Eva LaRue

While Eva La Rue may have initially parlayed her exotic beauty into an acting career, it was her professional drive combined with audience appeal that allowed her to maintain a lengthy presence on film and television. Following an early career in modeling for Fredericks of Hollywood, La Rue began her foray into acting with the schlocky sword-and-sorcery movie "The Barbarians" (1987). After five more years of minor roles in a string of forgettable TV series and direct-to-DVD films, she endeared herself to daytime audiences with her stint on the long-running soap opera "All My Children" (AMC, 1970-2011) as resident heroine Dr. Maria Santos Grey.

So convincing was she in the role that La Rue later won the part of the quintessential good girl when she was cast as the titular star of the made-for-TV biopic "A Dream Is a Wish Your Heart Makes: The Annette Funicello Story" (CBS, 1995). After her on-again off-again run on "All My Children," La Rue reached an ever wider audience in 2005 as Natalie Boa Vista, a former FBI agent-turned-forensic analyst on the popular police procedural "CSI: Miami" (CBS, 2002-12). In addition to her ongoing "CSI" duties, La Rue could be seen in such efforts as the thrillers "Cries in the Dark" (Lifetime, 2006) and "Lakeview Terrace" (2008). Beautiful, talented and eminently likable, La Rue remained one of television's more favored faces.

Born just two days after Christmas in 1966, Eva Maria LaRuy (later La Rue) was born and raised in Southern California. The oldest of three children, La Rue's exotic beauty and vaguely indeterminate ethnicity were the result of a potpourri mixture of Puerto Rican, Dutch, Scottish, and French ancestry. La Rue began her acting career at the tender age of six, appearing in commercials. After graduating from Norco Senior High School in 1985, she began modeling.

Appearing in a number of print ads and catalogs, La Rue's sultry good looks and curvaceous figure eventually landed her a contract with the famed lingerie label, Frederick's of Hollywood. Wishing to branch out into acting, La Rue began auditioning for soap operas in the early 1990s. Her big break came in 1993 when she was cast in the role of resident good girl, Dr. Maria Santos Grey, on the long-running daytime soap "All My Children" (ABC, 1970-2011). Though La Rue's character was originally not intended for a long stay in Pine Valley, her performance won over scores of fans and quickly made her one of the most popular regulars on the show.

Over the next five years, La Rue's character, Maria, became the show's quintessential heroine; experiencing passionate romance, countless tragedies, and various affairs of the heart - sometimes all within the same week. La Rue's knack for portraying saint-like fortitude in the face of such perpetual adversities as infertility, infidelity, amnesia, and even a "fatal" plane crash did not go unnoticed. As a reward, La Rue was nominated for her first Daytime Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series in 1997. Though she wound up losing to fellow nominee Jaclyn Zeman of "General Hospital" (ABC, 1963- ), La Rue succeeded in officially earning her colleagues' respect.

During her tenure on "All My Children," La Rue formed close relationships with a number of her castmates. Among the more notable was one with a novice actress named Sarah Michelle Gellar, who would later go on to stardom as "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" (WB/UPN, 1997-2003). Cast in the role of ingénue, Kendall Kane, Gellar was reportedly tempted to quit "All My Children" after her first year - rumored, in part, to off-screen tensions with the show's star, soap diva, Susan Lucci.

Years later, at the height of her "Buffy" fame, Gellar credited La Rue's early friendship and support as a key factor in ultimately deciding to stick it out on the soap. Ironically, it was La Rue's close relationship with another fellow cast member John Callahan that garnered the most publicity. In 1994, La Rue, who was married at the time to actor John O'Hurley - best known as J. Peterman on "Seinfeld" (NBC, 1989-1998) - fell head over heels for her co-star John Callahan. The fact that he played La Rue's husband Edmund Grey onscreen only helped their on-set love to blossom, which did no favors for La Rue's real-life marriage. As a result, the couple divorced later that year. La Rue and Callahan were married on the Hawaiian island of Lania in November 1996. Though they would later divorce, La Rue changed her working name to Eva La Rue Callahan for a time.

Despite the drama in her personal life, La Rue's professional career was not negatively affected. Ringing in the new millennium, she began making the gradual transition out of daytime, guest hosting awards shows and appearing in small made-for-TV movies and guesting on numerous TV series, including recurring roles on "Third Watch" (NBC, 1999-2005), "Soul Food" (Showtime, 2000-04) and "George Lopez" (ABC, 2002-07). Her strategy of serving as hard-working guest actor with charisma to spare eventually up paid off in the fall of 2005, when La Rue was asked to join the cast of "CSI: Miami" (CBS, 2002-12) as sexy DNA analyst, Natalia Boa Vista. Only a recurring character up to that point, Boa Vista was officially promoted to series regular status in the fifth season.

Despite her busy schedule and the demands "CSI: Miami," La Rue managed to squeeze in other acting projects from time to time. On television, she played a police detective desperately trying to locate her missing pregnant sister in the made-for-TV mystery "Cries in the Dark" (Lifetime, 2006). She later picked up a supporting film role as yet another police officer in the Neil LaBute-directed thriller, "Lakeview Terrace" (2008), starring Samuel L. Jackson as an racist LAPD cop antagonizing his next door neighbors (Patrick Wilson & Kerry Washington).

In addition to her work as an actress, La Rue also served as the national spokesperson for the Beckstrand Cancer Foundation, a non-profit organization offering assistance to cancer patients and their families.