“Friends” was nominated for 63 Emmys during its 10-seasons, and TV Guide magazine named it No. 21 on its list of the 50 Greatest Shows of All Time. The series won the 2002 Emmy for Outstanding Comedy Series and was nominated five other seasons.
And, of course, “Friends” launched Jennifer's career.
“It was one of the greatest jobs I ever had,” Jennifer said on “Inside the Actors Studio” in 2011. “It gave me everything. It gave me this ridiculously blessed life and career and taught me so much, and it's the best time I ever had.
“I get people still referring to me as Rachel. I look back on Rachel fondly. She was a lot of fun.”
In the beginning Rachel was a waitress as the gang's gathering spot, the Central Perk. A huge fashion aficionado, she graduated to assistant buyer at Bloomingdale's and eventually a buyer for Ralph Lauren.
Classic TV Beauties 1990s Countdown
JENNIFER ANISTON as Rachel Green in "Friends"
America's love affair with Jennifer began when she was introduced to us as Rachel. With her innocent vulnerability and genuine devotion and endearment as a caring friend, Rachel had us falling in love with her from the get-go. And Jennifer's stunning beauty never hurt her popularity.
Even her hairdo, a layered haircut, naturally called “The Rachel,” launched a national trend among young women not seen since Farrah Fawcett's shag hairdo swept the nation almost two decades earlier.
“It's flattering,” Jennifer told Matt Lauer on The Today Show about her hairdo, “[but] there is definitely a part of you that asks, Why am I getting noticed for my hair and not my work?”
Jennifer wasn't a fan of the haircut, worn the first two seasons.
“Let's say there have been moments I'd rather not re-live, like that whole Rachel thing,” she said in a 2011 interview with Allure magazine. “How do I say this? I think it was the ugliest haircut I've ever seen... I'm not a fan of short, layered cuts on me personally, so I don't love revisiting that particular era.”
“Friends” was true culture changing TV. Centered around six twenty-something singles – three girls, three guys -- living in Manhattan, “Friends” will always be remembered as the show that reminded America that the twenties is the prime of life. It was one of the first series to depict young people living on their own without parental interaction.
The six “Friends” characters shared equal screen time and the actors took the approach of ensemble TV to the highest level. Their one-for-all, all-for-one stance at the negotiating table gave them leverage to demand and receive equitable seven-figure salaries.
After a No. 9 ratings the first season (1994-95), “Friends” garnered Top 5 ratings for all of the next nine seasons, including one season as the top rated show, 2001-2002, when ratings increased 17% from the previous year.
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Rachel's romantic life was based on her on-again, off-again relationship with Ross Geller (David Schwimmer) throughout the series. In the series's finale all the story lines were wrapped up in a neat bow – Rachel and Ross reunited – and the show was a rating's bonanza.
The finale was the fourth most watched series finale in TV history – only behind finales of “M*A*S*H,” “Cheers,” and “Seinfeld” – and was the most watched entertainment telecast in six years.
“The last scene, we just wept, cried our eyes out in front of the whole show,” Jennifer said in a TNT article. “A couple of us stayed really late and we crawled up to the roof fo Stage 24 and we drank champagne and just watched the sunrise. It was really wonderful.”
The conclusion of “Friends” also coincided with Jennifer's (painful) separation from husband Brad Pitt, who divorced her to wed Angelina Jolie.
“That was really painful,” she told Vanity Fair the following year. “It was a family, and I don't do great with families splitting up. It was hard to have such a wonderful constant in your life, a place to go every day, and then all of a sudden it's not there.”
The daughter of actor John Aniston of “Days of Our Lives” fame and actress Nancy Dow, Jennifer was born in Sherman Oaks, California. Her father was Greek and a native of Crete. Jennifer's godfather was actor Telly Savalas, a good friend of her father.
Jennifer was raised in New York City and was schooled at an elite academy which discouraged children from watching TV. Years later, her half-brother, John Melick, said Jennifer would sneak in episodes of “The Bionic Woman.”
"She'd make that ba-na-na-na-na sound effect around the house, running around directing herself in scenes from the show,” Melick told People magazine in 1997. “I guess she was destined for television."
.In 1996 she co-starred in the Edward Burns independent film “She's The One.” She wowed critics a year later in “Picture Perfect,” and she shined in the 1999 cult classic “Office Space” as a fern bar waitress.
In 2003, she starred in the Jim Carrey film “Bruce Almighty,” her biggest box office success. She followed up with “Along Came Polly” with Ben Stiller and “Rumor Has It...” Jennifer co-starred with Owen Wilson in “Marley & Me” in 2008, a film which set a record for the largest Christmas day box office ticket sales.
Still, she admitted it that it's been difficult to step out of her Rachel shadow.
“'Friends' is so successful that, if you make a movie and it's not as big as “Friends,' then you get people telling you, 'How dare you make a movie? Keep your day job, dammit!'”
Jennifer stepped into a totally different role as nymphomaniac dentist Julia Harris in the 2011 film “Horrible Bosses.”
"I thought it would be a fun challenge to step out of that thing, what people usually like to see me play,” she said. “I have never come across anyone like Julia, so it was pretty much just kind of going into my dark imagination and seeing what I could come up with. It's so outrageous and it's limitless and you don't worry whether you are being inappropriate at all. I love that."Fans shouldn't expect to see Jennifer return to a regular role on the small screen.
"I loved 'Friends' so much, I don't know how you can follow that act,” she said in an interview with Virgin Net. “Any opportunity that I have today has come from 'Friends.'
“I will always love it, and no other job will compare to it. No one can say they'll never go back to doing that ever, that would be silly. But right now I feel like I've done it; I've spent 15 years doing it and I'm excited to venture into this new arena."
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Jennifer graduated from a performing arts high school in Manhattan and began acting in off Broadway productions. In 1989 she moved to Hollywood and scored a regular role in the TV series “Molloy” and “Ferris Bueller.” The next few years she struggled for steady work, until landing the Rachel role.
Jennifer was nominated for five Emmys in “Friends,” winning once for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series in 2002. With each actress earning a $1 million salary per episode, Jennifer and co-stars Courteney Cox and Lisa Kudrow became the highest paid TV actresses of all time.
Jennifer's exposure from “Friends” allowed her to earn film gigs when she wasn't shooting the TV series.
