According to websites and magazines around the world, Lara Croft, star of the Tomb Raider gaming series, has a cult following. And no, not just a world-wide following of her conical large breasts, tiny waist and curvy hips, but also of her personality. So what's so great about this gal? How did this warped version of femininity leap, swim and run into popularity, and our hearts?

Lara Croft Biography

Lara was born into aristocracy, the daughter of Lord Henshingly Croft, in England. Brought up in the fancy world of horse riding and polo, formal balls and debutantes, she attended Wimbledon High School for Girls until age 16. Lara didn't suit this society, however, choosing to spend days wandering around the countryside swimming, running, climbing trees (read: living a tomboy lifestyle). Her upper-class parents were unsatsified with their 'wild' daughter, planning to send their headstrong darling to Europe to live with her aunt.

As luck would have it, Lara was able to dissuade her parents from that plan, persuading them to let her join the respected archaeologist, Professor Werner Von Croy, on a dig in Cambodia. Unfortunately, during her training with Von Croy, there was a terrible accident, and it was believed that Von Croy lost his life. Lara felt as though she was to blame and returned home to her parents. There she attended a finishing school for girls, defeated.

Lara's life was changed once again when, at the age of 21, in 1989, she attended a ski trip in the Himalayas with her class mates. The plane crashed, and the wily and strong Ms Croft was the only survivor. Her adventures in the wild are unknown, but when she walked into the small mountain village of Tokakeriby two weeks later, Lara was a new chick. She had snapped. Lara went on to a new life, ignoring her aristrocratic background. She travelled for the next 8 years, searching out old city sites and cultures, leading the life she'd always wanted. Unsurprisingly, her parents were pissed off and embarrassed by their wayward daughter and cut her off, financially and emotionally.

Lara became famous for her archaeological films, books and studies, living off her income from her finds and published research. Ms Croft became "one of the most recognized and respected archeologists of our time", according to The Tomb Raider Encylcopedia. This has led to her wacky adventures in the Tomb Raider series, being hired as an artefact hunter by various wealthy business people based on her fine archaeology skills.

Who knows what she'll get up to next?

Info from http://seth241.tripod.com/trencycolpedia/index.html You may think this is a dumb thing to node about, but hey- you never know when someone's going to ask you why Lara Croft was cut off from her family...


In comparison to the Lara Croft Tomb Raider game series, Lara Croft Tomb Raider the movie offers a different history for our able heroine, apparently in an effort to make a better plot.

In the movie, Lara's mother dies when Lara is very young ("I wish I could remember her"), leaving Lara's father to raise his daughter alone. She was very close to her dad, who died in 1985 in mysterious circumstances (of course they would be mysterious circumstances...), and a result Lara now lives with her butler/servant Hilary, and her computer nerd-guy Bryce.