Dorian Leigh, who graced numerous McCall’s, Harper’s Bazaar and Vogue covers and Revlon advertisements in the 1940s and 1950s, has died aged 91 in Falls Church, Va., according to her family.
Leigh was married ?ve times and her life during her modelling years was well documented by the gossip magazines of the day.
She was born Dorian Parker on April 23, 1917 in San Antonio, Texas. According to her daughter, Young Eve Paciello, as reported in the International Herald–Tribune, Parker’s middle name was Leigh.
Parker attended Randolph Macon College, majoring in English. She had a stint helping to design aircraft wings for the Eastern Aircraft Corp. before joining Republic Pictures as a copywriter.
At 27, she went to the Harry Conover Agency, where Conover told her to go to editor Diana Vreeland at Harper’s Bazaar. She wound up on the June 1946 cover.
Because her father did not approve of her career, she was asked to drop her surname, according to the Herald–Tribune.
She stood at 5 ft 5 in, and had an hourglass ?gure.
Her most famous Revlon campaign photographs were shot by Richard Avedon.
In her post-modelling years, she opened an agency in Paris and was involved with restaurants and catering. She attended the Cordon Bleu cooking school. She also authored numerous books about food. Her son, T. L. Hawkins, says that his mother collaborated with Martha Stewart on recipes.
Hawkins also said Leigh was an active Democrat in the 1990s.
She was the eldest sister of Suzy Parker, herself a model.
Leigh is survived by three children, three grandchildren and two step-grandchildren.
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