http://www.tiscali.co.uk/entertainment/film/biographies/cameron_diaz_biog.html
Born: 30 August 1972
Where: San Diego, California, USA
Awards: 4 Golden Globe and 1 BAFTA nominations
Height: 5' 9"
Filmography: The Complete List
Many were jealous to the point of fury when Cameron Diaz made her
film debut in the high-budget Jim Carrey vehicle, The Mask. Here's
another good-looking bit of fluff stealing another prime role, it
was said - she's all face'n'figure, no acting ability at all.
There's precious few decent roles for actresses anyway, for God's
sake. Now, ordinarily, you'd now read a detailed rejoinder to that
attack. You'd hear how the artist under fire actually began
studying under the private tutelage of Montgomery Clift at the age
of 3, before winning a scholarship to the Lee Strasberg Actor's
Studio. Then there was the toil and starvation of years spent
struggling off-Broadway. This overnight sensation was actually over
a DECADE in the making.
So the story USUALLY goes. But, in the case of Cameron Diaz, those
enraged attackers were pretty much correct. Before her debut,
there'd been no acting classes, no honing of her skills in
repertory, no years of rejection. She was a successful model, and
there can be no doubt that her looks played a huge part in winning
her the role of Carrey's love, singer Tina Carlyle, in The Mask.
What's incredible about Diaz is not the story we don't know - that
standard tale of the building of knowledge and experience - it's
the story we DO know. For this model, this complete non-actor was
actually EXCELLENT in The Mask. Beyond this, within two years she
was starring opposite Harvey Keitel, within three she was alongside
Julia Roberts, within five it was Al Pacino. And, miraculously, she
more than held her own beside all three. Immediately, somehow, she
was a world-class screen actress, a complete natural, a freak of
cinematic nature.
Cameron Diaz was born on the 30th of August, 1972, in San Diego,
California. Her father, Emilio Diaz, was a second generation Cuban
American and worked as a foreman for an oil company. Her mother,
Billie, was an import/export broker of English, German and Native
American descent (a complex blend of bloodlines that helps to
explain Cameron's outrageous good looks). There was also an older
sister, Chimene.
