Vivica Fox biography

Synopsis

Early Life

Actress. Born Vivica Anjanetta Fox on July 30, 1964, in South Bend, Indiana. Her mother, Everlyena Fox, worked as a pharmaceutical technician, and her father, William Fox, was a school administrator. Vivica Fox's parents divorced when she was 3 years old, and she was raised primarily by her mother. Fox describes herself as a hyperactive child whose favorite pastime was roller-skating. She attended Arlington High School in Indianapolis, where she threw herself into every after-school activity she could cram into her schedule: choir, cheerleading, volleyball, track and, especially, basketball. A 5-feet 7-inch forward, Fox played on the Indianapolis city championship basketball team in 1982. "I'm so proud of that because we worked really hard," she recalls. "I wish we'd known then that we could go to the WNBA. But hey, then I probably wouldn't have become an actress."

In addition to her passion for sports, Fox also had a childhood obsession with Hollywood celebrities. "As a child," she says, "I was fascinated with modeling, clothes and stars. I just thought, 'Ooh, I want to do what they're doing. That looks like fun.' I loved Michael Jackson and Diana Ross. They were inspirations for me. They lived in California, and they got to meet great people." Fox decided she wanted to be a performer one day when she went to see a Diana Ross concert. "I remember that concert, and that did it," she says. By her senior year of high school at Arlington, Fox's dreams of Hollywood stardom had taken over her life. "When I was a senior," she remembers, "I'd get in trouble all the time because I would finish my work and immediately open movie magazines."

Aspiring Actress

A month after graduating from high school in 1982, Fox decided to move to Los Angeles to try to make it as an actress. Fox's mother reluctantly agreed to let her daughter go and pursue her dreams. "She was only 17 years old," Everlyena Fox recalls. "I had to pray and ask the Lord what to do. I finally realized she could be nothing here, and I released her into His care." However, Vivica's mother also imposed one condition: Fox had to go to school as a backup plan in case acting didn't work out. Fox complied with her mother's wish, attending Golden Coast College and graduating with an associate's degree in social sciences. Fox then moved to New York to try her hand at modeling, but she returned to Los Angeles after only six months. "My modeling career just didn't jump off," she says. "Besides, I see myself as a West Coast girl."

Fox got her big break in acting in true Hollywood fashion when she was literally snatched off the street by producer Trevor Walton. "I ran into this guy on Sunset Boulevard," she says. "He was like, 'Are you an actress?' I said 'No.' He told me, 'You've got a really good look and you should try acting.' I thought he was trying to hit on me at first because you