Claudia Schiffer Biography

Claudia Schiffer was born in Rheinberg, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, which is a small town just outside Düsseldorf. She was born to Gudrun Schiffer and her lawyer father Heinz Schiffer. She has two brothers, Stefan and Andreas, and one sister called Ann Carolin.

During her school life, Schiffer commented that she was quite popular but felt socially overshadowed by the other girls in her year, who all acted like stars and were very dominant. She has revealed that because she was so tall, she became very shy and did not want to be noticed. She was also subjected to jealousy by others as she came from a wealthy family that were well-known locally in the area. Schiffer became fluent in French and English as well as in her home language of German.

Schiffer originally wanted to become a lawyer and work in her father's law firm. She later dropped these aspirations when she was spotted in a nightclub in Düsseldorf by Michel Levaton in October 1987 at seventeen, the boss of Metropolitan Model Agency who signed her up to become a model.

After she was spotted as a potential model in a disco at the age of just seventeen, she completed her education by her mother's wishes and then began to work as a model. She flew out to Paris for a trial photo shoot and soon after she appeared in the cover of French ELLE after being well received in Paris. After several other magazine appearances she quickly achieved supermodel status when she was selected by Karl Lagerfeld to become the new face of Chanel. Schiffer continued to become a world-famous supermodel, becoming instantly recognizable with her blue eyes, blond hair and tall figure.

Schiffer has also been the face of Mango, a chain of Spanish clothes stores and Accessorize, where she had her ears pierced especially for her Autumn/Winter 2006 Accessorize advertising campaign in 2006. Schiffer still holds a contract with L'Oreal and Ebel watches, and her billboard picture for Kenar has also hung over millions of tourists at Time Square. Since 1990, she has created a swimsuit calendar each year which she stars in and designs herself.

Her career continued to develop when she secured contracts with Pepsi appearing in advertisements promoting the brand, and has also danced with a cartoon version of Mickey Mouse in advertisements promoting Fanta for an estimated $2 million. She appeared nude in a 1998 Citroën advertisement, securing her a reputed £3 million. However from behind the car only her feet and shoulders upward could be seen and she did not know how to drive at the time. Karl Lagerfeld recently filmed her for a Dom Perignon campaign, some ten years after her first appearances in Chanel adverts.

Schiffer has appeared in a number of films and music videos. Her first appearance in film was in the children's movie Richie Rich in 1994 and then starred opposite Dennis Hopper and Matthew Modine in Blackout. She went on to appear in Friends & Lovers and Black and White in 1999, In Pursuit and Life Without Dick in 2001, and then Love Actually in a semi-cameo role. Schiffer has made several other cameo appearances in film which include, Ben Stiller's Zoolander in 2001. However, she never became as successful as an actress as she did by modelling.

As well as many film appearances, Schiffer has appeared on several chat and television shows such as Larry King Live, The Tonight Show, The Late Show with David Letterman, Late Night with Conan O'Brien, Dharma & Greg and Arrested Development. She was also in boyband Westlife's music video of Billy Joel's "Uptown Girl," as the iconic uptown girl and had a cameo in Bon Jovi's video "Thank You for Loving Me".

During her modelling career, she has also released four exercise videos, entitled Claudia Schiffer's Perfectly Fit, which were successful and reached the bestsellers list. Schiffer has hosted the French Fashion Awards and the World Music Awards in Monaco.

With fellow supermodels Christy Turlington, Naomi Campbell, and Elle Macpherson, Schiffer was joint owner of a chain of fashionable restaurants called the Fashion Café in 1995. Schiffer remains a prominent figure in German society and helped present and carry the trophy with Pele during opening ceremonies at the 2006 World Cup. She also presented Prince William with a polo trophy in 2002.

Schiffer was engaged to the magician David Copperfield for about six years until 1999. They first met at one of Copperfield's stage shows, where he invited her on stage to take part in his 'Flying' illusion, and he then subsequently sawed her in half during a joint appearance on German television. Following the end of her engagement to Copperfield, she met and had a relationship with Tim Jefferies.

Schiffer has had two significant problems with harassment in the past. In 2002, an Italian kitchen porter, known as Agostino Pomata, was arrested after making nine visits to Schiffer's £5 million Suffolk mansion near Bury St Edmunds, attempting to see her. Charges against Agostino Pomata were dropped however, as he was sectioned under the Mental Health Act. He had believed that the Pope had told him to marry Schiffer. Then later in 2004, Louis Brisette a Canadian man, was accused of harassing Schiffer, again at her mansion in Suffolk. He reportedly called at her mansion three times in total in the hope of seeing Schiffer. He also repeatedly left letters at her home.