Lindsay Dee Lohan born on July 2, 1986, in New York City. Lohan's father, Michael Lohan, ran his family's pasta business and worked as an investment banker. Her mother, Donata "Dina" Sullivan, was a Wall Street analyst. Lohan grew up in the wealthy Long Island suburbs of Cold Spring Harbor and Merrick.
Stints as a child model and commercial actress brought Lohan into the spotlight at the age of three. The star of more than 60 television spots and 100 print ads for clients like Toys 'R Us and Duncan Hines helped Lohan land the film role of twin sisters in Disney's 1998 remake of The Parent Trap. In the film, the sisters—one raised in England and the other in the U.S.—try to reunite their long-divorced parents, played by Dennis Quaid and Natasha Richardson. The movie performed well at the box office, making more than $92 million globally.
Lohan's success resulted in more Disney film roles, including the remake Freaky Friday (2003) also starring Jamie Lee Curtis. Her next role with Disney, the pre-teen comedy, Confessions of Teenage Drama Queen (2004), brought mild success. But it was her starring role in Paramount's film Mean Girls, written by comedian Tina Fey, that turned Lohan into a bona fide star. The movie recieved both popular and critical success; it became the 24th highest grossing movie of 2004 and earned Lohan a Teen's Choice Award and an MTV movie award for her performance.
As her celebrity status grew, so did Lohan's attendance at New York nightclubs. Her wild party lifestyle made Lohan instant tabloid fodder in recent years, from her father's prison scandals to rumors of her own struggles with bulimia. On May 26, 2007, Lohan was arrested after crashing her Mercedes-Benz crashed into a tree in Beverly Hills. She was arrested again July 24 in Santa Monica after she allegedly engaged in a car chase with the mother of her former personal assistant. In both cases, Lohan was found in possession of small amounts of cocaine, below the .05 grams required for the more serious felony charges of drug possession, according to the Los Angeles District Attorney's office. After all her legal run-ins, Lohan was only charged with two counts each of driving under the influence, and a single count of reckless driving.
Tracie Rice, a woman who was a passenger in a car Lohan was accused of chasing on July 24, 2007, sued the star for assault and negligence. Lohan dodged felony charges when she reached a plea deal on misdemeanor drunken driving and cocaine charges on August 23. She got the minimum: four days in jail and credit for 24 hours already served. The sentence was then knocked down to one day in jail for doing 10 days of community service at a mortuary and in a hospital emergency room. That one day became 84 minutes because of overcrowding at the jail. Lohan turned herself in to the Los Angeles County women's detention center in Lynwood. She was searched, fingerprinted and put in a holding cell in the inmate reception area. She got to stay in her street clothes. Officials denied she received special treatment.