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Erika Eleniak was born on
September 29, 1969 in Glendale, a small suburb of Los
Angeles where she spent the first 10 years of her life.
She got her name from her Ukrainian great grand-father
who immigrated to the United States. Her parents got
divorced very quickly. Her dad, who came from his native
Canada with the dream of becoming an actor in Hollywood,
did not succeed.
At
the time, he was going out with a lady working in film
production, who put Erika on the path to being an
actress. At 10, the petite blonde became a TV star by
modeling for a maker of children's clothes. As an
adolescent she moved on to doing advertisements for
shampoos and motorcycles Harley Davidson. Then Erika
Eleniak plunged into drugs and alcohol. Salvation came
by chance on a Santa Monica beach. She was only 17 when
she got to know Steve Ferguson.
When
she was 18 he signed her up to Alcoholics Anonymous and
helped her through her detoxification. The situation
became complicated when Robert (Steve's father) and
Erika's mother got married. There was even talk of
Erika's marriage, but she never married Steve. In 1989
Erika wanted to be in Playboy and asked Steve to contact
her with a Playboy photographer.
He
accepted Erika and she adorned July '89 issue Playboy in
a provocative series of nautical studies. Year 1989 was
very important to Erika. She won her seminal role in
Baywatch which demonstrated she can "do more than just
act the dumb blonde". While working on the Baywatch
series, Erika met Billy Warlock. Neither of them was
single, but their friendship slowly changed into love.
He was the reason why Erika ended up leaving the show
only after two seasons. But they relation hit the rocks,
maybe because Billy confessed: "I can't bear anyone else
to see her body". Her return to the movie scene was
shattering.
In
1992, she came to public notice in the movie "Under
Siege" with Steven Seagal. The film was a huge success.
She can be seen again in "Chasers", with a scene that
seems to have made an impression on most of the
masculine population of the United States. William
McNamara, her partner in this film, was also in her
life. Her relationship with Billy Warlock, which was
considered solid, fizzled out, without anyone really
knowing why.
Then
Erika filmed another movie with William called "A Girl
in the Cadillac". Erika also tried what in takes to play
in an interactive game named "Panic in the Park", which
was to my opinion very poor. While she was awaiting her
charming prince, "I go out a lot with many different
friends, but there isn't one that I would want to marry.
Yet, I would like to get married. I can easily imagine
myself living on a ranch in Montana with a family." she
was filming. She played in "A Pyromaniac's Love Story",
"Bordello of Blood", "87th Precinct: Heatwave" etc.
Then
in 1997 she finally found her prince. His name was
Philip Goglia and they got married in the beginning of
March 1998. It was a big day in Erika's life. As she
says: "It really was the best day in my life. It was
magic, we got married in the morning in front of 80
guests and we organized a party in the Ritz Carlton
Hotel of Marina Del Rey. It was a day with a lot of
emotions: laughter, tears, happiness and anxiousness..."
Happy couple spent their honeymoon in Hawaii, where
Erika dreamt of returning.
In
the meantime Erika did 3 TV-movies: "Dead on Target"
with Daniel Baldwin, "Charade" with Jack Scalia and "Assylum"
with Michael Ironside. She also did 3 episodes of
"Brooklyn South". She still had a lot of professional
projects, but for the moment, she wanted to spend some
time privately, in family. She was even planning to have
kids. However Philip wasn't meant for her and in 2000
they got divorced. Appearing in two films in that very
year, "The Opponent" and "The Librarians", Eleniak spent
her free time as a volunteer with pre school children.
It
is a move that has delighted the kids ("The other day a
boy called Eddie said: 'Miss Erika, I love you.' He just
melted my heart", Erika says) and one would imagine,
their dads alike. Erika then once again fell in love
with an actor who she co-stared with in "The Opponent"
and his name was James Colby. But their relationship
didn't last long. Erika kept working and appeared
together with Dean Cain in quite a good action movie
called "Christmas Rush" (or "Breakaway" in some parts of
the world).
We
even hoped we could see her in that nice red bathing
suit again. David Hasselhoff was preparing to shoot
"Baywatch: Hawaiian Wedding" with all the actors ever to
appear in the show, but unfortunately, Erika had prior
obligations. So now, we will look forward to see "The
Good Teacher", "Brilliant", "Dracula 3000" or "Caught in
the Headlights".
Filmography
• Captive (1998)
• The Pandora Project (1998)
• Bordello of Blood (1996)
• Tales from the Crypt Presents - Bordello of Blood
(1996)
• Girl in the Cadillac (1995)
• A Pyromaniac's Love Story (1995)
• Chasers (1994)
• The Beverly Hillbillies (1993)
• Under Siege (1992)
• Broken Angel (1988)
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