Former Miss USA who played Rita in David Lynch's Oscar-nominated film Mulholland Drive.
She traveled frequently as a child. She studied in Switzerland when she was sixteen and worked as a social worker in India.
Film critic Roger Ebert once compared her to the classical film star Rita Hayworth.
She was married to politician Carl-Eduard von Bismarck from 1987 until 1989.
She starred with Javier Bardem the 2007 film Love in the Time of Cholera.