Pamela Anderson
Born: July 1 1967
Where: Ladysmith, British Columbia, Canada
The quintessential "Baywatch Babe" made the shift from the small to the big screen with limited success in a series of underpowered celebrity vehicles.
Instead, she is destined to be remembered for her pneumatic, surgically-enhanced chest, volatile on-off relationship with rocker Tommy Lee and headline-grabbing antics.
Feature-length outings, so to speak, include the wannabe thriller Snapdragon, the vacuous action caper Raw Justice and Naked Justice.
Movies unlikely to trouble the sleep of the likes of Dame Judi Dench, the publicity tagline for the latter promised: "She's about to bear her soul¿and all that goes with it."
It was while she attended a British Columbia Lions football game that Lee was "discovered" in a most unusual way.
Dressed in a Labatt's Beer T-shirt, her image was transmitted on the stadium's wide screen to the crowd's appreciation and a contract to sell the beer quickly followed.
It wasn't long before Playboy magazine expressed an interest and there followed the first of 12 covers featuring Anderson without the benefit of clothes.
TV then picked up on the blonde (actually, she's a brunette) and she joined the cast of the series Home Improvement.
At the same time, she accepted the part that was to launch her into the celebrity stratosphere - buoyancy-aid packing lifeguard CJ Parker in Baywatch.
Milking her newfound celebrity, she was also featured in a number of tacky spin-offs including videos such as Wet & Wild III, Sexy Lingerie II and Wrestlemania IX.
However, off screen things weren't going quite so smoothly following her marriage to Motley Crue drummer Tommy Lee in 1995.
First of all a "honeymoon" video of the two doing what honeymoon couples do on a yacht made its way onto the internet.
Three years later Anderson was filing for divorce after her husband was jailed six months for assault (although the couple were briefly reunited when she tried to help him with his alcohol problem).
In 1999 she had her breast implants removed, ditched Lee for good and hooked up with Swedish model Marcus Schenkenberg and latterly Kid Rock.
In 1996, she had made her highest profile big screen appearance in the disposable Barb Wire and also had an uncredited cameo in 2002's live action Scooby Doo.
The same year she announced she had contracted hepatitis C after sharing a dirty needle with ex-husband Tommy Lee and was receiving treatment.
She returned to the beach for Baywatch: Hawaiian Wedding and also played Becca in the horror spoof sequel Scary Movie 3.
