Digital News Report– Bettie Page, the notorious 1950’s pin-up girl who was made famous by her fetish modeling and being one of Playboy’s first Playmates of the Month, has passed away at the age of 85 after complications from a heart attack that happened on December 6th.
Page has been attributed to inspiring the sexual revolution of the 60s after her notable pin-up career of the 1950s. She converted to Christianity in 1958 and ended her modeling career. However, her modeling remained popular and developed a cult following that surged in the 1980s. In 2005 a biopic was made about her life called The Notorious Bettie Page.
Her official website states that she “passed away at 6:41pm PST this evening in a Los Angeles hospital,” and “died peacefully.” A full obituary and memorial is posted at her webpage.
Page was unaware of her cult following until the early 90s when Entertainment Tonight produced a segment on her. She described herself as “penniless and infamous” and was living in a group home in Los Angeles. She then signed with the Curtis Management Group, which also represented James Dean and Marylin Monroe. From then on she was financially secure with the royalties from her surge in popularity.
She was the inspiration for many artists, including DC comics, whose earlier versions of Poison Ivy were based on Page’s appearance. Her unique jet black hair style and gutsy photo shoots in the 1950s continue to receive notoriety in magazines, books, and movies about her life.