Known for both her beauty and her personal demons, Edie Sedgwick shot to fame as an actress with Andy Warhol’s “Superstars” before dying at 28 in 1971.
From the exterior , Edie Sedgwick seemed to have it all . Beautiful , rich , and a muse to Andy Warhol , she lived a life that many can only dream about . But Sedgwick ’s inner darkness ran deep .
Her dish and infectious energy mask gravid disaster . Sedgwick had suffered an abusive , apart childhood , and struggled frequently with genial illness , eating disorder , and drug abuse .
Steve Schapiro / FlickrAndy Warhol and Edie Sedgwick in New York City , 1965 .
Steve Schapiro/FlickrAndy Warhol and Edie Sedgwick in New York City, 1965.
Like a lit match , she burned brightly — but briefly . By the time she tragically go bad at the age of just 28 , Edie Sedgwick had set forVogue , exhort Bob Dylan song , and star in Warhol ’s films .
From fame to tragedy , this is the story of Edie Sedgwick .
Edie Sedgwick’s Troubled Childhood
carry on April 20 , 1943 , in Santa Barbara , California , Edith Minturn Sedgwick inherited two things from her crime syndicate — money and mental illness . Edie came from a farsighted line of prominent Americans but , as her 19th - century root Henry Sedgwicknoted , depression was “ the family disease . ”
Adam Ritchie / RedfernsEdie Sedgwick dancing with Gerard Malanga in January 1966 .
She come of eld on a 3,000 - Akka - cattle ranch in Santa Barbara predict Corral de Quati , under the thumb of her “ icy ” founding father , Francis Minturn “ Duke ” Sedgwick . Once cautioned from receive children because of his struggle with mental unwellness , Francis and his married woman , Alice , nevertheless had eight .
Adam Ritchie/RedfernsEdie Sedgwick dancing with Gerard Malanga in January 1966.
But the children were largely left to their own devices . Edie and her sister made up their own games , roamed the cattle farm alone , and even hold up in a separate star sign from their parents .
“ We were teach in a unearthly way,”recalled Edie ’s blood brother , Jonathan . “ So that when we have out into the world we did n’t primed anywhere ; nobody could translate us . ”
Edie ’s childhood was also score by sexual abuse . Her don , she afterward claimed , first endeavor to have sex with her when she was seven years old . One of her brothers also allegedly proposition her , state Edie “ a sister and brother should teach each other the dominion and the plot of clear love . ”
Jean SteinEdie Sedgwick at Silver Hill in 1962.
Indeed , Edie ’s childhood fracture in more way than one . She developed eat disorder like anorexia and bulimia . And when she walked in on her begetter with another woman , he reply by hitting her , giving her ataractic drug , andtelling her , “ You do n’t know anything . You ’re insane . ”
before long afterwards , Edie ’s parents shipped her off to a psychiatrical hospital called Silver Hill in Connecticut .
From Mental Hospitals To Fame In New York City
Jean SteinEdie Sedgwick at Silver Hill in 1962 .
On the East Coast , Edie Sedgwick ’s problems seemed to worsen . After dropping to 90 pounds , she was send to a closed in ward , where she lost her will to live .
“ I was very self-destructive in a unsighted form of way,”Edie by and by enounce . “ I was starve to expiry just ’cause I did n’t want to wrench out like my family showed me … I did n’t want to live . ”
John Springer Collection/CORBIS/Corbis via Getty ImagesArtist Andy Warhol and Edie Sedgwick sitting on a staircase.
At the same meter , Edie had begun to experience life story outside of her kinsperson moral force . While in the infirmary , she started a relationship with a Harvard student . But this too was soak with swarthiness — after losing her virginity , Edie got fraught and had an abortion .
“ I could get an miscarriage without any scuffle at all , just on the soil of a psychiatric case,”she recalled . “ So it was n’t too secure a first experience with love . I entail , it kind of hump up my head , for one affair . ”
She left the hospital and inscribe at Radcliffe , Harvard ’s college for women , in 1963 . There , Edie — beautiful , waif - similar , and vulnerable — made an impression on her classmates . One recollect : “ Every son at Harvard was trying to economise Edie from herself . ”
Santi Visalli/Getty ImagesAndy Warhol filming 1968. He put Edie Sedgwick in 18 of his films.
In 1964 , Edie Sedgwick finally made her way to New York City . But tragedy dogged her there , too . That yr , her brother Minty hanged himself after confessing his queerness to their father . And another of Edie ’s brothers , Bobby , had a flighty breakdown and fatally drove his bike into a motorbus .
Despite this , Edie seemed to fit in well with the energy of 1960s New York . Twiggy - thinly , and armed with her $ 80,000 trust investment trust , she had all of the city in the laurel wreath of her paw . And then , in 1965 , Edie Sedgwick encounter Andy Warhol .
When Edie Sedgwick Met Andy Warhol
John Springer Collection / CORBIS / Corbis via Getty ImagesArtist Andy Warhol and Edie Sedgwick sitting on a stairway .
On March 26 , 1965 , Edie Sedgwick fit Andy Warhol at Tenessee Williams ’ birthday party . It was n’t a fortune encounter . flick producer Lester Persky had nudged the two together , echo that when Andy first saw a picture show of Edie , “ Andy sucked in his breath and allege ‘ Oh , she ’s so bee - you - ti - ful . ’ Making every single letter sound like a whole syllable . ”
Warhol by and by described Edie as “ so beautiful but so sick , ” bestow , “ I was really intrigue . ”
Public DomainFolk singer Bob Dylan in 1963.
He hint Edie number to his studio apartment , The Factory at East 47th Street in Midtown Manhattan . And when she stopped by that April , he gave her a little role in his all - male person picture show , Vinyl .
Edie ’s part was all of five minutes and involved smoking and dance with no dialog . But it was capture . Just like that , Edie Sedgwick became Warhol ’s muse .
She rationalize her hair and dyed it fuzz silver to gibe Warhol ’s iconic look . Meanwhile , Warhol cast Edie in film after movie , eventually make 18 with her .
Walter Daran/Hulton Archive/Getty ImagesAndy Warhol and Edie Sedgwick in 1965, the year that encapsulated their close partnership and the end of their friendship.
Santi Visalli / Getty ImagesAndy Warhol shoot 1968 . He put Edie Sedgwick in 18 of his films .
“ I cogitate Edie was something Andy would like to have been ; he was transposing himself into her à la Pygmalion , ” mull Truman Capote . “ Andy Warhol would like to have been Edie Sedgwick . He would like to have been a charming , well - yield deb from Boston . He would care to have been anybody except Andy Warhol . ”
Meanwhile , Edie became famous for being famous , and herunique look — little hair , sinister center make - up , black stockings , leotards , and mini — made her like a shot recognisable .
Movie Poster Image Art/Getty ImagesAn Italian poster forCiao Manhattan, a film starring Edie Sedgwick that came out one year after her death.
Behind the scenes , however , Edie frequently turned to drugs . She like speedballs , or a shot of heroin in one arm and amphetamines in the other .
But though Warhol and Edie were inseparable for a clip , it took less than a year for things to fall asunder . Sedgwick began to fall behind religious belief in Warhol as early as the summertime of 1965 , complaining “ These movies are making a complete fool out of me ! ”
Plus , she ’d developed an pastime in another democratic art figure . Edie Sedgwick and Bob Dylan , the famous folk Isaac Merrit Singer , had allegedly begin a dalliance of their own .
The Rumored Romance Between Edie Sedgwick And Bob Dylan
Public DomainFolk singer Bob Dylan in 1963 .
Edie Sedgwick and Bob Dylan ’s romance — if it existed — was kept secret . But the Isaac M. Singer allegedly wrote a act of birdsong about her , include “ Leopard - Skin Pill - Box Hat . ” And Edie ’s chum Jonathan claimed that Edie did fall for the folk singer , hard .
“ She send for me up and enjoin she ’d touch this sept singer in the Chelsea , and she think she ’s fall in dearest , ” he said . “ I could severalise the deviation in her , just from her voice . She sounded so joyful instead of sad . It was afterward on she severalize me she ’d flow in lovemaking with Bob Dylan . ”
What ’s more , Jonathan claimed that Edie got fraught by Dylan — and that doctors forced her to have an abortion . “ Her giving joy was with Bob Dylan , and her saddest time was with Bob Dylan , losing the child , ” Jonathan said . “ Edie was changed by that experience , very much so . ”
That was n’t the only thing that changed in her life at that time . Her relationship with Warhol , who perhaps matte jealous about Edie Sedgwick and Bob Dylan , start to crumble .
“ I attempt to get airless to [ Andy ] , but I ca n’t , ” Edie confided in a friend as their partnership deteriorated .
Walter Daran / Hulton Archive / Getty ImagesAndy Warhol and Edie Sedgwick in 1965 , the yr that encapsulated their snug partnership and the end of their friendship .
Even her love affair with Bob Dylan seemed doomed . In 1965 , he married Sara Lowndes in a secret observance . soon thereafter , Sedgwick bulge out a relationship with Dylan ’s respectable protagonist , folk musician Bobby Neuwirth . But it could n’t fill the gaping chasm that had opened up inside of her .
“ I was like a sexuality striver to this man , ” Edie said . “ I could make lovemaking for 48 hr … without getting tired . But the moment he left me alone , I feel so empty and lost that I would start pop pills . ”
Edie ’s down spiral did n’t go unnoticed . In her final movie with Warhol , the artist gave one chilling direction : “ I require something where Edie commits suicide at the end . ” And to a friend , Warhol require , “ ‘ Do you recall Edie will let us film her when she institutionalise suicide ? ' ”
Indeed , Edie Sedgwick ’s days were numerate .
The Fatal Downfall Of An Iconic Muse
Movie bill poster Image Art / Getty ImagesAn Italian poster forCiao Manhattan , a film starring Edie Sedgwick that came out one year after her death .
After parting fashion with Andy Warhol , Edie Sedgwick ’s star seemed to remain to rise . But she still manage with her intimate demons .
In 1966 , she was snap for the cover ofVogue . But though the magazine ’s editor - in - chief , Diana Vreeland , dubbed her a “ Youthquake , ” Sedgwick ’s excessive use of goods and services of drugs stopped her from becoming part of theVoguefamily .
“ She was identified in the gossip pillar with the drug scene , and back then there was a certain apprehension about being call for in that panorama , ” said senior editor Gloria Schiff . “ drug had done so much scathe to young , creative , brilliant people that we were just anti that scene as a policy . ”
After living in the Chelsea Hotel for a few month , Edie went home for Christmas in 1966 . Her brother Jonathanrecalled her demeanor back at the ranchas strange and alien - like . “ She ’d nibble up what you were about to say before you ’d say it . It made everyone uncomfortable . She wanted to sing , and so she would sing … but it was a drag because it was n’t in tune . ”
ineffective to plow her drug wont , Neuwirth depart Edie in early 1967 . In March of the same year , Sedgwick initiate to film a semi - biographic film calledCiao ! Manhattan . Although her pathetic health due to drug role shillyshally the film ’s production , she managed to complete it in 1971 .
By this point , Edie had go through several more mental institutions . Though she was struggling , she still exude the same witching energy that had so enticed Dylan and Warhol . In 1970 , she fell in dear with a fellow patient role , Michael Post , and married him on July 24 , 1971 .
But just like her sensational rise , Edie ’s fall came abruptly . On Nov. 16 , 1971 , Post woke up to rule his wife dead beside him . She was just 28 twelvemonth old , and had go from an apparent barbiturates overdose .
Edie had lived a short life , but she lived it with all her heart . Despite her demons and the weight of her past , she found herself in the link of New York polish , the muse to not one , but two great artists of the 20th hundred .
“ I ’m in love with everyone I ’ve ever met in one direction or another , ” she once say . “ I ’m just a sick , unhinged disaster of a human being . ”
After this look at Edie Sedgwick ’s turbulent life , read aboutrock and roll groupies who changed music story . Then check out the living of eccentric artistAndy Warhol .
