Tawny Kitaen

Tawny Kitaen Introduction

A decade before Alicia Silverstone became the Aerosmith chick, Tawny Kitaen was the original music video vixen. Kitaen rose to fame in the 1980s by starring in a string of Whitesnake music videos.

Tawny Kitaen Early Life

Julie Kitaen was born in San Diego, California in 1961 to a Jewish-American father, Terry Kitaen, who was an employee of a neon sign company, and Linda Taylor Kitaen, a housewife and a former beauty pageant queen (runner-up in the Miss San Diego pageant to Raquel Welch). She began using the name "Tawny" at the age of twelve, on her own initiative. Kitaen attended Pacific Beach Junior High and Mission Bay High School in San Diego but never graduated.

Tawny Kitaen Career

Kitaen began her acting career in 1983 with a minor role in a television movie, Malibu. In 1984, she starred as the title character of the erotic-adventure movie the Perils of Gwendoline (a.k.a. Gwendoline). She also co-starred in the movie Bachelor Party (1984) as the bride-to-be of a young Tom Hanks and was the star of the horror movie Witchboard (1986).

Kitaen soon became associated with the "glam metal" scene due to her dating a high school sweetheart, Ratt guitarist and founder Robbin Crosby. Her legs appeared on the cover of Ratt's self-titled EP wearing black stockings and red pumps, pictured with white rats. Then, in ripped-up clothes, she appeared on the cover of Ratt's Out of the Cellar. She also can be seen at the beginning of the Ratt video "Back for More" as the girl in the 50s-style skirt at the juke box.

In 1987, depicting her budding love with David Coverdale, the lead singer of Whitesnake, she appeared in several of the band's music videos. Probably most famous was "Here I Go Again," in which she did the splits and rolled around on the hood of a Jaguar wearing a white negligee. She also appeared in the videos for Whitesnake's "Is This Love" and "Still of the Night". In 1989, she appeared in videos for "Fool For Your Loving" and "The Deeper The Love." Kitaen married Coverdale in 1989, but the two divorced in 1991.

Riding the publicity from her music-video appearances, Kitaen took on a number of television roles. She was co-host of “America's Funniest People” with Dave Coulier from 1992 to 1994, and she was a regular cast member on “The New WKRP in Cincinnati” from 1991 to 1993. In 1991 she guest-starred in an episode of the sitcom “Seinfeld” entitled The Nose Job. She played the aspiring actress who Jerry picked up in an elevator by telling her, “I’m responsible for those crop circles in England ya know.” She had a recurring role as Deianira in three of the Kevin Sorbo “Hercules” television movies in 1994, and then in the regular television series “Hercules: The Legendary Journeys.” From 1992 until 1996, she provided the voice of Annabelle in the animated television show “Eek! The Cat.”

Kitaen was one of the cast of the sixth edition of “The Surreal Life,” a reality television show on VH1, which began airing in March 2006. She also appeared in the second season of the VH1 reality TV show Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew, which began in October 2008.

Tawny Kitaen Personal Life

After her marriage to Coverdale ended, Kitaen was romantically linked at various times to Tommy Lee, O.J. Simpson, Jerry Seinfeld, and Jon Stewart. She married baseball pitcher Chuck Finley in 1997. They had two daughters — Wynter Finley in 1993 and Raine Finley in 1996 — and appeared in a feature of professional athletes and their wives in the 1999 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue.

In 2002, Kitaen was charged with committing domestic violence against Chuck Finley, having beaten him with a stiletto heel. Three days later, Finley filed for divorce.

In November 2006, prosecutors charged Kitaen with possessing 15 grams of cocaine in her San Juan Capistrano home in Orange County. They said her two children were home at the time, and Kitaen had given deputies permission for the search. In December 2006, she entered a six-month rehabilitation program in exchange for the dismissal of a felony drug possession charge.