Background

Born Paris Whitney Hilton, this Hilton-hotel heiress is famous, beautiful, and always been at the the center attention and/or controversy. Hilton's mother, actress Kathy Richards Hilton gave birth to her on February 17, 1981. Her father, as we all know, is Richard Hilton the grandson of Hilton hotel-chain founder, Conrad Hilton. 

Paris was born in New York City. She is the oldest of four children, her younger sister is Nicky, and younger brothers are Barron Hilton II, and Conrad Hilton III.

Hilton grew up well aware of her social stature. She lived in several exclusive homes, having stayed in the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in Manhattan, Beverly Hills, and the Hamptons.

She attended Marywood-Palm Valley School in Rancho Mirage, California. She spend her first year of high school there. She then spend her second and thirds years at Dwight School in New York.

She also went to Canterbury School in Newmilford, Connecticut for a couple of months. She dropped out of school and instead took and passed the tests of General Educational Development or GED Tests.

Early Years of Her Career

Before we knew Hilton as an actress and a music artist, she was a model first and foremost. She started modeling for charity events early as a child.

When she was 19, she signed with Donald Trump's modeling agency and continued working for other agencies thereafter. She have worked for Ford Models in New York, Models 1 Agency in London, Nous Model Management in Los Angeles, and Premier Model Management in London.

She has appeared in ad campaigns of Iceberg Vodka, GUESS, Tommy Hilfiger, Christian Dior, and Marciano and also has posed for national magazines like GQ, Vanity Fair and FHM.

Current Career/Highlights

Her transition to a screen icon began in the Fox reality series "The Simple Life." She co-starred along with Lionel Richie's adopted daughter, Nicole Richie, in that show which premiered on December 2, 2003. The series was fairly successful.

People loved watching how two rich, high society girls failed to live the "simple life" in a farm in rural America. Fox followed up by two more seasons but was canceled after that because of a dispute between Hilton and Richie. The fourth season was later aired along with the fifth one by E! Entertainment Television.

After appearing in "The Simple Life", Hilton began guest-starring in television series and films. Hilton had appeared on "The O.C.", "The George Lopez Show", "Las Vegas", "American Dreams" and "Veronica Mars". Among the films she cameoed in include "Zoolander" (2001), "Wonderland" (2003), "The Cat in The Hat" (2003) and "Win a Date with Tad Hamilton!" (2004).

Hilton had some minor and supporting roles more notably in "Nine Lives" (2002), "Raising Helen" (2004), and "House of Wax" (2005).

Her first lead roles were in the straight-to-DVD releases of National Lampoon's "Pledge This!" (2006) and "Bottom's Up" (2006).

In 2004, Hilton founded Heiress Records which is a sub-label of Warner Bros. Records. Two years later, she released her self-titled debut album, "Paris", under the Heiress label. The album received mixed reviews and total sales volume were not that high.

Also in 2004, her autobiographical book, "Confessions of an Heiress: A Tongue-in-Chic Peek Behind the Pose" was released. It was co-written by Merle Ginsberg and has full color photographs of her and gives her advice on the life as an heiress.

Despite some bad reviews from critiques, the still made it as a New York Times bestseller. Hilton then released "Your Heiress Diary: Confess It All to Me." Ginsberg also co-rote the book.

Popular/Selected Works

Films

Wishman (1991)
Sweetie Pie (2000)
Zoolander (2001; cameo)
Nine Lives (2002)
QIK2JDG (2002)
L.A. Knights (2003)
Wonderland (2003)
The Cat in the Hat (2003)
Win a Date with Tad Hamilton! (2004)
The Hillz (2004)
Raising Helen (2004)
1 Night in Paris (2004)
House of Wax (2005)
Bottoms Up (2006)
Pledge This! (2006)

Album

Paris (2006) 

Bibliography
Confessions of an Heiress: A Tongue-in-Chic Peek Behind the Pose (2004)
Your Heiress Diary: Confess It All to Me (2005)

Trivia/Personal Life

Aside from being a rich heiress socialite, Hilton's inheritance was valued to be between $30 and $50 million, she is also known for sex scandals and more recently her jail time.

Paris has earned celebrity status even before she entered television and film. This was owed to a makeout session with lesbian Ingrid Casares, and a three-year-old home-made sex video of her and then boyfriend Rick Solomon.

In September 2006, police arrested Hilton for driving under the influence of alcohol. She plead no contest to the charges and was sentenced to a 36 month-probation and fines. But she was caught violating her probation two more times months later. This prompted Judge Michael T. Sauer to sentence Hilton on May 4, 2007 for 45 days in jail for violating her probation.

On June 3, 2007, after attending the 2007 MTV Movie Awards, she checked herself into the Century Regional Detention Facility in Lynwood, California. Judge Sauer later reassigned Hilton to 40 days of home confinement with an electronic monitoring device. But several conditions of the earlier sentence were not met which prompted the court to reaffirm the original sentence. Hilton went back to jail. In total, Hilton served 22 days in detention when she was released from jail on June 26, 2007.

Hilton is a known lover of small dogs. She has a Yorkshire Terrier and a female Chihuahua named Tinkerbell. She has been seen carrying the dog at social events and functions.


Image Source: Wikipedia