Milica Bogdanovna Jovovich (/ˈjoʊvəvɪtʃ/ YOH-və-vitch; born December 17, 1975), known professionally as Milla Jovovich (MEE-lə), is an American actress and model. Her starring roles in numerous science-fiction and action films led the music channel VH1 to deem her the "reigning queen of kick-butt" in 2006. In 2004, Forbes determined that she was the highest-paid model in the world.
Born in Kiev and raised in Los Angeles, Jovovich began modeling when Herb Ritts photographed her for the cover of the Italian magazine Lei in 1987. Richard Avedon featured her in Revlon's "Most Unforgettable Women in the World" advertisements. In 1988, Jovovich made her screen debut in the television film The Night Train to Kathmandu and appeared in her first feature film, Two Moon Junction.
Jovovich gained attention for her role in the 1991 romance film Return to the Blue Lagoon, as she was 15 years old at the time. She was considered to have a breakthrough with her role in the 1997 French science-fiction action film The Fifth Element, written and directed by Luc Besson. She and Besson married that year, but soon divorced. She starred as the heroine and martyr in Besson's The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc (1999). From 2002 to 2016, Jovovich portrayed Alice in the action horror film franchise Resident Evil, which became the highest-grossing film series to be based on video games.
Jovovich released a debut album, The Divine Comedy, in 1994, and a follow-up, The People Tree Sessions, in 1998. She continues to release demos for other songs on her official website and frequently contributes to film soundtracks. In 2003, model Carmen Hawk and she created the clothing line Jovovich–Hawk, which ran until 2008. Jovovich has her own production company, Creature Entertainment.
Early life and family
Jovovich was born on December 17, 1975, in Kyiv, Ukrainian SSR, the daughter of Galina (née Loginova), a Russian actress, and Bogdan Jovović, a Serbian doctor. Her maternal ancestors were from the Russian city of Tula. She spent most of her early childhood in Moscow, Russian SFSR, her mother's native city, and says she was born in Ukraine "pretty much by accident". While she has no memories of her early years in Ukraine, Jovovich says she "remembers a lot" about her life in Russia.
In 1980, when Jovovich was five years old, her family left the Soviet Union and emigrated to London. They subsequently emigrated to Sacramento, California, settling in Los Angeles seven months later. Milla's parents divorced soon after their arrival in Los Angeles. In 1988, her father had a relationship with an Argentine woman, and they had a son, Marco Jovovich. Due to her parents' divorce years before, Jovovich saw little of her half brother.
In Los Angeles, her mother tried to get acting jobs, but found little success because of language barriers, and eventually resorted to cleaning houses to earn money. Both parents served as cooks and housekeepers for director Brian De Palma. Her father was convicted and imprisoned for participating in the largest health-insurance fraud ever investigated; he was given a 20-year sentence in 1994, but was released in 1999 after serving five years. According to Jovovich, "Prison was good for him. He's become a much better person. It gave him a chance to stop and think."
Jovovich attended public schools in Los Angeles, becoming fluent in English in three months. In school, she was teased by classmates for coming from the Soviet Union: "I was called a commie and a Russian spy. I was accepted into the crowd." At age 12, Jovovich left seventh grade to focus on modeling, which she had started at age nine. She has said she was rebellious during her early teens, engaging in drug use, shopping-mall vandalism, and credit-card fraud. In 1994, she became a naturalized U.S. citizen at the age of 19.
