White, Vanna (Marie) 1957-

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WHITE, Vanna (Marie) 1957-

PERSONAL: Born Vanna Marie Rosich, February 18, 1957, in North Myrtle Beach, SC; daughter of Miguel Angel and Joan Marie Rosich; stepdaughter of Herbert Stackley White, Jr. (a café owner); married George Santopietro (an actor and restaurateur), December 31, 1990 (separated); children: Nicholas, Giovanna, one stepson.

ADDRESSES: Agent—c/o Author Mail, Oxmoor House, 820 Tom Martin Dr., Birmingham, AL 35211.

CAREER: Actress and game show personality; former model. Letter turner on television show Wheel of Fortune, National Broadcasting Company (NBC), Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS), and syndicated, 1982—. Guest star on television shows (as herself, unless otherwise noted), including The Price Is Right, 1972; "Wheel of Fortune," The A-Team, NBC, 1986; "The Day Garry Moved In," It's Garry Shandling's Show, Fox and Showtime, 1986; "Walking Point," Simon and Simon, CBS, 1987; Santa Barbara, NBC, 1988; (as Roxanne) "Cyrano de Mario," The Super Mario Bros. Super Show!, syndicated, 1989; "Vowel Play," L.A. Law, NBC, 1990; "God Rest Ye Murray Gentleman," L.A. Law, NBC, 1990; (as Coco/Helen Granowinner) "The Proposition," Married … with Children, Fox, 1993; (as Mrs. Moffatt) "The Test," Full House, ABC, 1994; "Chelsea Gets an Opinion," Style and Substance, CBS, 1998; "A&E Biography: Nina van Horn," Just Shoot Me, NBC, 2000; and "Inner Tube," The King of Queens, CBS, 2001.

Actress in made-for-television movies, including (as high school cheerleader) Midnight Offerings, 1981; and (as Venus) Goddess of Love, NBC, 1988. Actress in films, including (as Mickey) Gypsy Angels, 1980; (as Reston girl) Looker, Warner Bros., 1981; (as Doris) Graduation Day, RCA/Columbia, 1981; (as herself) Double Dragon (also known as Double Dragon: The Movie), Gramercy Pictures, 1993; and (as herself) Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult, Paramount, 1994. Also appeared in videos Wrestlemania III, 1987; (as voice of the star) The Real Story of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star; and Vanna White's Get Slim, Stay Slim. Appeared in Muppets music video "She Drives Me Crazy."

WRITINGS:

(With Patricia Romanowski) Vanna Speaks, foreword by Pat Sajak, Warner Books (New York, NY), 1987.

Vanna's Afghans A to Z: Fifty-two Crochet Favorites, Oxmoor House (Birmingham, AL), 1994.

Vanna's Afghans All through the House, edited by Janica York, Oxmoor House, 1997.

Vanna's Favorite Gift Afghans, Oxmoor House (Birmingham, AL), 1998.

Vanna's Favorite Crochet Gifts, Oxmoor House (Birmingham, AL), 2001.

SIDELIGHTS: Millions of fans know Vanna White from her role as the letter-turner on Wheel of Fortune, a syndicated television game show that has regularly been the most-watched program in its time slot since it debuted in 1982. White, who grew up in North Myrtle Beach, South Carolina and worked as a model in Atlanta for a time, was personally selected by producer Merv Griffin for the role only two years after she drove to California in a rented U-Haul to follow her dream of becoming an actress.

Shortly after becoming famous, White wrote her autobiography, Vanna Speaks. In essence, the book is a "strangely honest reply to fan mail," Margo Howard noted in New Republic. "I felt terrific writing it," White told Saturday Evening Post interviewer T. Klein. "It was very therapeutic. I started reliving my past, experiencing things I did as a child, and it was very cleansing."

Since then, White has published several books about her favorite hobby, crocheting. She shared this hobby with her grandmother, to whom her first book of crochet patterns, Vanna's Afghans A to Z: Fifty-two Crochet Favorites, is dedicated. By her count, White has completed more than seventy afghans, some of which have become presents for the likes of Griffin and Wheel of Fortune co-host Pat Sajak. "People think you have to be seventy years old to do this, but you don't," White told Linda Friedman of People.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

BOOKS

Contemporary Theatre, Film, and Television, Volume 36, Gale (Detroit, MI), 2001.

Notable Hispanic American Women, Book II, Gale (Detroit, MI), 1998.

White, Vanna, and Patricia Romanowski, Vanna Speaks, foreword by Pat Sajak, Warner Books (New York, NY), 1987.

PERIODICALS

American Film, July-August, 1986, Alexander Cock-burn, review of Wheel of Fortune, pp. 21-24.

Entertainment Weekly, July 23, 1993, Kenneth M. Chanko, review of The Real Story of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, p. 73.

Ladies' Home Journal, June, 1987, Vanna White and Patricia Romanowski, "The World of Vanna," pp. 40-42.

Life, November, 1988, Judy Ellis, "Vanna: She Walks, She Talks, She Crochets and, at Long Last, She Acts," pp. 73-74.

McCall's, October, 1986, Katie Leishman, "Wheel of Fortune's Vanna White," pp. 157-160.

New Republic, May 18, 1987, Margo Howard, review of Vanna Speaks, pp. 40-41.

Newsweek, February 9, 1987, Harry F. Waters, "What a Deal! TV Game Shows Cash in on America's Obsession with Money, Shopping, and Cheap Thrills," pp. 62-68; April 5, 1993, David A. Kaplan, "I'd Like to Buy a Dollar: Vanna White's Lawsuit over an Ad Parody," p. 54.

People, April 1, 1985, Jane Hall, review of Wheel of Fortune, pp. 114-120; June 16, 1986, Jeff Jarvis, review of Wheel of Fortune, p. 9; August 25, 1986, "TV's Hall of Flukey Fame," pp. 62-70; December 22, 1986, "Vanna White," pp. 80-81; June 6, 1988, Dale Wittner, "A Legal Hue and Cry Goes Up over a Movie Whose Light 'Blue' Scenes Are Making Vanna White's Face Red," pp. 59-61; July 16, 1990, Susan Schindehette, "Vanna White and Teri Garr Ask the Courts to Protect Them from Fans Who Have Gone Too Far," pp. 40-41; January 14, 1991, " … And Rod, Vanna and Barbara Ring in the New Year," p. 52; August 26, 1996, Joe Queenan, review of The Price Is Right 25th Anniversary, p. 13; June 23, 1997, Linda Friedman, "Knit Pick," p. 39.

Redbook, November, 1986, Kathleen MacKay, "A Dream Shattered," pp. 88-89.

Saturday Evening Post, May-June, 1987, T. Klein, "Oh, Vanna!," pp. 42-44.

Saturday Night, November, 1988, David MacLean, "She Walks, Moves Blocks, and Even Talks," p. 96.

Sports Illustrated, June 1, 1987, Roger Jackson, "Her F_ce Is F_mili_r," p. 24.

Television Quarterly, summer, 1988, Jib Fowles, "The Truth about Vanna," pp. 69-74.

Time, February 24, 1986, Richard Zoglin and Elaine Dutka, review of Wheel of Fortune, pp. 78-79.

TV Guide, August 24, 1985, Rip Rense, profile of White, pp. 8-13; October 5, 1985, Don Merrill, review of Wheel of Fortune, p. 1; November 19, 1988, Michael Leahy, review of The Goddess of Love, pp. 26-29; January 28, 1989, Jane Marion, "Inside Vanna's Dressing Room," p. 34; March 4, 1989, Susan Littwin, "Behind Vanna's Seduction of America," pp. 4-5, David Stern, "Vanna's Greatest Fear: 'What Happens after Wheel?' She Asks," pp. 6-9; July 3, 1993, Michael Logan, "Vanna: The 'Wheel' McCoy," pp. 14-15.

USA Today (magazine), May, 1987, Joe Saltzman, review of Wheel of Fortune, p. 41.

Variety, June 4, 1986, review of The Flintstones' 25th Anniversary Celebration, p. 47; November 30, 1988, review of The Goddess of Love, p. 76.

Vogue, April, 1989, Rachel Urquhart, review of Vanna White's Get Slim, Stay Slim, pp. 218-219.

Washington Business Journal, October 13, 2000, Cynthia Hobgood, "Pat Sajak and Vanna White," p. 2.