Laura Harring

About Laura Harring

Laura Elena Harring, born Herring Martínez on March 3, 1964, is a prominent American actress and former beauty queen who took home the title of Miss USA in 1985 before embarking on a career in film and television. She gained significant recognition for her leading performance as Rita in the acclaimed 2001 film Mulholland Drive. Harring's cinematic credits also encompass a variety of films, including The Forbidden Dance (1990), John Q (2002), Willard (2003), The Punisher (2004), The King (2005), Love in the Time of Cholera (2007), Ghost Son (2007), The Caller (2008), Drool (2009), Sex Ed (2014), and Inside (2016). On television, she portrayed Carla Greco in General Hospital from 1990 to 1991, Paula Stevens in Sunset Beach in 1997, and Rebecca "Becca" Doyle in the series The Shield in 2006. Harring boasts a diverse heritage, with roots in Austria, Germany, and Mexico. Her mother, María Elena Martínez-Cairo, is a spiritual teacher from Mexico, as well as a real estate investor and former secretary. Her father, Raymond Herring, was an organic farmer and developer with Austrian-German lineage. In 1987, she entered into marriage with Count Carl-Eduard von Bismarck-Schönhausen, a descendant of Otto von Bismarck, but the couple divorced two years later in 1989.