Today (February 28th 2023) would have been the 63rd birthday of Dorothy Stratten.
Never heard of her? Read on…
So. Dorothy Stratten (real name Dorothy Ruth Hoogstraten [February 28, 1960 – August 14, 1980]), was a Playboy Playmate and actress, originally from Vancouver British Columbia. Stratten was the Playboy Playmate of the Month for August 1979 and Playmate of the Year in 1980. She appeared in three comedy films and in at least two episodes of shows broadcast on American network television, including “Buck Rogers in the 25th Century” and “Fantasy Island”.
She was murdered shortly after starring in the movie “Galaxina” at the age of 20 by her estranged husband and manager Paul Snider, with whom she was in the process of divorcing and breaking business ties. Snider committed suicide after he killed Stratten.
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 the songs “Californication” by the Red Hot Chili Peppers, “The Best Was Yet to Come” by Bryan Adams, and “Cover Girl” by Prism.
I first became aware of Dorothy Stratten when she popped up in an episode of “Buck Rogers in the 25th Century” (I was binge-watching the entire series at the time).
Dorothy played a character called “Miss Cosmos” in the Season 1 Episode 11 instalment entitled: “Cruise Ship to the Stars”.
Pictured left: Dorothy Stratten and Gil Gerard.
That role of Miss Cosmos on Buck Rogers is reported to have been among her first acting roles on television. Her voice was dubbed by actress Anne Lockhart (of Battlestar Galactica fame) because Stratten had virtually no acting experience and producers wanted to conceal the limitations of her performance and her diction.
It is difficult to describe the impact that she had on me in today’s terms. This was not me in 1980 at 20-something years old crushing on a celebrity, this was me in my 50’s binge watching an old, old series. I’d never seen of, or heard of her before – but she absolutely knocked me out. I thought she was the prettiest girl I’d ever set eyes on – innocently echoing the words of Peter Bogdanovitch (who was to later date Stratten).
I didn’t think she was a bad actor in Buck Rogers either (didn’t know at the time that Anne Lockhart had dubbed her lines) and the episode was a typical Buck Rogers episode.
Such was the strength of that first impact, I felt I had to discover more about Dorothy Stratten. The very first thing I discovered is that she was murdered by her boyfriend in 1980. She was just 20 years old when she was shot to death. Normally, that would have been the end of it, but it turns out that Stratten has quite the cult following.
I discovered a good deal of information about Dorothy Stratten. Films were made about her (Star 80 is the best one with the Great Eric Roberts playing the boyfriend, Paul Snider), books have been written about her and documentaries have been filmed about her.
I watched (what survived of) her acting work. To be honest, she was not the best actress I’ve ever seen, but by far not the worst. For the material given, she did very well and it would have been early in her acting career, where she would have been learning. I’ve read a decent amount of articles and books about her, describing her Playboy career, her reluctance to participate in the whole Hugh Hefner thing and her aspirations to become an actress.
I can understand the cult following. In 1980, I would imagine such a death was a newsworthy and horrific event and it did indeed shock America at the time.
From what I can gather, Dorothy was inherently a nice person, but I get the impression that she could be easily led. Paul Snider was (unfortunately for Stratten) a very good manipulator and very selfish, jealous man. It was he that insisted Stratten pose for Hefner’s Playboy magazine and it was he that benefitted the most out of that relationship with Hefner.
Although many around Stratten recognised her situation with Snider, many were powerless at the time to do anything about it to help her. She did at least eventually receive some help through Peter Bogdanovitch (a film director). He cast her in one of his films and eventually they became close. It was mainly him that persuaded Stratten to begin the process to escape the combined grips of Snider and Hefner and to realise her aspirations to become an actress.
In Bogdanovitch’s book written shortly after Stratten’s death (The Killing of the Unicorn), Bogdanovitch firmly places the blame of Stratten’s death on Hefner. A fact that Hefner denied up to his death.
In today’s terms, Snider’s treatment of Stratten would be called out as extreme gaslighting and abuse of the highest order – which would have been recognised and stopped. However in the 1980’s – especially in the circles that Snider and Hefner operated in – it would have been a hopeless mission to even attempt to cry for help.
And so it was on August 14th 1980 that Stratten – still under the influence of Snider – was shot by him in a fit of rage. They were in his apartment, where he had entrapped her and abused her for some hours.
I think that the story of Dorothy Stratten is amongst the saddest stories of all time. So much potential, so very nearly out of the clutches of Paul Snider, only to be murdered at just 20 years old.
The fact that to this day she is remembered by some for the very small body of work that she did and the big impact on the general public of the time is testament to the kind of person she was. Who knows, had she not gone to meet Snider on that day and had she lived, she may have gone on to become a well known actor. Then again, she may have given it all up and returned to Dairy Queen.
The sad thing is, we’ll never know.