Family
Bleeth's American father, Philip, is Jewish of Russian and German ancestry, while her mother, Carina, was a Pied-noir .
Her mother was a former fashion model, while her father was a professional photographer. They both ran a business that rented vans to fashion photographers for on-location shoots. Her father became Yasmine's business manager. Bleeth's parents separated, and she was raised by her mother. She was 18 when they later divorced.
Childhood
Bleeth's earliest known acting role was in a Johnson & Johnson's No More Tears baby shampoo television commercial at age ten months at the end of 1968 or the beginning of 1969. She once said: "I did my first commercial when I was 10 months old, and I've been in the business ever since." At age 6 she appeared on Candid Camera. Later that year she appeared in a Max Factor cosmetic campaign, along with the model, Cristina Ferrare. Her work in this campaign caught the eye of fashion photographer, Francesco Scavullo, who subsequently included her and her mother, Carina, in his book entitled Scavullo's Women.
Total Film magazine, issue number 21, dated (October 1998), contains a two-page interview with Bleeth. In the article she said, "When I was a girl I used to have to force boys to kiss me. My toughest friend had to hold them down."
Yasmine Bleeth in Hey Babe!, her 1st film at 12-years-old
Bleeth attended the United Nations International School in Manhattan, New York, and she received a bilingual (French-English) education . Although she was very popular with boys, girls frequently beat her up. At one time when she was 14 years old, she had to be away from school for a few months for her acting career. When she returned to school, she was devastated to learn that the students had been gossiping that she was away for so long because she was pregnant.
On-screen beginnings
Bleeth starred in her first movie at the age of 12. She was cast opposite Buddy Hackett in the feature film Hey Babe! in 1980.
By the time she graduated from high school, she had already been working on the soap opera Ryan's Hope since the age of 16. In 1991, she created the role as Lee Anne Demerest on the highly acclaimed soap opera One Life To Live.
Mother's death
At the age of 20, Bleeth lost her mother Carina to inflammatory breast cancer, the deadliest type of breast cancer. Bleeth said that she never accepted the fact that her mother was dying until Carina took her very last breath. Just two months after Carina's 47th birthday, her fight with cancer was over .
After Carina died, Bleeth sank into depression, and she turned down offers for acting or modeling work for about eight months.
Fiancée
After she met Ricky Paull Goldin, a soap actor who helped her with her depression. The two lived in Manhattan, but after she was cast for Baywatch, she moved to Los Angeles. The couple had planned to marry, but shortly after the wedding invitations were made out, she called off the marriage.
Breast cancer advocate
Bleeth was the 1998 spokesperson for the Lee National Denim Day fundraising campaign, which raises millions of dollars for breast cancer research and education. In 1998 it occurred on October 9, and was called the 'Wear Jeans to Work' campaign. Through Bleeth's help, $5 million was raised on that one day to help the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation. Her primary message to women was to pay attention to their bodies; Her mother was initially misdiagnosed by a doctor who thought that she was going through early menopause.
Bleeth donated the proceeds of her $10,000 win on Celebrity Jeopardy to breast cancer research. She hoped to use her celebrity status to expand breast cancer awareness - particularly to young women who might overlook what an older woman would not ignore [6].
Bleeth has been a spokesperson for the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation who, along with corporate sponsor Ford, put together the nationally run Race for the Cure.
Drug addiction and arrest
In December 2000, Bleeth voluntarily entered the Malibu-based Promises rehabilitation clinic to overcome a cocaine addiction.
On September 12, 2001, the day after the September 11th attack on the World Trade Center in Bleeth's hometown of New York City, Bleeth was arrested in Michigan after her car pulled off the highway and wound up on a median. No other cars were involved. The car accident occurred on Interstate 94 near Detroit as she and her future husband, Paul Cerrito, were heading to Detroit Metropolitan Airport [7]. Booking photograph at time of arrest.
Police found four syringes with an injectable form of cocaine in them and a small plastic bag with cocaine residue on it. The next day police conducted a search of her hotel room, and they found more cocaine and drug paraphernalia. In November 2001, through a plea bargain, Bleeth pleaded guilty to possessing less than 25 grams of cocaine and to driving while impaired. She was sentenced in January 2002 to two years of probation and 100 hours of community service.[8]
Bleeth's lawyer, Jerry Sabbota, stated that the actress was satisfied with the plea bargain, noting that her record will be cleared of any felonies after she fulfills the terms of her probation. "When all is said and done she'll have a traffic ticket on her record. She wasn't treated any better than anyone else, and she wasn't treated any worse", Sabbota said. Bleeth completely fulfilled the terms of her probation as of January 2004, and her record was cleared as previously determined by the plea bargain.
Rehab and sobriety
Attorney Sabbota stated that Bleeth had returned to Promises rehabilitation clinic. In an issue of Glamour from April 2003, Bleeth wrote a three page article entitled "Back From my Drugs Hell" about her rocky path to recovery, her drug addiction, and her struggle to remain sober. She wrote that she had a cocaine habit that was so severe that she collapsed at a photo shoot for Glamour magazine, and she went without sleep for five days at a time. She wrote that "consciously trying to stay off drugs is now part of my life and always will be." [9]
Commenting on her cocaine addiction, Bleeth said, "It was almost like falling in love... It became my boyfriend, my best friend, my family."
Marriage
Bleeth married former bar owner Paul Cerrito on August 25, 2002.[10] They met each other at the Promises clinic. They married in Santa Barbara, California and now live in Los Angeles, California.
In the (April 2003) edition of Glamour, Bleeth stated, "They say you shouldn't get into any relationship in the first year of sobriety — especially with someone in the program, but Paul and I fell in love immediately."
