Tawny Kitaen, a celebrity who appeared in two Whitesnake videos and helped catapult the band’s multiplatinum records to No. 1 in the late 1980s, died Friday at the age of 59 in Newport Beach.
What is Tawny Kitaen’s cause of death?
Dilated cardiomyopathy claimed her life on May 7. The Orange County Sheriff’s Department in California today declared the death to be natural.
Other serious side effects associated with Tawny Kitaen, according to the spokesperson, include moderate coronary artery disease, mirtazapine, mirtazapine metabolite, alprazolam, acetaminophen, pregabalin, and hydrocodone.
Who is Tawny Kitaen?
Thanks in no little part to Tawny Kitaen’s attractiveness, Whitesnake‘s successes “Here I Go Again” and “Is This Love?” from the album Whitesnake helped make the band the toast of the late 1980s. In 1987, “Here I Go Again” debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100.
Tawny Kitaen also appeared in the 1984 film Bachelor Party, in which she starred with Tom Hanks, as well as the 1984 French cult classic The Perils of Gwendoline and the 2014 film After Midnight. She also had a noteworthy cameo in a 1991 Seinfeld episode as an aspiring actress who seduces Jerry.
Director Marty Callner, who was behind the camera for the iconic Whitesnake videos, shared a photo of Tawny Kitaen on Facebook.
“When I met David Coverdale, we met for lunch, he had $5, a condom in his wallet, no car insurance and was staying at the Mondrian hotel (he couldn’t afford it, but the owner liked him), singing jingles for New York Seltzer, and basically out of the business. I was approached by his manager, Howard Kaufman, who also represented Heart, who I was working with at the time. Howard and John Kolodner asked me if I would direct a video for Whitesnake, on the cheap, because Geffen records had no money to put into the project. I liked the song, and decided to go ahead with it. We made our first video, ‘Still of the Night,’ which was a 9-minute song, with some guys who didn’t even play on the record.
“Near the end of the shoot, I knew we didn’t have a video, and in walks Tawny Kitaen to my house, with David, and I immediately asked her if she would be in the video. I knew it would be the perfect layer. She had so much magic, so much charisma, so sexy, so sweet, I loved her immediately, and I knew, and was right that she would be not only the first, but the ultimate video vixen.
“Whitesnake ended up saving Geffen Records, we went onto make groundbreaking videos, including ‘Here I Go Again’ & ‘Is This Love.’ They sold millions of records, and Tawny became a bigger superstar than she already was.”
In 1976, Tawny Kitaen debuted on the game program To Tell the Truth, before moving on to movies.
She married Whitesnake lead singer David Coverdale in 1989 after her video fame. She later married Angels pitcher Chuck Finley, with whom she had two kids.
