Eva Mendes (born March 5, 1974) is an
American actress. She began acting in the late 1990s, and became known after a series of roles in several major
Hollywood films, including
2 Fast 2 Furious,
Hitch,
Training Day,
We Own the Night and
The Spirit.
Early life
Mendes was born in
Miami,
Florida to
Cuban parents and was raised in
Los Angeles by her mother after her parents' divorce;
Mendes has said that her mother "suffered so much to make my life OK" during her early years.
Her father was a car salesman and her mother, also named Eva, is now an
elementary school principal. She is one of the youngest of four children (she has two sisters and a brother). Eva Mendes was raised
Roman Catholic and aspired to be a
nun.
[Eva Mendes: Catholic upbringing made sex scene tough » Fametastic] As a child, Mendes was teased about her "buck teeth".
