Vanessa Marcil

Early life

Marcil, the youngest of four children, was born in Indio, California, to Patricia Marcil, an herbalist, and Peter Ortiz, a contractor and self-made millionaire. Marcil's father is Mexican, and her mother is an American of French, and Italian ancestry.

Career

Marcil acted in a number of theatre productions before landing the role of Brenda Barrett on the soap opera General Hospital, in 1992. She garnered three Daytime Emmy Award nominations (in 1997, 1998, and 2003) for her portrayal, and won in 2003 as Outstanding Supporting Actress. In February 1998, she was named Outstanding Lead Actress at the Soap Opera Digest Awards.

On June 14, 1993 she appeared in the Prince music video "Poorgoo", which was released officially in very limited numbers. In 1994, she was cast in the Prince music video, "The Most Beautiful Girl in the World", and made People Magazine's 50 Most Beautiful list the next year. She made her feature film debut in the film The Rock (1996), in which she appeared opposite Nicolas Cage, Sean Connery, and Ed Harris.

In 1998, after six years on General Hospital, she left the show to star in the made-for-television movie To Love, Honor and Deceive, and had a recurring guest role on the police drama High Incident, produced by Steven Spielberg. In November 1998, Marcil joined the Beverly Hills, 90210 cast as Gina Kincaid and remained with the show for one-and-a-half seasons. In 1999, she starred in two independent films: Nice Guys Sleep Alone, with Sean O'Bryan, and This Space Between Us, with Jeremy Sisto.

In 2001, she was initially cast to join NYPD Blue's ninth season as a new series regular, Det. Carmen Olivera. However, after her first appearance in "Johnny Got His Gold", the show decided to re-do the role and replaced Marcil with Jacqueline Obradors, as Det. Rita Ortiz. Marcil made one more cameo appearance, as Det. Olivera, in the 11th season episode "Shear Stupidity".

From 2002 to 2003, she returned to General Hospital, as Brenda Barrett garnering her a Daytime Emmy Award for "Outstanding Supporting Actress" in 2003. Vanessa later joined the cast of the NBC drama Las Vegas as Sam Marquez, a casino host where she remained on the show for five seasons until 2008. That same year she became the host of Lifetime's reality show Blush: The Search for America's Greatest Makeup Artist as well as making a three episode guest appearance on the NBC show Lipstick Jungle.

In 2009, she starred in the Hallmark channel movie The Nanny Express as well as in the Lifetime movie One Hot Summer. In 2010, she was in the web series The Bannen Way and in August 2010 after a seven year absence, she made her return to General Hospital remaining on the show for a year before her departure from the show in July 2011. Marcil did make a guest appearance in April 2013 to commemorate the show's 50th anniversary.

In 2014, she starred in the Hallmark channel movie Stranded in Paradise and in 2015, she joined the cast of the Pop reality series Queens of Drama, about the lives of former soap opera actresses attempting to pitch a pilot for a television network. In 2016, she starred in her latest Hallmark channel movie The Convenient Groom.

Personal life

Marcil was married to actor Corey Feldman from 1989 to 1993. Marcil and her former Beverly Hills, 90210 castmate Brian Austin Green have a son, Kassius Lijah, born on March 30, 2002. Marcil married actor Carmine Giovinazzo on July 11, 2010, in a private ceremony in New York City. In June 2011, the couple announced they were expecting their first child together; however, Marcil suffered a miscarriage, her second that year. Marcil filed for divorce in August 2012 on the basis of irreconcilable differences. The divorce was finalized in March 2013. Marcil's father, Peter, passed away on September 14, 2017.