|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Vanessa Marcil (born October 15, 1968) is an American actress known for her roles in the long-running soap opera General Hospital, Gina on Beverly Hills 90210 and the television series Las Vegas. This petite, alluring actress earned widespread attention and two Daytime Emmy nominations for her powerhouse performance as Brenda Barrett on the ABC daytime drama "General Hospital". A native Californian and youngest of four, Vanessa Marcil frequently traveled with her family living in such far-flung locations as Anchorage, Alaska and Reno, Nevada before they settled in Palm Desert, California. At age eight, she began her acting career, appearing in local theatrical productions. Originally intending to become a lawyer, Marcil dropped out of college to pursue a full-time career in show business. Spotted in a stage production of "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof", she was cast in her star-making soap role. Over the course of her six-year (1992-98) tenure on "General Hospital", the character of Brenda developed from spoiled rich girl to complex, assured businesswoman. Paired onscreen with actors Maurice Bernard (as gangster Sonny Corinthos) and Ingo Rademacher (as wealthy businessman Jasper Jax), Marcil was involved in two very popular romantic storylines. When her character underwent a nervous breakdown, the actress demonstrated her range and capabilities and netted an Emmy nomination. Marcil, the youngest of four children, was born Sally Vanessa Ortiz in Indio, California, the daughter of Patricia (née Marcil), an herbalist, and Peter Ortiz, a contractor and self-made millionaire. Her parents are separated. Marcil's father is Mexican and her mother is an American of French, Italian and Portuguese ancestry. Marcil acted in a number of theatre productions before landing the role of Brenda Barrett on the soap opera General Hospital in 1992. In 1994, she starred alongside Dwight Yoakam and Sally Kirkland in the Peter Fonda-directed stage play "Southern Rapture" and received rave reviews. ABC tapped the rising star to host the popular weekly late-night music series "In Concert" (1995) and to star in the 1996 TV-movie "To Love, Honor, and Deceive". In the latter, she portrayed a young wife and mother who discovers her husband had a secret life. Marcil made the jump to the big screen in the brief role of Nicolas Cage's fiancee in "The Rock" (1996). She garnered three Daytime Emmy Award nominations (1997, 1998 and 2003) for her portrayal, winning in 2003 as Outstanding Supporting Actress. In February 1998, she was named Outstanding Lead Actress at the Soap Opera Digest Awards. After six years on General Hospital, she left the show in 1998 (returning briefly in '02) to star in the made-for-television movie To Love, Honor and Deceive, and had a recurring guest role on the police drama High Incident produced by Steven Spielberg. Marcil joined the cast of Beverly Hills 90210 in November 1998 as Gina and remained with the show for one-and-a-half seasons. Marcil made her feature film debut in the 1996 film The Rock, in which she starred opposite Nicolas Cage, Sean Connery and Ed Harris. In 1999, she starred in two independent films: Nice Guys Sleep Alone with Sean O'Bryan and This Space Between Us with Jeremy Sisto. She went on to appear in the short "976-WISH" (1997) and co-star in two independent features, "This Space Between Us", opposite Jeremy Sisto, and "Nice Guys Sleep Alone", with Sean O'Bryan. n the fall of 1998, Marcil traded her daytime stint for a regular role as sultry Gina Kincaid on the Fox primetime series "Beverly Hills, 90210" from 1998 to the series' conclusion in 2000. After a pair of brief guest-starring stints as a detective on "NYPD Blue" in 2001 and 2003, and a leading role in the low-budget sci fi actioner "Storm Watch" (2002), Marcil returned to primetime network television in NBC's populat lighthearted drama "Las Vegas" (2003- ), playing Samantha “Sam” Jane, handler to Sin City's highest rollers at the Montecito hotel and casino. |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Celebrities Guide 
| WhoABC
Home : Disclaimer
: Terms
: Privacy
Policy : Contact
Us : Links All original content Copyright Celebrities Guide, WhoABC.com © 2004 - 2008. All Rights Reserved |