Veruschka the biography

Veruschka, Supermodel, - Biography

Supermodel, model,

Height 6 foot tall

born May 14, 1939 in Königsberg, East Prussia now known as Kaliningrad, Russia

Vera von Lehndorff is a German supermodel, actress, & artist popular during the 1960s. Better known simply as Veruschka or Veruschka von Lehndorff, she is also a daughter of Heinrich Graf von Lehndorff-Steinort, a member of German Resistance.

Veruschka was born in 1939 in East Prussia as Countess Vera Gottliebe Anna von Lehndorff. For a short time, she enjoyed a wealthy lifestyle residing in East Prussia in a 100-room house on an enormous estate that had been in her family for centuries. Her father, Heinrich Graf von Lehndorff-Steinort, was a wealthy landowner & German army reserve officer who became unusually for a German aristocrat of the time, which had helped Hitler into power, a key member of the German Resistance after witnessing Jewish children being beaten & killed. When she was just a child, Heinrich Graf von Lehndorff-Steinort was executed for attempting to assassinate Adolf Hitler in the July 20 Plot. After his death, the remaining family members spent their times in camps until the end of World War II. By the end of the war, her family was left homeless. Her traumatic childhood experiences later triggered heavy depression in 1974. She studied art in Hamburg & then to Florence where she was discovered at age 20 by the photographer Ugo Mulas & became a full-time model. Back then tall models were not considered desirable in Paris, but there she met Eileen Ford, head of the prestigious Ford Modeling Agency. In 1961, she moved to New York City, but she did not score any booking. To make her stand out she returned to Munich & told people that she was really from Russia & changed her name to create a mysterious persona, which earned her many bookings. She had also garnered attention when she made a brief yet powerful five minute appearance in the cult film Blowup by Michelangelo Antonioni in 1966. In the same year, she did her first shoot wearing nothing but body paint, which she would continue to do for years. She once worked with Salvador Dalí & photographer Peter Beard, who took her to Kenya, where she painted herself with black shoe polish to resemble surreal plants & animals in an attempt to "go native". At her peak, she earned as much as $10,000 a day. In 1975, however, she departed from the fashion industry due to disagreements with Grace Mirabella, the newly appointed editor-in-chief of Vogue, who wanted to change her image to make it more relatable & approachable to average women. In 1985, she entered the art world putting on a body-painting show in Tribeca; on her naked body, she was painted with different outfits transforming her into wild animals & archetypes such as film stars, dandies, gangsters & dirty old men. Occasionally, she still appears on catwalks, for example, as a guest model in the Melbourne Fashion Festival in 2000 in Australia. At the time when she was famous in the 1960s, 6 foot tall was even taller than now for a model, as people were shorter on average, and model searching was not stretchiong as much throughout the world.

Filmography
Blowup (1966)
Veruschka: Poetry of a Woman (1971)
Salomé (1972)
Cattivi pensieri (1976)
Couleur chair (1978)
Milo-Milo (1979)
Bizarre Styles (1981)
Dorian Gray im Spiegel der Boulevardpresse (1984)
Vom Zusehen beim Sterben (1985)
The Bride (1985)
Orchestre rouge, L' (1989)
Casino Royale (2006)

Trivia
She attended 13 schools.
Premiere named her five minute scene in Blowup sexiest scene in film history despite the fact that there was no nudity.
Said scene from Blow-up was the inspiration for a photo story in Q Magazine's October 2003 featuring rock musician David Bowie & model Kate Moss titled "Clash of the Titans". It was shot by Ellen von Unwerth.
The make-up brand MAC sells a lipstick called Veruschka named after her for her influence in the fashion industry during the 60s.
A picture of Veruschka graces the cover of 'The Drowners', debut single of the British band Suede.

Quotes
"I dressed all in black & went to see all the top photographers, like Irving Penn, & said, 'I am Veruschka who comes from the border between Russia, Germany & Poland. I'd like to see what you can do with my face.'"
"I was always being different types of women. I copied Ursula Andress, Brigitte Bardot, Greta Garbo. Then I got bored so I painted myself as an animal,"

This site was written in April 2007

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