Iconic Pinup Girl Bettie Page Dies At Age 85 (Pictures/Videos)

Posted on December 12, 2008

Bettie Page, the 1950s-era model, whose racy photos for publications like Beauty Parade, Twitter and an Hugh Hefner’s early magazine, Playboy , won her a huge fan base and cult following well after her pinup days were over. Bettie Page died Thursday night at a Los Angeles hospital at age 85.

Bettie Page was hospitalized nine days ago with heart failure and died Thursday. According to her agent, Page had been hospitalized for three weeks beforehand with pneumonia.

Bettie Page was known for her trademark bangs, black hair, and of course her sexy figure. Bettie Page will be remembered for her lingerie and garter belts with stocks, as well as her bondage type photos.

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Hugh Hefner picked Page to be the Playboy Playmate of the month back in January 1955.

Bettie Page seemed to be very confident and could let loose in front of the camera. Page was in many silent fetish films featured as a dominatrix.

Page’s saucy photos and films did bring quite a bit of unwelcome attention, especially in the 1950’s.

In 1957, Page was called to testify before Congress during an investigation into the possible perversity of such photographs. She ultimately never had to take the stand, but many of the negatives from her gigs as a mail-order pinup were destroyed during the proceedings.

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Page ended up leaving her old life behind when in 1959 she became a born-again Christian, not long after suffering a nervous breakdown upon the collapse of her second marriage.

The Nashville native applied to be a missionary in Africa but was rejected because she had been divorced. She later ended up working for theÂ Rev. Billy Graham’s ministry.

Bettie Page was plagued by depression and other mental issues during her later years.

The 1976 book A Nostalgic Look at Bettie Page won her a small but devoted following, and the photo reissues, film collections and reimagined accounts of her life and infamous career have been pouring forth ever since, including in 2005 when Gretchen Mol starred in The Notorious Bettie Page for HBO.

Bettie Page gave a few interviews in the 1990s, but wouldn’t allow reporters to take her picture, wanting fans to remember her as she was in her younger days.

Of her early life, the Associated Press said:

She moved to Florida in 1957 and married a much younger man, as an early marriage to her high school sweetheart had ended in divorce.
Her second marriage also failed, as did a third, and she suffered a nervous breakdown.
In 1959, she was lying on a sea wall in Key West when she saw a church with a white neon cross on top. She walked inside and became a born-again Christian.
After attending Bible school, she wanted to serve as a missionary but was turned down because she had been divorced. Instead, she worked full-time for evangelist Billy Graham’s ministry.
A move to Southern California in 1979 brought more troubles.
She was arrested after an altercation with her landlady, and doctors who examined her determined she had acute schizophrenia. She spent 20 months in a state mental hospital in San Bernardino.
A fight with another landlord resulted in her arrest, but she was found not guilty because of insanity. She was placed under state supervision for eight years.
“She had a very turbulent life,” Todd Mueller, a family friend and autograph seller, told The Associated Press on Thursday. “She had a temper to her.”
Mueller said he first met Page after tracking her down in the 1990s and persuaded her to do an autograph signing event.
He said she was a hit and sold about 3,000 autographs, usually for $200 to $300 each.
“Eleanor Roosevelt, we got $40 to $50. … Bettie Page outsells them all,” he told The AP last week.
Born April 22, 1923, in Nashville, Tenn., Page said she grew up in a family so poor “we were lucky to get an orange in our Christmas stockings.”
The family included three boys and three girls, and Page said her father molested all of the girls.
After the Pages moved to Houston, her father decided to return to Tennessee and stole a police car for the trip. He was sent to prison, and for a time Betty lived in an orphanage.
In her teens she acted in high school plays, going on to study drama in New York and win a screen test from 20th Century Fox before her modeling career took off.

Our condolences to the friends and family of this awesome pin-up queen, Bettie Page.