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Birth
Place: The Bronx, New York, USA
Date of Birth: July 24th, 1970
Famous for: Singer; shot to stardom in the 1997 movie Selena.
Jennifer Lopez was first thrust into the spotlight when she won out in
a nationwide search for an actress to play the lead role in Selena, director
Gregory Nava's biopic about the slain Tejano singer.The film made a respectable
showing at the box office, and Lopez's uncanny portrayal of the singer
won her critical raves (she scored a Golden Globe Best Actress nomination)
and a reported $1 million salary, a paycheck that made her the highest-paid
Latina actress in history.
Although Lopez's rise to stardom seemed to happen overnight, in truth,
the actress had earned her place at the top by consistently plying her
exceptional talent. Lopez always knew she wanted to be a performer. She
started her showbiz career as a dancer in stage musicals — most notably
in a European tour of Golden Musicals of Broadway and in a Japanese tour
of Synchronicity — and in various music videos.
But it was when she won a national competition of about two thousand contestants
vying to become one of choreographer Rosie Perez's "fly girl" dancers
on Fox's In Living Color that Lopez finally cracked into Hollywood. Lopez
was named one of People magazine's Fifty Most Beautiful People for 1997,
and has been voted FHM's most beautiful woman for two years in a row (2000
and 2001). |