Rebecca Gayheart extracted from Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia, distributed under the GNU Free Documentation License

Rebecca Gayheart
Born	August 12, 1971 (1971-08-12) (age 38) Hazard, Kentucky, U.S.
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1990–present
Spouse(s)	Eric Dane (2004–present)

Rebecca Gayheart (born August 12, 1971)¹ is an American television and film actress.

Contents 1 Early life 2 Career 3 Personal life 3.1 Vehicular manslaughter 3.2 Controversy 4 Filmography 5 References 6 External links

Early life

Gayheart was born in Hazard, Kentucky and raised in Pine Top, Kentucky, the daughter of Floneva (née Slone), who worked as a Mary Kay independent beauty consultant, and Curtis Gayheart, a miner and coal truck driver.²³⁴ She is of Irish, Italian, German and Cherokee descent. She moved to New York City at the age of 15 where she completed her education at New York's Professional Children's School and the Lee Strasberg Institute.

Career

In her first film role, Gayheart appeared in Brett Ratner's New York University (NYU) short film Whatever Happened to Mason Reese? (1990) starring Mason Reese. She also appeared in the Ratner-directed music video "Nuttin' But Love" performed by Heavy D and the Boyz.

Gayheart's break into the television industry was a series of television commercials for Noxzema in the early 1990s, earning her the moniker "The Noxzema Girl". The commercials began airing in 1991 and brought her recognition.⁵ (This was also referenced at the end of the film Urban Legend, when one of the new college students remarks, "And Brenda [Gayheart's character] was the Noxzema Girl.")

In 1992, Gayheart was cast in her first major role in the soap opera Loving as Hannah Mayberry. In 1993 and 1994, she had a recurring role in the Vanishing Son action pack series. In 1994 and 1995, Gayheart played Bess Martin in the science fiction series Earth 2. In 1995, she had a recurring role as Antonia Marchette in the series Beverly Hills, 90210 as Luke Perry's love interest.

Gayheart has been a regular on the 1999 television series Wasteland, Dead Like Me, Vanished, and had a recurring role on Nip/Tuck. She was initially hired to play the part of Inara Serra in the 2002 series Firefly, but was dropped after only one day of filming. Morena Baccarin took over the role, and none of Rebecca's scenes were used.⁶

In 2007, Gayheart guest-starred on Ugly Betty as Jordan, an ex-girlfriend of Alexis Meade. The following year, Gayheart starred in the Broadway comedy, Boeing-Boeing opposite Christine Baranski, Mark Rylance, Greg Germann, Paige Davis and Missi Pyle.⁷

Personal life

For a time, Gayheart was engaged to director Brett Ratner and has dated Michael Weatherly. She and actor Eric Dane were married on October 29, 2004. Gayheart and Dane are expecting their first child, a girl, in March 2010.⁸

Dane told Flaunt Magazine about how they met:

“

It’s probably one of the least interesting stories in the world. It went basically like this: ‘You wanna go out?’ ‘Yeah, sure.’ Ten months later, we were married.9

”

Vehicular manslaughter

On June 13, 2001, Gayheart struck and fatally injured nine-year-old Jorge Cruz, Jr., as he jaywalked across a Los Angeles-area street. According to the police report, the child was walking home from school and ran across the street approximately 160 feet from a crosswalk. The vehicles in front of Gayheart stopped to permit Cruz to cross. Either unwilling to wait or in an effort to avoid hitting the stopped cars, Gayheart maneuvered her vehicle around the other cars, pulling into a two-way left-turn lane to pass them and struck the boy with her vehicle. "The parents' lawyer Steven Lerman alleges that Gayheart was talking on a cell phone; the actress's attorney Marty Singer adamantly denies that and says there is proof to the contrary."¹⁰

Cruz died the next day at Los Angeles Children's Hospital. His parents, Jorge Cruz and Silvia Martinez, filed a wrongful death lawsuit against her on August 6, 2001, seeking coverage of medical and funeral expenses, and compensation for loss of future earnings. The lawsuit was settled out of court, and settlement terms were not disclosed.

On November 27, 2001, Gayheart pleaded no contest to vehicular manslaughter in the death of Jorge Cruz, Jr. She was sentenced to three years' probation, a one-year suspension of her license, a $2,800 fine, and 750 hours of community service. She was also ordered to make a public-service announcement regarding the danger of a driver not stopping when other vehicles in front of the driver have stopped.

While awaiting that outcome of the vehicular manslaughter case, she was involved in another auto accident. She flipped her rental car into two parked vehicles. No one was injured and no charges were filed. ¹¹ Her father attributed the second accident in part to her anxiety over both the first accident and her resulting criminal case. He commented that he and his wife did not intend to allow their daughter to drive any longer.¹²

Controversy

In August 2009, a naked video surfaced on Gawker.com with Gayheart, husband Eric Dane and former Miss U.S. Teen Kari Ann Peniche. In the video clip, Gayheart, Peniche, and Dane walk naked around Peniche's Los Angeles apartment, relax in a hottub and discuss their potential porn names. Through it all, Dane, Peniche and Gayheart appear to be intoxicated. Midway through the clip, Gayheart says she has to lie down because she's "so high".¹³

Filmography

Film
Year	Film	Role	Notes
1990	Whatever Happened to Mason Reese	Model #1
1996	Somebody Is Waiting	Lilli
1997	Invasion	Cassy Winslow
	Nothing to Lose	Danielle
	Scream 2	Sorority Sister Lois
1998	Hairshirt	Jennifer Scott
	Urban Legend	Brenda Bates
1999	Puppet	Lori Myers
	Jawbreaker	Julie Freeman
2000	From Dusk Till Dawn 3: The Hangman's Daughter	Mary Newlie
	Shadow Hours	Chloe Holloway
	Urban Legends: Final Cut	Nurse Brenda Bates	Cameo/Uncredited
2001	Doppelganger	Brian's Girlfriend
	Harvard Man	Kelly Morgan
2002	Pipe Dream	Marliss Funt
2005	Santa's Slay	Gwen Mason
2007	Bunny Whipped	Beatriz Magdalene Johnson
Television
Year	Title	Role	Notes
1992-1993	Loving	Hannah Mayberry	Unknown episodes
1994	Vanishing Son	Clair Armstrong	Television movie
	Vanishing Son III	Clair Armstrong	Television movie
	Vanishing Son IV	Clair Armstrong	Television movie
1994-1995	Earth 2	Bess Martin	21 episodes
1995	Beverly Hills, 90210	Antonia "Toni" Marchette	8 episodes
1996	Sliders	Natalie	1 episode Uncredited
1997	Invasion	Cassy Winslow	Television movie
1998	Hercules	Medea (Voice)	1 episode
1999	Wasteland	Samantha "Sam" Price	13 episodes
2001	Inside Schwartz	Nadia	1 episode
2003	Dead Like Me	Betty Rhomer	5 episodes
	What I Like About You	Dana	1 episode
2004	The Division	Suzanne Richland	3 episodes
2004-2006	Nip/Tuck	Natasha Charles	3 episodes
2005	The Christmas Blessing	Meghan	Television movie
2006	Scarlett	Scarlett	Television movie
	Medium	Jessica Delaney	1 episode
	Vanished	Judy Nash	13 episodes
2007	CSI: Miami	Claire Gibbs	1 episode
	Ugly Betty	Jordan Dunn	1 episode
2009	The Cleaner	Carey Kern	1 episode

References

External links

• Rebecca Gayheart at the Internet Movie Database
• Rebecca Gayheart at TV.com

Persondata
NAME	Gayheart, Rebecca
ALTERNATIVE NAMES
SHORT DESCRIPTION	Actress
DATE OF BIRTH	August 12, 1971
PLACE OF BIRTH	Hazard, Kentucky, U.S.
DATE OF DEATH
PLACE OF DEATH