Tawny Kitaen was born in San Diego, California, in 1961, the daughter of Linda Kitaen (née Taylor), a housewife and a former beauty pageant participant, and Terry Kitaen, an employee of a neon sign company. Julie began using the nickname “Tawny” at the age of 12 on her own initiative. She went to her first rock concert at age 14 where she saw Peter Frampton at Jack Murphy Stadium. There she and her girlfriends were given backstage passes, and upon seeing the All-Access VIP treatment that Frampton’s girlfriend Penny got, she aspired to this herself, not knowing that this would become her reality in the 1980s.

Kitaen began her acting career in 1983 with a minor role in the television movie Malibu. In 1984, she starred as the title character of the erotic-adventure movie The Perils of Gwendoline in the Land of the Yik-Yak, also called Gwendoline. She also co-starred in the movie Bachelor Party as the bride-to-be of Tom Hanks’ character, and starred in the 1986 horror movie Witchboard. She also starred in the 1997 movie “Dead Tides” with wrestler Roddy Piper.

Kitaen dated Ratt guitarist Robbin Crosby during and after high school. She followed the band to Los Angeles in the late 1970s to pursue a career of her own. Kitaen married Whitesnake singer David Coverdale in 1989. Coverdale and Kitaen divorced in 1991. Kitaen had an affair with O.J. Simpson.

Kitaen appeared in Seinfeld as Jerry’s girlfriend in the 1991 episode “The Nose Job”.

Kitaen was married to baseball player Chuck Finley from 1997 to 2002. In 2002, she was charged with domestic violence for an incident involving Finley, whom she had kicked in the face repeatedly with high-heeled shoes. Three days later, Finley filed for divorce. After a plea bargain, Kitaen agreed to “enter a spousal battery counseling program and avoid contact with Finley.” The couple had been married for five years and had two daughters together.

Kitaen was one of the cast of the sixth edition of the VH1 reality television show The Surreal Life, which began airing in March 2006. Kitaen also appeared in the second season of the VH1 reality TV show Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew, which began in October 2008.

In November 2006, prosecutors charged Kitaen with possessing 15 grams of cocaine in her San Juan Capistrano home in Orange County. The authorities said her two children were home at the time and Kitaen had given deputies permission for the search. In December 2006, she entered a six-month rehabilitation program in exchange for the dismissal of a felony drug possession charge.

On September 26, 2009, Kitaen was arrested for driving under the influence in Newport Beach, California. The following July, she pleaded no contest to misdemeanor DUI and was sentenced to two days in jail, ordered to attend a first-offender alcohol program, and required to perform 64 hours of community service