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 emigrated 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 modelling for a
maker of children's clothes. As an adolescent she moved on to doing
advertisements for shampoos and motorcycles.
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 the Baywatch series,
Erika met Billy Warlock. Neither of them were 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 is Philip
Goglia and they got married in the beginning of March 1998. Looks like
Erika is catching her second breath with as many as 4 projects
scheduled to be released this year.
