Joan Severance

---

title: "Joan Severance" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["actresses-from-houston", "american-female-models", "american-television-actresses", "american-film-actresses", "living-people", "20th-century-american-actresses", "21st-century-american-actresses", "1958-births"] description: "American model and actress" topic_path: "arts" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joan_Severance" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary American model and actress ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox person"]

Field	Value
name	Joan Severance
image	Severance 2005.png
caption	Severance at the 2005 15th Annual Night of 100 Stars Oscar
birth_name	Joan Marie Severance
birth_date
birth_place	Houston, Texas, U.S.
occupation	Actress, fashion model
yearsactive	1979–present
spouse
website
::

| name = Joan Severance | image = Severance 2005.png | caption = Severance at the 2005 15th Annual Night of 100 Stars Oscar | birth_name = Joan Marie Severance | birth_date = | birth_place = Houston, Texas, U.S. | death_date = | death_place = | othername = | occupation = Actress, fashion model | yearsactive = 1979–present | spouse = | website =

Joan Marie Severance (born December 23, 1958) is an American actress and former fashion model.

Early life

Severance was born in Houston, Texas.

Severance attended Westbury High School, and at age 15, started modeling to make money for college. Although she hoped to become a veterinarian, she could not afford the cost of tuition. After appearing in the "Miss Houston" beauty contest, she was discovered by Alan Martin, a local photographer in Houston, who introduced her to John Casablancas. Casablancas signed her up with the Elite modeling agency and sent her on assignment to Paris. During this time, she met her future husband, model Eric Milan.

Career

Modeling

During her time in Paris, she posed for Sportswear International, Vogue Paris, and others. Upon her return to the United States, Severance became one of America's top models, filming over 40 commercials, and earning $7,500 per day. She has also modeled for Versace, Chanel, and Armani.

Severance was also on the covers of the January 1990 and November 1992 issues of Playboy magazine, both featuring her in a nude pictorial. More recently, at age 52, she appeared in a six-page editorial along with an interview in the Spring/Summer 2011 issue of Genlux magazine.

Acting

In 1986, Severance began auditioning for acting bits at the urging of her friend Robin Leach. She made her debut in a small role in the first Lethal Weapon film in 1987. She usually takes the "femme fatale" roles in low-budget horror and murder-mystery movies including Lake Consequence (1992), Criminal Passion (1994), and Payback (1995). She was featured alongside Richard Pryor and Gene Wilder in the 1989 comedy See No Evil, Hear No Evil, and as Hulk Hogan's love interest, Samantha N. Moore, in the wrestling film No Holds Barred (1989). She had leading roles in Roger Corman's Black Scorpion (1995). She starred in and co-produced the sequels Black Scorpion II: Aftershock (1997) and The Last Seduction II (1999).

She appeared in the Scorpions' video for their 1988 song, "Rhythm of Love."

Her most extensive role was a villainess for an eleven-episode story arc of the TV series Wiseguy; she played Susan Profitt, half of a brother/sister crime team (the other half was played by Kevin Spacey) to great acclaim. Their partnership was reprised in See No Evil, Hear No Evil. In the early 1990s, Severance appeared as Samantha "Sam" Dooley, the Martian Belle, in two training videos for Virtual World Entertainment alongside other actors such as Cheech Marin, "Weird Al" Yankovic, R. Lee Ermey, and Judge Reinhold. From 1998 to 1999, Severance played Security Chief Camille Hunter on the Aaron Spelling television series Love Boat: The Next Wave on UPN.

In 2006, Severance appeared in My Network TV telenovela Wicked Wicked Games. She was also in shows such as CSI: Miami and One Tree Hill. In 2013, she was in American Horror Story: Asylum. In 2014, she was on Celebrity Wife Swap with Robin Leach.

Personal life

Severance married fellow model Eric Milan in 1977. They separated amicably in 1984. According to Severance, they "just grew apart". Severance was diagnosed with vitiligo when she was eight years old; the primary area affected by the disease is the skin around her eyes.

Filmography

Film

::data[format=table]

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1987	Lethal Weapon	Girl In Black Playsuit	Uncredited
1989	See No Evil, Hear No Evil	Eve
1989	No Holds Barred	Samantha Moore
1989	* Worth Winning*	Lizbette
1990	Bird on a Wire	Rachel Varney
1991	*Another Pair of Aces: Three of a Kind *	Susan Davis	Television film
1991	*The Runestone *	Marla Stewart
1991	*Write to Kill *	Belle Washburn
1992	Illicit Behavior	Melissa Yarnell
1992	Almost Pregnant	Maureen Mallory
1993	*Lake Consequence *	Irene
1994	Criminal Passion	Melanie Hudson
1995	Payback	Rose Gullerman
1995	Dangerous Indiscretion	Caroline Everett
1995	Hard Evidence	Madelyn Turner
1995	*Black Scorpion *	Darcy Walker / Black Scorpion	Television film
1996	Frequent Flyer	Alison Rawlings	Television film
1996	Profile for Murder	Dr. Hanna Carras
1997	*Black Scorpion II *	Darcy Walker / Black Scorpion
1997	*In Dark Places *	Chapelle
1998	Matter of Trust	Theresa Marsh
1998	Life of the Party: The Pamela Harriman Story	Paley	Television film
1999	*The Last Seduction II *	Bridget Gregory
2001	*Cause of Death *	Angela Carter
2003	*Mystery Woman *	Mary Stenning	Television film
2005	*Taylor *	Leigh
2006	Last Sunset	Lisa Wayne
2007	Born	Dr. Sammael
2012	Sharkproof	Connie Krebs
2016	Accidentally Engaged	Sandy Byers
2016	*Becker's Farm *	Mrs. Schmidt
::

Television

::data[format=table]

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1979	ABC Afterschool Specials	Actress Exiting Limo	Episode: "A Movie Star's Daughter"
1987	Mike Hammer	Pauline	Episode: "Lady Killer"
1988	Wiseguy	Susan Profitt	9 episodes
1988	Max Headroom	Zik-Zak Hallucination Girl	Episode: "Neurostim"
1989	Murphy's Law	Alex Kovac	Episode: "All's Wrong That Ends Wrong"
1989	The Hitchhiker	Jane Ambergris / Holly May Stillman	Episode: "My Enemy"
1991	Midnight Caller	Norma Cheever	Episode: "Uninvited Guests"
1991	Good Sports	Randi	Episode: "The Moody Blues Swing"
1992	Red Shoe Diaries	The Woman	Episode: "Safe Sex"
1992	* Tales from the Crypt*	Rona	Episode: "The New Arrival"
1993	Johnny Bago	Reno Hubbertston	Episode: "Lady Madonna"
1993	L.A. Law	Lauren Chase	Episodes: "How Much Is That Bentley in the Window" and "Foreign Co-respondent"
1997	Profiler	Christine Logan	Episodes: "Venom: Part 1" and "Venom: Part 2"
1998-1999	Love Boat: The Next Wave	Security Chief Camille Hunter	23 episodes
2003	She Spies	Lauren Drake	Episode: "Love Kills"
2004	One Tree Hill	Cynthia Price	Episodes: "I Shall Believe" and "Suddenly Everything Has Changed"
2005	CSI: Miami	Sophie Townsend	Episode: "Money Plane"
2006-2007	Wicked Wicked Games	Anna Whitman	9 episodes
2013	American Horror Story: Asylum	Marion	Episode: "Madness Ends"
2013	Masters of Sex	Leona	Episode: "Brave New World" and "Fallout"
2016	NCIS: Los Angeles	Mary Reynolds	Episode: "Glasnost"
::

References

References

1. "Joan Severance".
2. link. (2016-09-23 on ''[[People (magazine)). People]]''; Kaufman, Joanne (March 7, 1988)
3. "Westbury High Class of 1977".
4. [http://www.joanseverance.com/joan/covers.html Joan Severance magazine covers] {{webarchive. link. (2011-07-01 on JoanSeverance.com)
5. "Joan Severance {{!}} METRO Models".
6. (November 2009). "Rhythm of Love video".
7. "Joan Severance - Rotten Tomatoes".
8. (October 10, 2006). "Virtual World Battletech 3.0 Trainer".
9. (October 11, 2006). "Virtual World Red Planet 3.0 Trainer".
10. Satenstein, Liana. (April 25, 2017). "Watch This '80s Supermodel's Spectacular Age-Defying Beauty Routine".

::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::