Margaux Hemingway

{{Short description|American fashion model and actress (1954–1996)}}

{{Infobox person

| image = Worldwide famous model Margot Hemingway was a guest of the IDF Shekem Company (FL62419504) (cropped2).jpg

| caption = Hemingway in 1976

| name = Margaux Hemingway

| birth_name = Margot Louise Hemingway

| birth_date = {{Birth date|1954|2|16}}

| birth_place = Portland, Oregon, U.S.

| death_date ={{Death date and age|1996|7|1|1954|2|16}}

| death_place = Santa Monica, California, U.S.

| height= {{convert|6|ft|0|in|abbr=on}}

| resting_place = Ketchum Cemetery, Ketchum, Idaho, U.S.

| resting_place_coordinates = {{coord|43.686806|-114.366668|display=inline}}

| occupation = {{hlist|Model|actress}}

| years_active = 1972–1996

| spouse = {{plainlist|

{{marriage|Erroll Wetanson
|1975|1978|end=div}}
{{marriage|Bernard Faucher
|1979|1985|end=div}}

}}

| father = Jack Hemingway

| relatives = Mariel Hemingway (sister)
Ernest Hemingway
(paternal grandfather)
Hadley Richardson
(paternal grandmother)

}}

Margaux Louise Hemingway (born Margot Louise Hemingway; February 16, 1954 – July 1, 1996){{efn|name=date|Hemingway's date of birth appears in her California death record, where she is named as Margot Louise Hemingway, born in the state of Oregon.[https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/2015582 California, Death Index, 1940-1997], FamilySearch. Accessed December 9, 2024. The date also appears on her headstone.[https://fr.findagrave.com/memorial/2185/margaux_louise-hemingway "Margaux Louise Hemingway"], Find a Grave. Accessed December 9, 2024.Deborah Kade, [https://www.beyondarizona.com/post/it-s-another-sunny-day-in-sun-valley "It's another sunny day in Sun Valley"] Beyond Arizona, January 10, 2021. Accessed December 9, 2024. The birthdate given by The New York Times — February 19, 1955 — is incorrect.{{cite news |last=Holloway |first=Lynette |title=Margaux Hemingway Is Dead; Model and Actress Was 41 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1996/07/03/arts/margaux-hemingway-is-dead-model-and-actress-was-41.html |newspaper=The New York Times |date=July 3, 1996 |url-access=subscription}} Hemingway's body was badly decomposedJames Rainey, [https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1996-08-21-me-36349-story.html "Margaux Hemingway’s Death Ruled a Suicide"] Los Angeles Times, August 21, 1996. Accessed December 9, 2024.Lynette Holloway, [https://www.nytimes.com/1996/07/03/arts/margaux-hemingway-is-dead-model-and-actress-was-41.html "Margaux Hemingway Is Dead; Model and Actress Was 41"] New York Times, July 3, 1996. Accessed December 9, 2024. and her precise date of death is not known. Some sources suggest June 28{{cite encyclopedia|url=https://www.encyclopedia.com/humanities/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/hemingway-margaux|encyclopedia=Encyclopedia.com|title=Hemingway, Margaux|url-status=live|archive-url=https://archive.today/20220217043110/https://www.encyclopedia.com/humanities/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/hemingway-margaux|archive-date=February 17, 2022}} or June 29, 1996.{{cite web|url=https://www.tvguide.com/tvshows/margaux-hemingway/cast/1000196413/|work=TV Guide|title=Margaux Hemingway Biography|url-status=live|archive-url=https://archive.today/20220217043549/https://www.tvguide.com/tvshows/margaux-hemingway/cast/1000196413/|archive-date=February 17, 2022}} For official purposes, however, California records her date of death as July 1, 1996, the date on which her body was discovered.}} was an American fashion model and actress. The granddaughter of writer Ernest Hemingway, she gained independent fame as a supermodel in the 1970s, appearing on the covers of magazines including Cosmopolitan, Elle, Harper's Bazaar, Vogue, and Time.

She signed a million-dollar contract with Fabergé Inc. as the spokesmodel for Babe perfume. Her later years were marred by highly publicized episodes of addiction and depression, before her suicide from a drug overdose around July 1, 1996, at the age of 42.

Early life

Margot Louise Hemingway was born February 16, 1954, in Portland, Oregon, the second of three daughters born to Byra Louise (née Whittlesey) and Jack Hemingway (eldest child of writer Ernest Hemingway). When she learned that she was named after the wine Château Margaux, which her parents drank on the night she was conceived, she changed the spelling from "Margot" to "Margaux" to match. She had two sisters, actress Mariel Hemingway and Joan (nicknamed Muffet).

During her childhood, the family relocated from Oregon to Cuba, where her grandfather had lived, then to San Francisco, and later to Idaho, where they lived on her grandfather's farm in Ketchum, adjacent to {{nowrap|Sun Valley.}} The family took trips each summer back to Oregon with the daughters' godmother, who owned a farm in Salem.{{cite journal| url=http://www.oregonhomemagazine.com/home-style/1058-mariel-hemingway-in-portland| journal=Oregon Home Magazine| title=Mariel Hemingway in Portland| date=September 10, 2012| access-date=2016-04-02| last=McInerny| first=Vivian| archive-date=August 5, 2018| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180805112700/http://www.oregonhomemagazine.com/home-style/1058-mariel-hemingway-in-portland| url-status=dead}} She attended the Catlin Gabel School in Portland for her junior year.{{cite journal| journal=People| title=Papa Hemingway's Granddaughter, Margaux, Is Fashion's Golden Girl| last=Wohlfert| first=Lee| date=December 23, 1974| access-date=2018-04-04| volume=2| issue=26| url=http://people.com/archive/papa-hemingways-granddaughter-margaux-is-fashions-golden-girl-vol-2-no-26}}

Margaux struggled with several disorders beginning in her teenage years, including alcoholism, depression, bulimia, and epilepsy. With her permission, a video recording was made of her therapy session related to her bulimia, and it was broadcast on television. She also had dyslexia. In the 1990s, Margaux reported that she had been sexually abused by her father as a child.{{cite book| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oAhC4mVpw6MC&pg=PA95| title=Reading by the Colors| last=Irlen| first=Helen| year=1991| access-date=2021-02-03| page=95| publisher=Penguin| isbn=978-0-3995-3156-9}}{{cite web| url=https://people.com/archive/cover-story-a-life-eclipsed-vol-46-no-3/| title=A Life Eclipsed| first=Karen S.| last=Schneider| work=People| date=July 15, 1996| volume=46| issue=3| access-date=2014-10-25}} In 2013, her younger sister Mariel said in the documentary Running from Crazy that both Margaux and their older sister Muffet had been sexually abused by their father.{{cite journal| last1=Tapley| first1=Kristophe| title=Mariel Hemingway opens up about suicide, molestation and her family's curse in 'Running from Crazy'| journal=HitFix| url=http://www.hitfix.com/in-contention/mariel-hemingway-opens-up-about-suicide-molestation-and-her-familys-curse-in-runnning-from-crazy| access-date=2015-02-16| url-status=dead| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150216053235/http://www.hitfix.com/in-contention/mariel-hemingway-opens-up-about-suicide-molestation-and-her-familys-curse-in-runnning-from-crazy| archive-date=2015-02-16}}

Career

=1972–1975: modeling=

Hemingway was {{convert|6|ft|m}} tall and had success as a model, including her million-dollar contract with Fabergé as the spokesmodel for Babe perfume in the 1970s.{{cite magazine| url=https://ew.com/article/2001/06/29/papas-little-girl/| magazine=Entertainment Weekly| title=Papa's Little Girl| first=Nicholas| last=Fonseca| date=June 29, 2001| access-date=2021-02-03}} This was the first million-dollar contract ever awarded to a fashion model.{{cite news| url=https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/articles/199612/what-killed-margaux-hemingway| work=Psychology Today| title=What Killed Margaux Hemingway?| last=Estroff Marano| first=Hara|date= 1 December 1996|access-date= 27 Aug 2022}} She also appeared on the covers of Cosmopolitan, Elle, Harper's Bazaar, and Vogue, as well as on the June 16, 1975, cover of TIME, which dubbed her one of the "new beauties".{{cite news| url=http://www.time.com/time/covers/0,16641,19750616,00.html| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080314080528/http://www.time.com/time/covers/0,16641,19750616,00.html| url-status=dead| archive-date=March 14, 2008| magazine=TIME| date=June 16, 1975| title=Margaux Hemingway (cover)}} The September 1, 1975, cover issue of Vogue called Hemingway "New York's New Supermodel".{{cite magazine| magazine=Vogue Timeline| title=Margaux Hemingway (cover)| issue=September 1975 |url=http://www.vogue.co.uk/person/margaux-hemingway| url-status=dead| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150906115609/http://www.vogue.co.uk/person/margaux-hemingway| archive-date=September 6, 2015| df=mdy-all}}

During the height of her modeling career in the mid- to late 1970s, Hemingway was a regular attendee of New York City's exclusive discothèque Studio 54, often in the company of such celebrities as Halston, Bianca Jagger, Liza Minnelli, Grace Jones, and Andy Warhol. At such social mixers, she began to use alcohol and drugs.

=1976–1996: film career=

File:Cary Grant and Margaux Hemingway, 1976.jpg and Margaux Hemingway, 1976]]

Hemingway made her film debut in the Lamont Johnson-directed rape and revenge film Lipstick (1976), alongside her 14-year-old sister Mariel, and Anne Bancroft. In it, she plays a fashion model who is terrorized by a rapist. The film's violent depiction of rape led it to be labeled an exploitation film, though in later years it had success as a cult film.{{cite journal| url=http://www.slantmagazine.com/film/review/lipstick| journal=Slant Magazine| title=Lipstick: Film Review| last=Henderson| first=Eric| date=October 12, 2003| access-date=April 15, 2016}}

She followed this with a supporting role in the Italian horror film Killer Fish (1979), opposite Lee Majors and Karen Black. Her following project was the comedy They Call Me Bruce? in 1982. In 1984, Hemingway had a supporting part in Over the Brooklyn Bridge, opposite Elliott Gould and Shelley Winters. After a skiing accident in 1984, Hemingway gained {{convert|75|lb}}, ending up at nearly {{cvt|200|lbs}}, and became increasingly depressed. In 1987, she checked into the Betty Ford Center.{{cite news| title=Obituary: Margot Hemingway| first=Tony| last=Sloman| url=https://www.independent.co.uk/incoming/obituary-margot-hemingway-5609688.html| date=September 18, 2011| newspaper=The Independent| location=London}}

Attempting to make a comeback, she appeared on the cover of Playboy in May 1990, and asked the magazine to hire Zachary Selig as the creative director for her cover story. It was shot in Belize. Despite her attempts, Hemingway's budding film career began to falter, and she took roles in several B-movies, including Killing Machine (1984) and Inner Sanctum (1991).{{cite news| title=Video as Drive-in| url=https://chicagotribune.newspapers.com/image/167172718/?terms=VIDEO%20AS%20DRIVE-IN%20FRED%20OLEN%20RAY%20CONTINUES%20THE%20CORMAN%20TRADITION&match=1| date=December 1, 1994| last=Liebenson| first=Donald| newspaper=Chicago Tribune| access-date=2021-02-03| url-access=subscription}}

Hemingway continued to support herself by appearing in a small number of direct-to-video films into the 1990s, autographing her nude photos from Playboy, and endorsing a psychic telephone hotline owned by her cousin, Adiel Hemingway. Shortly before her death, she was set to host the outdoor adventure series Wild Guide on the Discovery Channel.

Personal life

File:Margaux Hemingway with Montes-Bradley.jpg in 1991]]

Hemingway's first marriage, to Errol Wetson (Wetanson), ended in divorce. They met when, at age 19, she accompanied her father to the Plaza Hotel in New York City on a business trip. Four months later she moved from Idaho to New York City to live with Wetson at 12 East 72nd Street, which was owned by heiress Gloria Vanderbilt.{{citation needed|date=August 2018}}

On New Year's Eve 1979, Hemingway married French filmmaker Bernard Faucher in {{nowrap|Ketchum,}} and they lived in Paris for a year.{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=ssBeAAAAIBAJ&pg=6038%2C504929 |newspaper=Lewiston Morning Tribune |agency=Associated Press |title=Once more, Margaux |date=January 2, 1980 |page=2B}} She divorced him in 1985 after {{nowrap|six years.{{cite news| title=Margaux Hemingway: 'Papa's Girl' (Pictorial)| first=Arny| last=Freytag| journal=Playboy| volume= 37| issue=5| date=May 1990| pages=126–35}}}}

Hemingway had strained relationships with members of her family. She had a tense relationship with her mother, though they reconciled prior to Byra's death from cancer in 1988. She also competed with her younger sister Mariel, who received greater accolades for her acting. In the 1990s, Hemingway alleged that her father, Jack, had molested her as a child. Her father and stepmother, Angela, resented the allegations and stopped speaking to her. Angela told People magazine, "Jack and I did not talk to her for two years. She constantly lies. The whole family won't have anything to do with her. She's nothing but an angry woman."

A 2013 television documentary film Running from Crazy, in which Margaux's sister Mariel speaks of the Hemingway family history of alcoholism, drug addiction, molestation, and suicide, contains clips filmed by Margaux.{{cite news |last=Germain |first=David |agency=Associated Press |title=Mariel Hemingway runs from crazy at Sundance |url=https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/news/mariel-hemingway-runs-crazy-sundance-163835417.html |access-date=February 27, 2013 |newspaper=Yahoo! News |date=January 22, 2013 |archive-date=October 29, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131029204840/http://movies.yahoo.com/news/mariel-hemingway-runs-crazy-sundance-163835417.html |url-status=dead }}

Death

File:Margaux Hemingway.jpg

On July 1, 1996, Hemingway was found dead in her studio apartment in Santa Monica. Her body was badly decomposed,{{cite news|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1996-08-21-me-36349-story.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200805190612/https://latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1996-08-21-me-36349-story.html|url-status=live|archive-date=August 5, 2020|work=Los Angeles Times|date=August 21, 1996|title=Margaux Hemingway's Death Ruled a Suicide|last=Rainey|access-date=February 27, 2022}} and the precise date of death could not be determined. The autopsy report and California death records therefore list July 1 as her date of death.{{efn|name=date}} She had taken an overdose of phenobarbital, according to the Los Angeles County coroner's toxicology report one month later,{{cite news| url=https://www.nytimes.com/1996/08/21/us/coroner-says-death-of-actress-was-suicide.html| newspaper=The New York Times| title=Coroner Says Death of Actress Was Suicide| date=August 21, 1996}} although her family had difficulty accepting the fact of her suicide.

Hemingway was interred at the Hemingway family plot at Ketchum Cemetery in Ketchum, Idaho.{{Cite web|url=https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/books/a37609/ernest-hemingway-grave/|title=Visiting Hemingway's Grave|work=Esquire|date=September 7, 2015|last=Holmes|first=Baxter|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151230174032/https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/books/a37609/ernest-hemingway-grave/|archive-date=December 30, 2015}}

Mariel Hemingway's husband told People in 1996 that, "This [year] was the best I'd seen [Margaux] in years. She had gotten herself back together",{{cite news| url=https://people.com/archive/last-act-vol-46-no-10/| title=Last Act| magazine=People| date=September 2, 1996| volume=46| issue=10| access-date=September 24, 2008}} but in a December 2005 episode of Larry King Live, Mariel said she now accepted her sister's death as a suicide.{{cite episode| url=http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0512/22/lkl.01.html| title=Surviving Suicide of Loved One| series=Larry King Live| credits=Presenter: Joan Rivers| date=December 22, 2005| network=CNN| access-date=May 24, 2008}}

Filmography

class="wikitable sortable"
Year ! Title ! Role ! class="unsortable" \| Notes
1976 \| Lipstick \| Christine McCormick \|
1979 \| Killer Fish \| Gabrielle \| Alternative title: Naked Sun
1982 \| They Call Me Bruce? \| Karmen \|
1984 \| Over the Brooklyn Bridge \| Elizabeth Anderson \|
1984 \| Killing Machine \| Jacqueline \| Alternative title: Goma-2
1987 \| Portami la luna \| \| Television movie
1991 \| Inner Sanctum \| Anna Rawlins \|
1992 \| La donna di una sera \| Ellen Foster \| US title: Woman's Secret
1992 \| Bad Love \| Jackie \|
1992 \| Deadly Rivals \| Agent Linda Howerton \| Credited as Margot Hemingway
1994 \| Double Obsession \| Heather Dwyer \| Distributed by Columbia TriStar. Produced by Eduardo Montes-Bradley
1994 \| Inner Sanctum II \| Anna Rawlins \|
1994 \| Frame-Up II: The Cover-Up \| Jean Searage \| Alternative title: Deadly Conspiracy
1995 \| Vicious Kiss \| Lisa \|
1995 \| A comme acteur \| \|
1996 \| Dangerous Cargo \| Julie \|
1996 \| Backroads to Vegas \| \| Television movie

class="wikitable sortable"

Year

! Title

! Role

! class="unsortable" | Notes

1976

| Lipstick

| Christine McCormick

1979

| Killer Fish

| Gabrielle

| Alternative title: Naked Sun