Dorothy Stratten

Dorothy Ruth Hoogstraten (February 28, 1960 – August 14, 1980), known professionally as Dorothy Stratten, was a Canadian model and actress, primarily known for her appearances as a Playboy Playmate.

Dorothy Stratten was born in Grace Maternity Hospital in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, on February 28, 1960, to Simon and Nelly Hoogstraten, who had emigrated from the Netherlands.

In 1961, her brother John Arthur was born; her sister Louise followed in May 1968.

In 1977, Stratten was attending Centennial High School in Coquitlam.

Concurrently, she was working part-time at a local Dairy Queen, where she met 26-year-old Vancouver-area club promoter and pimp Paul Snider, who began dating her.

Snider later had a photographer take professional nude photos of Stratten which were sent to Playboy magazine in the summer of 1978.

She was under the age of 19 (the legal age of majority in British Columbia), so she had to persuade her mother to sign the model release form.

In August 1978, Stratten moved to Los Angeles, California, United States, where she was chosen as a finalist for the 25th Anniversary Great Playmate Hunt.

name="carpenter"/> Snider joined her in October, and they married in June the following year.

Stratten was the Playboy Playmate of the Month for August 1979 and Playmate of the Year in 1980, and appeared in three comedy films and in at least two episodes of shows broadcast on American network television.

She was murdered shortly after starring in the movie Galaxina at the age of 20 by her estranged husband and manager Paul Snider, whom she was in the process of divorcing and breaking business ties.

Snider committed suicide after he killed Stratten.

With her surname shortened to Stratten, she became Playboy's Miss August 1979 and began working as a bunny at the Playboy Club in Century City, Los Angeles.

Hugh Hefner had high hopes that Stratten could have meaningful crossover success as an actress.

She featured in episodes of the television series Buck Rogers and Fantasy Island in 1979.

Also that year, she had small roles in the films Americathon, the roller disco comedy Skatetown, U.S.A., and a lead role in the exploitation film Autumn Born, all released in 1979.

Hefner was told by Playboy employees that Stratten should sever ties with Snider.

In a documentary about Dorothy, Hef is on screen saying that he tried to warn Dorothy about Paul but that he was in a tough position.

Rosanne Katon and other friends also warned Stratten about Snider's behavior.

On March 22, 1980, Stratten flew to New York City to begin work on what became her last film project, They All Laughed (1981), a romantic comedy being directed by Peter Bogdanovich.

Laughed would be Stratten's fifth movie in a career that had only begun the year before and represented her first substantial role in a big-budget picture, playing the unhappily-married love interest of John Ritter, one of the film's stars.

Bogdanovich, who also wrote the screenplay, said in an interview that he had based the backstory of Stratten's character on what he had learned about her marriage to Snider.

Stratten and Bogdanovich began an affair during the production.

Stratten had spent the first two and a half months of 1980 completing her Playmate of the Year shoot and making her previous movie, Galaxina, in southern California.

With all her work close to home, Snider assumed the role of his wife's chauffeur, as well as her ersatz manager and acting coach.

However, Snider's near-constant presence, as well as his criticism of and almost daily arguments with his wife, caused Stratten so much stress that her co-workers at Playboy and the Galaxina set took notice of the tension in the relationship.

As the spring of 1980 approached, Snider insisted on accompanying his wife to New York for the shoot for They All Laughed, but Stratten recognized the problems he could cause on set and wanted the freedom to pursue her relationship with Bogdanovich.

Stratten convinced Snider to remain in Los Angeles after explaining that the director had decided to close the set of his new film to all but the cast and immediate crew.

Stratten and Bogdanovich consummated their affair on the day after her arrival in New York.

In April, Stratten briefly returned to California to prepare for her upcoming introduction as the new Playmate of the Year and follow-on publicity tour.

With several months of filming left to be completed in New York, this was the last time that she would live with Snider in their Los Angeles-area home.

On Wednesday, April 30, at a luncheon held on the grounds of the Playboy Mansion, Stratten was presented to the assembled entertainment press as the 1980 Playmate of the Year.

In his introductory remarks, Hefner noted that Stratten was from Canada and had received $200,000 in cash and gifts in addition to the title.

In a fleeting comment, he also acknowledged the effect that Stratten's charming combination of beauty, intelligence, and sensitivity had on many who knew her when he said, "...and she is something rather special. They always are, but Dorothy is really quite unique."

After taking the lectern, Stratten thanked Mario Casilli, the photographer who shot both her Playmate of the Month and Year pictorials, several Playboy executives, and finally Hefner, whom she declared "has made me probably the happiest girl in the world today."

Later that evening, Stratten appeared as a guest on NBC's The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson.

The next day, Stratten began a two-week promotional tour in Canada.

Having no events scheduled over the first weekend, she flew to New York on a whim to surprise Bogdanovich.

Increasingly conflicted about her marriage, Stratten wrote to Snider from Canada asking for more freedom in their relationship.

Stratten's death inspired two movies, a book, and several songs: the 1981 TV movie Death of a Centerfold: The Dorothy Stratten Story, the 1983 theatrical motion picture Star 80, the book The Killing of the Unicorn, and songs such as "The Best Was Yet to Come" by Bryan Adams, and "Cover Girl" by Prism.