With her full lips, signature pixie 'do and awe-inspiring body — even when pregnant — this former model became a small-screen soap vixen. After a handful of TV guest spots, Rinna landed her seminal role as a drug-addicted chanteuse-cum-cosmetics diva on
Days of our Lives. By the mid-'90s, she made the move to prime time on the campy drama
Melrose Place, playing a conniving restaurateur. During her tenure, she met and married actor Harry Hamlin, and the couple subsequently collaborated on numerous projects, including the TV-movies
Sex, Lies and Obsessions and
Oh, Baby and on the series
Veronica Mars. Rinna solidified her sexpot status when she posed for
Playboy while six-months pregnant with her first child, and although Rinna took a brief break in the late '90s to be with her babies, she reemerged in the '00s a reinvented woman. In addition to continuing her acting career, she added hosting, dancing and retail to her résumé. As a sassy small-screen personality, she cohosted SoapNet's
Soap Talk, earning a trio of Daytime Emmy nods, as well as the hair-raising reality competition
Tease and the home-improvement series
Merge. She also opened the trendy, high-end boutique belle grey, named in honor of her two children. But in 2006, Rinna really boosted her profile — and buffed up her bod — as one of the celebrity competitors on the second edition of
Dancing with the Stars. Although she didn't win, she cut a winning figure on the dance floor, and her slick moves helped her and hubby Hamlin (a Season 3
DWTS vet) snag leads in the Broadway smash
Chicago in 2007. That same year, she made her debut as a hot host and red-carpet commentator for TV Guide Channel, replacing the mother-daughter duo of Joan and Melissa Rivers.
Lisa Rinna Fast Facts:
- Won the 1994 Soap Opera Digest Award for Outstanding Female Newcomer for her work on Days of our Lives.
- In 2004, she won the Innovators of Fashion Award from the Laboratory Institute of Merchandizing. She opened a second belle grey store the following year.
- Lisa Rinna Relationships:
- Lois Rinna - Mother
- Nancy Rinna - Sister
- Amelia Gray Hamlin - Daughter
- Delilah Belle Hamlin - Daughter
- Frank Rinna - Father
- Harry Hamlin - Husband
