From ‘Baywatch’ babe to reality show star, Carmen Electra has made the leap from sex symbol to pop culture icon. Throughout the 90s, Electra captured the spotlight even when she had little else to promote beyond her sexy looks. Her tempestuous personal life kept her in the headlines constantly.
Before she married rocker Dave Navarro on MTV, she’d already posed for Playboy four times, dated Prince and married, then quickly divorced the flamboyant basketball star Dennis Rodman. Though they were together only a week, one spat landed both Electra and Rodman in jail.
Her personal life kept her in the public eye since she was discovered by Prince in 1991. She was still Tara Patrick then, a 19-year-old dancer who’d left the Midwest to try and make it in LA. Prince gave her the unforgettable name and signed her to his label. Although her musical career never really took off, Carmen soon became world-famous as an actress on ‘Baywatch’, where she was Pamela Anderson’s replacement.
She later tried to break out of the sex bombshell stereotype, first spoofing her ‘Baywatch’ role in ‘Scary Movie’ and appearing in ‘Starsky and Hutch’ with Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson. However, she was not ready to totally leave her sexy image behind and released a fitness video, ‘Aerobic Striptease’, which teaches the art of giving a lap dance while working out.
In the 90s, Electra had a chequered dating history – she was linked with several musicians, including rockers Tommy Lee, B-Real of the rap group Cypress Hill, and Fred Durst of Limp Bizkit. In 2003, she found what she claimed to be her soul mate in Dave Navarro and expressed a desire to start a family. However, the couple announced their separation in July 2006 and their divorce was finalized the following year.
Over the course of her career, Electra has appeared in a number of movies and television productions, including sports comedy ‘Mr. 3000’, action film ‘Max Havoc: Curse of The Dragon’ and made-for-television horror movie ‘Monster Island’, all of which were released in 2004. Other projects include 2005’s ‘Getting Played’ and ‘Cheaper by the Dozen 2’ in which she played the character of Eugene Levy’s wife.
Electra also starred in 2006’s film parody ‘Date Movie’, appeared as herself in the hugely panned Paris Hilton project ‘National Lampoon’s Pledge This!’ in the same year and followed this with a role in another parody – ‘Epic Movie’ (2007). The latter saw her spoof the character of Mystique from the X-Men trilogy.
