Courtney Love

Born: 9 July 1964
Where: San Fransisco, Cal, USA

Courtney Love, widow of Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain, found fame with guitar band Hole in the early 90s.

She had already been working as a bit part actress, spending time in Liverpool and London in the Eighties when she appeared in low-budget British films Sid And Nancy and Straight to Hell.

After Cobain's death, Courtney underwent a dramatic transformation, reinventing herself as a Hollywood actress and replacing her tatty, tangled look with Versace gowns.

She scored success with 1996 film The People Vs Larry Flynt, opposite Woody Harrelson.

Her performance as the wife of a porn magnate earned her a Golden Globe nomination and a best supporting actress award from the New York Film Critics Circle.

She followed it up with a critically acclaimed role in Man On The Moon opposite Jim Carrey.

Courtney has a daughter by Cobain, Frances Bean (who has former wildchild Drew Barrymore for her godmother).

Love and Cobain were self-confessed heroin users and she was alleged to have carried on taking the drug during her pregnancy.

She vehemently denied the allegations and was devastated when Frances Bean was temporarily taken into local authority care as a result.

The child of hippie parents, Courtney is reputed to have been given her first acid tab by her father at the age of four. She spent time both as a stripper and in juvenile detention for shoplifting.

She has been romantically linked to Russell Crowe and Edward Norton. In 2001 she suffered a miscarriage but refused to name the father.

She changed her name legally in 1992 to Courtney Cobain, although she uses Love professionally.