Laura Harring (born Laura Elena MartÃnez Herring on March 3, 1964 in Los Mochis, Sinaloa) is a Mexican American actress and former Miss USA (1985). Harring lived the first ten years of her life in Mexico, before her family relocated to San Antonio, Texas. At age 16 she convinced her family to let her study in Switzerland at one of the top schools, Aiglon College, where she graduated with an academic diploma. She eventually returned to America, settling down in El Paso, Texas, and entered the world of beauty pageants. She won the title of Miss El Paso, and soon after, Miss Texas. In 1985, at only 21 years of age, she became the first Hispanic to ever win the Miss USA crown. She spent the next year traveling through Asia, exploring Europe and working as a social worker in India. It was in Europe that she was introduced to the world of nobility and, in 1987, she married Count Carl-Eduard von Bismarck-Schönhausen (born in 1961). While she retains the title of Countess von Bismark-Schönhausen, Laura and Carl decided to part ways, divorcing in 1989, but still remain great friends to this day. Harring studied theatre at the London Academy of Performing Arts and is skilled in the French style of Commedia dell'arte, as well as in most of the Latin dances, including the Argentine Tango. She hit the big time with her performance in David Lynch's Mulholland Drive (2001), opposite Naomi Watts |
