Death of a starlet license#
Death of a starlet professional#

He also accused Hefner of making unwanted advances on Stratten at the Playboy Mansion in 1978.

Then Cushner said he opened the door.īarry King/WireImage/Getty Images, FILE 'She would have been a star'įour years after Stratten's death, Bogdanovich published a book called 'The Killing of The Unicorn' in which he blamed Hefner and the culture of Playboy for contributing to Stratten's death. Finally, after a few hours of silence, Cushner and Laurman said they decided to knock on Snider's bedroom door, but there was no answer.

Death of a starlet license#

He said he saw Stratten’s car, a Mercury Cougar, and Snider’s Mercedes with the vanity license plate “STAR 80” - which is where Bob Fosse later sourced the title for his Stratten biopic.Ĭushner and Laurman said they were watching TV upstairs, assuming that Snider and Stratten had reconciled and were downstairs together. Cushner said he hadn't been home all day because he'd spent the previous night at a girlfriend's home and then gone to work in the morning.Ĭushner said Laurman was back at home when he arrived later that evening. Laurman said she was at the house on that morning but left because she knew Stratten was coming to visit Snider. She just had that little flaw that was her flaw: not being able to see the evil in people.' 'Hef and Peter kind of forbid her from going to see him,' Keough said. Those close to her are said to have expressed their concern with her going to see him alone. 14, 1980, Stratten went over to the house that she once shared with Snider, Cushner and Laurman to try to negotiate a settlement with her husband as part of their divorce. Then, Snider bought a 12-gauge shotgun from the classified ads. Soon after, Snider's friend asked for the gun back, DeAnda said. 38 revolver from a friend and waited outside Bogdanovich's house, DeAnda said. It was also around this time that Snider tried to get a gun, according to former L.A. She also mentioned a settlement for Snider because he had helped get her to Hollywood, according to Larry Wilcox, executive producer of the 1981 film 'Death of a Centerfold: the Dorothy Stratten Story.' During that time, she met with Snider and expressed wishes for an amicable separation. Stratten moved in with Bogdanovich once they returned from filming in New York. He would sit on the couch and play his guitar, and he had wrote songs to Dorothy.' She didn't even tell me she loved me or kiss me.' There were times when he talked to me and he would start crying.

Hugh Hefner's not going to call him back… and then this deep, deep, deep, freaky thing that was going on inside of him took control and he lost it.'Īround this time, Patti Laurman, a teenage grocery store clerk whom Snider was trying to turn into his next Playboy model, had moved into the West Los Angeles house Snider and Stratten had shared with their housemate, Stephen Cushner. 'He wasn't doing anything, nobody was admiring him. 'As she started to slip away, he started to realize he owned nothing,' Hemingway said. 'That was the final shut down,' Carpenter said. When Stratten saw the poster design, though, she turned down the deal. According to Carpenter, he tried to follow through on a project for a poster he had started with Stratten before they got married. 'I said, 'Peter, be careful because you have no idea who this guy is that she is separated from.''Īs Snider's control over Stratten and her career rapidly unraveled, he started to become desperate. That's when I think it was starting to change with Paul,' said Cis Rundle, a former Playboy social secretary. In 1980, in addition to being named Playmate of the Year, she landed the title role in the sci-fi comedy 'Galaxina.'

Death of a starlet professional#

'She felt that this whole blossoming - this whole new world that came to her - came to her because of Paul,' Katon-Walden said.īy the time they were married, Hefner had connected Stratten with a professional manager and a money manager, further relegating Snider to the sidelines.Īfter an appearance on 'Playboy's Roller Disco and Pajama Party,' which aired on ABC in late 1979, Stratten began landing acting gigs, including bit parts in films and TV shows like 'Fantasy Island' and 'Buck Rogers in the 25th Century.' Grabowski said she and Hefner, as well as others, opposed the marriage.īut Stratten went through with it because she didn't think she could get out of it, according to Rosanne Katon-Walden, an actress and September 1978 Playmate of the Month. In June 1979, several months after Snider had joined Stratten in Los Angeles full-time, the couple got married.