Joan Severance

Joan Marie Severance is an American former fashion model and actress born on December 23, 1958, in Houston, Texas. She gained recognition as a top fashion model in the United States and internationally before establishing an acting career in television and film during the late 1980s and 1990s.

Severance grew up moving frequently due to her father's career as an IBM systems manager, living in twelve different places by the age of eleven. Her family lived in Libya for a time but fled the country in 1967 following the outbreak of the Six-Day War. After settling back in Houston, she attended Westbury High School. At age fifteen, she began modeling to raise money for college tuition in hopes of becoming a veterinarian. After entering the Miss Houston beauty contest, she was discovered by local photographer Alan Martin, who introduced her to John Casablancas of Elite Model Management. Casablancas signed her and sent her on assignment to Paris.

While working in Paris, Severance modeled for publications such as Vogue Paris and Sportswear International. Upon returning to the United States, she became one of the country's prominent models, earning $7,500 per day, filming over forty commercials, and modeling for major brands including Versace, Chanel, and Armani. Her print work also included cover appearances and pictorials in the January 1990 and November 1992 issues of Playboy magazine, as well as a six-page editorial and interview in the Spring/Summer 2011 issue of Genlux magazine.

Encouraged by her friend Robin Leach, Severance began auditioning for acting roles in 1986. She made her feature film debut with a small role in the 1987 movie Lethal Weapon. She appeared in the 1988 music video for the Scorpions song Rhythm of Love, and in 1989 she featured in the comedy film See No Evil, Hear No Evil alongside Gene Wilder and Richard Pryor. That same year, she played Samantha N. Moore in the wrestling film No Holds Barred.

On television, Severance earned acclaim playing villainess Susan Profitt in an eleven-episode story arc on the series Wiseguy alongside Kevin Spacey. In the early 1990s, she portrayed Samantha "Sam" Dooley in training videos for Virtual World Entertainment. She frequently took on femme fatale roles in low-budget horror and murder-mystery films, such as Lake Consequence, Criminal Passion, and Payback. She later starred in the superhero film Black Scorpion, its sequel Black Scorpion II, and The Last Seduction II, serving as a co-producer on the latter two projects.

Severance was a main cast member on the television series Love Boat: The Next Wave from 1998 to 1999, playing Security Chief Camille Hunter. Her later television credits include roles in Wicked Wicked Games, CSI: Miami, One Tree Hill, and American Horror Story: Asylum, as well as an appearance on Celebrity Wife Swap in 2014. In her personal life, she married model Eric Milan in 1977, and the couple separated amicably in 1984. Severance was diagnosed with vitiligo at age eight, which primarily affects the skin around her eyes.