Early life
Cox was born in Birmingham, Alabama to an affluent Southern family: her late father, Richard L. Cox, was a businessman and her mother, also named Courteney (nee Bass), was a housewife. Cox has two older sisters (Dottie Pickett and Virginia Cox), one older brother (Richard, Jr.) and nine half-brothers and half-sisters. Her parents divorced in 1974, and her father eventually wound up in Panama City, Florida where he would open a company called Cox Pools, while Cox grew up with her mother and her stepfather, New York businessman Hunter Copeland.
Cox was raised in an exclusive society town, Mountain Brook, Alabama. She attended Mountain Brook High School, where she was a cheerleader, tennis player and swimmer. Upon graduation, Cox went to study architecture and interior design at Mount Vernon College for Women. She dropped out after one year to pursue a modeling career, after being signed by the Ford modeling agency in New York City. While modeling, she also took acting classes, and acquired a Northern accent.
Career
Cox first came to prominence in the 1984 music video for Bruce Springsteen's "Dancing in the Dark" (in which she was the pulled-on-stage-girl who danced onstage with Springsteen for 26 seconds). Cox is also notable for being the first person to use the word "period" on U.S. television in its physiological sense, in a 1985 advertising campaign for Tampax brand tampons. Her early film roles include Masters of the Universe (1987) and Cocoon: The Return (1988). Cox's early television work include a starring role in the short-lived television series Misfits of Science (1985), and later a recurring role (1987 - 1989) on the television series Family Ties as the last girlfriend of Alex P. Keaton (Michael J. Fox). Cox also appeared as Meryl, Jerry's girlfriend/pretend wife on the hit TV sitcom Seinfeld in 1994.
After appearing in the Jim Carrey comedy Ace Ventura: Pet Detective (1994), Cox found fame playing Monica Geller on the hit TV series Friends (1994-2004). This was the role for which she would become most famous. The six principal cast members, including Cox, became household names due to the mass popularity and success of the show. However, she was the only principal member of the show's cast not to be nominated for an Emmy Award.
During her time on Friends, Cox appeared in the highly successful and high-profile Hollywood films Scream (1996), Scream 2 (1997), and Scream 3 (2000). It is whilst filming the first of this trilogy that she would meet her husband David Arquette. Although she starred in several other films during her time on Friends none achieved the same level of success as the show. Such films include The Runner, 3000 Miles to Graceland and The Shrink is In. In late 2003, Cox produced the television series Mix It Up. The lifestyle show received low ratings and was not renewed for a second season.
After her Friends role, Cox was producer Marc Cherry's first choice to be offered a starring role as Susan Mayer on Desperate Housewives. But due to the actress's pregnancy, she was unavailable for the part, therefore, giving the role to Teri Hatcher. A couple of years later, Cox signed a deal with ABC Television Studio (formerly Touchstone Television), to star in her own series.
Since Friends, Cox has primarily concentrated on her family but has starred in the independent film November (2005), which had only a limited theatrical release, co-starred with Tim Allen in the critically derided Zoom and cameoed in the big budget remake of The Longest Yard, as the girlfriend of Adam Sandler. She has recently supplied her voice for the animated film Barnyard.
As of 2007, Cox plays Lucy Spiller, a tabloid editor, in Dirt, a television drama for the FX Networks. Cox and her husband, David Arquette, are the executive producers of the series.
Personal life
Cox's previous relationships include the late Ian Copeland and a long term relationship with actor Michael Keaton. Cox also dated Counting Crows singer Adam Duritz, and appeared in their music video for song A Long December in 1997. (Duritz has also dated Cox's "Friends" co-star, Jennifer Aniston.)
She met actor David Arquette on the set of Scream; the couple married on June 12, 1999 in an Episcopalian ceremony held at the Grace Cathedral in San Francisco, CA. Both Arquette and Cox had the sentence A deal's a deal inscribed on their wedding rings. While Cox has occasionally used her full married name, "Courteney Cox Arquette", professionally, she continues to be generally known simply as "Courteney Cox."
On June 13, 2004, she gave birth to their first child, daughter Coco Riley Arquette. The child was originally to be named after her mother as Courteney Cox Arquette, however her husband's family objected to this on the grounds that naming a child after a living relative goes against Jewish tradition. Coco is a nickname Cox's friends gave her mother when she was a child. Cox's close real life friend and "Friends" co-star, Jennifer Aniston, is the baby's godmother.
