Playboy Playmate and Ghostbusters star Kymberly Herrin dead at 65: Family asks for donations to the American Cancer Society in her honor

• Model and actress Kymberly Herrin passed away at 65
• Herrin is famous for playing the Dream Ghost in the 1984 movie Ghostbusters
• The blonde beauty was also a Playboy Playmate gracing the Sept. 1982 cover
• Herrin’s cause of death is yet unknown
• Her family has asked for donations to the American Cancer Society 

Playboy Playmate and Ghostbusters star Kymberly Herrin has passed away at 65, her family have confirmed.

Best known for playing the ‘Dream Ghost’ girl role in the 1984 classic film Ghostbusters alongside Dan Ackroyd, the blonde beauty died on October 28. 

While her cause of death is yet unknown, Herrin’s family have asked for donations to be made in her honor to the American Cancer Society, according to the Santa Barbara News-Press.

The former model and actress died in Santa Barbara, California where she was born and lived most of her life. 

Gone too soon: Playboy Playmate and Ghostbusters star Kymberly Herrin passed away at 65, according to the Santa Barbara News-Press (pictured center with her late sisters)

Enjoying a busy career in the eighties, Herrin starred on two covers of Playboy in 1982 and 1983 after being selected as a Playmate.

She appeared on a 1979 episode of Playboy’s Roller Disco & Pajama Party and said her family was supportive of her choice to pose in the magazine.

‘Everyone’s really happy about it, my father especially,’ Herrin said, adding with a giggle: ‘He gets every issue of Playboy.’

She then became one of ZZ Top’s three ‘Eliminator girls’ in the music video for their 1983 single Legs, famous for the lines: ‘She’s got legs, she knows how to use ’em.’

No cause yet: The outlet reported that she passed away on October 28. Though no cause has been reported, her family is asking for donations to the American Cancer Society

Herrin was called for an audition to replace a previous blonde ‘Eliminator girl’ who apparently had not gotten along with the other two.

‘I looked in the window into the waiting room and there must have been somewhere around 15-20 beautiful girls,’ she told the writer Marc Tyler Nobleman.

‘Miniskirts, high heels, perfect hair, nails, and makeup. I came so close to leaving, getting on the 101 freeway, and hightailing it home. I walked into the room and the girls [looked] me up and down, [as if] thinking: “Oh, she’s no competition.”‘

Herrin recalled: ‘They called my name and I met the boys in the band. I apologized for my appearance. Then I asked if anyone had mineral water – or better, a beer. They must have been thirsty, also.’

Blonde bombshell: She appeared on a 1979 episode of Playboy’s Roller Disco & Pajama Party and said her family was supportive of her choice to pose in the magazine

She dished: ‘Out came the beer and we started talking about everything – motorcycles, chili cook-offs, Santa Barbara…and we had mutual friends in S.B. They were super nice guys. We hit it off.’ 

Making the music video was ‘a blast,’ she said, though she noted: ‘I was the third girl and I was new so I didn’t think I would even be seen in the video. They were always pushing me to the back. They said my red top stood out on screen.’ 

Afterwards, she recalled: ‘We were paid really well. We all got over $2,000 for the shoot, which is so much for a video dancer. Most people won’t believe it. I would have done it for free!’

The music video granted her international notoriety, causing her to be recognized by strangers in locales as far-flung as East Africa and Australia. ‘The Aussies treated me like an American movie star,’ she said. ‘I was blown away.’

Her big role: However, the Santa Barbara native is perhaps best known for playing the ‘Dream Ghost’ girl that Dan Aykroyd gets intimate with during the first Ghostbusters movie

She had a minor role in the 1984 rom-com classic Romancing the Stone starring Michael Douglas, Kathleen Turner and Danny DeVito, and Beverly Hills Cop II in 1987.

However, the Santa Barbara native is perhaps best known for playing the ‘Dream Ghost’ role in Ghostbusters in 1984.

In the memorable scene, Aykroyd’s character Ray Stantz wakes up in the team’s fire station headquarters to find a ghost hovering above him in a flowing lilac dress.

The ‘Dream Ghost’ played by Herrin then unbuckles his belt and unzips his pants before the scene cuts to a shot of the Saturday Night Live alum sleeping and dreaming. 

 Classic: In the memorable scene, Aykroyd wakes up in the team’s fire station headquarters to find a ghost hovering above him

For her audition she simply ‘walked in and they told me to unwrap my hair and shake it,’ she said years later. ‘They told me that day that I got the part of the dream ghost.’ 

Tantalizingly, she revealed: ‘Danny didn’t know [in advance that] I was going to be in that scene, but we had already partied in Santa Barbara and New York.’

She clarified: ‘I did not date anyone from Ghostbusters. Danny tried late one night, but I said we were just friends.’

Ackroyd remembered the suggestive scene fondly in a recent 2021 interview with Polygon.

Remember her? Herrin is seen in the 1983 ZZ Top music video Legs

‘Yes, I remember the woman who played that. Her name was Kym Herrin, and she was a Playboy Playmate. She played the ghost. Like, I wish they’d let that scene go a little longer,’ he recounted. 

The actor even went on to say that he believed the scene wasn’t far-fetched, claiming: ‘Sexual encounters with spirits are very, very common.’ 

He added: ‘And there are some people that I know that have a house that have a presence and they don’t try to purge it. They say, You know what, I’m going to stay with it and I’ll live with it.”  

Herrin had quite a few screen appearances in the 1980s, including as a party girl in the Patrick Swayze movie Road House.

Blonde beauty: She had a minor role in the 1984 rom-com classic Romancing the Stone starring Michael Douglas, Kathleen Turner and Danny DeVito

She happened to land small part in the traffic school comedy Moving Violations, which marked Don Cheadle’s film debut.

As her career progressed she managed to expand into television as well, landing a guest shot in a dream sequence on the hospital drama St. Elsewhere.

The music industry also beckoned her back, and in 1987 she could be glimpsed as a bikini girl in the more than hourlong live album eXposed by KISS. 

Herrin even broke into the literary field, working with a writer called Richard Benyo on a volume called The Sexercise Book that promised a ‘unique exercise routine designed to maximize your total sexual fulfillment.’

‘Maximize Your Total Sexual Fulfillment’: Herrin even broke into the literary field, working with a writer called Richard Benyo on a volume called The Sexercise Book 

Although her screen career slowed down somewhat in the 1990s, she did return to acting in the 1996 movie Squanderers, starring Don Swayze. 

When she wasn’t working in showbiz, Herrin loved to travel and even lived on a 75-foot yacht for several years on which she traveled up the coast of California and through the Panama Canal. 

However her personal life was not without its share of tragedies, particularly with regard to the men she was involved with.

One boyfriend of 12 years succumbed to cirrhosis of the liver, another was killed in a diving accident in Kauai and a fiancé died of leukemia. 

Travel: Herrin reportedly loved to travel and even lived on a 75-foot yacht for several years on which she traveled up the coast of California and through the Panama Canal

In 2008, hers was one of the 210 homes to be destroyed by the infamous Montecito Tea Fire, so called because it was found to have started at a bonfire party in a deserted historic building called the ‘Tea House.’

Herrin lost ‘all my material possessions’ in the blaze. ‘I ran out of the house in slippers with my cat,’ she remembered. ‘I could smell my hair starting to burn.’

Her niece Theresa Ramirez shared a photo to Facebook where Herrin sat with her two sisters, both now deceased. 

‘They are all together now. [broken heart emoji]Aunt Kymberly Herrin [heart emoji]. I love you,’ she wrote in the caption.

The comments were flooded with warm words for Herrin, with one loved one writing: ‘Kym was so kind and had a sweetness that the world needs now more than ever. God bless her and sympathies to you and your family.’ 

‘She was so special to so many people, I am not sure she knew how many people loved and adored her,’ wrote another commenter. ‘Her humor and her sensitivity towards others always touched me. Words are not enough. Heartache.’

One of her old pals wrote: ‘Kym and I were besties for years in our twenties. So many,many crazy, fun, trying, exciting, painful, joyous memories of my dear friend. She called us Salt and Pepper. My heart is broken.’

Another friend shared a heartwarmingly amusing anecdote, writing: ‘Kim and I both had pet rats. We would put them in our bike basket and ride them around in our stingray bikes. Her rats name was Jojo and mine was nickel.’

The pal added: ‘We had a birthday party for my rat at the dining room table with swirled cheese It was pretty funny to see the rat go nose 1st into the cheese.’

Herrin is survived by Theresa, her other niece Stephanie Ross, nephews Brandon Herrin and Trevor Triegor as well as numerous grandnieces and grandnephews  

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