Lindsay Lohan ; born July 2, 1986) is an American actress, pop singer and model. She began her career as a child fashion model before making her motion picture debut in Disney's 1998 remake of The Parent Trap at the age of 11. Lohan gained further fame between 2003 and 2005 with leading roles in the films Freaky Friday, Mean Girls and Herbie: Fully Loaded, subsequently appearing in independent films including Robert Altman's A Prairie Home Companion and Emilio Estevez's Bobby.
Her career was interrupted in 2007 as two driving under the influence (DUI) incidents and three visits to rehabilitation facilities led to the loss of several movie deals. Resuming her career, she guest starred in the TV series Ugly Betty in 2008, starred in the 2009 comedy Labor Pains, and appeared in Robert Rodriguez's Machete in 2010. Lohan launched a second career in pop music in 2004 with the album Speak and followed up with A Little More Personal (Raw) in 2005. She has attracted significant publicity, particularly surrounding her personal life.
Lohan was born on July 2, 1986, in New York City and grew up in Merrick and Cold Spring Harbor on Long Island, New York. She is the eldest child of Donata "Dina" (née Sullivan) and Michael Lohan. Lindsay has three younger siblings, all of whom have been models or actors: Michael Jr. (who appeared with Lindsay in The Parent Trap), Aliana ("Ali"), and Dakota ("Cody"), the youngest Lohan child. Lohan is of Irish and Italian heritage and was raised as a Catholic. Her maternal family were "well known Irish Catholic stalwarts" and her great-grandfather, John L. Sullivan, was a co-founder of the Pro-life Party in Long Island. Lohan attended Cold Spring Harbor High School, where she did well in science and mathematics until grade 11 when she started homeschooling.
Lohan's parents have a turbulent history. They married in 1985, separated when she was three, and later reunited. They separated again in 2005 and finalized their divorce in 2007. Her father, Michael, is a former Wall Street trader and businessman who inherited his father's pasta business and has been in trouble with the law on several occasions, while her mother, Dina, is a former singer and dancer.
Lohan began her career as a child model with Ford Models at the age of three. She modeled for Calvin Klein Kids and Abercrombie kids, and appeared in over 100 television commercials, including those for Pizza Hut and Wendy's, as well as a Jell-O spot with Bill Cosby. By the age of 10, when Lohan played Alexandra "Alli" Fowler in the series Another World, Soap Opera Magazine said she was already considered a show-business veteran.
Lohan remained in the role for a year, before leaving to star in Disney's 1998 family comedy The Parent Trap, a remake of the 1961 movie. She played dual roles of estranged twins who try to reunite their long-divorced parents, played by Dennis Quaid and Natasha Richardson. The film earned $92 million worldwide, and critic Kenneth Turan called Lohan "the soul of this film as much as Hayley Mills was of the original", going on to say that "she is more adept than her predecessor at creating two distinct personalities". The film won Lohan a Young Artist Award for best performance in a feature film as well as a three-film contract with Disney.
Lohan starred as Anna Coleman alongside Jamie Lee Curtis in the 2003 family comedy Freaky Friday. At Lohan's own initiative, her character was rewritten and changed from a Goth style to be more relatable. Critic Roger Ebert wrote that Lohan "has that Jodie Foster sort of seriousness and intent focus beneath her teenage persona". Freaky Friday earned Lohan the award for Breakthrough Performance at the 2004 MTV Movie Awards and, as of 2010, it remains her most commercially successful film, earning $160 million worldwide as well as an 88% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
Lohan returned to Disney in 2005 for Herbie: Fully Loaded, the fifth film in the series with the anthropomorphic car Herbie. Fully Loaded earned $144 million worldwide and received mixed reviews. Stephen Holden of The New York Times called Lohan "a genuine star who ... seems completely at home on the screen", while James Berardinelli wrote that, "as bright a starlet as she may be, Lohan ends up playing second fiddle to the car." In 2005, Lohan became the first person to have a My Scene celebrity doll released by Mattel. She also voiced herself in the animated direct-to-DVD film My Scene Goes Hollywood, based on the series of dolls.
Following Just My Luck, Lohan focused on smaller roles in more mature, independent movies. Robert Altman's ensemble comedy A Prairie Home Companion, in which Lohan co-stars with Meryl Streep and Lily Tomlin, had a limited release in June 2006. Peter Travers wrote for Rolling Stone that "Lohan rises to the occasion, delivering a rock-the-house version of 'Frankie and Johnny'". Co-star Streep said of Lohan's acting: "She's in command of the art form" and "completely, visibly living in front of the camera". The Emilio Estevez drama Bobby was released in theaters in November 2006. Lohan received favorable comments for her performance, particularly a scene opposite Sharon Stone. As part of the Bobby ensemble cast, Lohan was nominated for a Screen Actors Guild Award and won an award for Ensemble Acting at the Hollywood Film Festival where she also won a Breakout Award for her work in 2006. Lohan's next appearance was in Chapter 27 as a John Lennon fan who befriends Mark David Chapman (Jared Leto) on the day he murders Lennon. Filming finished in early 2006, but was not released until March 2008 due to difficulties in finding a distributor. In May 2007, the drama Georgia Rule, in which Lohan stars alongside Felicity Huffman and Jane Fonda, was released. Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly wrote that "Lohan hits a true note of spiteful princess narcissism". During filming in 2006, Lohan was hospitalized, her representative saying "she was overheated and dehydrated". At the time Lohan was going through a breakup with restaurant owner Harry Morton. This contributed to her problems on the set according to Allure. In a letter that was made public, studio executive James G. Robinson called Lohan "irresponsible and unprofessional". He mentioned "various late arrivals and absences from the set" and that "we are well aware that your ongoing all night heavy partying is the real reason for your so-called 'exhaustion'." Co-star Fonda later commented that "when she showed up on the set, she was always great."
In May 2008, Lohan made her first screen appearance since I Know Who Killed Me, on ABC's television series Ugly Betty. She guest starred in four episodes, spanning seasons two and three in 2008, as Kimmie Keegan, an old schoolmate of the protagonist Betty Suarez. Lohan made a cameo appearance in the drug themed music video for the May 2008 N*E*R*D song "Everyone Nose". Lohan has featured in various men's magazines. She was voted #10 on the list of "100 Sexiest Women" by readers of FHM in 2005, #13 in 2006, #30 in 2007, and #41 in 2008, while Maxim placed her third on its "Hot 100" list in 2006 and first in 2007. In a poll by The Daily Mirror in February 2010, Lohan was voted tenth on a list of "sexiest redheads ever". Lohan has been the face of Jill Stuart, Miu Miu, and Dooney & Bourke, as well as the 2008 Visa Swap British fashion campaign as well as being the face of Italian clothing company Fornarina for its Spring/Summer 2009 campaign.
In the aftermath of the Haiti earthquake, Lohan gave fund-raising assistance to the British Red Cross in March 2010 to provide aid for the country. The same month, Lohan commenced legal proceedings in which she sought $100 million from financial services company E-Trade for a television advertisement that Lohan claimed invoked her likeness without her permission. On September 21, 2010, the parties announced they had reached a settlement in the case, the terms of which are confidential. She appeared on British comedy chat show Alan Carr: Chatty Man on March 11, 2010, during which she spoke about her fashion work and her fascination with Marilyn Monroe, and refused to answer questions from host Alan Carr about her sexuality.