Suzy Parker
Encyclopedia
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 she also appeared in advertisements for many other cosmetic companies as well, as no model had an exclusive make-up contract until Lauren Hutton
(for Revlon and Revlon's Ultima) and Karen Graham
(Estée Lauder) signed them in the early 1970s. She was the first model to earn $100,000 per year and the only fashion model to have a Beatles song named after her, even if an unreleased one.
, to George (May 27, 1895 – June 7, 1958) and Elizabeth Parker (December 31, 1897 – November 1965). Her parents married around 1916. They had three daughters in a row: Dorian (1917), Georgiabell (1918), Florian (1919). Fifteen years after the birth of her first daughter, Elizabeth thought she was going through menopause. Instead, she was five months pregnant when she learned she was expecting another baby. Elizabeth's fourth daughter was named after her three friends. Dorian told her mom to arrange the names in order, Cecilia Renee Ann Parker, so she would have obscene initials. Her parents eventually caught on to Dorian's games. Her father didn't like the name and called her Susie. A French Vogue photographer changed the spelling to Suzy.
Parkers's family later moved to Highland Park, New Jersey
, and to Florida. It was her 30-year-old sister, Dorian, who introduced her to agent Eileen Ford
when she was just 15 years old.
was the sole exception, standing 5'5". In 1944, Dorian was writing advertising copy when a co-worker encouraged Dorian to go to the Conover Modeling Agency to try modeling. (The agency of Harry Sayles Conover [1911, Chicago, Ill.–1965, New York City] was active 1939–1959.)
One of Dorian's first advertisements was for Revlon. Charles Revson
(who later wanted to marry her) hired her for "Fatal Apple," one of Revlon's first all-color, nationwide ads.
Dorian was one of the top models in the world, arguably referred to as the "world's first supermodel" (along with Lisa Fonssagrives
). When Parker was about age 15, Dorian telephoned The Ford Modeling Agency and told Eileen
and Jerry Ford that she would sign on with them if they also took her younger sister, sight unseen. Anxious to represent Dorian, they agreed. Expecting to meet a similarly petite, extremely thin, flawless, pale-faced, electric blue-eyed, raven-haired younger version of Dorian, they were shocked to meet Suzy for the first time at a restaurant. At the meeting, the Fords said, "Oh, my God!" Parker was already 5'10", big-boned, and had carrot red hair, pale-green eyes, and freckles. She later became more famous than Dorian.
Parker's photo appeared in Life
magazine at age 15. That same year, one of her first magazine advertisements was for DeRosa Jewelry. Although she still lived with her parents in Florida, she stayed in New York City with Dorian when she had modeling assignments there. Dorian introduced Suzy to her fashion-photographer friends, Irving Penn
, Horst P. Horst
, John Rawlings
, and a young Richard Avedon
. Suzy became Avedon's muse. At age 61, she said, "The only joy I ever got out of modeling was working with Dick Avedon."
Parker became the so-called signature face of the Coco Chanel
brand. Chanel herself became a close confidante, giving Parker advice on men and money as well as creating numerous Chanel outfits for her.
She was the first model to earn $200 per hour and $100,000 per year. Vogue
declared her one of the faces of the confident, post-war American woman.
However, by 1955, she owed income taxes on her modeling income from previous years, amounting to more than $60,000 in back taxes and rapidly accumulating penalties, an enormous amount at the time. Jerry Ford paid her tax bill and found her assignments. She worked also non-stop for Vogue
, Revlon
, Hertz, Westinghouse, Max Factor
, Bliss, DuPont, Simplicity, Smirnoff, and Ronson shavers, to name a few. She also was on the covers of about 70 magazines around the world, including Vogue
, Elle
, Life
, Look
, Redbook
, Paris Match
and McCall's
.
After being introduced to, and taught photography by, legendary war photographer Robert Capa, Parker was briefly listed as a member of Magnum Photos
.
Her first film role was in Kiss Them for Me
(1957), opposite Cary Grant
and blonde-bombshell, Jayne Mansfield
. In Kiss Them for Me, Parker's character is the main interest of Cary Grant's character. Soon after, Kiss Them for Me, Parker accepted a cameo
role in, Funny Face
(1957), starring Audrey Hepburn
and Fred Astaire
. In Funny Face, Parker was on screen for two minutes in a musical number described, "Pink Number".
Her other films include, Ten North Frederick
(1958), The Best of Everything
(1959), A Circle of Deception
(1960) during which she met future husband Bradford Dillman
, Flight from Ashiya
(1964), Chamber of Horrors (1966) and dramatic roles in TV shows such as Burke's Law
and The Twilight Zone
plus appearances as herself on a number of quiz shows like I've Got a Secret
.
After marrying her third husband, Dillman, in 1963, and suffering further injuries in another car accident in 1964, she mostly retired from modeling and acting to live a quiet life in Montecito, California
, with her family.
and rented a house near where Dorian was living with her husband and children. Parker was already modeling in the United States
and Europe
while Ronald was attending the University of Pennsylvania
as a freshman.
Parker met journalist Pierre de la Salle (Pitou) at a Jacques Fath
party outside of Paris. She and Dorian were modeling together and separately on this trip with photographer Richard Avedon
. She came back to the United States and asked Ronald for a divorce. Ronald would only agree to a quick divorce if Parker gave him a large monetary settlement and paid for plastic surgery on his nose and his acting lessons. She agreed, and they obtained a quick divorce in Mexico, which became final in 1953. Purportedly when Ronald could not get acting jobs, he committed suicide. Parker and Pierre continued to date for years despite Pierre's numerous infidelities. She also was paying for his high cost-of-living expenses. They married about 1957 or 1958, but the couple kept it a secret.
In 1958, Parker was a passenger in a car her father was driving when they were hit by an oncoming train. Supposedly neither heard nor saw the train until it slammed into the car. Her father died of his injuries at the hospital. Parker checked into the hospital with broken bones and embedded glass (with her face untouched) under the name Mrs. Pierre de la Salle. The press jumped on this, and Pierre continued to deny that they were married. Soon thereafter, a photo spread of the couple appeared in the August 19, 1958, Look magazine cover story about her. Parker began psychotherapy to cope with her rocky marriage and the death of her beloved father.
After recovering from her injuries, Parker became pregnant and Pierre left. She said, "He didn't want to be a father. I already hired a nanny... he was gone, history." She gave birth to their daughter Georgia Belle Florian Coco Chanel de la Salle in December 1959, whose godmother was close-friend Chanel. A March 14, 1977, People
magazine article featured Parker trying to launch her then 17-year-old daughter Georgia as a model. However, Georgia modeled only a few times during and after college. By 2006, Georgia's father Pierre de la Salle was in his 70s and living with then-wife Berenice, whom he married in 1977, in Mammoth Lakes, California.
In 1960, Parker met actor Bradford Dillman
on the set of their movie, Circle of Deception. She was still married to de la Salle but no longer living with him. Bradford was ending his first marriage and dating Juliette Greco
at the time. She obtained a divorce and married Bradford in 1963 on board a boat at sea. She changed her name to Suzy Parker Dillman following the marriage.
Parker mostly retired from modeling and acting by 1964. After she married Dillman, she also became a stepmother to his two children, Jeffrey and Pamela and wanted to stay home to be a mother and cook. Like her sister Dorian Leigh, who was a Cordon-bleu level chef, Suzy was also an excellent cook.
She had three more children with Bradford: Dinah (b. 1965), Charlie (b. 1967), and Christopher (b. 1969). The family lived in the Bel-Air district of Los Angeles until Dinah was bitten by a rattlesnake in the yard and almost died. They then moved to Montecito in the Santa Barbara area, where Suzy remained until her death in 2003.
episode "Number 12 Looks Just Like You
" when she was in another car accident. Parker had long suffered from allergies and, in the 1990s, developed ulcers. During surgery for an ulcer, her vital signs disappeared on the operating table, but she was resuscitated. She never fully recovered and developed more ulcers and diabetes. She had multiple hip surgeries, and then her kidneys began to fail. She spent the last five years of her life in and out of the hospital.
where she died at aged 70 on May 3, 2003. She was survived by two of her three sisters: Dorian Leigh
(who died in 2008 at the age 91 and reportedly did not attend her sister's funeral due to a long estrangement) and Florian ("Cissie", "Cissy"), as of 2009, the sole surviving Parker sister. Her husband, Bradford Dillman
, her four children, and two stepchildren also survived her.
She appeared in several 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...
advertisements, but she also appeared in advertisements for many other cosmetic companies as well, as no model had an exclusive make-up contract until Lauren Hutton
Lauren Hutton
Lauren Hutton is an American model and actress. She is best-known for her starring roles in the movies American Gigolo and Lassiter, and also for her fashion modeling career.-Personal life:...
(for Revlon and Revlon's Ultima) and Karen Graham
Karen Graham
Karen Ann Graham is an American model from the 1970s and the 1980s and a respected fly-fishing expert. For fifteen years, she was a spokesmodel for the cosmetics company Estee Lauder, Inc.-Early years:...
(Estée Lauder) signed them in the early 1970s. She was the first model to earn $100,000 per year and the only fashion model to have a Beatles song named after her, even if an unreleased one.
Early life
Suzy Parker was born Cecilia Ann Renee Parker 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 (May 27, 1895 – June 7, 1958) and Elizabeth Parker (December 31, 1897 – November 1965). Her parents married around 1916. They had three daughters in a row: Dorian (1917), Georgiabell (1918), Florian (1919). Fifteen years after the birth of her first daughter, Elizabeth thought she was going through menopause. Instead, she was five months pregnant when she learned she was expecting another baby. Elizabeth's fourth daughter was named after her three friends. Dorian told her mom to arrange the names in order, Cecilia Renee Ann Parker, so she would have obscene initials. Her parents eventually caught on to Dorian's games. Her father didn't like the name and called her Susie. A French Vogue photographer changed the spelling to Suzy.
Parkers's family later moved to Highland Park, New Jersey
Highland Park, New Jersey
Highland Park is a borough in Middlesex County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the borough population was 13,982....
, and to Florida. It was her 30-year-old sister, Dorian, who introduced her to agent 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:...
when she was just 15 years old.
Career
Three of the Parker sisters were very tall, standing between 5'10" and 6'1". DorianDorian Leigh
Dorian Leigh 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.-Biography:Dorian Leigh Parker was born in San Antonio, Texas, to George and Elizabeth Parker...
was the sole exception, standing 5'5". In 1944, Dorian was writing advertising copy when a co-worker encouraged Dorian to go to the Conover Modeling Agency to try modeling. (The agency of Harry Sayles Conover [1911, Chicago, Ill.–1965, New York City] was active 1939–1959.)
One of Dorian's first advertisements was for Revlon. Charles Revson
Charles Revson
Charles Haskell Revson was a pioneering cosmetics industry executive who created and managed Revlon through five decades.-Early age:...
(who later wanted to marry her) hired her for "Fatal Apple," one of Revlon's first all-color, nationwide ads.
Dorian was one of the top models in the world, arguably referred to as the "world's first supermodel" (along with Lisa Fonssagrives
Lisa Fonssagrives
Lisa Fonssagrives , born Lisa Birgitta Bernstone was a Swedish fashion model widely credited as the first supermodel.-Biography:...
). When Parker was about age 15, Dorian telephoned The Ford Modeling Agency and told Eileen
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:...
and Jerry Ford that she would sign on with them if they also took her younger sister, sight unseen. Anxious to represent Dorian, they agreed. Expecting to meet a similarly petite, extremely thin, flawless, pale-faced, electric blue-eyed, raven-haired younger version of Dorian, they were shocked to meet Suzy for the first time at a restaurant. At the meeting, the Fords said, "Oh, my God!" Parker was already 5'10", big-boned, and had carrot red hair, pale-green eyes, and freckles. She later became more famous than Dorian.
Parker's photo appeared in Life
Life (magazine)
Life generally refers to three American magazines:*A humor and general interest magazine published from 1883 to 1936. Time founder Henry Luce bought the magazine in 1936 solely so that he could acquire the rights to its name....
magazine at age 15. That same year, one of her first magazine advertisements was for DeRosa Jewelry. Although she still lived with her parents in Florida, she stayed in New York City with Dorian when she had modeling assignments there. Dorian introduced Suzy to her fashion-photographer friends, 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...
, Horst P. Horst
Horst P. Horst
Horst Paul Albert Bohrmann who chose to be known as Horst P. Horst was a German-American fashion photographer.-Early life:...
, 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...
, and a young 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...
. Suzy became Avedon's muse. At age 61, she said, "The only joy I ever got out of modeling was working with Dick Avedon."
Parker became the so-called signature face of the 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...
brand. Chanel herself became a close confidante, giving Parker advice on men and money as well as creating numerous Chanel outfits for her.
She was the first model to earn $200 per hour and $100,000 per year. Vogue
Vogue (magazine)
Vogue is a fashion and lifestyle magazine that is published monthly in 18 national and one regional edition by Condé Nast.-History:In 1892 Arthur Turnure founded Vogue as a weekly publication in the United States. When he died in 1909, Condé Montrose Nast picked up the magazine and slowly began...
declared her one of the faces of the confident, post-war American woman.
However, by 1955, she owed income taxes on her modeling income from previous years, amounting to more than $60,000 in back taxes and rapidly accumulating penalties, an enormous amount at the time. Jerry Ford paid her tax bill and found her assignments. She worked also non-stop for Vogue
Vogue (magazine)
Vogue is a fashion and lifestyle magazine that is published monthly in 18 national and one regional edition by Condé Nast.-History:In 1892 Arthur Turnure founded Vogue as a weekly publication in the United States. When he died in 1909, Condé Montrose Nast picked up the magazine and slowly began...
, 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...
, Hertz, Westinghouse, Max Factor
Max Factor
Max Factor & Company is a cosmetics company, founded during 1909 by Maksymilian Faktorowicz , Max Factor, a Polish-Jewish cosmetician. Max Factor & Company was a related, two-family, multi-generational international cosmetics company before its sale in 1973 for $500 million dollars...
, Bliss, DuPont, Simplicity, Smirnoff, and Ronson shavers, to name a few. She also was on the covers of about 70 magazines around the world, including Vogue
Vogue (magazine)
Vogue is a fashion and lifestyle magazine that is published monthly in 18 national and one regional edition by Condé Nast.-History:In 1892 Arthur Turnure founded Vogue as a weekly publication in the United States. When he died in 1909, Condé Montrose Nast picked up the magazine and slowly began...
, Elle
Elle (magazine)
Elle is a worldwide magazine of French origin that focuses on women's fashion, beauty, health, and entertainment. Elle is also the world's largest fashion magazine. It was founded by Pierre Lazareff and his wife Hélène Gordon in 1945. The title, in French, means "she".-History:Elle was founded in...
, Life
Life (magazine)
Life generally refers to three American magazines:*A humor and general interest magazine published from 1883 to 1936. Time founder Henry Luce bought the magazine in 1936 solely so that he could acquire the rights to its name....
, 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...
, Redbook
Redbook
Redbook is an American women's magazine published by the Hearst Corporation. It is one of the "Seven Sisters", a group of women's service magazines.-History:...
, Paris Match
Paris Match
Paris Match is a French weekly magazine. It covers major national and international news along with celebrity lifestyle features. It was founded in 1949 by the industrialist Jean Prouvost....
and McCall's
McCall's
McCall's was a monthly American women's magazine that enjoyed great popularity through much of the 20th century, peaking at a readership of 8.4 million in the early 1960s. It was established as a small-format magazine called The Queen in 1873...
.
After being introduced to, and taught photography by, legendary war photographer Robert Capa, Parker was briefly listed as a member of Magnum Photos
Magnum Photos
Magnum Photos is an international photographic cooperative owned by its photographer-members, with offices located in New York, Paris, London and Tokyo...
.
Her first film role was in Kiss Them for Me
Kiss Them for Me (film)
Kiss Them for Me is a 1957 comedy film starring Cary Grant and Jayne Mansfield, directed by Stanley Donen. Co-stars included Suzy Parker, Leif Erickson, Ray Walston, and Werner Klemperer....
(1957), opposite 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...
and blonde-bombshell, Jayne Mansfield
Jayne Mansfield
Jayne Mansfield was an American actress working both in Hollywood and on the Broadway theatre...
. In Kiss Them for Me, Parker's character is the main interest of Cary Grant's character. Soon after, Kiss Them for Me, Parker accepted a cameo
Cameo appearance
A cameo role or cameo appearance is a brief appearance of a known person in a work of the performing arts, such as plays, films, video games and television...
role in, Funny Face
Funny Face
Funny Face is an American musical film released in 1957 in VistaVision Technicolor, with assorted songs by George and Ira Gershwin. The film was written by Leonard Gershe and directed by Stanley Donen. It stars Audrey Hepburn, Fred Astaire, and Kay Thompson...
(1957), starring Audrey Hepburn
Audrey Hepburn
Audrey Hepburn was a British actress and humanitarian. Although modest about her acting ability, Hepburn remains one of the world's most famous actresses of all time, remembered as a film and fashion icon of the twentieth century...
and Fred Astaire
Fred Astaire
Fred Astaire was an American film and Broadway stage dancer, choreographer, singer and actor. His stage and subsequent film career spanned a total of 76 years, during which he made 31 musical films. He was named the fifth Greatest Male Star of All Time by the American Film Institute...
. In Funny Face, Parker was on screen for two minutes in a musical number described, "Pink Number".
Her other films include, Ten North Frederick
Ten North Frederick (film)
Ten North Frederick is a 1958 American drama film starring Gary Cooper, written and directed by Philip Dunne. The screenplay is based on the 1955 novel of the same name by John O'Hara.-Plot:...
(1958), The Best of Everything
The Best of Everything (1959 film)
The Best of Everything is a 20th Century-Fox film starring Hope Lange, Diane Baker, Suzy Parker, Stephen Boyd, Louis Jourdan, Robert Evans, and Joan Crawford...
(1959), A Circle of Deception
A Circle of Deception
A Circle of Deception is a 1960 British war film directed by Jack Lee and starring Bradford Dillman, Suzy Parker and Harry Andrews.-Plot:A Canadian officer is sent on a secret and dangerous mission during the Second World War in an attempt to feed the Germans false information about the Normandy...
(1960) during which she met future husband Bradford Dillman
Bradford Dillman
-Early life:Bradford Dillman was born on April 14, 1930 in San Francisco, California, the son of Josephine and Dean Dillman, a stockbroker. He studied at Town School for Boys and St. Ignatius High School. Later he attended the Hotchkiss boarding school in Connecticut, where he became involved in...
, Flight from Ashiya
Flight from Ashiya
Flight from Ashiya is a 1964 film about the U.S. Air Force's Air Rescue Service, flying out of Ashiya Air Base, Japan. In this fictionalized film set in the early 1960s, a flight crew's mission is to rescue a liferaft of Japanese civilians stranded in rough seas.- Plot :The movie centers on three...
(1964), Chamber of Horrors (1966) and dramatic roles in TV shows such as Burke's Law
Burke's Law
Burke's Law is a detective series that ran on ABC from 1963 to 1965 and was revived on CBS in the 1990s. The show starred Gene Barry as Amos Burke, millionaire captain of Los Angeles police homicide division, who was chauffeured around to solve crimes in his Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud...
and The Twilight Zone
The Twilight Zone (1959 TV series)
The Twilight Zone is an American anthology television series created by Rod Serling, which ran for five seasons on CBS from 1959 to 1964. The series consisted of unrelated episodes depicting paranormal, futuristic, dystopian, or simply disturbing events; each show typically featured a surprising...
plus appearances as herself on a number of quiz shows like I've Got a Secret
I've Got a Secret
I've Got a Secret is a panel game show produced by Mark Goodson and Bill Todman for CBS television. Created by comedy writers Allan Sherman and Howard Merrill, it was a derivative of Goodson-Todman's own panel show What's My Line?...
.
After marrying her third husband, Dillman, in 1963, and suffering further injuries in another car accident in 1964, she mostly retired from modeling and acting to live a quiet life in Montecito, California
Montecito, California
Montecito is an unincorporated community in Santa Barbara County, California. As a census-designated place, it had a population of 8,965 in 2010. This does not include areas such as Coast Village Road, that, while usually considered part of Montecito, are actually within the city limits of Santa...
, with her family.
Personal life
Parker was married three times. In 1950, she and high-school sweetheart, Ronald (last name unknown), drove to Georgia to secretly marry. Some references however state that her first husband's name was Charles. Parker said that she married him in a bikini with a raincoat on top, adding, "He was very good-looking, and it [the marriage] was just a sheer disaster." The young couple drove back to Florida where she was still living with her parents who were upset because of her age and because Ronald was part Cherokee. They moved to PennsylvaniaPennsylvania
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...
and rented a house near where Dorian was living with her husband and children. Parker was already modeling in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
while Ronald was attending the University of Pennsylvania
University of Pennsylvania
The University of Pennsylvania is a private, Ivy League university located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Penn is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States,Penn is the fourth-oldest using the founding dates claimed by each institution...
as a freshman.
Parker met journalist Pierre de la Salle (Pitou) at a Jacques Fath
Jacques Fath
Jacques Fath was a French fashion designer who was considered one of the three dominant influences on postwar haute couture, the others being Christian Dior and Pierre Balmain.-Career:The son of André Fath, an Alsatian-Flemish insurance agent, Fath came from a creative family...
party outside of Paris. She and Dorian were modeling together and separately on this trip with 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...
. She came back to the United States and asked Ronald for a divorce. Ronald would only agree to a quick divorce if Parker gave him a large monetary settlement and paid for plastic surgery on his nose and his acting lessons. She agreed, and they obtained a quick divorce in Mexico, which became final in 1953. Purportedly when Ronald could not get acting jobs, he committed suicide. Parker and Pierre continued to date for years despite Pierre's numerous infidelities. She also was paying for his high cost-of-living expenses. They married about 1957 or 1958, but the couple kept it a secret.
In 1958, Parker was a passenger in a car her father was driving when they were hit by an oncoming train. Supposedly neither heard nor saw the train until it slammed into the car. Her father died of his injuries at the hospital. Parker checked into the hospital with broken bones and embedded glass (with her face untouched) under the name Mrs. Pierre de la Salle. The press jumped on this, and Pierre continued to deny that they were married. Soon thereafter, a photo spread of the couple appeared in the August 19, 1958, Look magazine cover story about her. Parker began psychotherapy to cope with her rocky marriage and the death of her beloved father.
After recovering from her injuries, Parker became pregnant and Pierre left. She said, "He didn't want to be a father. I already hired a nanny... he was gone, history." She gave birth to their daughter Georgia Belle Florian Coco Chanel de la Salle in December 1959, whose godmother was close-friend Chanel. A March 14, 1977, People
People (magazine)
In 1998, the magazine introduced a version targeted at teens called Teen People. However, on July 27, 2006, the company announced it would shut down publication of Teen People immediately. The last issue to be released was scheduled for September 2006. Subscribers to this magazine received...
magazine article featured Parker trying to launch her then 17-year-old daughter Georgia as a model. However, Georgia modeled only a few times during and after college. By 2006, Georgia's father Pierre de la Salle was in his 70s and living with then-wife Berenice, whom he married in 1977, in Mammoth Lakes, California.
In 1960, Parker met actor Bradford Dillman
Bradford Dillman
-Early life:Bradford Dillman was born on April 14, 1930 in San Francisco, California, the son of Josephine and Dean Dillman, a stockbroker. He studied at Town School for Boys and St. Ignatius High School. Later he attended the Hotchkiss boarding school in Connecticut, where he became involved in...
on the set of their movie, Circle of Deception. She was still married to de la Salle but no longer living with him. Bradford was ending his first marriage and dating Juliette Greco
Juliette Gréco
Juliette Gréco, — also Michelle – is a French actress and popular chanson singer.-Early life and family:Juliette Gréco was born in Montpellier to a Corsican father and a mother who became active in the Résistance, in the Hérault département of southern France. She was raised by her maternal...
at the time. She obtained a divorce and married Bradford in 1963 on board a boat at sea. She changed her name to Suzy Parker Dillman following the marriage.
Parker mostly retired from modeling and acting by 1964. After she married Dillman, she also became a stepmother to his two children, Jeffrey and Pamela and wanted to stay home to be a mother and cook. Like her sister Dorian Leigh, who was a Cordon-bleu level chef, Suzy was also an excellent cook.
She had three more children with Bradford: Dinah (b. 1965), Charlie (b. 1967), and Christopher (b. 1969). The family lived in the Bel-Air district of Los Angeles until Dinah was bitten by a rattlesnake in the yard and almost died. They then moved to Montecito in the Santa Barbara area, where Suzy remained until her death in 2003.
Later years
A self-described tomboy in her teens, she broke several bones as a result. Parker also broke bones in a serious car accident in 1958 that killed her father. In 1964 she was nervously rehearsing for her famous appearance in the well-known Twilight ZoneThe Twilight Zone
The Twilight Zone is an American television anthology series created by Rod Serling. Each episode is a mixture of self-contained drama, psychological thriller, fantasy, science fiction, suspense, or horror, often concluding with a macabre or unexpected twist...
episode "Number 12 Looks Just Like You
Number 12 Looks Just Like You
"Number 12 Looks Just Like You" is an episode of the American television anthology series The Twilight Zone.-Synopsis:In a future society, all young adults go through a process known as "the Transformation," in which each person's body and face are changed to mimic a physically attractive design...
" when she was in another car accident. Parker had long suffered from allergies and, in the 1990s, developed ulcers. During surgery for an ulcer, her vital signs disappeared on the operating table, but she was resuscitated. She never fully recovered and developed more ulcers and diabetes. She had multiple hip surgeries, and then her kidneys began to fail. She spent the last five years of her life in and out of the hospital.
Death
Parker decided to end dialysis treatments. She returned home to die surrounded by family at her orchard in MontecitoMontecito, California
Montecito is an unincorporated community in Santa Barbara County, California. As a census-designated place, it had a population of 8,965 in 2010. This does not include areas such as Coast Village Road, that, while usually considered part of Montecito, are actually within the city limits of Santa...
where she died at aged 70 on May 3, 2003. She was survived by two of her three sisters: Dorian Leigh
Dorian Leigh
Dorian Leigh 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.-Biography:Dorian Leigh Parker was born in San Antonio, Texas, to George and Elizabeth Parker...
(who died in 2008 at the age 91 and reportedly did not attend her sister's funeral due to a long estrangement) and Florian ("Cissie", "Cissy"), as of 2009, the sole surviving Parker sister. Her husband, Bradford Dillman
Bradford Dillman
-Early life:Bradford Dillman was born on April 14, 1930 in San Francisco, California, the son of Josephine and Dean Dillman, a stockbroker. He studied at Town School for Boys and St. Ignatius High School. Later he attended the Hotchkiss boarding school in Connecticut, where he became involved in...
, her four children, and two stepchildren also survived her.
Filmography
| Year | Film | Role |
|---|---|---|
| 1957 | Kiss Them for Me Kiss Them for Me (film) Kiss Them for Me is a 1957 comedy film starring Cary Grant and Jayne Mansfield, directed by Stanley Donen. Co-stars included Suzy Parker, Leif Erickson, Ray Walston, and Werner Klemperer.... |
Gwinneth Livingston; Film Debut |
| 1957 | Funny Face Funny Face Funny Face is an American musical film released in 1957 in VistaVision Technicolor, with assorted songs by George and Ira Gershwin. The film was written by Leonard Gershe and directed by Stanley Donen. It stars Audrey Hepburn, Fred Astaire, and Kay Thompson... |
Sepicalty Dancer (Pink Number); Cameo appearance Cameo appearance A cameo role or cameo appearance is a brief appearance of a known person in a work of the performing arts, such as plays, films, video games and television... |
| 1958 | Ten North Frederick Ten North Frederick (film) Ten North Frederick is a 1958 American drama film starring Gary Cooper, written and directed by Philip Dunne. The screenplay is based on the 1955 novel of the same name by John O'Hara.-Plot:... |
Kate |
| 1959 | The Best of Everything The Best of Everything (1959 film) The Best of Everything is a 20th Century-Fox film starring Hope Lange, Diane Baker, Suzy Parker, Stephen Boyd, Louis Jourdan, Robert Evans, and Joan Crawford... |
Gregg Adams |
| 1960 | A Circle of Deception A Circle of Deception A Circle of Deception is a 1960 British war film directed by Jack Lee and starring Bradford Dillman, Suzy Parker and Harry Andrews.-Plot:A Canadian officer is sent on a secret and dangerous mission during the Second World War in an attempt to feed the Germans false information about the Normandy... |
Lucy Bowen |
| 1962 | The Interns | Lisa Cardigan |
| 1964 | Flight from Ashiya Flight from Ashiya Flight from Ashiya is a 1964 film about the U.S. Air Force's Air Rescue Service, flying out of Ashiya Air Base, Japan. In this fictionalized film set in the early 1960s, a flight crew's mission is to rescue a liferaft of Japanese civilians stranded in rough seas.- Plot :The movie centers on three... |
Lucille Caroll |
| 1966 | Chamber of Horrors | Barbara Dixon |
Television
| Year | TV Program | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 1957 | Producers' Showcase Producers' Showcase Producers' Showcase is an American anthology television series that was telecast live during the 1950s in compatible color by NBC. With top talent, the 90-minute episodes, covering a wide variety of genres, aired under the title every fourth Monday at 8 p.m. ET for three seasons, beginning October... |
2 episodes |
| 1957 | Playhouse 90 Playhouse 90 Playhouse 90 is an American television anthology series that was telecast on CBS from 1956 to 1960 for a total of 133 episodes. It originated from CBS Television City in Los Angeles, California... |
1 episode |
| 1963 | Burke's Law Burke's Law Burke's Law is a detective series that ran on ABC from 1963 to 1965 and was revived on CBS in the 1990s. The show starred Gene Barry as Amos Burke, millionaire captain of Los Angeles police homicide division, who was chauffeured around to solve crimes in his Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud... |
2 episodes |
| 1964 | The Twilight Zone The Twilight Zone The Twilight Zone is an American television anthology series created by Rod Serling. Each episode is a mixture of self-contained drama, psychological thriller, fantasy, science fiction, suspense, or horror, often concluding with a macabre or unexpected twist... |
1 episode |
| 1964 | Dr. Kildare | 1 episode |
| 1964 | The Rogues The Rogues (TV series) The Rogues is an American television series that appeared on NBC from September 13, 1964 to April 18, 1965, starring David Niven, Charles Boyer, and Gig Young as a related trio of former conmen who could, for the right price, be persuaded to trick a very wealthy and very unscrupulous mark... |
1 episode |
| 1965 | Vacation Playhouse | 1 episode |
| 1966 | Tarzan | 1 episode |
| 1967 | Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theatre Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theatre Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theatre is an anthology television series, sponsored by Chrysler Corporation, which ran on NBC from 1963 through 1967... |
1 episode |
| 1968 | It Takes a Thief | 1 episode |
| 1970 | Night Gallery Night Gallery Night Gallery is an American anthology series that aired on NBC from 1970 to 1973, featuring stories of horror and the macabre. Rod Serling, who had gained fame from an earlier series, The Twilight Zone, served both as the on-air host of Night Gallery and as a major contributor of scripts, although... |
1 episode |
External links
- Suzy Parker at The Fashion Insider
- Suzy Parker: Original Supermodel - slideshow by Life magazine