Joan Severance was born in Houston, Texas, the daughter of Martha and John C. Severance. Her father was an IBM Systems Manager who had to move frequently around the world. "By the time I was 11," said Severance, "we'd lived in 12 different places." She and her family also lived in Libya, but in 1967 had to flee the country because of the Six-Day War. They left the Middle East and returned to the United States, settling in Houston, Texas. Severance attended Westbury High School and, at age 15, started modeling to make money for college. Although she hoped to become a veterinarian, she could not afford the cost of tuition. After appearing in the "Miss Houston" beauty contest, she was discovered by Alan Martin, a local photographer in Houston who introduced her to John Casablancas. Casablancas signed her up with the Elite modeling agency and sent her on assignment to Paris. During this time she met her future husband, model Eric Milan.
Career
Modeling
During her time in Paris, she posed for Sportswear International, Vogue Paris, and others. Upon her return to the United States, Severance became one of America's top models, filming over 40 commercials, and earning $7,500 per day. Severance was also on the covers of the January 1990 and November 1992 issues of Playboy magazine, both featuring her in a nude pictorial. More recently, Joan, at age 52, appeared in a six-page editorial along with an interview in the Spring/Summer 2011 issue of Genlux Magazine.
Acting
In 1986, Severance began auditioning for acting bits at the urging of her friend Robin Leach. She made her debut in a small role in the first Lethal Weapon film in 1987. She usually takes the femme fatale roles in lower budget horror and murder-mystery movies, most notably Lake Consequence, Criminal Passion and Payback. She was featured alongside Richard Pryor and Gene Wilder in the 1989 comedy See No Evil, Hear No Evil, and as Hulk Hogan's love interest, Samantha N. Moore, in the wrestling film No Holds Barred. She had leading roles in Roger Corman's Black Scorpion. She starred in and co-produced a sequel, ', and The Last Seduction II. Her most notable role was a villainess on the TV series Wiseguy; she played half of a brother/sister crime team to great acclaim. Their partnership was reprised in See No Evil, Hear No Evil. In the early 1990s, Severance appeared as Samantha "Sam" Dooley, the Martian Belle, in two training videos for Virtual World Entertainment alongside other actors such as Cheech Marin, "Weird Al" Yankovic, R. Lee Ermey, and Judge Reinhold. From 1998 to 1999, Severance played Security Chief Camille Hunter on the Aaron Spelling television series ' on UPN. In 2006 Severance appeared in My Network TVtelenovelaWicked Wicked Games. She was also in shows like ' and One Tree Hill. In 2013 she was in '. In 2014 she was on Celebrity Wife Swap with Robin Leach. She has also appeared in several music videos, including the Scorpions' video for the song, "Rhythm of Love."
Personal life
Severance married fellow model Eric Milan in 1977. They separated amicably in 1984. According to Severance they "just grew apart".
