Most known professionally as the sexy, buxom, brunette bombshell and red swim-suited lifeguard Caroline Holden on the hit, long-running T.V. program Baywatch, Yasmine Bleeth is also known for her unique name, for appearing in several films and guest-starring on a wide variety of T.V. series, and for her much-publicized drug addictions and subsequent arrest in the early 2000s.

Bleeth was born in New York City on June 14, 1968 to a Jewish-Russian-German photographer father and a Pied-noir fashion model mother. Bleeth entered the exciting, challenging, busy, and competitive world of acting at the age of 10 months appearing in a Johnson & Johnson “No More Tears” baby shampoo commercial on T.V., which led to other T.V. appearances and modeling campaigns as a little girl.

Her first movie-starring role was in 1980’s Hey Babe! when she was just 12 years old, starring alongside Buddy Hackett. Bleeth moved on to soap operas as a teenager and young adult, taking roles in Ryan’s Hope (1985 to 1989) and One Life to Life (1991 to 1993). She turned down a role on Beverly Hills, 90210, which ended up starring Jennie Garth, Tori Spelling, Shannen Doherty, Luke Perry, Jason Priestley, and Ian Ziering. Bleeth’s most notable role was yet to come, however, as sexy lifeguard Caroline in Baywatch, from 1993 to 1997.

After Bleeth’s stint on Baywatch, which starred current drunkard/questionable father/America’s Got Talent co-host David Hasselhoff from 1989 to 2000 and the Canadian “hooter-licious” actress/model Pamela Anderson from 1992 to 1997, she accepted roles in the T.V. series Nash Bridges (1998 to 2000) and Aaron Spelling’s Titans (2000).

Throughout her acting career, Bleeth has guest starred on a number of T.V. programs, including Boy Meets World, Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve, Politically Incorrect, Ashton Kutcher’s Punk’d, The Simpsons, The Rosie O’Donnell Show, Jay Leno’s The Tonight Show, Conan O’Brien’s Late Night, The Naked Truth, and Daytime’s Greatest Weddings. She’s also appeared in a number of films throughout the years, the latest of which is 2008’s upcoming The Last Guy on Earth, starring Rob Schneider as JJ and a whole throng of women, including Bleeth, Carol Burnett, Cathy Lee Crosby, Joan Cusack, Whoopi Goldberg, Kathy Griffin, Elizabeth Hurley, Shelley Long, Joan Rivers, Melissa Rivers, Brooke Shields, and Brenda Strong.

Unfortunately, however, Bleeth’s second greatest claim to fame (second after her stint on Baywatch) is her publicized drug addiction, arrest, and rehabilitation. The actress/model admitted herself into Promises clinic in Malibu for her cocaine addiction in late 2000, but nine months later she was arrested in Michigan after a car accident in which she was involved revealed her possession of cocaine in her car and hotel room.

She also returned to Promises clinic, where she met future hubby Paul Cerrito. Bleeth is currently married to Cerrito (as of late August 2005). She was previously engaged to soap actor Ricky Paull Goldin, but called off the wedding.