Missy Cleveland

Missy Cleveland has always been an adventuresome girl seeking her next thrill. The petite blonde was raised in a good home that focused on family and Southern values in Mississippi. Missy was by definition a good girl at home, but once she was out on the road, she was a motorcycle-driving daredevil in tight blue jeans. “I’m your basic fearless kid and all-round speed demon,” admits our Miss April 1979. “I’ve been driving since I was ten. When my father went deer hunting, I’d tear around back roads in the family VW, doing wheels. I started riding minibikes when I was 11. One summer during high school, I toured half the country on a motorcycle. I like to travel.” Missy’s taste for adventure took her and her best friend, her dog, on a cross-country road trip that led her to Denver where she experienced more snow than she never had before. “My dog wouldn't go out in the snow, so I packed up and kept going till I reached California,” smiles our voluptuous Playmate. With its warm temperatures and beautiful beaches, California was the perfect place for an all-natural and intelligent beauty like Missy. It was there that she and her mother caught a feature during the local newscast about Playboy’s Great Playmate Hunt for our 25th Anniversary Playmate. Immediately, Missy’s mother piped up and insisted that Missy audition for Playboy. With Mom’s blessing, the nervous model attended the audition in San Diego. When she learned she was made Miss April 1979, she was ecstatic, especially when she arrived at the Playboy Mansion and got to drive Hugh Hefner’s Rolls-Royce. “I was so excited,” says Missy about going to the Playboy Mansion. “The Jacuzzi, the game room. You couldn't chain me down.” The closest thing she ever got to a Jacuzzi back home in Mississippi was skinny-dipping in a reservoir. “One day, my girlfriend and I saw a big fat water moccasin. That ended that,” recalls Missy who shivered as she thought about the snake in the water. She had moved up the latter in life and she wasn’t willing to trade in her luxurious California Jacuzzi for the Mississippi version, a snake-filled reservoir. “I’ve always had big dreams. Huge ones. I had my heart set on modeling,” explains our Miss April 1979. “Till I found out I was three inches too short. Now, I’d like to be an actress.” In 1981, Missy landed a role in the movie Blow Out, directed by a young Brian De Palma who would later directed iconic films such as Scarface, The Untouchables and Carlito’s Way. No matter how passionate she is about making a name for herself in Hollywood, there will always be one thing that will be much more important in her book. “My goal is to travel to all corners of the world and live life to the fullest,” explains Missy. The world better be ready for Missy Cleveland is on the move.