Christie Brinkley - Career

Career

Brinkley was discovered in 1973 by American photographer Errol Sawyer in a post office in Paris. He took her first modeling pictures and introduced her to John Casablancas of Elite Model Management agency in Paris. Brinkley stated later: "I was basically a surfer girl from California. I never looked like a model." After being introduced to Elite, where Brinkley also met the French photographer Patrick Demarchelier, she returned to California, and by the end of a lunch meeting with Nina Blanchard, Eileen Ford affiliate in Los Angeles, she had been booked for three national ad campaigns.

Multiple appearances on the cover of Glamour soon followed, along with a record 25-year contract with cosmetics brand CoverGirl, one of the longest modeling contracts in history. In 2005, CoverGirl again signed Brinkley, using her in ads in magazines and TV commercials for mature skin products.

Brinkley appeared on three consecutive Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue Edition covers (1979, 1980 and 1981) – the first time that had happened — and appeared in the publication’s annual swimsuit issues and television specials for years to follow.
Brinkley was featured exclusively in the first Sports Illustrated Calendar and also released two of her own exclusive calendars to unparalleled success. In 2005, Brinkley was featured in the special Sports Illustrated 40th Anniversary Issue’s Hall of Fame, celebrating the most revered figures in the magazine's history.

As an editorial model, Brinkley has appeared on over 500 magazine covers, including US, Vogue, Newsweek, Rolling Stone, Esquire, Harper's Bazaar, Cosmopolitan, Glamour and the best-selling issue of LIFE ever (photo). She has held major contracts with Chanel No. 19, Prell, MasterCard, Breck, Diet Coke, Anheuser-Busch, Got Milk?, Healthy Choice, Max Factor, Nissan, Noxema, Revlon, Clairol, Borghese Cosmetics, Danskin, Nu Skin, Yardley of London, Halston, Vogue Patterns, Gottex and Black Velvet, among others. Brinkley has been photographed in 6 continents in more than 30 countries.

Brinkley played her first role as an actress in the 1983 hit National Lampoon's Vacation as "The girl in the red Ferrari" opposite Chevy Chase; she reprised that role in the 1997 sequel Vegas Vacation. and later spoofed it in a 2008 DirecTV commercial interspliced with footage from Vacation. In 2011, she appeared as herself in the documentary, King of the Hamptons, which was produced by filmmaker, Dennis Michael Lynch. The film premiered at the 2010 Hamptons International Film Festival.

On April 8, 2011, in New York, Brinkley made her stage debut as Roxie Hart in the long-running musical Chicago. In August, she is contracted one month engagement to star in the London's production at Cambridge Theatre and appeared in Los Angeles run in the spring of 2012.

As for television, Brinkley hosted Celebrity Weddings InStyle, the highest rated special in Lifetime's history, and her appearance on NBC's Mad About You was the broadcaster's highest rated half-hour episode, since the finale of The Cosby Show.

Brinkley appeared on the Today Show in 1983 in a four-part segment featuring beauty tips and, in 1992, began her own television series Living in the 90's — With Christie Brinkley, a daily half-hour show on CNN.

Brinkley made further television appearances, including Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue Specials and music videos for Billy Joel (Uptown Girl, Keeping the Faith, All about Soul, River of Dreams, A Matter of Trust and Leningrad) and Mick Jones Just Wanna Hold.

Brinkley appears with Chuck Norris in a long-running series of cable TV infomercials promoting Total Gym home fitness equipment. In 2008, Brinkley and Dr. Carlon Colker promoted National Family Fitness Day with Xbox 360 at the Boy's and Girl's Club.

In 1983 Brinkley wrote and illustrated a book on health and beauty titled Christie Brinkley's Outdoor Beauty and Fitness Book, which topped the New York Times best seller list.

In 1990 Brinkley was, along with Cheryl Tiegs and Beverly Johnson, one of the three models featured as dolls produced by Matchbox Toys called The Real Model Collection.

Brinkley illustrated the cover art for Billy Joel's 1993 triple platinum album River of Dreams. For this, Rolling Stone awarded her the honor of "Best album cover of the year".

Brinkley has designed clothing patterns for Simplicity Pattern and in March, 1994 helped design, for brand Nouveau Eyewear, her line of prescription glasses and sunglasses called Christie Brinkley Perspectives with worldwide sales.

In Spring 1998 released her own signature fragrance, Believe. Her jewelry collection is manufactured by Swank.

In 1991 Brinkley was considered to have the ideal, all-American look with her blonde hair, blue eyes, slim figure, and soft features, when Allure first conducted a survey taking the pulse of the average American (men and women) searching for their beauty perceptions and preferences.

In 1998 Playboy readers voted Brinkley one of the 100 Sexiest Women of the 20th century. Brinkley is ranked third in the AskMen.com Top 10 Supermodels Of All Time. In 2011, Men's Health named her one of the "100 Hottest Women of All-Time", ranking her at No. 16.

Christie had a guest role in 2012 on the hit comedy sitcom Parks and Recreation. In episode Episode #5.9 she played Gayle Gergich, wife of Jerry Gergich played by Jim O’Heir.