Danish actress Brigitte Nielsen was born Gitte Nielsen on July 15, 1963, in Rodovre, Denmark. Dubbed the "Amazon" due to her six foot, one inch stature, Nielsen moved to France when she was sixteen years old to pursue a career in modeling.

At twenty-two years old, Nielsen landed the lead role in Dino De Laurentiis’ film Red Sonja (1985), starring opposite Arnold Schwarzenegger. Soon after, she met Sylvester Stallone, and by 1985, they were married. Nielsen continued to act steadily throughout the 80s, starring in Rocky IV in 1985, Cobra in 1986, and Beverly Hills Cop II in 1987, with Eddie Murphy and Paul Reiser.

By 1987, Nielsen had split from Stallone and started to pursue a singing career. She released the album Everybody Tells a Story, featuring a duet with Austrian singer, Falco. Throughout the 90s, Nielsen starred in such films as Chained Heat II in 1993; Galaxis in 1995; Compelling Evidence also in 1995; She's Too Tall in 1998, with Corey Feldman and George Hamilton; and Doomsdayer in 2000. Meanwhile, Nielsen has continued to release music sporadically, sometimes under the name "Gitta," including the duet "You're No Lady," with drag-queen RuPaul, in 2002.

In 2004, Nielsen revived her career by becoming a small-screen presence on the third season of VH1 reality show, The Surreal Life, along with Jordan Knight, Flavor Flav, Ryan Starr, Dave Coulier, and Charo. Despite the fact that Nielsen was married at the time to Raoul Meyer, she entered into an unusual love match with Public Enemy rapper, Flavor Flav, which led to a spin-off reality show in 2005, Strange Love. The romance proved to be short lived, however. By the following year, Flav had yet another reality show in the works; this time, to find himself another lady on Flavor of Love.

Nielsen also continued to work the reality show circuit as a singleton, appearing on the UK TV show Celebrity Big Brother, alongside former mother-in-law, Jackie Stallone; as well as in VH1's The Surreal Life: Fame Game.

In March of 2005, Nielsen married twenty-eight-year-old Italian, Mattia Dessi; however, the marriage was not legalized due to the fact that Nielsen’s divorce from Meyer was not yet final. The union was finally made legal on July 8, 2006, with Ivana Trump serving as a witness at the wedding.

Nielsen is the mother of four children, Julian, born in 1984; Killian, born in 1989; Douglas, born in 1993; and Raoul Jr., born in 1995. She currently divides her time between homes in Italy, where she has hosted various television shows, and the U.S.

YUDDY