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Yasmine Amanda Bleeth (born June 14, 1968 in New York City) is an American TV and film actress. She is famous for her role as Caroline Holden on the worldwide-syndicated TV series Baywatch, where she played a red-swimsuit-clad professional lifeguard. Her given name Yasmine is Arabic for a fragrant flower and Hebrew for Jasmine. Bleeth is Yiddish in origin, and was once spelled as Blut, which is German for blood. Philip Bleeth, Yasmin's American father, is Jewish of Russian and German ancestry, while her late mother Carina was of French and Algerian descent. Her mother was a former fashion model, while her father was a professional photographer. They both ran a business that rented vans to fashion photographers for on-location shoots. Philip Bleeth became his daughter's business manager. Bleeth's parents separated and later divorced; she was raised by her mother. Bleeth's earliest known acting role was in a Johnson & Johnson's No More Tears baby shampoo television commercial at age ten months at the end of 1968 or the beginning of 1969. She once said: "I did my first commercial when I was 10 months old, and I've been in the business ever since." At age 6 she appeared on Candid Camera. Later that year she appeared in a Max Factor cosmetic campaign, along with the model, Cristina Ferrare. Her work in this campaign caught the eye of fashion photographer, Francesco Scavullo, who subsequently included her and her mother, Carina, in his book entitled Scavullo Women. Bleeth attended the United Nations International School in Manhattan, New York, and she received a bilingual (English and French) education. She was very popular with boys. At one time when she was 14 years old, she had to be away from school for a few months for her acting career. Nevertheless, Total Film magazine quotes her as saying, "When I was a girl I used to have to force boys to kiss me. My toughest friend had to hold them down." The very vision of the curvaceous bathing beauty, former “Baywatch” babe Yasmine Bleeth made an immediate pop cultural impact and set male hearts aflutter by simply running down the beach in a red swimsuit, her brown hair flying in slow-mo behind her. Although she was perhaps best known for her role as one of the lone brunette lifeguards in a sea of blondes, the iconic TV show was far from Bleeth’s lone claim to fame. Born in New York City, NY on June 14, 1968, the camera-ready Bleeth wasted no time landing her first gig. At the age of six months, she appeared in a Johnson & Johnson “No More Tears” baby shampoo commercial. At age six, she starred in a Max Factor cosmetics ad with 70’s supermodel Christina Ferrare. Famed fashion photographer, Francesco Scavullo, took notice and included Yasmine and her mother in his book, Scavullo Women.Though her family was far from wealthy it did not stop the Bleeth clan from living well. Her father, Philip Bleeth, was a photographer and her mother, Carina, a model. Together they ran a business that rented vans for photo shoots. They sent their daughter to the prestigious United Nations International School in Manhattan where most of Bleeth’s classmates were picked up in limos. She received a bilingual education (French/English) due to the fact that her mother was of Algerian and French descent. Her parents separated when she was young, leaving her to be raised by her mother. When Bleeth was only 20 years old, tragedy struck when her mother died of breast cancer at the age of 47. Devastated by the loss of her mother and best friend, she declined all acting and modeling roles for the next several months in order to recuperate. At age 12, Bleeth made her feature film debut in the flop, “Hey Babe” (1980), opposite comedian Buddy Hackett. At age 16, she scored the part of Ryan Finelli, Jack Fenelli's daughter, on the daytime soap “Ryan’s Hope” (ABC 1975-1989), followed by a role on yet another soap opera – this time as the seductive Lee Anne Demerest on “One Life to Live” (ABC 1968- ). Bleeth starred in her first movie in 1980 at the age of twelve. She was cast opposite Buddy Hackett in the feature film Hey Babe!. By the time she graduated from high school, she had had already been working on the soap opera Ryan's Hope since the age of 16. In 1991, she created the role as Lee Anne Demerest on the highly acclaimed soap opera One Life To Live. When Bleeth was 20, she lost her mother Carina to inflammatory breast cancer at the age of 47. Bleeth said that she never accepted the fact that her mother was dying until Carina took her very last breath. After Carina died, Bleeth fell into depression and she turned down offers for acting or modeling work for about eight months. About this time, she met Ricky Paull Goldin, a soap actor who helped her with her depression. The two lived in Manhattan, and planned to be married, but shortly after the wedding invitations were made out, she called off the marriage. She was then cast for Baywatch and moved to Los Angeles. Her star rose quickly as a result of this role. People named her one of magazine's 50 Most Beautiful People in 1995. She would be one of FHM's 100 Sexiest Women in the World every year from 1996 - 2001, and FHM's U.S. 100 Sexiest Women every year from 2000 - 2003. In 1994, she decided to try her luck on the west coast, auditioning for the part of Caroline Holden, the impressionable younger sister of Lieutenant Stephanie Holden (Alexandra Paul) on the bouncy hit, “Baywatch” (NBC, 1989-2001). The producers immediately liked the dark haired New Yorker and offered her the part. With her “Baywatch” debut, Bleeth saw her Hollywood stock rise. A favorite download on the relatively new internet, only co-star Pamela Anderson drew more requests. Bleeth even found herself on People magazine’s “Most Beautiful People” list for 1995. But the pressure to maintain her “Baywatch” body was getting to the young actress. She gained 10 lbs during filming, prompting the show’s producers to allegedly post a sign next to her picture that said, “If you see this woman, do not feed her.” Ouch! Though she was making over $10 grand a week, by 1997 Bleeth had had enough, leaving the series amidst rumors that she was tired of playing an idiot. She promptly moved to San Francisco a year later, taking on the role as the no-nonsense Inspector Caitlin Cross on NBC’s “Nash Bridges (1996-2000) opposite Don Johnson. The late 1990s turned into a dark period for Bleeth. After a recent break up with her long-term boyfriend, actor Richard Grieco, and finding herself in alone in a city of strangers, Bleeth started ordering cocaine as if it were Chinese takeout. In the beginning, the drug not only comforted her, it helped her lose that all important weight. It was the beginning of an ugly downward spiral into drug addiction. In 2000, she was able to hide her addiction well enough that legendary TV producer Aaron Spelling convinced CBS to release her from her “Nash Bridges” contract so that she could star in his new series. It wasn’t the first time Spelling had pursued Bleeth. He had tried to cast her on his early 90’s hit “Beverly Hills 90210” and the short lived “Pacific Palisades” (1997), but Bleeth had turned him down both times. The third offer was the charm. Bleeth finally accepted his offer to play vixen Heather Lane Williams in his new primetime soap, “Titans” (2000). Unfortunately, the series fizzled quickly, with only 11 episodes aired. By 2001, Bleeth’s addiction became public knowledge when her horrifying mug shot was plastered all over the news media, following her arrest in Detroit for crashing her rental car into a median (the police found liquid cocaine in the car). The image of the formerly gorgeous actress, with bags under her bloodshot eyes and her nose noticeably deformed from years of snorting, showed how far her star had fallen. Arrested with Bleeth was her fiancé, Paul Cerrito, who was a passenger in the car. The couple met while they were both undergoing (unsuccessful) treatment at a drug facility in Malibu. Bleeth got off with two years probation. The story had a happy ending when the couple reportedly got sober and married in a romantic ceremony atop a Santa Barbara cliff in August of 2002. Despite her success, in December 2000, Bleeth voluntarily entered the Malibu-based Promises rehabilitation clinic to overcome a cocaine addiction. On September 12, 2001, Bleeth was arrested in Michigan after her car pulled off the highway and wound up on a median. No other cars were involved. The car accident occurred on Interstate 94 near Detroit as she and her future husband, Paul Cerrito, were heading to Detroit Metropolitan Airport. Police found four syringes with an injectable form of cocaine in them and a small plastic bag with cocaine residue on it. The next day police conducted a search of her hotel room, and they found more cocaine and drug paraphernalia. In November 2001, through a plea bargain, Bleeth pleaded guilty to possessing less than 25 grams of cocaine and to driving while impaired. She was sentenced in January 2002 to two years of probation and 100 hours of community service. Bleeth's lawyer, Jerry Sabbota, stated that the actress was satisfied with the plea bargain, noting that her record will be cleared of any felonies after she fulfills the terms of her probation. "When all is said and done she'll have a traffic ticket on her record. She wasn't treated any better than anyone else, and she wasn't treated any worse", Sabbota said. Bleeth completely fulfilled the terms of her probation as of January 2004, and her record was cleared as previously determined by the plea bargain. Attorney Sabbota stated that Bleeth had returned to Promises rehabilitation clinic. In an issue of Glamour from April 2003, Bleeth wrote a three page article entitled "Back From my Drugs Hell" about her rocky path to recovery, her drug addiction, and her struggle to remain sober. She wrote that she had a cocaine habit that was so severe that she collapsed at a photo shoot for Glamour magazine, and she went without sleep for five days at a time. She wrote that "consciously trying to stay off drugs is now part of my life and always will be." Commenting on her cocaine addiction, Bleeth said, "It was almost like falling in love... It became my boyfriend, my best friend, my family." Bleeth met married strip club owner Paul Cerrito at the Promises clinic. Bleeth would later comment, "They say you shouldn't get into any relationship in the first year of sobriety — especially with someone in the program, but Paul and I fell in love immediately." They were married in Santa Barbara, California on August 25, 2002 and they now live in Birmingham, Michigan. Her husband runs Jon Jon's Cabaret in Warren. In 2003, Bleeth resurrected the Caroline Holden character in the reunion TV movie “Baywatch: Hawaiian Wedding” – a small screen valentine to viewers still reeling from its cancellation after twelve years on air. In 2006, the actress returned to the big screen in the romantic comedy “The Last Guy on Earth” alongside an impressive cast that included Carol Burnett, Joan Cusack and Whoopi Goldberg. As a result of her role in Baywatch in the mid 1990s, Yasmine was offered many more roles in television and film. She has been a featured actress in five series and has guest-starred in numerous other shows. During her television career, she continued to work as a model, frequently appearing in swimwear or lingerie. She has never appeared nude despite many offers. Bleeth was asked by a fan: "Why have you turned down repeated offers to pose for Playboy?" Yasmine responded: "I'm not interested in Playboy. I'm a fashion maven, and I love people to see me with my clothes on." She once had her own line of swimwear called Yaz Wear. Bleeth turned down roles in Aaron Spelling's Beverly Hills, 90210 (1990) and Pacific Palisades (1997) but accepted the starring role in the short-lived series Titans in 2000. Aaron Spelling was so eager to cast Yasmine in the role of a vixen on Titans that his company convinced CBS to grant her an early release from her Nash Bridges contract. In an interview with Dennis Hensley, she said she delighted in her over-the-top depiction of a crazed beauty queen in the 1997 TV movie Crowned and Dangerous. She said, "I keep my crown from that film on my desk in a little Lucite box. My little brother tried it on once, and I screamed at him, 'Take it off! Take it off!' I get a little nasty about my crown." Bleeth was the 1998 spokesperson for the Lee National Denim Day fundraising campaign, which raises millions of dollars for breast cancer research and education. In 1998 it occurred on October 9, and was called the 'Wear Jeans to Work' campaign. Through Bleeth's help, $5 million was raised on that one day to help the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation. Her primary message to women was to pay attention to their bodies; Her mother was initially misdiagnosed by a doctor who thought that she was going through early menopause. Bleeth donated the proceeds of her $10,000 win on Celebrity Jeopardy to breast cancer research. She hoped to use her celebrity status to expand breast cancer awareness - particularly to young women who might overlook what an older woman would not ignore. Bleeth has been a spokesperson for the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation who, along with corporate sponsor Ford, put together the nationally run Race for the Cure. |
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