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Christy Brinkley was born Christie Lee Hudson
and was born on February 2, 1954 in Detroit, Michigan. Her father was TV
writer/producer/director Don Brinkley (The Man From Uncle, The
Virginian, Trapper John, M.D.). At a very young age, her family
moved to sunny Malibu, California.
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She grew up a normal
Californian teenager, however, she attended,
Le Lycée Français de Los Angeles, a French-American High School in Los
Angeles. She was also artistically inclined as a child. Armed with the
knowledge of French and a love of art, she moved to Paris in 1972, at the
age of eighteen and enrolled in an art school.
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Soon after coming to
Parris, she fell in love and married Jean-François Allaux in 1973.
Their marriage lasted until 1981 and the couple did not have any children.
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After art school,
she found a job as an illustrator. After three years, she was spotted
walking on a Paris street by an American photographer and her career as a
model began. She was hesitant at first because she would be giving up a
career that she enjoyed – But, her new husband was in the army, and her dog
was sick so the photographer convinced her that she was a natural beauty
that would be perfect for modeling and would make money to pay all of her
bills. Her first modeling appearance was in Parents magazine – where
she modeled wearing a bikini. In little time, she was signed by the Ford
modeling agency and her career took off. [I am not going to write about the
allegations made in the book Model.]
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Within a year
(1976), she signed her first contract as the cover girl for Cover Girl
cosmetics and she literally became the face of the company for an
unprecedented twenty years. However, her fame came to new heights when she
posed for the cover of the 1979 edition of the swimsuit edition of Sports
Illustrated. The poses in this magazine gave her international fame.
In fact, she posed for the 1980 and 1981 editions as well wearing smaller
and smaller bikinis.
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She made her short,
yet memorable movie debut in 1983 as Chevy Chase’s dream girl in National
Lampoon’s Vacation. She was happy being a supermodel and did not pursue
a career in television or the movies like many of today’s models slash
actresses.
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She did not let her
creative skills get rusty and in 1983 wrote a book on beauty and fitness,
appropriately titled “Christie Brinkley's Outdoor Beauty and Fitness
Book,” which appeared on the New York Times best seller list.
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Being at the top of
her industry, Christie Brinkley found love again, this time with a musician
at the top of his industry – Billy Joel.
Christie and Billy were married in March 1985. He featured her in several
of his music videos, including the famous “Uptown Girl” video that showed
off his classically beautiful wife. The couple had their only child, Alexa
Rae on new years day 1986. [Note: she also appeared in Joel’s video “Keeping
the Faith” and Mick Jones’ video “Just Wanna Hold.”
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In the mid to late
1980s Brinkley would take brief respites from the modeling word and stand at
the opposite end of camera as the photographer. She was highly skilled and
had her pictures published in many magazines including Autosprint and
American Photographer. In fact, she could also be seen at ringside
at many boxing events run by Don King as the official photographer. In
addition to boxing, she has also photographed race car driving and baseball
(whose pictures appeared on cards produced by Pinnacle) She had also created
the cover art for Billy Joel’s River of Dreams album.
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In 1992, Christie
had a short gig as the host of a news/culture journal show entitled
Living in the ‘90s with Christie Brinkley. She introduced several
pre-filmed segments as the host. Being dissatisfied with the format, she
left only after a few weeks. She has made several other TV appearances on
talk shows and even a role in an episode of the sitcom Mad About You
in 1994 and the comedy variety show Blue Collar TV in 2004.
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Throughout the 1990s
she balanced between the two loves of her life, modeling and motherhood.
Her modeling was in less demand, but her mothering began to increase.
However, her love life began to turn sour in the early 1990s and she
divorced Billy Joe in late August 1994. Soon was comforted by a friend, real
estate magnate Richard Taubman, who married her in December 1994. Their son, Jack Paris Brinkley, was born in early June 1995. Their marriage was
short lived and they divorced in 1995. [Fast fact: Taubman and Brinkley
survived a helicopter crash in Colorado in March 11994.]
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She gained a new
fame towards the end of the 1990s, not because of her role as a magazine
model, but because of an infomercial in 1997 for Total Gym – which showed a
still very sexy 40+ year-old Christie Brinkley. The infomercial was highly
successful for the company.
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It seems that the
fourth time is the charm for Brinkley when it comes to love and marriage.
She married her fourth and current husband, architect Peter Cook in
September 1996. They had a daughter together in July 1998 named
Sailor Lee Brinkley Cook.
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In 1997, Christie
began to branch out and went into business. She launched her own perfume
called Believe. This was the start of her business side which has expanded
to designer eyewear and toys for toddlers.
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In 1998, Brinkley
sued the National Enquirer for basically calling her crazy. However,
the judge threw out her $42 million dollar suit because even though the
article, Christie Cracks Up was “truly obnoxious” it did not
subject her to “hatred, contempt or aversion.”
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When not working or
being “mom,” she spends her time volunteering for different causes, such as
nuclear disarmament and the Make-A-Wish-Foundation. She also has spent time
working for various politicians she believes in – and was a delegate at the
2000 Democratic Convention in Los Angeles. [Fast fact: she is a vegetarian]
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She has graced the
cover of well over 500 magazines during her illustrious career (including
Cosmopolitan, Time, Life, Vogue,
Mademoiselle, Ladies’ Home Journaland and many more)
– and has just signed a contract (now at the age of 51) to model for Cover
Girl once again. She has also modeled for many products besides Cover Girl
including Prell shampoo, MasterCard, Diet Coke and Chanel perfume.
Biography by Ian Ripley,
PopStarsPlus.com, Sr. Staff Writer
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