Angelyne

Angelyne (born Ronia Tamar Goldberg in 1950) is an American singer, actress, model and media personality. She rose to prominence in 1984, when billboards bearing her name and her image in suggestive poses appeared in Los Angeles and its surroundings. What makes her case distinctive is that she built a public identity while concealing her birth name, her age and her origins, which did not become public knowledge until 2017.

Her music career began in 1978, when she joined the punk rock band Baby Blue, formed by her then-boyfriend. The group played clubs around Los Angeles but never achieved financial success. In 1982 she released a self-titled album, promoted with posters and a series of bus-shelter ads. In February 1984 her first billboard, reading "Angelyne Rocks", went up on Sunset Boulevard, and the campaign that followed drew the attention of local media. Her second album, Driven to Fantasy, came out in 1986, and minor film roles followed, including Earth Girls Are Easy (1988).

From 1998 she has painted self-portraits and has held several exhibitions in Los Angeles. She ran for Governor of California in 2003 and in the 2021 recall election of Gavin Newsom, where she ran without a party preference and received 0.5 percent of the vote.

Her legacy lies largely in popular culture. Her billboards have appeared in series such as Moonlighting and have been spoofed in The Simpsons, Futurama and BoJack Horseman. Her persona has inspired documentaries and a miniseries produced for Peacock, which premiered in 2022.