Chandra West

During the '90s, blonde Canadian actress Chandra West made single-episode appearances in a number of television shows, and starred in sequels of the made-for-video horror series "Puppet Master." But starting with the next decade, it seemed unwise to get too attached to the characters she played. In 2000, she landed a recurring part on "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation," playing rookie forensic cop Holly Gribbs in the series pilot. "CSI" went on to be a smash hit; unfortunately, her character did not prove popular with test audiences, so the show's writers killed Gribbs off after one episode. West had similar luck opposite Val Kilmer in the 2002 noir thriller "The Salton Sea." As the victim of a drug-related murder, her death (shown in flashback) sets in motion the plotline of the film, which was moderately successful.

She also starred in the 2005 horror movie "White Noise" as the wife of Michael Keaton's protagonist, but once again her character would be ill-fated. In 2007, she appeared in the comedy "I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry," starring Adam Sandler and Kevin James, and in the series "John from Cincinnati," played her edgiest character yet as the troubled birth mother of a surfing prodigy. Since then, most of her credits have been in television, with a return to spooky stuff in 2010's "The Gates," about a residential community populated with vampires, werewolves, and other supernatural creatures. West had the role of Devon, a witch who serves as the series' main villain.