Laura Harring
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Laura Elena Harring (' Herring Martínez, formerly Gräfin von Bismarck-Schönhausen; born March 3, 1964) is an American actress and beauty pageant titleholder who won Miss USA 1985 and later began acting in television and film. She is best known for her lead role as Rita in the 2001 movie '' Mulholland Drive''. Her other films include '' The Forbidden Dance'' (1990), ''
John Q ''John Q.'' is a 2002 American crime drama film directed by Nick Cassavetes, and written by James Kearns. It stars Denzel Washington as the title character, a man who takes a hospital emergency room hostage in order for his son to receive a ...
'' (2002), '' Willard'' (2003), '' The Punisher'' (2004), '' The King'' (2005), '' Love in the Time of Cholera'' (2007), '' Ghost Son'' (2007), '' The Caller'' (2008), '' Drool'' (2009), ''
Sex Ed Sex education, also known as sexual education, sexuality education or sex ed, is the instruction of issues relating to human sexuality, including human sexual anatomy, Human sexual activity, sexual activity, sexual reproduction, safe sex, birth ...
'' (2014), and ''
Inside Inside may refer to: Film * ''Inside'' (1996 film), an American television film directed by Arthur Penn and starring Eric Stoltz * ''Inside'' (2002 film), a Canadian prison drama film * ''Inside'' (2006 film), an American thriller film starri ...
'' (2016). She also played Carla Greco in ''
General Hospital ''General Hospital'' (often abbreviated as ''GH'') is an American daytime television soap opera created by Frank and Doris Hursley which has been broadcast on American Broadcasting Company, ABC since April 1, 1963. Originally a half-hour seria ...
'' (1990–1991), Paula Stevens on '' Sunset Beach'' (1997), and Rebecca "Becca" Doyle in '' The Shield'' (2006).


Early life

Laura Elena Herring Martínez was born in
Los Mochis Los Mochis () is a coastal city in northern Sinaloa, Mexico. It serves as the municipal seat of the municipality of Ahome. As of the 2010 census, the population was 362,613, which was 61 percent of the municipality's population. Los Mochis is th ...
,
Sinaloa Sinaloa (), officially the (), is one of the 31 states which, along with Mexico City, compose the Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided into 18 municipalities, and its capital city is Culiacán Rosales. It is located in northwest Mexic ...
, Mexico, on March 3, 1964. Her mother, María Elena Martínez-Cairo, is a Mexican spiritual teacher, real estate investor, and former secretary. Her father, Raymond Herring, was a Mexican developer and organic farmer of Austrian-German descent. The two divorced in 1971. Harring lived the first ten years of her life in Guasave Sinaloa Mexico, before her family relocated to
San Antonio San Antonio ( ; Spanish for " Saint Anthony") is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the most populous city in Greater San Antonio. San Antonio is the third-largest metropolitan area in Texas and the 24th-largest metropolitan area in the ...
, Texas. Harring suffered a head wound from a .45 bullet when she was caught by stray fire from a driveby shooting at age 12. At age 16, she convinced her family to let her study in
Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...
at Aiglon College. Harring studied theatre at
London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art The London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA) is a drama school located in Hammersmith, London. Founded in 1861, it is the oldest specialist drama school in the British Isles and a founding member of the Federation of Drama Schools. In ...
, having trained in the Italian ''
commedia dell'arte Commedia dell'arte was an early form of professional theatre, originating from Theatre of Italy, Italian theatre, that was popular throughout Europe between the 16th and 18th centuries. It was formerly called Italian comedy in English and is a ...
'', as well as Latin dances, including the
Argentine Argentines, Argentinians or Argentineans are people from Argentina. This connection may be residential, legal, historical, or cultural. For most Argentines, several (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their ...
tango Tango is a partner dance and social dance that originated in the 1880s along the Río de la Plata, the natural border between Argentina and Uruguay. The tango was born in the impoverished port areas of these countries from a combination of Arge ...
. She eventually returned to the United States, settling down in
El Paso, Texas El Paso (; ; or ) is a city in and the county seat of El Paso County, Texas, United States. The 2020 United States census, 2020 population of the city from the United States Census Bureau, U.S. Census Bureau was 678,815, making it the List of ...
, and began competing in beauty pageants.


Career


Pagentry

Harring won Miss El Paso USA,
Miss Texas USA The Miss Texas USA competition is the pageant that selects the representative for the state Texas in the Miss USA pageant, and the name of the title held by that winner. This pageant is part of the Miss USA Organization, owned by Texas nativ ...
, then Miss USA 1985, becoming the first
Hispanic The term Hispanic () are people, Spanish culture, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or broadly. In some contexts, Hispanic and Latino Americans, especially within the United States, "Hispanic" is used as an Ethnici ...
woman to do so."Laura Harring: Biography"
''
TV Guide TV Guide is an American digital media In mass communication, digital media is any media (communication), communication media that operates in conjunction with various encoded machine-readable data formats. Digital content can be created, vi ...
''.
Harring then spent the next year traveling through Asia, exploring Europe and working as a social worker in India.


Acting

Harring began acting in 1987, in the NBC television movie '' The Alamo: 13 Days to Glory'' (1987). She played Raúl Juliá's character's wife, having been cast by NBC producers after they saw her on the Miss USA broadcast and contacted her with the role. In 1989, appeared in her first movie '' Silent Night, Deadly Night 3: Better Watch Out!'', in the supporting role of Jerri, a flight attendant. In 1990, Harring was lead actress in the
Columbia Pictures Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc., Trade name, doing business as Columbia Pictures, is an American film Production company, production and Film distributor, distribution company that is the flagship unit of the Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group ...
release '' The Forbidden Dance'', in which she played the role of Nisa, a Brazilian princess. That same year, she began a recurring role on the ABC daytime soap ''
General Hospital ''General Hospital'' (often abbreviated as ''GH'') is an American daytime television soap opera created by Frank and Doris Hursley which has been broadcast on American Broadcasting Company, ABC since April 1, 1963. Originally a half-hour seria ...
'', as Carla Greco. The next few years, she had supporting roles in movies - '' Exit to Eden'' (1994), and '' Black Scorpion II: Aftershock'' (1997). In 1997, she played the role of Paula Stevens in the NBC soap opera '' Sunset Beach''. After leaving the show, she guest-starred on ''
Frasier ''Frasier'' () is an American television sitcom that was broadcast on NBC for 11 seasons from September 16, 1993, to May 13, 2004. The program was created and produced by David Angell, Peter Casey (screenwriter), Peter Casey, and David Lee (scr ...
'' in the episode "Dial M for Martin", and appeared in the comedy film '' Little Nicky''. Harring is best known for her performance in
David Lynch David Keith Lynch (January 20, 1946 – January 16, 2025) was an American filmmaker, visual artist, musician, and actor. Widely considered one of the greatest filmmakers of all time, Lynch was often called a "visionary" and received acclaim f ...
's 2001 movie '' Mulholland Drive'', opposite Naomi Watts and Justin Theroux. She played both the characters of Rita (an amnesiac who names herself after
Rita Hayworth Rita Hayworth (born Margarita Carmen Cansino; October 17, 1918May 14, 1987) was an American actress, dancer, and Pin-up model, pin-up girl. She achieved fame in the 1940s as one of the top stars of the Classical Hollywood cinema, Golden Age of ...
when seeing the name on a poster for the movie '' Gilda'') and Camilla. In response to her performance and the choice of her for the role, film critic
Roger Ebert Roger Joseph Ebert ( ; June 18, 1942 – April 4, 2013) was an American Film criticism, film critic, film historian, journalist, essayist, screenwriter and author. He wrote for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' from 1967 until his death in 2013. Eber ...
wrote, "Not many actresses would be bold enough to name themselves after Rita Hayworth, but Harring does, because she can. Slinky and voluptuous in clinging gowns, all she has to do is stand there and she's the first good argument in 55 years for a '' Gilda'' remake." Comparisons were also made between Harring and
Ava Gardner Ava Lavinia Gardner (December 24, 1922 – January 25, 1990) was an American actress during the Golden Age of Hollywood. She first signed a contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1941 and appeared mainly in small roles until she drew critics' att ...
by the ''
International Herald Tribune The ''International Herald Tribune'' (''IHT'') was a daily English-language newspaper published in Paris, France, for international English-speaking readers. It published under the name ''International Herald Tribune'' starting in 1967, but its ...
''. In 2002, she was awarded the American Latino Media Arts (ALMA) Award for Outstanding Actress in a Feature Film for her performance. Harring went on to work twice more with Lynch—as an anthropomorphic rabbit in the limited series ''
Rabbits Rabbits are small mammals in the family Leporidae (which also includes the hares), which is in the order Lagomorpha (which also includes pikas). They are familiar throughout the world as a small herbivore, a prey animal, a domesticated form ...
'' (2002) and in a
cameo appearance A cameo appearance, also called a cameo role and often shortened to just cameo (), is a brief guest appearance of a well-known person or character in a work of the performing arts. These roles are generally small, many of them non-speaking on ...
in ''
Inland Empire The Inland Empire (commonly abbreviated as the IE) is a metropolitan area and region inland of and adjacent to coastal Southern California, centering around the cities of San Bernardino and Riverside, and bordering Los Angeles County and Or ...
'' (2006). In 2002, she appeared in ''
John Q ''John Q.'' is a 2002 American crime drama film directed by Nick Cassavetes, and written by James Kearns. It stars Denzel Washington as the title character, a man who takes a hospital emergency room hostage in order for his son to receive a ...
'', and was female lead opposite
Jean-Claude Van Damme Jean-Claude Camille François Van Varenberg (, ; born 18 October 1960), known professionally as Jean-Claude Van Damme (, ), is a Belgian martial artist and actor. Born and raised in Brussels, his father enrolled him in a Shotokan karate schoo ...
in '' Derailed''. In 2003, she starred in ''Mi Casa, Su Casa'' together with
Barbara Eden Barbara Eden (born Barbara Jean Morehead; August 23, 1931) is an American actress and singer, who starred as the title character in the sitcom ''I Dream of Jeannie'' (1965–1970). Her other roles included Roslyn Pierce opposite Elvis Presley in ...
. In 2004, she was the spoiled wife of antagonist Mr. Saint (
John Travolta John Joseph Travolta (born February 18, 1954) is an American actor. He began acting in television before transitioning into a leading man in films. List of awards and nominations received by John Travolta, His accolades include a Primetime Em ...
), Livia Saint in the movie adaptation of
Marvel Comics Marvel Comics is a New York City–based comic book publishing, publisher, a property of the Walt Disney Company since December 31, 2009, and a subsidiary of Disney Publishing Worldwide since March 2023. Marvel was founded in 1939 by Martin G ...
's '' The Punisher''. In 2005, Harring starred in the independent film '' The King'', and later had roles in ''
Nancy Drew Nancy Drew is a fictional character appearing in several mystery book series, movies, video games, and TV shows as a teenage amateur sleuth. The books are ghostwriter, ghostwritten by a number of authors and published under the collective pseudo ...
'', '' Love in the Time of Cholera'', '' The Caller'', and '' Drool'', in which she plays an abused wife fleeing her husband. In 2006, Harring joined the cast of FX's crime drama, '' The Shield'', as defense attorney Rebecca Doyle, appearing in nine episodes of season five. In the role, she is hired by lead character Vic Mackey to protect his team of corrupt police officers against an Internal Affairs investigation. From 2009 to 2010, she also appeared in four episodes as Evelyn Bass/Elizabeth Fisher in
The CW The CW Network, LLC (commonly referred to as The CW or simply CW) is an American commercial broadcast television network which is controlled by Nexstar Media Group through a 75% ownership interest. The network's name is derived from the firs ...
series ''
Gossip Girl ''Gossip Girl'' is an American teen drama television series created and developed by Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage and based on the series of novels of the same name by Cecily von Ziegesar. It follows a group of students on Manhattan's ...
''. In the show, she plays a woman posing as the long-lost mother of the character Chuck Bass, before her deceit is discovered by the other characters. She also guest-starred on '' Law & Order: Special Victims Unit'' in 2003, '' Law & Order: Criminal Intent'' in 2010, and '' NCIS: Los Angeles'' in 2012 and 2016. Harring was also cast in the independent film ''The Loner'' directed by Daniel Grove. In 2016 she was cast in the English-language remake of the film ''Inside'', and in Legendary's first digital film '' The Thinning'', alongside
Logan Paul Logan Alexander Paul (born April 1, 1995) is an American influencer, professional wrestler, Entrepreneurship, entrepreneur, boxing, boxer, and actor. He has over 23 million subscribers on his YouTube channel ''Logan Paul Vlogs'' and has ranked ...
and Peyton List. In 2022, she appeared in the romantic comedy '' Father of the Bride'' playing Diego Boneta's mother.


Personal life

In 1987, Harring married Count Carl-Eduard von Bismarck-Schönhausen, great-great-grandson of
Otto von Bismarck Otto, Prince of Bismarck, Count of Bismarck-Schönhausen, Duke of Lauenburg (; born ''Otto Eduard Leopold von Bismarck''; 1 April 1815 – 30 July 1898) was a German statesman and diplomat who oversaw the unification of Germany and served as ...
. They divorced after two years of marriage in 1989.


Filmography


Film


Television


References


External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Harring, Laura 1964 births 20th-century American actresses 21st-century American actresses Actresses from Sinaloa American film actresses American people of Austrian descent American people of German descent American actresses of Mexican descent American television actresses American soap opera actresses Bismarck family Countesses in Germany Hispanic and Latino American actresses Living people Mexican emigrants to the United States Mexican people of Austrian descent Mexican people of German descent Miss Universe 1985 contestants Miss USA winners People from El Paso, Texas People from Los Mochis Alumni of Aiglon College