Christiane Crane Fichtner (born October 28, 1962) is an American actress and beauty queen who won Miss USA 1986. In 2003, she participated in '' Who Wants to Marry My Dad?''.

Early life and education

Her father is named Clifton Wales Fichtner. She attended Greenwich High School in

Connecticut Connecticut () is the southernmost state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. Its capita ...

where she was the girlfriend of future

Pro Football Hall of Fame The Pro Football Hall of Fame is the hall of fame for professional American football, located in Canton, Ohio. Opened on September 7, , the Hall of Fame enshrines exceptional figures in the sport of professional football, including players, coa ...

Steve Young Jon Steven Young (born October 11, 1961) is an American former professional football quarterback who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 15 seasons, primarily with the San Francisco 49ers. He also played for the Tampa Bay Buccane ...

. She moved to

Dallas Dallas () is the List of municipalities in Texas, third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of metropolitan statistical areas, fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 ...

, enrolling at

Southern Methodist University , mottoeng = "The truth will make you free" , established = , type = Private research university , accreditation = SACS , academic_affiliations = , religious_affiliation = United Methodist Church , president = R. Gerald Turner , ...

Career

Pageants

As a

beauty queen A beauty pageant is a competition that has traditionally focused on judging and ranking the physical attributes of the contestants. Pageants have now evolved to include inner beauty, with criteria covering judging of personality, intelligence, ...

, she was crowned

Miss Texas USA The Miss Texas USA competition is the pageant that selects the representative for the state Texas in the Miss USA pageant, and the name of the title held by that winner. This pageant is part of the Miss USA Organization, owned by Texas native C ...

and Miss USA 1986, becoming the second of five consecutive winners from

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by ...

during the 1980s. Her main competition and eventual first runner-up at

Miss USA Miss USA is an American beauty pageant that has been held annually since 1952 to select the entrant from United States in the Miss Universe pageant. The Miss Universe Organization operated both pageants, as well as Miss Teen USA, until 2020, ...

was actress Halle Berry. At the 1986

Miss Universe Miss Universe is an annual international beauty pageant that is run by a United States and Thailand based Miss Universe Organization.Natalie Tadena (July 2, 2015"Donald Trump's Miss USA Pageant Lands on Reelz Cable Channel". ''The Wall Stre ...

pageant held in July 1986 in Panama City, Panama, Fichtner placed first in the

preliminary Preliminary may refer to: * Preliminary internships * Preliminary English Test * Preliminary finals * Preliminary hearing * Preliminary Notice See also * Preliminary examination (disambiguation) {{disambig ...

competition, third in semifinal interview,

first First or 1st is the ordinal form of the number one (#1). First or 1st may also refer to: *World record, specifically the first instance of a particular achievement Arts and media Music * 1$T, American rapper, singer-songwriter, DJ, and rec ...

in swimsuit and second in

evening gown An evening gown, evening dress or gown is a long dress usually worn at formal occasions. The drop ranges from ballerina (mid-calf to just above the ankles), tea (above the ankles), to full-length. Such gowns are typically worn with evening ...

, which allowed her to advance as one of the Top 5 finalists of the competition, finishing her participation in

Miss Universe 1986 Miss Universe 1986, the 35th Miss Universe pageant, was held on 21 July 1986 at the Atlapa Convention Centre in Panama City, Panama. Bárbara Palacios Teyde of Venezuela was crowned by Deborah Carthy-Deu of Puerto Rico. Seventy-seven contestant ...

as first runner-up to eventual winner, Bárbara Palacios Teyde of

Venezuela Venezuela (; ), officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela ( es, link=no, República Bolivariana de Venezuela), is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many islands and islets in th ...

After Miss USA

In 2003, she starred in the reality television show '' Who Wants to Marry My Dad?,'' where she was the runner-up. After

Hurricane Wilma Hurricane Wilma was an extremely intense and destructive Atlantic hurricane which was the most intense storm of its kind and the second-most intense tropical cyclone recorded in the Western Hemisphere, after Hurricane Patricia in 2015. Part o ...

damaged

Cancún Cancún ( ), often Cancun in English (without the accent; or ) is a city in southeast Mexico on the northeast coast of the Yucatán Peninsula in the Mexican state of Quintana Roo. It is a significant tourist destination in Mexico and the seat ...

and its infrastructure in 2005, Fichtner, a frequent traveler to the area, revisited the tourist location in an effort to promote tourism: "The Cancún we love needs to be visited by

Texan Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by bo ...

s in order to return to what it once was."

Personal life

A longtime

Dallasite Dallasite is a breccia made of subequant to rectangular or distinctly elongate, curvilinear shards that represent the spalled rims of pillow basalt (see: Hyaloclastite). This material is commonly partly altered to chlorite, epidote, quartz and ...

, Fichtner married Dallas dentist Gary E. Alhadef in October 1988, with whom she has 3 sons: Blake Clifton, Steven Walker and Corbin Reed. They later divorced.

References

External links

Official Miss USA website - Past titleholders
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fichtner, Christy 1962 births Living people Miss Universe 1986 contestants Miss USA 1986 delegates Miss USA winners Participants in American reality television series Actresses from Dallas Greenwich High School alumni Southern Methodist University alumni 20th-century American people 21st-century American women