Brooke Burns Biography

Brooke Elizabeth Burns (born March 16, 1978 in Dallas, Texas), is an American model, television and motion picture actress. She is probably best known for her role on Baywatch and Baywatch Hawaii.

Brooke is the middle child of three children. Since kindergarten, her dream was to become a ballet dancer. Her mother encouraged her from a young age to pursue this. Unfortunately, a serious ski accident prevented Burns from accomplishing this; she was unable to perform the flexible moves needed to become a top tier dancer. [And ballet dancing is not for people as tall, 5'9" to 5'10", as Brooke is.] Then, her mother sent her to do some modeling as a back-up plan. At 16 years old, still in high school, Brooke began to appear in European and American fashion magazines.

She started appearing in commercials for Mug Root Beer and popular restaurants. Her appearances translated into a successful audition for Out of the Blue, a show filmed on location at Sea World, in Orlando, Florida.

After this, she decided to move to Los Angeles. She got an audition for a role on Baywatch and while she didn't get the part, she got her big break when she was called back to fill a permanent role as Jessie Owens. She developed a cult following on Baywatch and Baywatch Hawaii. In addition to her Baywatch role, Burns appeared in several episodes of Ally McBeal, where she played a fictional character in Calista Flockhart's delusions.

At 22 she discovered she was pregnant and decided to leave Baywatch. The father was recent husband Julian McMahon of the WB show, Charmed. Their daughter, baby Madison, was born in 2000. The next year she and McMahon divorced.

Pregnant, she became a regular panelist of the game show To Tell the Truth, relaunched in 2000.

The same year Brooke took a small yet significant role in the 2001 comedy Shallow Hal, where Burns plays an ugly woman, who appears to be pretty to Jack Black's character.

She then appeared in a celebrity edition of Fear Factor. Her stunts on Fear Factor included leaping from the top of a speeding double-decker bus. Impressed with her charisma and sense of adventure, producers from NBC asked her to sign on as host of a new reality show/game show. She took the position and has hosted the short-lived American version of the Dog Eat Dog game show for two summer seasons in 2002 and 2003. The show had great Nielsen ratings since its debut in 2002.

Burns also appeared on Just Shoot Me, and Average Joe: Hawaii. She was seen in the video Death to the Supermodels.

Brooke was engaged to Bruce Willis from 2003 until June 2, 2004, when they broke the engagement due to trouble maintaining a long-distance relationship.

In 2004, Burns landed a starring role in the fox prime-time soap opera drama series North Shore playing "Nicole Booth", the director of guest relations at an exclusive Hawaiian hotel.

On 11 November 2005, Brooke had a serious accident and broke a bone in her neck after striking her head while diving into a pool at her home. It was fortunate that a friend of hers who is a trained paramedic was in the area and came to her aid. He saved her from the distinct danger of drowning, and also knew how to remove her from the pool without damaging her spinal cord. Brooke was taken to a Los Angeles Hospital, where she received surgery to correct the broken bone, and remained for several days. She is not paralyzed and is getting around well, but she will have to wear a large neck brace for weeks or months.

In a television interview after the accident, Brooke smiled and said that luckily, she was not swimming in the nude when the accident happened, and also that she feels fortunate that she was not injured worse than she was from her careless dive.

Currently, Burns resides in the Los Angeles suburbs and still enjoys dancing on a regular basis.