Sarah Jessica Parker: Snapshot

Name
Sarah Jessica Parker
Date of Birth
March 25, 1965
Birth Place
Nelsonville, Ohio
Before glamorizing the single life in her Manolo Blahniks, Sarah Jessica Parker couldn't land a role as the "pretty girl." Then Steve Martin cast her as his bubbly lover SanDeE* in L.A. Story, breaking her '80s trend as the frizzy-haired sidekick.

As a child, Parker nabbed the title role in the Broadway musical Annie. Years later, she met actor Matthew Broderick; they married and had a son, James Wilkie. She is most famed, however, for playing Carrie Bradshaw on HBO's Sex and the City, collecting a full shelf of awards for her efforts as star and executive producer and turning her image into a worldwide brand of perfumes, clothing lines and endorsement deals.

After pulling the plug on SATC in 2004, Parker reunited with Bradshaw and Co. for 2008's record-breaking Sex and the City movie (and its 2010 sequel). In June 2009, Parker and Broderick welcomed twin daughters, Marion and Tabitha, with the help of a surrogate.

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Sarah Jessica Parker: Video

* Non Franchise

From Sex and the City to the red carpet, see the actress's daring style and breathtaking gowns

(02:30)

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Sarah Jessica Parker: Five Fun Facts

  1. Sarah Jessica Parker kept about 70 percent of her Sex and the City wardrobe after the show. The fashion pack rat also owns Calvin Klein runway samples worn by Kate Moss from the early '90s.
  2. Sarah Jessica Parker is the only one of the four main actresses of Sex and the City not to have done nudity in the show. She had a strict no-nudity clause in her contract.
  3. Sarah Jessica Parker plans to send her son, James Wilkie, to public school. Calling herself "a product of a public-school education," she told PEOPLE, "I'd like to believe they're every bit as good as educating our children as any private school."
  4. Manolo Blahnik named a shoe in Sarah Jessica Parker's honor, "The SJP."
  5. An ad in Israel, featuring Sarah Jessica Parker in a skin-baring minidress, upset some Orthodox Jews. When they threatened to boycott, the company replaced it, telling PEOPLE, "We decided to make her dress more suitable for the winter weather."

Sarah Jessica Parker: Biography

1965

Sarah Jessica Parker

March 25

Welcome, SJP

Parker is the last of four children born to Stephen Parker, an aspiring writer, and Barbara, an elementary schoolteacher.

1969

Siblings and Cincinnati

Parker's parents divorce when she's a toddler, and her mother remarries Paul Forste, a truck driver. They have four more children and move the family to Cincinnati, where they occasionally spend time on welfare. Despite the hard times, Barbara enrolls her children in scholarship-funded ballet, music and theater classes.

1976-1979

Sarah Jessica Parker

The Sun'll Come Out

Forste takes Parker and her siblings to New York City to audition for the Broadway play The Innocents. Parker and her brother Timothy both land roles, prompting the family to relocate to New York, and Parker is enrolled at Manhattan's Professional Children's School. Three years later, she lands the title role of the spunky redhead in the Broadway production of Annie. She is the third actress to play Little Orphan Annie on Broadway.

Read More on Sarah Jessica Parker's Life

Photo Credits

Top Left: MR Photo/Corbis Outline

BIOGRAPHY (top to bottom): BIG PICTURES; LYNN GOLDSMITH/CORBIS

Edited by Janet Mock and Julia Wang

Sarah Jessica Parker

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