Jennifer Aniston

Jennifer Aniston was born the 11th of February, 1969, in Sherman Oaks, a suburb of Los Angeles. Her Crete-born father, John (real name Anastassakis) had been brought to the US at age 10 when his parents opened a diner in Eddytown, Pennsylvania. He’d become an actor seeking work in LA. Fellow Greek actor Telly Savalas would be Jennifer Anistons godfather, and win bit parts in the likes of 87th Precinct, Combat! and I Spy. Her mother was born in upstate New York, moving with her family to California where she’d work at Universal Studios, at one point signing autographs for Rock Hudson. Extremely good-looking, she eventually won parts in such fare as The Red Skelton Show and The Beverly Hillbillies, but lack of confidence in her ability caused her to give up acting.

Things were looking good for the Jennifer Aniston family (Jennifer also had an older half-brother, John, 9 years her senior). From 1967 to 1970, John made good money playing Eric Richards in the series Days Of Our Lives, NBC’s longest-running soap, concerning the trials and tribulations of the folks of a fictional Salem, he also appear in The Virginian and Mission Impossible. It didn’t last, however. When the part went, so did the good times. John worked as a door-to-door salesman, his only acting success being one small part in Savalas’s Kojak. His wife won a few modelling contracts, but more money was needed. John considered entering the medical profession, but was too old to be taken in by any American university. Instead, when Jennifer was 5, he began his training in Athens, taking his family with him.

Here they would remain for a year. Then John had his studies interrupted by his agent in New York. Would he care to return to the world of soap? He would, and so returned to the Big Apple for a three-year stint in Love Of Life, a major hit based around two warring sisters. John’s son would be played by an actor destined for infinitely bigger things – Christopher Reeve. Just a few years later, Jennifer Aniston and her mother would meet Reeve on the street and an embarrassed 9-year-old Jennifer would pull her mother away. The very next week Superman was released – the youngster now being furious that her mother had not persuaded her to talk to their very-soon-to-be-mega-famous pal Reeve. Of course her most famous role is in the series Friends and earlier marraige with Brad Pitt.