Melrose Place vet Daphne Zuniga, 63, is youthful in surprise appearance at Oscars for Rob Reiner tribute, see her now

Melrose Place vet Daphne Zuniga made a rare appearance at the Academy Awards in Los Angeles on Sunday evening.

The 63-year-old brunette beauty was at the biggest event of the year in Hollywood for the emotional tribute to director Rob Reiner who was murdered along with his wife in December.

Zuniga was in Reiner's 1985 college film The Sure Thing with John Cusack. 

The actress stood next to other stars who worked with Reiner such as Annette Bening (in The American President) and Meg Ryan (in When Harry Met Sally) as Billy Crystal gave the introduction.

Zuniga was elegant in a black dress and high heels as she wore her dark hair down and added diamond jewelry.

See how she looks now.

Zuniga was interested in acting from a young age.

She attended the Young Conservatory program of the American Conservatory Theater of San Francisco then studied acting at UCLA.

She came to fame in the 1982 movie The Dorm That Dripped Blood.

The beauty then landed the lead roles in films such as The Initiation (1984), The Sure Thing (1985), Modern Girls (1986), Last Rites (1988), Gross Anatomy, and The Fly II (both 1989). 

She is best known for her lead role as Princess Vespa in the space opera parody film Spaceballs (1987) with Bill Pullman.

The thespian is also known for her lead role as Jo Reynolds on the Fox primetime soap opera Melrose Place (1992–1996).

Her costars were Heather Locklear, Grant Show and Courtney Thorne-Smith.

And she played Lynn Kerr on the Freeform drama series Beautiful People (2005–2006).

Then there was her recurring role as Victoria Davis on The CW teen drama series One Tree Hill (2008–2012).

Her last films were Heartbeats, Witness Unprotected and A Christmas Arrangement with Miles Fisher.

In 2018, Zuniga directed her first feature film Deadly Assistant.

In 2019, she co-starred in the television film Gates Of Paradise, opposite Jason Priestley.

In 2020, she was a guest star in NCIS as Stacy Gordon, Navy commander.

In 2021, she was a guest star in Fantasy Island as Margot, with her old Melrose Place co-stars Josie Bissett and Laura Leighton. In 2022, Zuniga appeared on Dynasty as Sonya Jackson, alongside another old Melrose Place co-star Grant Show.

Since 2024, Zuniga, along with Leighton and Courtney Thorne-Smith, have hosted an iHeartRadio podcast, Still The Place.

Zuniga is still very active as an actress. She will next star with Pullman in Spaceballs 2 for 2027. 

Zuniga began dating businessman David Mleczko in 2006. They wed in a private ceremony in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 2019.

The Academy Awards left viewers and audience members in tears when it paid tribute to the slain actor and filmmaker Reiner on Sunday.

Leading the emotional tribute, which preceded the 2026 Oscars' In Memoriam segment, was Reiner's longtime friend Crystal.

Crystal, who starred in Reiner's iconic romantic comedy When Harry Met Sally, delivered a somber but loving speech about his friend.

At the conclusion of the segment, a bevy of A-list stars who had appeared in Reiner's films over the years joined forces on stage and linked hands as they remembered their fallen pal.

The tribute comes in the wake of Reiner's tragic death at 78.

The filmmaker and his wife, Michele, 70, were murdered on December 14 at their home, allegedly at the hands of their 32-year-old son, Nick Reiner.

Also seen in the tribute were Michael McKean, Christopher Guest, Jerry O'Connell, Wil Wheaton, Fred Savage, Cary Elwes, Mandy Patinkin, Carol Kane, Kiefer Sutherland, Demi Moore, Kevin Pollak, Kathy Bates and John Cusack.