Cindyana Santangelo, a philanthropist, model and actor who made memorable appearances in music videos for Young MC and Jane’s Addiction and had roles in “ER” and “CSI: Miami,” died Monday at a hospital near her Malibu home, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department confirmed to The Times.
The Los Angeles County Fire Department was called to a home on Westlake Boulevard in Malibu for a medical emergency around 7:15 p.m. Monday, the sheriff’s department said in an alert. She was taken by paramedics to a hospital where she was pronounced dead. The cause of death is unknown; an autopsy is pending. Sheriff’s homicide investigators are assisting deputies from the Los Hills Sheriff’s Station with the continuing investigation, as is routine when the cause of death is unknown.
Born Cindy Lehrer in 1967 in Manhattan, per IMDb, she was raised in Los Angeles. She started out as a dancer, appearing in various music videos in the late 1980s and early 1990s, including Young MC’s “Bust a Move” video. She also delivered the Spanish-language introduction to the “Juana’s Adicción” tune “Stop” in a Jane’s Addiction video, leading frontman Perry Farrell to later describe her to Spin magazine as “the Latin Marilyn Monroe.”
As Cindyana Lair, she appeared on “Married … With Children” as Jiggly Room dancer Sierra Madre.
She married Frank Santangelo in 2001 and was the mother of two boys. Her LinkedIn page lists her as the director and chief executive of Mermaids Cove Malibu, described as an all-women’s luxury sober living facility. In what appear to be documentary or reality-show promos based on Mermaids Cove, Santangelo described herself while discussing why she chose to help others.
“I’m Cindyana. I’m a great mommy, a wife, a daughter, a friend, a CEO — and a recovering addict,” she says in one video, adding later, “I had kind of the party rock star life, but I ended up as sort of, everybody knows, a low-bottom junkie.
“When I had the blessing to get clean and sober this time,” she says, “I realized that there was a niche in this market of recovery for people like me. That someone like me could touch only a certain ilk of women, that they would believe it and hear it only from me.”
Santangelo spoke with The Times in 2008 when she was offering up what was then her home in Malibu Cove Colony as an August rental, asking $55,000 per month. Regis Philbin and his wife, Joy, were interested, she said at the time.
Santangelo’s friends remembered her online Tuesday and Wednesday.
“My heart aches as I write this. I’m still in shock and disbelief. How can you be gone??? … Malibu was your paradise, where your soul danced with the tides and your laughter blended with the sound of the waves,” Cynthia Banuelos wrote on Instagram in a post mourning Santangelo’s passing. “You had a heart as vast as the ocean, a spirit as free as the wind, and a love that ran deeper than the blue depths you adored. Frank and the Boys (Dante & Lucci), were your reason for living.”
“Swim free, my beautiful mermaid. Until we meet again,” she added.
“Head of the Class” actor Kimberly Russell chimed in on Banuelos’ post, writing in comments, “my beautiful Cindyana …. an angel in life …. this is shocking rest in peace …”
“No no no! This is impossible,” German actor Xenia Seeberg wrote in comments. “We just spoke a few days ago and planned together for Thailand and Istanbul and how we would see each other again much more often…! I am in complete shock. What happened to my beautiful sister??? Much too early to rest in peace.”
“I am devastated of this horrific news,” Samantha Bennington, wife of the late Linkin Park frontman Chester Bennington, said in comments. “We were just about to celebrate her for her birthday!!!! This is a huge loss, not only for us as her family and friends, but for the entire community!!!! You will forever be in our hearts and we’re here for you all Frank and the kids. We are here for you.”
Bennington also put up her own Instagram post where she thanked Santangelo, saying, “you wrapped your arms around me and accepted me and loved on me as a friend the very first moment you met me I’ll never forget you for welcoming me into your tribe … heartbroken.”
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