Milla Jovovich was born on 17 December 1975 in Kiev, Ukraine, Jovovich was raised by Bogich, a pediatrician, and Russian actress Galina Longinova. The family left Kiev in 1981, landing first in London and eventually settling in Sacramento, CA.
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Her parents struggled to make ends meet in their new home, with her mother resorting to cleaning houses - among her clients was director Brian DePalma - when her Russian acting credits failed to find her roles in the States. Following a divorce with her mother in 1991, Jovovich's father was incarcerated for five years due to his role in an insurance fraud scheme; he was released in 1999.
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Her mother also had photographs taken of Jovovich and submitted them to a modeling agency. Almost immediately, she was signed and began landing top print modeling jobs. Famed photographer Richard Avedon featured the 11-year-old unknown in his "Most Unforgettable Women of the World" spots for Revlon.
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After marrying Paul W.S. Anderson, whom she had started dating in 2003 - only to break up briefly before reconciling - Jovovich starred as an Alaskan psychotherapist whose videotaped sessions with a patient offers compelling evidence of an alien abduction in "The Fourth Kind" (2009). The following year, she again played the zombie-killing Alice in the fourth installment of the series, "Resident Evil: Afterlife" (2010), which earned its requisite scathing reviews and yet success at the box office.