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. She is of Irish, Italian, and German 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 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. (This was also referred to at the end of the film Urban Legend, when one of the new college students remarks, "And Brenda 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 played Antonia Marchette, a recurring character in the series Beverly Hills, 90210, and Luke Perry's character'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 replaced by Morena Baccarin after only one day of filming. None of Gayheart's scenes were used.

1999 was also the year Gayheart starred in the movie Jawbreaker with Rose McGowan, Julie Benz, and Judy Greer as girls in an exclusive clique in their high school.

Gayheart starred as the waitress in the Train music video for the 1999 song "Meet Virginia".

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. She had a guest role on The Cleaner in 2009.

Personal life

For a time, Gayheart was engaged to director Brett Ratner.

She married actor Eric Dane on October 29, 2004. 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." They have two daughters: Billie Beatrice (born March 3, 2010) and Georgia Geraldine (born December 28, 2011).

Vehicular manslaughter

On June 13, 2001, Gayheart was driving a vehicle which struck nine-year-old Jorge Cruz, Jr. as he walked across a street in Los Angeles. He died the following day from his injuries. On November 27, 2001, Gayheart pleaded no contest to vehicular manslaughter. She was sentenced to three years of probation, a one-year suspension of her license, a $2,800 fine and 750 hours of community service.

Leaked video

On August 17, 2009, a nude video was posted on the website gawker.com that showed former Miss Teen USA contestant Kari Ann Peniche with Gayheart and husband Eric Dane.

Filmography

Film

Year	Film	Role	Notes
1990	Whatever Happened to Mason Reese?	Model #1	Short film
1996	Somebody Is Waiting	Lilli
1997	Nothing to Lose	Danielle
	Scream 2	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	Official Selection Sundance 2000 Competition
	Urban Legends: Final Cut	Nurse Brenda Bates	Cameo/Uncredited
2001	Doppelganger	Brian's Girlfriend	14-min short film
	Harvard Man	Kelly Morgan
2002	Pipe Dream	Marliss Funt
2005	Santa's Slay	Gwen Mason
2007	Bunny Whipped	Beatriz Magdalene Johnson
2013	G.B.F.	Mrs. Daniels

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1992-1993	Loving	Hannah Mayberry	Unknown episodes
1992	All My Children	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
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

Charities

Rebecca Gayheart supports the following charitable causes: Homeless, Drug Abuse, Women's Issues, Alcohol Prevention.

[ Source: Wikipedia ]