Bliss (UK), and Blenda (Japan).
Lohan's first auditions for television work did not go well; by the time she tried out for a Duncan Hines commercial, she told her mother that she would give up if she did not get the job.
She was hired, and Lohan went on to appear in over 60 commercials, including a Jell-O pudding spot with Bill Cosby. Her ad work led to roles in soap operas, and she was already considered a show-business veteran in 1996 when she landed the role of Alexandra "Alli" Fowler on Another World, where she delivered more dialogue than any other ten-year-old in daytime serials of the time.
Lohan gave up Another World for the big screen when director Nancy Meyers cast her as estranged twin sisters who try to reunite their long-divorced parents (Dennis Quaid and Natasha Richardson) in The Parent Trap (1998).
Hired in 1997 at age 10, Lohan was 11 when filming began in England and California (in Los Angeles and the Napa Valley). Trap was well-received for a family comedy, bringing in $92-million worldwide.
Film critic Janet Maslin found Lohan's dual performances so forceful "that she seems to have been taking shy violet lessons from Sharon Stone." Critic Kenneth Turan called Lohan "the soul of this film as much as Hayley Mills was of the original, and … she is more adept than her predecessor at creating two distinct personalities".
Signed by Disney to a three-film contract, Lohan was offered the role of Penny in Inspector Gadget but, after seven months' work on The Parent Trap, she turned it down.
Later, she starred in two original television movies, Life-Size (2000) (with Tyra Banks) and Get a Clue (2002).
She also played Bette Midler's daughter in the first episode of the short-lived series, Bette (2000), but Lohan — then 14 — quit when the production moved from New York to Los Angeles.
In 2001, she hosted the ABC-TV commercial series commemorating Walt Disney's 100th birthday during a rebroadcast of The Parent Trap.
Following a brief hiatus, Lohan attended her first-ever film audition and won the lead teen role in another Disney remake; Freaky Friday (2003) starred Jamie Lee Curtis and Lohan as a mother and daughter trapped in the other's body.
Critic Roger Ebert praised Lohan's "Jodie Foster sort of seriousness and intent focus beneath her teenage persona," while Carrie Rickey — who panned the film — called her performance "unpredictable and inspired."
Through 2005, Friday was Lohan's biggest commercial film success, earning US$160-million worldwide.
Movie career
Lohan was given the lead in two films, Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen (her first feature that was not a remake) and Paramount's Mean Girls, both released in 2004.
Drama Queen was a modest success at the box office, grossing about $30-million, but was a failure with critics. "Though still a promising star," Robert K. Elder wrote, "Lohan will have to do a little penance before she's forgiven for Confessions."
That "penance" came with Mean Girls, her first PG-13 (and first non-Disney) film; her breakout lead performance pushed the critical and commercial hit to gross $128-million worldwide, "cementing her status as the new teen movie queen," wrote Brandon Gray.
"Lohan dazzles us once more," said Steve Rhodes. "The smartly written script is a perfect match for her intelligent brand of comedy."
Mean Girls was scripted by Tina Fey and featured several alumni of Saturday Night Live; Lohan was asked to host the show three times, in 2004, 2005, and 2006.
Lohan returned to Disney for Herbie: Fully Loaded (2005), the fifth film in the long-dormant Herbie series.
Her rising popularity allowed her to choose from a wider variety of projects and, at age 19, Lohan felt Herbie would help her make the transition into more grown-up roles.
"In most of my other films, I was in high school," she said. "Here, [my character is] just out of college. It's nice to be able to do something that I think will be acceptable to the fan base I've accumulated from my Disney movies, but subconsciously they'll see me getting older and maturing."
Fully Loaded earned $144,146,816 worldwide.
Her next film in wide release, Just My Luck, opened in May 2006 to poor reviews and earned only $38-million worldwide. The following month, A Prairie Home Companion, in limited release ended its run with $25,648,948 globally.
"Lohan rises to the occasion," wrote Peter Travers, "delivering a rock-the-house version of 'Frankie and Johnny'."
Lohan completed filming the independent Emilio Estevez film, Bobby, opposite Elijah Wood, in December 2005; the film débuted at the Venice Film Festival on September 5, 2006, and was released in theatres on November 23, 2006, though it earned a weak $19,560,892 worldwide with mixed reviews.
Chapter 27 with Jared Leto began filming in New York on January 9, 2006, and had wrapped by March. It was released in 2007.
Lohan starred in Georgia Rule opposite Felicity Huffman and Jane Fonda which was released May 11, 2007 to harsh reviews and a opening weekend total of just $6.7-million.
Lohan will next be seen in I Know Who Killed Me when the movie opens July 27, 2007, in which she, as told to David Letterman, will play a stripper and that it's a "really dark, scary film."
Music
Hoping to become a "triple threat" (actor/model/singer) like her idol, Ann-Margret, Lohan began by showcasing her singing talents through her films.
For the Freaky Friday soundtrack, she sang the closing theme, "Ultimate"; she also recorded four songs for the Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen soundtrack.
Producer Emilio Estefan, Jr. signed Lohan to a five-album production deal in 2002. "The minute I heard her sing, I knew she was gifted," he said, "and [she] has an incredible ability to connect with her audience. I am very excited to be working with her."
Two years later, Lohan signed a recording contract with Casablanca Records, headed by "diva-maker" Tommy Mottola. Her debut album, Speak, was released in December 2004, and peaked at number four on the Billboard 200.
By early 2005, it was certified Platinum. Though primarily a pop-rock album, Speak was introduced with the single "Rumors", described by Rolling Stone as "a bass-heavy, angry club anthem".
Its sexually suggestive video reached number one on MTV's TRL and was nominated for Best Pop Video at the 2005 MTV Video Music Awards. "Rumors" eventually earned a Gold certification in America.
In December 2005, her second album, A Little More Personal (Raw), debuted at number 20 on the Billboard 200 chart, but fell under the top 100 within six weeks.
Reviews were unfavourable; critics wondered why an album in which Lohan poured out her heart came across instead as a "slick pop production."
Slant magazine called it "contrived ... for all the so-called weighty subject matter, there's not much meat on these bones."
Still, A Little More Personal (Raw) was certified Gold on January 18, 2006. The music video for the album's first single, "Confessions of a Broken Heart (Daughter to Father)" — directed by Lohan and featuring the acting debut of her sister, Ali — was a dramatisation of the pain Lohan says her family has suffered at the hands of her father.
She said "It's kind of offensive" but "I hope he sees the positive side of the video rather than the negative."
Universal Music Group moved Lohan from Casablanca to Motown Records in February 2006. In March, she told OK! magazine that she was writing lyrics for her third album, which she called "different [from] the first two".
The November 2006 edition of In Style reported a Christmas 2006 release, but it was pushed back.
In a May 2007 interview in Nylon Lohan stated that she plans to record her third studio album in August 2007.
The album is reported to be a new musical direction for Lohan, who is working with Maverick Records CEO Guy Oseary on an "urban pop" sound.
Media Spotlight
Lohan was portrayed as a "party girl" who frequented clubs with Nicole Richie and Paris and Nicky Hilton, among others. Accidental exposures to paparazzi brought repeated rumous of breast enhancement ("they're real though," she asserted). Lohan later lampooned the various rumours on Saturday Night Live.
Lohan was the first living person to have a "My Scene Goes Hollywood" doll released by Mattel (in 2005). She also voiced herself in the direct-to-DVD feature film based on the dolls.
Lohan's three car accidents in 2005 and one in 2007 made headlines. The first was a minor rear-ender, though the victims later threatened to sue her.
She suffered minor injuries when a paparazzo who was following her for a photograph hit her car (police called the crash intentional, but prosecutors said there was not enough evidence to file criminal charges).
Lohan also struck a van in West Hollywood; police ruled that the van's driver made an illegal U-turn.
Lohan was involved in an accident again on May 26, 2007, during which the Beverly Hills Police Department arrested her and issued a summons for driving under the influence. The police discovered a "usable" quantity of a substance tentatively identified to be cocaine at the scene.
Two days later, Lohan entered a medical rehabilitation facility. She had previously entered rehab in January.
Lohan was interviewed for the March 2006 issue of Allure magazine; she said she hoped to be taken seriously as an actress, adding, "I hate it when people call me a teen queen."
She addressed the numerous romantic rumours ("I know now that I don't need a boyfriend") and her weight loss ("I will say that I went through a phase. I lost weight when I was in the hospital, and then I wanted to keep it off.").
Lohan says 2005 "felt like five lifetimes because I've grown up a lot".
Lohan was voted #10 on the list of "100 Sexiest Women" by readers of FHM. Maxim placed her at #3 on its 2006 Hot 100 list.
In 2007, Lohan placed at #1 on the Maxim "Hot 100".
Source: Wikipedia