Eva Mendes
Early life
Mendes was born in Miami, to Cuban-American parents and was raised in Los Angeles by her mother after her parents' divorce; Mendes has said that her mother "suffered so much to make my life OK" during her early years. Her father is a car salesman and her mother, Eva, is now an elementary school principal. She is the youngest of four children (she has two sisters and a brother). She was raised Catholic and aspired to be a nun. As a child, Mendes was teased about her "buck teeth".
As a young child, her parents moved frequently, and she lived in both Miami, Florida, and Los Angeles, California. She never saw herself as an actress while she was young and deigned to pursue other interests. She attended Hoover High School in Glendale, California and later attended California State University, Northridge to study Marketing, but dropped out after meeting boyfriend Zedrick Threatt, who helped her to seek an acting career. She studied with Ivana Chubbuck.
Career
Her debut in acting came because she needed a little extra spending money and appeared as an extra on various films. One day she caught the eye of an agent who convinced her to pursue acting more steadily. Mendes worked her way up through commercials to music videos (including an appearance in Will Smith's video "Miami" and the Pet Shop Boys music video for "Se a vida é (That’s the way life is)" in 1996 and Aerosmith's video "Hole in My Soul" in 1997) to guest roles in soap operas and supporting film roles.
Mendes made her big-screen debut in 1998 in the horror film Children of the Corn V: Fields of Terror. Later that year she had a memorable role in A Night at the Roxbury starring opposite Will Ferrell and Chris Kattan. "It was only my second job in the business," she says, "and seeing them work and have fun made me decide that I could do it too."
She received her first big-screen break when she appeared in the award-winning and critically-acclaimed Training Day. That performance led to roles in Stuck on You, Once Upon a Time in Mexico, and as the female lead in the comedy Hitch opposite Will Smith. Her role in Once Upon a Time in Mexico also gave her a nomination at the Teen Choice Awards. Mendes has also been in commercials for Gushers, Revlon, and Levi's. Mendes costarred in Ghost Rider with Nicolas Cage, and most recently she starred alongside Joaquin Phoenix, Mark Wahlberg, and Robert Duvall in the film We Own the Night.
Along with acting, Eva is employed by Revlon Cosmetics as an international spokeswoman. She joins such elite actresses and models as Julianne Moore, Halle Berry and Cindy Crawford, who appear in Revlon's television and print ads. She is also a passionate supporter and active participant in Revlon's fight against *** cancer.
Maxim ranked her #7 in its 2007 Hot 100 issue. Mendes also made her second Maxim cover in the November 2007 issue.
Mendes, despite resisting offers from Playboy, appeared naked in Flaunt Magazine. Although her breasts weren't exposed, readers did get to see her bare back and buttocks. Mendes said about the shoot, "I actually did a little nude shot. You won't see anything. I was covering myself... but I love Flaunt. I think their artwork is some of the best artwork out there as far as photography is concerned, so I took it off. I felt really comfortable,it was fun. There's something really liberating about it."
In December 2007, Mendes posed nude for the anti-fur campaign of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) alongside the tagline "Fur? I'd rather go naked." Mendes is also a spokesmodel for the 2008 Calendar of Campari, inspired in fairy tales, by photographer Marino Parisotto
In 2008, Eva starred in The Women, a comedy ensemble film featuring Meg Ryan, Annette Bening and Debra Messing. The film, which was produced by Victoria Pearman and Mick Jagger of Jagged Films, Bill Johnson of Inferno Productions, and English, is being released by Picturehouse, a joint venture of HBO and New Line Cinema.
Mendes was voted as No. 4 in the 2008 edition of AskMen.com's Top 99 Most Desirable Women.
Starpulse.com