It might be hard to believe, but Courteney Cox, the perfectionist, bossy, competitive, and obsessive-compulsive Monica Geller in hit television show Friends, turned 51 this week.
It is two decades since we were first introduced to Monica, Rachel, Phoebe, Joey, Chandler and Ross – those struggling 20-something-year-olds living in an unrealistically fabulous New York apartment.
Since that program’s debut, Cox has lived the double-edged sword of stardom, with the typecasting, paparazzi, a divorce and speculation about plastic surgery.
Despite all of that, she remains a popular Hollywood actress and best friend of Jennifer Aniston. We take a look back at Cox’s years in the spotlight.
Courteney Cox photographed in March, a few months before her 50th.
The sitcom star is rocking some trendy spectacles.
Pictured here in 2011, Courteney Cox has been a small screen icon for the best part of two decades.
It all began back in 1987, when she starred in Family Ties opposite Michael J. Fox.
Lauren Miller and Alex Keaton were a bit of an item in the hit TV show.
But it was as Monica Geller in the series Friends that made Courteney Cox a star.
The mother hen of the group, Monica was a perfectionist, bossy, competitive, and obsessive-compulsive.
Lasting for 10 seasons until 2004, Cox, along with her female co-stars, became one of the highest paid TV actresses at the time, earning $1 million per episode in the final two seasons.
In 1994, she was actually asked to audition for the part of Rachel Green instead.
Rachel and Monica were best friends on screen.
Cox and Jennifer Aniston became great friends off-screen also.
“All I can say is she’s been there for me through thick and thin,” Aniston has said of her friend.
Even though it finished 10 years ago, Friends still has a cult following.
Cox has the ability to be both sexy and funny.
In 1996, the cast won Most Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series at the Screen Actors Guild Awards.
Her relationship with Chandler, played by Matthew Perry, took Cox’s character in a new, more sympathetic direction.
Their wedding was nominated Most Wonderful Wedding by TV Land Awards.
Courtney Cox married David Arquette, who is from one of the larger families in Tinseltown. The Arquettes, pictured here, stretch back three generations in Hollywood.
The couple were married in 1999 and separated in 2010, but did not finalise their divorce until May 2013.
In December 2013, Cox was spotted holding hands with Johnny McDaid, an Irish musician with the alternative rock band Snow Patrol.
While there is a 12-year age difference, Johnny and Courteney appear besotted with each other.
Post Friends, Cox has successfully pivoted her career away from Monica Geller.
In 2009, she began her role as the star of the comedy Cougar Town, playing a newly single 40-year-old mother on the hunt for new experiences.
The truth gun!
Pictured in 2005.
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