Lindsay Lohan (born July 2, 1986) is an American actress, pop singer and model. She began her career as a child fashion model before making her motion picture debut in Disney's 1998 remake of The Parent Trap at the age of 11. Lohan gained further fame between 2003 and 2005 with leading roles in the films Freaky Friday, Mean Girls and Herbie: Fully Loaded, subsequently appearing in independent films including Robert Altman's A Prairie Home Companion and Emilio Estevez's Bobby.
Her career was interrupted in 2007 when two driving under the influence (DUI) incidents and three visits to rehabilitation facilities led to the loss of several movie deals. Resuming her career, she guest starred in the TV series Ugly Betty in 2008, starred in the 2009 comedy Labor Pains, and appeared in Robert Rodriguez's Machete in 2010. Lohan launched a second career in pop music in 2004 with the album Speak and followed up with A Little More Personal (Raw) in 2005. She has attracted a great deal of publicity, particularly surrounding her personal life.
Lohan was born in New York City and grew up in Merrick and Cold Spring Harbor on Long Island, New York. She is the eldest child of Donata "Dina" (née Sullivan) and Michael Lohan. Lindsay has three younger siblings, all of whom have been models or actors: Michael Jr. (who appeared with Lindsay in The Parent Trap), Aliana "Ali", and Dakota "Cody", the youngest Lohan child. Lohan is of Irish and Italian heritage and was raised as a Catholic. Her maternal family were "well known Irish Catholic stalwarts" and her great-grandfather, John L. Sullivan, was a co-founder of the Pro-life Party in Long Island. Lohan attended Cold Spring Harbor High School, where she did well in science and mathematics, until grade 11, when she started homeschooling. Lohan's parents have a turbulent history. They married in 1985, separated when she was three, and later reunited. They separated again in 2005 and finalized their divorce in 2007. Her father, Michael, is a former Wall Street trader who has been in trouble with the law on several occasions, while her mother, Dina, is a former singer and dancer.
Lohan began her career as a child model with Ford Models at the age of three. She modeled for Calvin Klein Kids and Abercrombie kids, and appeared in over 100 television commercials, including those for Pizza Hut and Wendy's, as well as a Jell-O spot with Bill Cosby. By the age of 10, when Lohan played Alexandra "Alli" Fowler in the series Another World, Soap Opera Magazine said she was already considered a show-business veteran.
Lohan remained in the role for a year, before leaving to star in Disney's 1998 family comedy The Parent Trap, a remake of the 1961 movie. She played dual roles of estranged twins who try to reunite their long-divorced parents, played by Dennis Quaid and Natasha Richardson. The film earned $92 million worldwide, and critic Kenneth Turan called Lohan "the soul of this film as much as Hayley Mills was of the original", going on to say that "she is more adept than her predecessor at creating two distinct personalities". The film won Lohan a Young Artist Award for best performance in a feature film as well as a three-film contract with Disney.
At the age of 14, Lohan played Bette Midler's daughter in the pilot episode of the short-lived series, Bette, but resigned her role when the production moved from New York to Los Angeles. She also starred in two Disney television movies: Life-Size opposite Tyra Banks in 2000, and Get a Clue in 2002.
2003–04: Freaky Friday, Mean Girls and Speak
Lohan starred as Anna Coleman alongside Jamie Lee Curtis in the 2003 family comedy Freaky Friday. At Lohan's own initiative, her character was rewritten and changed from a Goth style to be more relatable. Critic Roger Ebert wrote that Lohan "has that Jodie Foster sort of seriousness and intent focus beneath her teenage persona." Freaky Friday earned Lohan the award for Breakthrough Performance at the 2004 MTV Movie Awards and, as of 2010, it remains her most commercially successful film, earning $160 million worldwide as well as an 88 percent approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
Aiming to become a triple threat — actor, singer and dancer, similar to Ann-Margret and Marilyn Monroe — Lohan began showcasing her singing through her acting. For the Freaky Friday soundtrack, she sang the closing theme, "Ultimate," as well as recording 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. Two years later, Lohan signed a recording contract with Casablanca Records, headed by Tommy Mottola.
In 2004, Lohan had two lead roles. The first, Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen, earned a domestic box office total of $29 million, with Brandon Gray of Box Office Mojo commenting that it was "well above expectations as it was strictly for young girls." The film overall, however, did not meet with critical acclaim. Robert K. Elder of Metromix wrote that, "though still a promising star, Lohan will have to do a little penance before she's forgiven for Confessions."
The teen comedy Mean Girls was Lohan's first movie independent of Disney. The film was a critical and commercial success, grossing $129 million worldwide and, according to Brandon Gray, "cementing her status as the new teen movie queen," while Steve Rhodes wrote that "Lohan dazzles us once more. The smartly written script is a perfect match for her intelligent brand of comedy." Lohan received four awards at the 2004 Teen Choice Awards for Freaky Friday and Mean Girls, including Breakout Movie Star. Mean Girls also earned her two awards at the 2005 MTV Movie Awards, Best Female Performance and Best On-Screen Team along with several other cast members.
Lohan, then 17, became the youngest host of the MTV Movie Awards in 2004. Following Mean Girls, which was scripted by Tina Fey and featured several alumni of Saturday Night Live, Lohan hosted the show three times between 2004 and 2006, as well as hosting the 2006 World Music Awards.
Speak, Lohan's début album, was released in December 2004, peaking at number four on the Billboard 200 and earning Platinum certification by early 2005. Lohan cowrote six of the twelve songs on the album. The album was praised by Linda McGee of RTÉ, who awarded it 4 out of 5 stars and commented that "Speak opens with all the raw emotion and teenage angst that you'd expect from an artist of Lohan's age," and that, "while her vocals are not sensational, their gritty edge keeps Lohan more than afloat throughout this album" as well as comparing the album to the early music of Avril Lavigne. Allmusic, however, awarded it 2 out of 5 stars and claimed the album "feels more like a byproduct of an overdriven, overamplified celebrity culture than an actual album." Though primarily a pop album, Speak was introduced with the single "Rumors." Described by Rolling Stone as "a bass-heavy, angry club anthem," "Rumors" details Lohan's complaints with the paparazzi and eventually earned a Gold certification in the United States.
While shooting Herbie: Fully Loaded in 2004, Lohan was hospitalized with a kidney infection brought on by stress in her personal life and of recording her first album while the film was in production, prompting Vanity Fair to label it Lohan's "first disastrous shoot." The magazine also described how Lohan terminated the promotional tour and was de-emphasized on the movie poster due to "un-Disney-like behavior." Lohan began dating actor Wilmer Valderrama in 2004, guest-starring in an episode of That '70s Show, of which Valderrama was a regular. According to Vanity Fair, the breakup with Valderrama contributed to Lohan's issues during the shooting of Herbie: Fully Loaded.
With Mean Girls, Lohan's public profile was raised significantly and paparazzi began following her. She spent several years living out of hotels in Los Angeles, of which two years were spent at Chateau Marmont. In late 2007, after settling down in more permanent residence, she explained that she spent so much time in hotels because she "didn't want to be alone" but that "it wasn't a way of life ... not very consistent." Lohan has had a series of car accidents that have been widely reported, with minor crashes in August 2004, October 2005, and November 2006, when Lohan suffered minor injuries because 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.
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