Dorian Leigh
Encyclopedia
Dorian Leigh (April 23, 1917 - July 7, 2008) was an American model
and one of the earliest modelling icons of the fashion industry. She is considered one of the first supermodels and was well known in the United States and Europe.
, to George and Elizabeth Parker. Her parents married when they were around 18 and 17 years-old and Elizabeth promptly gave birth to three daughters in quick succession: Dorian (1917), Georgiabell (1918), Florian (1919). Fifteen years after the birth of her first daughter, she gave birth to her fourth daughter, Cecilia (1932) (who became known as model/actress Suzy Parker
). The family later moved to Queens; George Parker invented a new form of acid etching which brought wealth to the family.
Dorian claims she graduated from high school at the age of 15 because she was an intellectual and took many classes at once. As a 16-year-old freshman at Randolph-Macon College in Lynchburg, Virginia, Leigh met her first husband, Marshall Powell Hawkins, who was 25-years-old. As a sophomore, she secretly married Hawkins in North Carolina and had two children: Thomas Lofton Hawkins and Marsha Hawkins. The couple separated when Dorian was around 20.
Dorian then worked as a file clerk at a department store in Manhattan and as a tabulator keeping track of radio program ratings. Dorian found that she had an aptitude for math, mechanical engineering, and drawing. She began to go to night school at Rutgers and then got a mechanical engineering degree from New York University
, a degree that was quite rare for a single, young mother in the early 1940s.
Dorian worked at Bell Laboratories and then, during World War II, she was a tool designer at Eastern Air Lines
(with their Eastern Aircraft division). Dorian assisted in the design of airplane wings, beginning at 65 cents an hour and ending up with an hourly wage of $1.00. After failing to be promoted because she was a woman, Dorian quit and took a job with Republic Pictures
as an apprentice copywriter. While writing advertising copy in 1944, she met a woman at work, Mrs. Wayburn, who encouraged Dorian to try modeling.
, the editor of Harper's Bazaar
. Dorian met with Vreeland and fashion photographer
Louise Dahl-Wolfe
who were intrigued by her zig-zagged eyebrows. Vreeland warned her, "Do not-do not do anything to those eyebrows!" Vreeland asked Dorian to return the next day, to be photographed for the cover of a 1944 issue of Harper's Bazaar, her very first modeling assignment. They thought Dorian was around 19 or 20-years-old. Later they were shocked to discover her real age and that she already had two children.
Dorian's parents thought modeling was not respectable, so Dorian Leigh Parker used only her first and middle name during her career. When Dorian became an enormous success though, they thought it was acceptable that their youngest daughter, Suzy, use the Parker last name when she also became a famous model.
Dorian instantly became busy with modeling assignments, landing on the covers of major magazines such as "Vogue," "Harper's Bazaar," "Paris Match," "LIFE," and "Elle," Because of her schedule, Dorian's two children were sent to live with her parents in Florida, while she was based in New York and traveling to Europe.
In 1946, Dorian appeared on the cover of six American Vogue magazines. She worked with famous fashion photographers Irving Penn
, John Rawlings
, Cecil Beaton
, and Paul Radkai. On one assignment, she argued with Paul's wife Karen Radkai, who wanted to take many extra and free photos of Dorian for her portfolio. Karen wanted to be a "Vogue" fashion photographer like her husband. When Dorian balked at having to pose for Karen, she warned Dorian she would "ruin her." Indeed, Vogue never used Dorian again, and Karen became a Vogue photographer.
Dorian easily transitioned to working with Harper's Bazaar's new, young photographer,
Richard Avedon
. Avedon would become one of the most famous photographers in history.
Dorian also became well known for her advertising work for Revlon
. Revlon began full-page,national, color advertisements around 1944. Dorian's first ad was for "Fatal Apple." This was followed by "Sheer Dynamite," "Ultraviolet," "Fashion Plate," and "Cherries in the Snow." In 1952, when she was 35-years-old, Richard Avedon
photographed her for Revlon's most famous advertising campaign ever, Fire and Ice. In this two-age advertisement, Dorian is wearing a very tight, silver sequined gown wrapped in a huge red wrap that was copied from a Balenciaga
original. The dress had hand-sewn sequins on it, and it took so long to create that only the front of the dress was finished in time to be photographed. The back was non-existent and held in place with safety pins. Dorian also had a silver streak in her black hair. This ad was accompanied by a provocative quiz written by Kay Daly. The ad became an enormous success, winning Advertising Age's "Magazine Advertisement of the Year" award.
Around 1947, Dorian was introduced to Roger Mehle by her sister Cissy. Cissy was married to an army officer and Mehle was the youngest Navy commander during WWII. In August 1948, Dorian was two months pregnant when she married Mehle. Dorian's bridemaids were her teen sister Suzy and Suzy's teen model friend Carmen Dell'Orefice
. Dorian's two older children, who were being raised by her parents in Florida, came to live with the couple in Pennsylvania.
During her marriage to Mehle, Dorian became fed-up with Harry Conover's agency. Conover's phones were often busy and it took a very long time for the clients to pay the models for their work. Dorian then decided to start her own modeling agency called the "Fashion Bureau." She came up with the idea of the "voucher system." With this innovative system, the modeling agency would pay the model weekly, instead of the model having to wait to be paid directly by the client.
One day at a photographer's studio, Dorian met a young fashion stylist named Eileen Ford
. Ford asked how Dorian's modeling agency worked, and then decided to start an agency of her own. Eileen along with her husband Gerard W. Ford
, started what would become one of the most prestigious modeling agencies in the world, Ford Models
.
Dorian closed her agency when she married. She then telephoned Eileen Ford and told her that she would join the Ford agency if they also signed her 15-year-old her sister, Suzy Parker
, sight-unseen. Suzy Parker, 15 years younger than Dorian, had already been working for the Huntington Hartford
agency making $25 per hour. Dorian told Ford she believed Suzy should be making $40 per hour. The Ford's agency was only two years old so they were anxious to represent a famous model like Dorian. They agreed to meet Dorian and Suzy for lunch. Dorian was thin, had an extremely small waist, and had black hair and bright blue eyes. The Ford's were shocked during their initial meeting to see that Suzy was almost six inches taller that Dorian, had a very large frame, and had bright red hair with green eyes. In the 1950s, Suzy would become even more famous than Dorian, and would go on to be a movie and television actress.
Dorian gave birth to her daughter Young Mehle on March 27, 1949. The couple had a house in Bucks County, Pennsylvania but rarely saw each other. Mehle's career stationed him in Atlantic City and Dorian commuted to New York City and Paris for modeling work. Dorian also began to work more often in Europe with Richard Avedon. In 1952, Dorian also played the part of a model in the play "The Fifth Season." Her job as model, mother, and actress was featured in Look
magazine's June 2, 1953, cover story. By then, Dorian had appeared on the covers of more than 50 magazines. On the Look cover, Dorian is quoted, "I would rather have a baby than a mink coat."
The previous summer in Paris, she had met the Spanish athlete Alfonzo Cabeza de Vaca, Marquis of Portago (Alfonso de Portago
). Dorian's children again were sent to live with her parents in Florida. Alfonso ("Fon"), was 11-years-younger than Dorian. She was still married to Mehle. Portago was also married, to an older, American showgirl named Carroll McDaniel (who later married Milton Petrie
). Portago also had a three-year-old daughter with Carroll (Andrea de Portago), who would grow up to be a photographer and model. "Fon" told Dorian that years before, he had seen her "Ultraviolet" Revlon ad in a drugstore in Spain and was captivated. Dorian and "Fon" were both reluctant to divorce their spouses, but carried on an affair all summer in Paris and Biarritz
. Dorian became pregnant by him, but chose to have an abortion because she feared Mehle would divorce her and take full-custody of their daughter Young. Only weeks later, at the end of the summer, Fon told Dorian that Carroll was pregnant with his second child. Dorian returned to the United States and divorced Mehle on November 24, 1954 in Mexico. Fon then "married" Dorian in Mexico right away, but since de Portago was not divorced, the marriage was not legal.
Dorian continued her affair with "Fon" even though his wife Carroll gave birth to their son Anthony de Portago around 1954. Coco Chanel
, Suzy's great friend, told Dorian that she was "throwing her life away on an idiot." Despite Chanel's warning, Dorian got pregnant by de Portago again, even though he was still married. To avoid a scandalous, illegitimate pregnancy and gossip columnists in the United States, Dorian left her three other children with her parents in Florida, and fled to Paris and Switzerland. In Switzerland, Dorian spent time with Charlie Chaplin
's large family before giving birth to her son Kim Blas Parker on September 27, 1955. Dorian did not tell her parents about this child, and instead lied and told her family that she was in a tuberculosis clinic. Dorian and de Portago continued an on-and-off relationship in 1956 and 1957. Suzy in the meantime, was furious that Dorian had lied to her parents and was not taking care of her three other children.
De Portago, still married, was now dating Linda Christian
in early 1957. On April 23, 1957, Dorian's 40th birthday, de Portago told Dorian that he was supposedly finally divorcing Carroll so they could be legally married. He told her that he was entering the famous Mille Miglia
car race in Italy on May 8, and Carroll was supposed to sign their divorce papers on May 9. Instead, on May 8, Dorian received a phone call from de Portago's mother Olga, informing Dorian that Fon's tire on his Ferrari race car had blown up because he did not stop in time for a tire change. Fon and his co-driver Edmund Nelson were mutilated and killed. When the tire exploded, he lost control of the car and killed 10-13 spectators as well, including several children. This catastrophe ended the Mille Miglia forever. Carroll did not sign any divorce papers since he was dead.
A few days after Alfonso de Portago was killed, Dorian's sister Suzy, making a movie with
Cary Grant
, told famous gossip columnist Louella Parsons
that Dorian had a son with de Portago and she was estranged from her sister because of it. Dorian was shocked that Suzy leaked this secret and Dorian's parents only learned about this child reading it in the newspaper. Dorian's parents were furious and told Dorian that she would never have custody of her children. They also refused to accept Kim.
In 1957, Dorian returned to Florida and visited Young at her parent's home. Dorian then took Young and fled to Paris. She remained mostly in France for the next twenty-one years. Dorian's two older children had graduated high school. Dorian continued her modeling agency in Paris and became pregnant by yet another man in 1958. While in the hospital in Paris on June 6, 1958, Dorian received news that Suzy and her father had been in a serious car accident. Suzy's father supposedly did not see or hear a train and drove onto the tracks where the train slammed into his car. Their father was killed. Suzy had broken arms and was hospitalized for three months. Dorian then had her gynecologist, Serge Bordat, abort the baby. Days later, she suddenly married Bordat.
Although Dorian already had four children by three different men, she wanted another baby. Bordat claimed he was too young. Dorian moved out of their apartment, but they remained married. Dorian was so busy with her Paris modeling agency that she now had branches in Hamburg, Germany and London. Dorian often traveled to these offices. During a solo ski vacation to Klosters over Christmas 1960, Dorian craved a baby and slept with four men in one week. Three months later, her husband found out through one of Dorian's models that she was pregnant by one of these men. In September 1961, Dorian gave birth to her fifth child, Miranda in France. Dorian thought that a young ski instructor at Klosters was the father. Dorian then divorced Bordat. Dorian did not tell Miranda that Dr. Bordat was not her father until she was a teenager and despite never meeting him, she kept his last name.
In 1964, 47-year-old Dorian met 23-year-old Israeli writer Iddo Ben-Gurion and they were married. Dorian discovered Iddo was a drug-addict who was embezzling money from her modeling agencies. Dorian divorced him in 1964 and she remained single for the next forty-four years of her life until her death in 2008. Dorian eventually had to close her agencies because so much money was stolen by Iddo. Most of her modeling fortune had been spent recklessly or stolen.
In 1972, Dorian became a born-again Christian at the urging of her sister Georgibell and her daughter Young. Living in Paris, Dorian studied at Le Cordon Bleu
and opened her own restaurant, Chez Dorian, from 1973 to 1975. She tried to get cooking jobs in Corsica and Orleans as well. By 1976, Dorian was broke.
In 1977, Dorian received a phone call from the New York City modeling agency Stewart Cowley asking her to work as his office manager. Dorian agreed to return to New York where her son Kim was staying. Kim's half-brother Anthony de Portago also lived in New York City and the two actually had become good friends. Dorian soon discovered that her 21-year-old son was a serious drug addict. Only six months after she re-settled and re-united with Kim in New York, he jumped thirty-three floors from his apartment window to his death, leaving a suicide note behind. On March 6, 1990, Kim's half-brother Anthony died of AIDS.
After Kim's death, Dorian lived in Pound Ridge, New York
, where she made pâtés for delicatessens and specialty food shops, according to a profile in The New York Times
by Enid Nemy
. She also worked with Martha Stewart
in the early 1980s.
Dorian wrote two cook books, "Pancakes: From Flapjacks to Crepes," in 1987 and "Doughnuts: Over 3 Dozen Crullers, Fritters and Other Treats," in 1994 at the age of 77.
According to Leigh, she wrote her autobiography for her late son: "I really wrote it for Kim, who will never read it. But perhaps other Kims and their parents may learn from my unhappy experiences ".
nursing home from Alzheimer's disease
at the age of 91 in 2008. In her obituary, her first son, T.L. Hawkins, reminisced about his mother's famous "Fire and Ice" photograph.
Leigh was survived by three of her five children; her son Kim and daughter Marsha pre-deceased her. She was also survived by grandchildren and one remaining Parker sister.
Model (person)
A model , sometimes called a mannequin, is a person who is employed to display, advertise and promote commercial products or to serve as a subject of works of art....
and one of the earliest modelling icons of the fashion industry. She is considered one of the first supermodels and was well known in the United States and Europe.
Biography
Dorian Leigh Parker was born in San Antonio, TexasSan Antonio, Texas
San Antonio is the seventh-largest city in the United States of America and the second-largest city within the state of Texas, with a population of 1.33 million. Located in the American Southwest and the south–central part of Texas, the city serves as the seat of Bexar County. In 2011,...
, to George and Elizabeth Parker. Her parents married when they were around 18 and 17 years-old and Elizabeth promptly gave birth to three daughters in quick succession: Dorian (1917), Georgiabell (1918), Florian (1919). Fifteen years after the birth of her first daughter, she gave birth to her fourth daughter, Cecilia (1932) (who became known as model/actress Suzy Parker
Suzy Parker
Suzy Parker was an American model and actress active from 1947 into the early 1960s. Her modeling career reached its zenith during the 1950s when she appeared on the cover of dozens of magazines, advertisements, and in movie and television roles.She appeared in several Revlon advertisements, but...
). The family later moved to Queens; George Parker invented a new form of acid etching which brought wealth to the family.
Dorian claims she graduated from high school at the age of 15 because she was an intellectual and took many classes at once. As a 16-year-old freshman at Randolph-Macon College in Lynchburg, Virginia, Leigh met her first husband, Marshall Powell Hawkins, who was 25-years-old. As a sophomore, she secretly married Hawkins in North Carolina and had two children: Thomas Lofton Hawkins and Marsha Hawkins. The couple separated when Dorian was around 20.
Dorian then worked as a file clerk at a department store in Manhattan and as a tabulator keeping track of radio program ratings. Dorian found that she had an aptitude for math, mechanical engineering, and drawing. She began to go to night school at Rutgers and then got a mechanical engineering degree from New York University
New York University
New York University is a private, nonsectarian research university based in New York City. NYU's main campus is situated in the Greenwich Village section of Manhattan...
, a degree that was quite rare for a single, young mother in the early 1940s.
Dorian worked at Bell Laboratories and then, during World War II, she was a tool designer at Eastern Air Lines
Eastern Air Lines
Eastern Air Lines was a major United States airline that existed from 1926 to 1991. Before its dissolution it was headquartered at Miami International Airport in unincorporated Miami-Dade County, Florida.-History:...
(with their Eastern Aircraft division). Dorian assisted in the design of airplane wings, beginning at 65 cents an hour and ending up with an hourly wage of $1.00. After failing to be promoted because she was a woman, Dorian quit and took a job with Republic Pictures
Republic Pictures
Republic Pictures was an independent film production-distribution corporation with studio facilities, operating from 1934 through 1959, and was best known for specializing in westerns, movie serials and B films emphasizing mystery and action....
as an apprentice copywriter. While writing advertising copy in 1944, she met a woman at work, Mrs. Wayburn, who encouraged Dorian to try modeling.
Modeling career
Taking Mrs. Wayburn's advice, Dorian had professional photos taken and went to the Harry Conover modeling agency. At 27, Dorian was not only old by modeling standards, but at barely 5'5", she was much shorter than the other models at the agency. Upon meeting Conover, he sent her to meet Diana VreelandDiana Vreeland
Diana Vreeland was a noted columnist and editor in the field of fashion. She worked for the fashion magazines Harper's Bazaar and Vogue and the Costume Institute of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.Born as Diana Dalziel, Vreeland was the eldest daughter of American socialite mother Emily Key Hoffman...
, the editor of Harper's Bazaar
Harper's Bazaar
Harper’s Bazaar is an American fashion magazine, first published in 1867. Harper’s Bazaar is published by Hearst and, as a magazine, considers itself to be the style resource for “women who are the first to buy the best, from casual to couture.”...
. Dorian met with Vreeland and fashion photographer
Louise Dahl-Wolfe
Louise Dahl-Wolfe
Louise Emma Augusta Dahl was a noted American photographer. She is known primarily for her work for Harper's Bazaar, in association with fashion editor Diana Vreeland.-Background:...
who were intrigued by her zig-zagged eyebrows. Vreeland warned her, "Do not-do not do anything to those eyebrows!" Vreeland asked Dorian to return the next day, to be photographed for the cover of a 1944 issue of Harper's Bazaar, her very first modeling assignment. They thought Dorian was around 19 or 20-years-old. Later they were shocked to discover her real age and that she already had two children.
Dorian's parents thought modeling was not respectable, so Dorian Leigh Parker used only her first and middle name during her career. When Dorian became an enormous success though, they thought it was acceptable that their youngest daughter, Suzy, use the Parker last name when she also became a famous model.
Dorian instantly became busy with modeling assignments, landing on the covers of major magazines such as "Vogue," "Harper's Bazaar," "Paris Match," "LIFE," and "Elle," Because of her schedule, Dorian's two children were sent to live with her parents in Florida, while she was based in New York and traveling to Europe.
In 1946, Dorian appeared on the cover of six American Vogue magazines. She worked with famous fashion photographers Irving Penn
Irving Penn
Irving Penn was an American photographer known for his portraiture and fashion photography.-Early career:Irving Penn studied under Alexey Brodovitch at the Philadelphia Museum School of Industrial Art from which he was graduated in 1938. Penn's drawings were published by Harper's Bazaar and he...
, John Rawlings
John Rawlings
John Rawlings was a Condé Nast Publications fashion photographer from the 1930s through the 1960s. Rawlings left a significant body of work, including 200 Vogue magazine and Glamour magazine covers to his credit and 30,000 photos in archive, maintained by curator Kohle Yohannan.Rawlings was in the...
, Cecil Beaton
Cecil Beaton
Sir Cecil Walter Hardy Beaton, CBE was an English fashion and portrait photographer, diarist, painter, interior designer and an Academy Award-winning stage and costume designer for films and the theatre...
, and Paul Radkai. On one assignment, she argued with Paul's wife Karen Radkai, who wanted to take many extra and free photos of Dorian for her portfolio. Karen wanted to be a "Vogue" fashion photographer like her husband. When Dorian balked at having to pose for Karen, she warned Dorian she would "ruin her." Indeed, Vogue never used Dorian again, and Karen became a Vogue photographer.
Dorian easily transitioned to working with Harper's Bazaar's new, young photographer,
Richard Avedon
Richard Avedon
Richard Avedon was an American photographer. An obituary published in The New York Times said that "his fashion and portrait photographs helped define America's image of style, beauty and culture for the last half-century."-Photography career:Avedon was born in New York City to a Jewish Russian...
. Avedon would become one of the most famous photographers in history.
Dorian also became well known for her advertising work for Revlon
Revlon
Revlon is an American cosmetics, skin care, fragrance, and personal care company founded in 1932.-History:Revlon was founded in the midst of the Great Depression, 1932, by Charles Revson and his brother Joseph, along with a chemist, Charles Lachman, who contributed the "L" in the Revlon name...
. Revlon began full-page,national, color advertisements around 1944. Dorian's first ad was for "Fatal Apple." This was followed by "Sheer Dynamite," "Ultraviolet," "Fashion Plate," and "Cherries in the Snow." In 1952, when she was 35-years-old, Richard Avedon
Richard Avedon
Richard Avedon was an American photographer. An obituary published in The New York Times said that "his fashion and portrait photographs helped define America's image of style, beauty and culture for the last half-century."-Photography career:Avedon was born in New York City to a Jewish Russian...
photographed her for Revlon's most famous advertising campaign ever, Fire and Ice. In this two-age advertisement, Dorian is wearing a very tight, silver sequined gown wrapped in a huge red wrap that was copied from a Balenciaga
Balenciaga
Balenciaga is a fashion house founded by Cristóbal Balenciaga, a Basque designer, born in the Basque Country, Spain. He had a reputation as a couturier of uncompromising standards and was referred to as "the master of us all" by Christian Dior. His bubble skirts and odd, feminine, yet ultra-modern...
original. The dress had hand-sewn sequins on it, and it took so long to create that only the front of the dress was finished in time to be photographed. The back was non-existent and held in place with safety pins. Dorian also had a silver streak in her black hair. This ad was accompanied by a provocative quiz written by Kay Daly. The ad became an enormous success, winning Advertising Age's "Magazine Advertisement of the Year" award.
Around 1947, Dorian was introduced to Roger Mehle by her sister Cissy. Cissy was married to an army officer and Mehle was the youngest Navy commander during WWII. In August 1948, Dorian was two months pregnant when she married Mehle. Dorian's bridemaids were her teen sister Suzy and Suzy's teen model friend Carmen Dell'Orefice
Carmen Dell'Orefice
Carmen Dell’Orefice is an American model and actress, born in New York, NY. She is known within the fashion industry for being the world's oldest working model as of the Spring/Summer 2012 season. She covered Vogue at the mere age of 15, and has been modelling ever since.-Early life:Carmen’s...
. Dorian's two older children, who were being raised by her parents in Florida, came to live with the couple in Pennsylvania.
During her marriage to Mehle, Dorian became fed-up with Harry Conover's agency. Conover's phones were often busy and it took a very long time for the clients to pay the models for their work. Dorian then decided to start her own modeling agency called the "Fashion Bureau." She came up with the idea of the "voucher system." With this innovative system, the modeling agency would pay the model weekly, instead of the model having to wait to be paid directly by the client.
One day at a photographer's studio, Dorian met a young fashion stylist named Eileen Ford
Eileen Ford
Eileen Ford is a model agency executive and co-founder, in 1946, with her late husband Gerard William "Jerry" Ford, of Ford Models, one of the earliest and internationally best known modelling agencies in the world.-Early life:...
. Ford asked how Dorian's modeling agency worked, and then decided to start an agency of her own. Eileen along with her husband Gerard W. Ford
Gerard W. Ford
Gerard William "Jerry" Ford was an American businessman who founded Ford Modeling Agency with his wife Eileen Ford in 1946 in their apartment on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City.- Life :...
, started what would become one of the most prestigious modeling agencies in the world, Ford Models
Ford Models
The Ford Modeling Agency, or as it is known today Ford Models, is a modeling agency in New York City. It was established in 1946 by Eileen and the late Gerard W. Ford.-Company:...
.
Dorian closed her agency when she married. She then telephoned Eileen Ford and told her that she would join the Ford agency if they also signed her 15-year-old her sister, Suzy Parker
Suzy Parker
Suzy Parker was an American model and actress active from 1947 into the early 1960s. Her modeling career reached its zenith during the 1950s when she appeared on the cover of dozens of magazines, advertisements, and in movie and television roles.She appeared in several Revlon advertisements, but...
, sight-unseen. Suzy Parker, 15 years younger than Dorian, had already been working for the Huntington Hartford
Huntington Hartford
George Huntington Hartford II was an American businessman, philanthropist, filmmaker, and art collector. The heir to the A&P supermarket fortune, he owned Paradise Island in the Bahamas, and had numerous other business and real estate interests over his lifetime including the Oil Shale Corporation...
agency making $25 per hour. Dorian told Ford she believed Suzy should be making $40 per hour. The Ford's agency was only two years old so they were anxious to represent a famous model like Dorian. They agreed to meet Dorian and Suzy for lunch. Dorian was thin, had an extremely small waist, and had black hair and bright blue eyes. The Ford's were shocked during their initial meeting to see that Suzy was almost six inches taller that Dorian, had a very large frame, and had bright red hair with green eyes. In the 1950s, Suzy would become even more famous than Dorian, and would go on to be a movie and television actress.
Dorian gave birth to her daughter Young Mehle on March 27, 1949. The couple had a house in Bucks County, Pennsylvania but rarely saw each other. Mehle's career stationed him in Atlantic City and Dorian commuted to New York City and Paris for modeling work. Dorian also began to work more often in Europe with Richard Avedon. In 1952, Dorian also played the part of a model in the play "The Fifth Season." Her job as model, mother, and actress was featured in Look
Look (American magazine)
Look was a bi-weekly, general-interest magazine published in Des Moines, Iowa from 1937 to 1971, with more of an emphasis on photographs than articles...
magazine's June 2, 1953, cover story. By then, Dorian had appeared on the covers of more than 50 magazines. On the Look cover, Dorian is quoted, "I would rather have a baby than a mink coat."
The previous summer in Paris, she had met the Spanish athlete Alfonzo Cabeza de Vaca, Marquis of Portago (Alfonso de Portago
Alfonso de Portago
Alfonso Antonio Vicente Eduardo Angel Blas Francisco de Borja Cabeza de Vaca y Leighton, Marquis of Portago, best known as Alfonso de Portago was a racing driver from Spain.-Notable heritage:Portago was 6' tall and weighed 170 pounds . He was educated in France...
). Dorian's children again were sent to live with her parents in Florida. Alfonso ("Fon"), was 11-years-younger than Dorian. She was still married to Mehle. Portago was also married, to an older, American showgirl named Carroll McDaniel (who later married Milton Petrie
Milton Petrie
Milton Petrie was a Russian American retailer, investor and philanthropist. He made a fortune from a chain of retail stores and supplemented it through a series of investments in real estate and stocks...
). Portago also had a three-year-old daughter with Carroll (Andrea de Portago), who would grow up to be a photographer and model. "Fon" told Dorian that years before, he had seen her "Ultraviolet" Revlon ad in a drugstore in Spain and was captivated. Dorian and "Fon" were both reluctant to divorce their spouses, but carried on an affair all summer in Paris and Biarritz
Biarritz
Biarritz is a city which lies on the Bay of Biscay, on the Atlantic coast, in south-western France. It is a luxurious seaside town and is popular with tourists and surfers....
. Dorian became pregnant by him, but chose to have an abortion because she feared Mehle would divorce her and take full-custody of their daughter Young. Only weeks later, at the end of the summer, Fon told Dorian that Carroll was pregnant with his second child. Dorian returned to the United States and divorced Mehle on November 24, 1954 in Mexico. Fon then "married" Dorian in Mexico right away, but since de Portago was not divorced, the marriage was not legal.
Dorian continued her affair with "Fon" even though his wife Carroll gave birth to their son Anthony de Portago around 1954. Coco Chanel
Coco Chanel
Gabrielle Bonheur "Coco" Chanel was a pioneering French fashion designer whose modernist thought, menswear-inspired fashions, and pursuit of expensive simplicity made her an important figure in 20th-century fashion. She was the founder of one of the most famous fashion brands, Chanel...
, Suzy's great friend, told Dorian that she was "throwing her life away on an idiot." Despite Chanel's warning, Dorian got pregnant by de Portago again, even though he was still married. To avoid a scandalous, illegitimate pregnancy and gossip columnists in the United States, Dorian left her three other children with her parents in Florida, and fled to Paris and Switzerland. In Switzerland, Dorian spent time with Charlie Chaplin
Charlie Chaplin
Sir Charles Spencer "Charlie" Chaplin, KBE was an English comic actor, film director and composer best known for his work during the silent film era. He became the most famous film star in the world before the end of World War I...
's large family before giving birth to her son Kim Blas Parker on September 27, 1955. Dorian did not tell her parents about this child, and instead lied and told her family that she was in a tuberculosis clinic. Dorian and de Portago continued an on-and-off relationship in 1956 and 1957. Suzy in the meantime, was furious that Dorian had lied to her parents and was not taking care of her three other children.
Life after modeling
Living in France with her baby son Kim, Dorian was nearing 40. Her career as a model was coming to a close so Dorian began the first legal modeling agency in France to support her son. She also had lent the financially irresponsible de Portago about $15,000.De Portago, still married, was now dating Linda Christian
Linda Christian
Linda Christian was a Mexican movie actress, who appeared in Mexican and Hollywood films. Her career reached its peak in the 1940s and 1950s. She played Mara in the last Johnny Weissmuller Tarzan film Tarzan and The Mermaids...
in early 1957. On April 23, 1957, Dorian's 40th birthday, de Portago told Dorian that he was supposedly finally divorcing Carroll so they could be legally married. He told her that he was entering the famous Mille Miglia
Mille Miglia
The Mille Miglia was an open-road endurance race which took place in Italy twenty-four times from 1927 to 1957 ....
car race in Italy on May 8, and Carroll was supposed to sign their divorce papers on May 9. Instead, on May 8, Dorian received a phone call from de Portago's mother Olga, informing Dorian that Fon's tire on his Ferrari race car had blown up because he did not stop in time for a tire change. Fon and his co-driver Edmund Nelson were mutilated and killed. When the tire exploded, he lost control of the car and killed 10-13 spectators as well, including several children. This catastrophe ended the Mille Miglia forever. Carroll did not sign any divorce papers since he was dead.
A few days after Alfonso de Portago was killed, Dorian's sister Suzy, making a movie with
Cary Grant
Cary Grant
Archibald Alexander Leach , better known by his stage name Cary Grant, was an English actor who later took U.S. citizenship...
, told famous gossip columnist Louella Parsons
Louella Parsons
Louella Parsons was the first American news-writer movie columnist in the United States. She was a gossip columnist who, for many years, was an influential arbiter of Hollywood mores, often feared and hated by the individuals, mostly actors, whose careers she could negatively impact via her...
that Dorian had a son with de Portago and she was estranged from her sister because of it. Dorian was shocked that Suzy leaked this secret and Dorian's parents only learned about this child reading it in the newspaper. Dorian's parents were furious and told Dorian that she would never have custody of her children. They also refused to accept Kim.
In 1957, Dorian returned to Florida and visited Young at her parent's home. Dorian then took Young and fled to Paris. She remained mostly in France for the next twenty-one years. Dorian's two older children had graduated high school. Dorian continued her modeling agency in Paris and became pregnant by yet another man in 1958. While in the hospital in Paris on June 6, 1958, Dorian received news that Suzy and her father had been in a serious car accident. Suzy's father supposedly did not see or hear a train and drove onto the tracks where the train slammed into his car. Their father was killed. Suzy had broken arms and was hospitalized for three months. Dorian then had her gynecologist, Serge Bordat, abort the baby. Days later, she suddenly married Bordat.
Although Dorian already had four children by three different men, she wanted another baby. Bordat claimed he was too young. Dorian moved out of their apartment, but they remained married. Dorian was so busy with her Paris modeling agency that she now had branches in Hamburg, Germany and London. Dorian often traveled to these offices. During a solo ski vacation to Klosters over Christmas 1960, Dorian craved a baby and slept with four men in one week. Three months later, her husband found out through one of Dorian's models that she was pregnant by one of these men. In September 1961, Dorian gave birth to her fifth child, Miranda in France. Dorian thought that a young ski instructor at Klosters was the father. Dorian then divorced Bordat. Dorian did not tell Miranda that Dr. Bordat was not her father until she was a teenager and despite never meeting him, she kept his last name.
In 1964, 47-year-old Dorian met 23-year-old Israeli writer Iddo Ben-Gurion and they were married. Dorian discovered Iddo was a drug-addict who was embezzling money from her modeling agencies. Dorian divorced him in 1964 and she remained single for the next forty-four years of her life until her death in 2008. Dorian eventually had to close her agencies because so much money was stolen by Iddo. Most of her modeling fortune had been spent recklessly or stolen.
In 1972, Dorian became a born-again Christian at the urging of her sister Georgibell and her daughter Young. Living in Paris, Dorian studied at Le Cordon Bleu
Le Cordon Bleu
Le Cordon Bleu is the world's largest hospitality education institution, with 35 schools on five continents serving 20,000 students annually. Its primary education focus is on hospitality management and the culinary arts...
and opened her own restaurant, Chez Dorian, from 1973 to 1975. She tried to get cooking jobs in Corsica and Orleans as well. By 1976, Dorian was broke.
In 1977, Dorian received a phone call from the New York City modeling agency Stewart Cowley asking her to work as his office manager. Dorian agreed to return to New York where her son Kim was staying. Kim's half-brother Anthony de Portago also lived in New York City and the two actually had become good friends. Dorian soon discovered that her 21-year-old son was a serious drug addict. Only six months after she re-settled and re-united with Kim in New York, he jumped thirty-three floors from his apartment window to his death, leaving a suicide note behind. On March 6, 1990, Kim's half-brother Anthony died of AIDS.
After Kim's death, Dorian lived in Pound Ridge, New York
Pound Ridge, New York
Pound Ridge is a town in Westchester County, New York, United States. The population was 5,104 at the 2010 census.The town is located in the eastern corner of the county, bordered by New Canaan, Connecticut, to the east, Stamford, Connecticut, to the south, Bedford, New York, to the west and...
, where she made pâtés for delicatessens and specialty food shops, according to a profile in The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
by Enid Nemy
Enid Nemy
Enid Nemy was a reporter and columnist for The New York Times for many years. She began at the Times in 1963, and remained for four decades before retiring. She was awarded the 1984 Matrix Award "for achievement in newspapers and wire services"....
. She also worked with Martha Stewart
Martha Stewart
Martha Stewart is an American business magnate, author, magazine publisher, and television personality. As founder of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, she has gained success through a variety of business ventures, encompassing publishing, broadcasting, and merchandising...
in the early 1980s.
Dorian wrote two cook books, "Pancakes: From Flapjacks to Crepes," in 1987 and "Doughnuts: Over 3 Dozen Crullers, Fritters and Other Treats," in 1994 at the age of 77.
Autobiography
In 1980, Leigh published an autobiography, The Girl Who Had Everything (Doubleday).According to Leigh, she wrote her autobiography for her late son: "I really wrote it for Kim, who will never read it. But perhaps other Kims and their parents may learn from my unhappy experiences ".
Death
Dorian Leigh died in a Falls Church, VirginiaFalls Church, Virginia
The City of Falls Church is an independent city in Virginia, United States, in the Washington Metropolitan Area. The city population was 12,332 in 2010, up from 10,377 in 2000. Taking its name from The Falls Church, an 18th-century Anglican parish, Falls Church gained township status within...
nursing home from Alzheimer's disease
Alzheimer's disease
Alzheimer's disease also known in medical literature as Alzheimer disease is the most common form of dementia. There is no cure for the disease, which worsens as it progresses, and eventually leads to death...
at the age of 91 in 2008. In her obituary, her first son, T.L. Hawkins, reminisced about his mother's famous "Fire and Ice" photograph.
Leigh was survived by three of her five children; her son Kim and daughter Marsha pre-deceased her. She was also survived by grandchildren and one remaining Parker sister.
External links
- New York Times Obituary
- Washington Post Obituary
- A Belgian tribute page
- Chapter of "Fire and Ice" telling of Revlon's founder's dealing with Dorian Leigh (preceding chapter tells of the "Fire and Ice" campaign itself, in which Leigh starred and from which the book was titled)
- Obituary in the Richmond Times Dispatch