The milky-skinned, curly-haired Rebecca Gayheart won attention as both the Noxzema Girl in a series of TV commercials in the early 1990s, and as the bride of Dylan (Luke Perry) on “Beverly Hills, 90210″ (Fox, 1995), whose death was used as the actor’s out from the series. Since then the attractive brunette with striking blue eyes has begun racking up both TV and feature film credits as a leading lady whose star is rising.
Born into poverty as the daughter of a coal miner in Kentucky, Gayheart, at age 15, won a modeling contest that promised a career in NYC. With $300 in her pocket (all her parents could afford) she took off for the big city. Within two years, Gayheart had won a contract with Noxzema. While enrolled at the Lee Strasberg Institute, she began to find bit roles and extra work on the soaps “All My Children” and “One Life to Live” and on the NBC sitcom “The Cosby Show”. Her big break came in 1991 when she was cast as Hannah Mayberry, a young woman who becomes psychotically obsessed with her college professor, on the ABC daytime drama “Loving”. After nearly three years on the show, she left in August 1993 to pursue other career opportunities.
