For the last forty years, America has been graced with the presence of Vanna White on the popular game show Wheel of Fortune where contestants spin a wheel to collect money for solving word puzzles. The contestants guess a letter each turn and have to avoid having the wheel land on cruel spots like Bankrupt and Lose a Turn. During the program, Vanna White serves as eye candy as she gracefully turns the letters over (which has since gone digital in recent years) when players correctly guess the letters that are in the puzzle.
White stars on Wheel Of Fortune alongside host Pat Sajak who has also been on the show for forty years. Their reign on Wheel of Fortune began in 1982 and has continued for forty successful seasons as the show continues to be popular among the American audience and has even been dubbed America’s Game.
Prior to her time on Wheel, Vanna white served as a beauty queen and even served as a contestant in Miss Georgia 1978 pageant. She was born in South Carolina as Vanna Marie Angel. She was born in a town called Conway, which is relatively close to Mrytle Beach. She was born in 1957.
After Vanna graduated high school, she attended school at the Atlanta School of Fashion in Atlanta, Georgia. When she finished her studies there, she moved to Los Angeles to pursue a career in the film industry. She appeared in a few acting roles in Gypsy Angels, Graduation Day, Looker, and Star of the Family in the early 1980s.
Back in 1982, Vanna White auditioned alongside 200 other hopefuls to land the role of hostess on the NBC game show Wheel of Fortune. She wowed the people who made the selection and was picked to host the show alongside Pat Sajak. Now both of them are Game Show Hall of Famers.
In addition to her success on Wheel, Vanna White also starred in the NBC movie Venus: The Goddess of Love. She was also named in a hit song by Weird Al Yankovic named “Stuck In A Closet With Vanna White” which was released on his 1988 album Even Worse. She also appeared in Paper Mario for Nintendo 64 as a minor character named Vanna T.
However, Wheel of Fortune viewers were shocked when Vanna White graced the cover of Playboy magazine in 1987. They were shocked that such a wholesome celebrity would remove her clothes from the camera.
She ended up having to do the shoot to make ends meet and to afford her rent.
When she was sixty, she told Fox News, “When I first moved to Hollywood, I was too embarrassed to ask my dad for rent money. I was young and I wanted to do it on my own. So, I did these lingerie shots and from the moment I said I would do them, I thought, ‘I shouldn’t be doing this, but I’m not going to ask my dad for money, so I’m just going to do it!’”
When she appeared on Playboy’s cover, Vanna told Johnny Carson, “I’m so sorry . . . I made a mistake, I’m sorry and I just hope I don’t lose my job over it.”
Vanna even sued Playboy for $5.2 million for destroying her “family audience” reputation. And fortunately, Wheel kept Vanna.