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Erika Eleniak Profile |
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Birth Date: September 29, 1969
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Birth Place: Glendale, California, USA
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Birth Name: Erika Maya Eleniak
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Height: 5'6"
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Biography |
Erika Maya Eleniak (born September 29, 1969) is an American
Playboy Playmate and actress, best known for her role in
Baywatch.
Erika Eleniak was born in Glendale, California. She is the
eldest daughter in her family of four girls and one boy
whose parents divorced. Her father, who was born in
Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, is of Ukrainian descent, and her
mother is Estonian and German. During the late 1970s,
Eleniak's father introduced her to her future career in the
movie industry when his then girlfriend got Eleniak a part
to model children's clothing for TV commercials. Her first
acting role was in the film E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial
(1982) - as the girl kissed by Elliott in the school
classroom scene.
During her teens, Eleniak became a regular on the San
Fernando Valley party circuit and she began to use alcohol
and drugs regularly. Steve Ferguson, a quadriplegic who
socialised in the same circles as Eleniak, helped curtail
her problem by introducing her to Alcoholics Anonymous in
1988 and helping her through her detoxification. Eleniak
dated Ferguson for awhile and there was talk of an
engagement, but the relationship ended and her mother, Iris,
ended up marrying Ferguson's father instead.
Eleniak went on to have several small roles in television.
She played Stephanie Curtis, Scott Baio's on-screen
girlfriend in Charles in Charge (and was also his off-screen
girlfriend), and Jamie Coburn in Broken Angel. In 1989
Eleniak decided that appearing in Playboy would help boost
her career, and Ferguson put her in contact with a Playboy
photographer. Playboy featured her on two covers and later
as the centerfold in the July 1989 issue.
After an audition and three call backs, Eleniak won a role
in Baywatch as Shauni McClain. She was the lead female
character for three seasons until Pamela Anderson replaced
her in 1992. While working on the series, Eleniak became
romantically involved with Billy Warlock, who played Eddie
Kramer, her character's boyfriend. He was the reason why
Eleniak ended up leaving the show after only two seasons.
The two announced their engagement in 1993, but the
relationship didn't last due to Warlock's jealous nature -
he later confessed in an interview, "I can't bear anyone
else to see her body."
In 1992 Eleniak returned to film acting, playing Jordan
Tate, a Playboy Playmate hired to do a striptease for the
captain of a U.S. Navy ship, in Under Siege, a film that was
one of the year's biggest hits. She attempted to capitalize
on this success by starring as Elly May Clampett in the
screen adaptation of The Beverly Hillbillies in 1993, but
the film flopped. The next year she starred in the Dennis
Hopper-directed romantic comedy Chasers. William McNamara,
one of her costars in this film, also became her partner in
life. Eleniak went on to shoot another movie with McNamara,
Girl in the Cadillac (1995). The two were engaged but never
married. Eleniak also starred in an interactive game during
1995; she played identical twins in Panic in the Park
(1995). She continued to make more independent films
including A Pyromaniac's Love Story (1995), Bordello of
Blood (1996) and Ed McBain's 87th Precinct: Heatwave (1997).
Eleniak has starred in a host of films, including The
Pandora Project (1998) with Daniel Baldwin, One Hot Summer
Night (1998) with Barry Bostwick, Final Voyage (1999) with
Ice-T, Stealth Fighter (1999) also with Ice-T, The Opponent
(2000), Vegas, City of Dreams (2001) with Angelica Bridges,
Second to Die (2002), Snowbound (2001), Betrayal (2003) and
Shakedown (2002).
Eleniak continues to act. She appeared as one of the cast
members of the reality television series The Real Gilligan's
Island for its second season which started in June 2005.
Eleniak is currently a contestant on the fourth season of
VH1's reality television series Celebrity Fit Club, on which
overweight celebrities compete to lose weight. The season
debuted on August 5, 2006. Eleniak was previously
underweight due to an eating disorder and was once
hospitalized because of laxative abuse
Eleniak has dated some of Hollywood's most famous bachelors,
including Scott Baio, and was engaged for a time to William
McNamara. In 1997 she met her future husband, Philip Goglia.
They were wed on May 22, 1998, and she was Erika
Eleniak-Goglia during their brief marriage. They resided
together in Marina del Rey, California, until their divorce.
After filming Snowbound in 2001 in Calgary, Alberta, Canada,
Eleniak fell in love with a key grip named Rock who worked
on the set, and with the city as well. Having wanted to
leave Los Angeles for years (and feeling that commuting to
and from her other choice, Telluride, Colorado, was
prohibitively difficult), Eleniak purchased a home in
Calgary, in part because Rock lived there. The two
eventually married. Eleniak became pregnant in 2005, but six
and a half weeks into her term, the pregnancy was discovered
to be ectopic, which required emergency surgery days later.
As is the case with classical ectopic pregnancies, it ended
in miscarriage, but Eleniak soon became pregnant again, and
bore a daughter. |
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Other
Information |
Playboy Playmate of the Month July 1989.
After filming Snowbound (2001) in Calgary, Alberta, Canada,
Erika fell in love with the city and purchased a home there.
Ex-fiancée of actor William McNamara.
Current residence: Calgary, Alberta, Canada. [2004]
In 1993, she was engaged to Billy Warlock, her former
co-star on "Baywatch" (1989).
Measurements: 34C-23-32 (Source: Celebrity Sleuth magazine);
34-24-32 (Source: Playmate Data Sheet)
Went on "The Real Gilligan's Island" (2004) with Angie
Everhart with whom she co-starred in Bordello of Blood
(1996).
Daughter, Indyana born January 2006. Indy is Erika's first
child. |
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