1960s Superstars. Part 1: Edie Sedgwick

Don't we all love looking at nostalgic pictures of old superstars?
Well, I most certainly do! But what do we actually know about them?

I will tell you the stories behind these faces on my blog in this article as well as in some of my future articles named "1960s Superstars".

Today's entry will be all about Edie Sedgwick!

Edith Minturn "Edie" Sedgwick was born in Santa Barbara, California on the 20th of April, 1943. Her family was wealthy and their family name was well known and respected in the States, but this was no guarentee for a happy family life. Her father was narcissistic, controlling and at times even abusive. Her older sister broke with her family and her two older brothers died during their childhood. Another brother of hers died in a motorcycle accident.
Edie's parents' marriage was not the best marriage one could imagine. Her father had open affairs with other women and her mother even ended up commiting suicide in a psychiatric hospital after having had to deal with several break downs and depressions.
The young Edie was not capable to deal with all these problems and developed anorexia in her early teens. In 1962, she was treated for her anorexia and her health improved, but she soon got pregnant. The baby got aborted.
In 1963, Edie moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts to study art over there.

Andy Warhol and Edie Sedgwick

In 1965, Edie met the artist Andy Warhol. She started visiting his studio The Factory on a regular base and during one of those visits, Warhol was filming his movie Vinyl, based on the novel A Clockwork Orange. Sedgwick was allowed to play a role in this movie and also appeared in some of his other movies afterwards.
Although Warhol's movies weren't mainstream at all, Sedgwick got noticed and eventually got popular among a large crowd. The cooperation between Edie and Andy only took about one year.
Sedgwick moved to the Chelsea Hotel (NYC) in 1966 and became close to Bob Dylan, who lived there too. Their relationship ended when Edie found out Dyland had married another woman in a secret ceremony.
Edie started a relationship with one of Dylan's friends, Bob Neuwirth in stead. She started using drugs and even got dependant on barbiturates. In 1967, Neuwirth broke up with her, because he was not able to cope with her use of drugs.

Edie Sedgwick and Michael Post at their marriage

Throughout 1967, Sedgwick began shooting the movie Ciao! Manhattan and spent the next five years on this project. However, her mental health decreased rapidly and Edie had to be treated in psychiatric institutions when she wasn't working on the movie. In one of these institutions she would meet her husband: her fellow patient Michael Brett Post.
They got married on July 24, 1971 and Edie even stopped using drugs and alcohol for a short amount of time. She started using drugs again a couple of months later, "as a medication to treat physical illness".
In November 1971, she attended a party after a fashion show where a drunken guest insulted her by saying she was a heroin addict and her marriage would fail. Edie called Michael to bring her home and told him she was uncertain about their marriage.
Michael gave her the prescribed medication before they went to bed and Edie fell asleep very quickly. She breathed extremely heavily and it it didn't sound very healthy, but Michael blamed it on her heavy smoking habit.
The next morning Edie was dead. Her dead was ruled as "undetermined/accident/suicide" by the coroner.
Edie was buried in Oak Hill Cemetery in Ballard, California.

Sources:

Images:
weheartit.com

Text:
wikipedia.com