Supermodel Actress Milla Jovovich

Milica Natasha Jovovic was born in Kiev, Ukraine (then part of the Soviet Union) on December 17, 1975. Better known as Milla Jovovich, she is a Ukrainian-born American supermodel, actress, musician, singer, and fashion designer.

Her paternal family is from Montenegro, their estate being at Metohija in Zlopek near Pec. Her paternal great-grandfather, Bogic Camic Jovovic, was flag-bearer of the Vasojevici clan and officer of the guard of the King Nicholas I of Montenegro. Her paternal grandfather, Bogdan Jovovic, was a commander in the Pristina military area, and later investigated finances in military areas of Skopje and Sarajevo, where he uncovered massive gold embezzlement. He was punished for refusing to convict his friend for the crime. Later, the communist government imprisoned him on Goli Otok. When he feared that he could be arrested again, he escaped to Albania and later moved to Kyiv. Another version of the story claims that he was the one to have taken the gold. Milla's father, Bogic Jovovic, later joined her grandfather in Kyiv, where he and his sister graduated in medicine.

In 1981, when Milla was five years old, they had to leave Ukraine for political reasons and move to London; they subsequently lived in Sacramento, California. Seven months later, they settled in Los Angeles, California.

At the age of eleven, Jovovich was spotted by the photographer Richard Avedon, who featured her in Revlon's "Most Unforgettable Women in the World" advertisements. In October 1987, she was featured on the cover of the Italian fashion magazine Lei, which was the first of her many cover shoots. In 1988, she also made har first professional model contract. Later she made it to the cover of The Face, which led to new contracts and covers of the Vogue and Cosmopolitan.

Milla's mother was directing her in her artistic career, by signing her up to an actors' school in California; she finished as the best pupil, as she did the ballet school. She continued to act and in 1988, appeared in her first film role, the romance thriller Two Moon Junction. In 1991, Jovovich had a starring role in the romance adventure sequel Return to the Blue Lagoon, opposite Brian Krause, which led to comparisons between her and child model-turned-actress, Brooke Shields.

Jovovich received top billing and entering the world of action heroes, with her performances in The Fifth Element (1997) and in two popular films based upon the survival horror series, Resident Evil. Jovovich's latest film, the science fiction/action thriller Ultraviolet, was released on March 3, 2006. It was not screened for critics, but when reviewed, it was critically panned.[6] It has grossed $17 million at the domestic box office. She will appear in the third film in the Resident Evil series titled Resident Evil: Extinction.

Jovovich married actor Shawn Andrews in October of 1992, while filming Dazed and Confused together; the marriage was annulled a month later. She married The Fifth Element director Luc Besson in 1997, but the two divorced in 1999. Jovovich also dated Red Hot Chili Peppers guitarist John Frusciante for several months in 2000 and was linked to actor Stephen Dorff. She also had a relationship with Jamiroquai ex-bassist Stuart Zender, during which time they both lived in London. Most recently she has appeared in public with Japanese soccer star Nakata Hidetoshi, but is purported to be engaged to writer/director Paul W. S. Anderson.

Jovovich is also planning to publish her private diaries as an autobiography. Jovovich says, "I've been keeping a diary ever since I was a little girl. I've written about all the places I've been to and all the mad things that I've done, so it would be good to get it all into a book - like an autobiography, but with more of a diary feel to it. I'm not sure how interested anyone would be in publishing it, or reading it, for that matter."

Jovovich is a polyglot - she fluently speaks Russian, French, English and Serbian.

(Source: Wikipedia, www.wikipedia.com)