Actress, singer. Born Lindsay Dee Lohan on July 2, 1986, in New York City. Lohan’s father, Michael Lohan, ran his family’s pasta business and worked as an investment banker. Her mother, Donata “Dina” Sullivan, was a Wall Street analyst. Lohan grew up in the wealthy Long Island suburbs of Cold Spring Harbor and Merrick.
Stints as a child model and commercial actress brought Lohan into the spotlight at the age of three. The star of more than 60 television spots and 100 print ads for clients like Toys ‘R Us and Duncan Hines helped Lohan land the film role of twin sisters in Disney’s 1998 remake of The Parent Trap. In the film, the sisters—one raised in England and the other in the U.S.—try to reunite their long-divorced parents, played by Dennis Quaid and Natasha Richardson. The movie performed well at the box office, making more than $92 million globally.
Lohan’s success resulted in more Disney film roles, including the remake Freaky Friday (2003) also starring Jamie Lee Curtis. Her next role with Disney, the pre-teen comedy, Confessions of Teenage Drama Queen (2004), brought mild success. But it was her starring role in Paramount’s film Mean Girls, written by comedian Tina Fey, that turned Lohan into a bona fide star. The movie recieved both popular and critical success; it became the 24th highest grossing movie of 2004 and earned Lohan a Teen’s Choice Award and an MTV movie award for her performance.
Lohan returned to Disney in 2005 to star in Herbie: Fully Loaded, the fifth film in the Herbie the racecar series. The film earned $144 million worldwide and marked the actress’ transition into more grown-up roles. in the meantime, Lohan also launched a music career. Thanks to her growing fan base, her first album, Speak, debuted in 2004 and hit platinum status. Her next album, A Little More Personal, hit stores in 2005 but didn’t fare as well. Neither did her next two films, Just My Luck and A Prairie Home Companion, which made it to the big screen in 2006 to mild box office sales.
As her celebrity status grew, so did Lohan’s attendance at New York nightclubs. Her wild party lifestyle made Lohan instant tabloid fodder in recent years, from her father’s prison scandals to rumors of her own struggles with bulimia. On May 26, 2007, Lohan was arrested after crashing her Mercedes-Benz crashed into a tree in Beverly Hills. She was arrested again July 24 in Santa Monica after she allegedly engaged in a car chase with the mother of her former personal assistant. In both cases, Lohan was found in possession of small amounts of cocaine, below the .05 grams required for the more serious felony charges of drug possession, according to the Los Angeles District Attorney’s office. After all her legal run-ins, Lohan was only charged with two counts each of driving under the influence, and a single count of reckless driving.
Tracie Rice, a woman who was a passenger in a car Lohan was accused of chasing on July 24, 2007, sued the star for assault and negligence. Lohan dodged felony charges when she reached a plea deal on misdemeanor drunken driving and cocaine charges on August 23. She got the minimum: four days in jail and credit for 24 hours already served. The sentence was then knocked down to one day in jail for doing 10 days of community service at a mortuary and in a hospital emergency room. That one day became 84 minutes because of overcrowding at the jail. Lohan turned herself in to the Los Angeles County women’s detention center in Lynwood. She was searched, fingerprinted and put in a holding cell in the inmate reception area. She got to stay in her street clothes. Officials denied she received special treatment.
Her sentence also included mandatory rehab. In August, Lohan checked into the Cirque Lodge Treatment Center in Sundance, Utah, her third stint in rehab in 2007. After checking out on October 5, she told OK! Magazine that the experience was “sobering and humbling” and her two main priorities are to stay sober and out of Los Angeles. True to her word, Lohan has kept a relatively low profile since the incident. She made headlines again in 2008, however, for revealing that she was in a long-term same-sex relationship with DJ Samantha Ronson.
In May 2008, Lohan appeared as a gust star on the television sitcom Ugly Betty. Most recently, Lohan has completed work on the film Labor Pains, which is slated to hit the small screen in late 2009. She is also currently at work on a new album, which is set for release on the Motown record label.
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.
Lohan narrated and presented the BBC Three documentary Lindsay Lohan’s Indian Journey about human trafficking in India. The program was filmed during a week in India in December 2009 and aired in April 2010. An Indian charity group critiziced Lohan for a Twitter post where she appeared to take credit for one of their raids, but the BBC said it was a misinterpretation. A reviewer for The Times said that rather than highlight trafficking “the spotlight was effectively turned on Lohan and under it she wilted.”A review in The Independent found it “very compelling” and said that the inclusion of Lohan was “definitely not a terrible choice. Just a very, very odd one.”Lohan said the experience was “truly humbling” and “I hope my presence in India will bring awareness to the really important issues raised in making this film.”
In April 2010 Lohan was cast as adult-film performer Linda Lovelace, star of Deep Throat, in the film Inferno. In November, while Lohan was in court mandated rehab, the offer was withdrawn with one producer saying it was impossible to insure her. The co-owner of Dina Lohan’s production company said that Lohan had made the decision to leave the movie: “She was definitely not fired.” He also said that she is “100 percent insurable.” Lohan appears in one sketch in the movie Underground Comedy 2010 . She is dressed up as Marilyn Monroe, while still visibly wearing a SCRAM bracelet, and shoots at paparazzi photographers. As of September 2010, the movie was still seeking a distributor.
In May 2010, Lohan did not appear for a scheduled DUI progress report hearing. The judge issued a bench warrant for Lohan’s arrest, but rescinded the warrant after Lohan’s representatives posted bail. Lohan’s lawyer said her passport was stolen while she attended the Cannes Film Festival in France. At a rescheduled hearing on May 24, 2010 Lohan was ordered to attend weekly alcohol education classes, wear an alcohol-monitoring bracelet, refrain from drinking alcohol, and undergo random weekly drug tests to remain free on bail. The judge scheduled a hearing for July 6, 2010 to determine whether Lohan had violated probation by not having attended the required number of classes to date.
In June 2010, Lohan made an appearance on the Bravo television series Double Exposure. She also gave an interview to The Sydney Morning Herald that month, telling the paper “I’m still young and I’m still learning but that doesn’t mean that what they say is true, that I’m getting messed up and all this crazy stuff and that I’m constantly partying or whatever.”
At Lohan’s July 6 probation revocation hearing, the judge determined that Lohan had indeed violated the terms of her probation and sentenced her to 90 days in jail, starting July 20; in addition, the judge ordered Lohan to check into an inpatient rehab program for three months after her release from jail. On July 20, Lohan appeared in court and was taken into custody to begin her jail term. She was released on August 2 after serving 14 days of the sentence.The short term served was due to a policy of early release of non-violent offenders to reduce jail overcrowding.She was immediately taken to an inpatient rehabilitation facility where she was expected to stay another 90 days. However, on August 24 Lohan was released after only 23 days. Her lawyer stated that “the treating doctors at UCLA felt she had done everything required of her there.” Lohan continued with mandatory outpatient therapy but was able to resume work. She was ordered to submit to random drug and alcohol screenings and attend psychotherapy and behavior therapy twice a week, as well as five 12-step sessions a week. The judge said that any failure to attend the sessions or to pass the drug tests could result in a 30-day jail sentence. A new hearing was scheduled for November 1, until which time Lohan was required to remain in Los Angeles.
Robert Rodriguez‘s action exploitation film Machete opened on September 3, 2010. Lohan filmed her scenes for the movie in August and September 2009. She plays April, the spoiled daughter of a wealthy businessman. Her character takes drugs, is naked in much of her appearance and later dons a nuns habit while toting a machine gun. The Washington Post described Lohan’s character as “a campier, trampier version of herself – or at least her tabloid image”. Premiere.com said she was “terrible” while Variety called it “her best work in some time.” Eric D. Snider from Film.com said all three main actresses in the film did “laughably flat performances” but also questioned if it was due to Rodriguez’s direction.Because of her rehabilitation and legal engagements Lohan did not participate in promotion of the movie or appear at the L.A. premiere.
On September 24 Lohan’s probation was revoked following a failed drug test. She spent part of the day in jail before being released on bail. A few days later she entered the Betty Ford Center, a drug and alcohol treatment center, where she remained on court order for three months until early January 2011.
On February 9, 2011, Lohan was charged with felony grand theft of a $2,500 necklace reported stolen from a jewelry store in January.Lohan pled not guilty, her probation was revoked, and she was freed on bond.She rejected a plea deal, and on April 22, the charge was reduced to a misdemeanor. Lohan was sentenced to 120 days in prison and 480 hours of community service for the probation violation. She was freed on bail pending an appeal. On May 11, her lawyer entered a no contest plea on Lohan’s behalf. Lohan spent 35 days under house arrest, wearing a tracking ankle monitor, between May 26 and June 29. While under house arrest, Lohan failed a random alcohol test on June 13. On June 23 a judge decided it did not constitute a probation violation and Lohan would receive no additional punishment.
In April 2011, it was announced that Lohan has signed on to appear opposite John Travolta in the upcoming movie Gotti: Three Generations. She was cast to play Kim Gotti, wife of New York City mobster John Gotti Jr.. Production is planned to start in fall 2011. Lohan is also set to appear in Mob Street from the same production team, based on a screenplay by Chazz Palminteri.
