Jennifer Aniston was born on February 11, 1969, in Sherman Oaks, Los Angeles, California. She is the daughter of John Aniston and Nancy Dow. Her father is Greek and a native of Crete, while her mother was born in New York City. Dow died of a stroke in May 2016. One of her maternal great-grandfathers was an Italian immigrant, and her mother's other ancestry is Scottish, Irish, and a small amount of Greek. Aniston has two half-brothers, John Melick, her maternal older half-brother, and Alex Aniston, her younger paternal half-brother. Aniston's godfather was actor Telly Savalas, one of her father's best friends.