Donyale Luna
Encyclopedia
Donyale Luna was an American model
and cover girl
. She also appeared in several films, in Camp by Andy Warhol
, Qui êtes-vous, Polly Maggoo?
by William Klein
, as Groucho Marx
's companion in Otto Preminger
's Skidoo
, and most notably as Oenothea in Federico Fellini
's Satyricon and as the title character in Salomé, a film by director Carmelo Bene
.
. She attended the prestigious Cass Technical High School
. Her parents were Peggy and Nathaniel Freeman; her mother killed her father, who was reportedly abusive, when Donyale was 18. Luna's mother wanted her to become a nurse.
Despite the parentage stated on her birth certificate, she insisted that her biological father was a man with the surname Luna and that her mother was Indigenous-Mexican and of Afro-Egyptian lineage. According to the model, one of her grandmothers was reportedly an Irish former actress who married a black interior decorator. Whether any of this background is true is uncertain. In the mid 1960s, a relative described Luna as being "a very weird child, even from birth, living in a wonderland, a dream."
, she moved from Detroit to New York City
to pursue a modeling career. In January 1965, a sketch of Luna appeared on the cover of Harper's Bazaar
. She became the first African American model to appear on the cover of a Vogue
magazine, the March 1966 British issue, shot by British photographer David Bailey.
According to The New York Times
, she was under exclusive contract to the photographer Richard Avedon
for a year at the beginning of her career.
An article in Time
magazine published on 1 April 1966, "The Luna Year", described her as "a new heavenly body who, because of her striking singularity, promises to remain on high for many a season. Donyale Luna, as she calls herself, is unquestionably the hottest model in Europe at the moment. She is only 20, a Negro, hails from Detroit, and is not to be missed if one reads Harper's Bazaar, Paris Match, Britain's Queen, the British, French or American editions of Vogue.
In 1967, the mannequin manufacturer Adel Rootstein
created a mannequin in Luna's image, a follow-up to the company's Twiggy
mannequin of 1966.
Luna appeared in a nude photo layout in the April 1975 issue of Playboy
; the photographer was Luigi Cazzaniga.
She appeared in several movies produced by Andy Warhol
. These included Screen Test: Donyale Luna (1964), in which critic Wayne Koestenbaum described Luna as "pure diva, presenting a delicious mobile excess of mannerism"; Camp (1965), and Donyale Luna (1967), a 33-minute color film in which the model starred as Snow White.
In Federico Fellini
's Fellini Satyricon (1970), she portrayed the witch Oenothea, "who," according to one commentator, "in a trade-off with a wizard long ago ended up with fire between her legs. And it's real fire too, because Fellini shows us a scene in which a long line of foolish-looking peasants wait with unlit torches at Oenothea's bed. When their time comes, each devoutly places his torch between her legs to her sex, and, Poof."
Luna also appeared in The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus
, the Otto Preminger comedy Skidoo
(in which she was featured as the mistress of crime boss "God", who was portrayed by Groucho Marx
), and the British documentary Tonite Let's All Make Love in London
.
Luna starred as the title character in the 1972 Italian film Salomé, by director Carmelo Bene
.
, who wrote a profile of Luna for The New York Times in 1968, the model was "secretive, mysterious, contradictory, evasive, mercurial, and insistent upon her multiracial lineage -- exotic, chameleon strands of Indigenous-Mexican, Indonesian, Irish, and, last but least escapable, African." A London magazine (The Sunday Times Magazine, article by Harold Carlton) hailed her as "the completely New Image of the Negro woman. Fashion finds itself in an instrumental position for changing history, however slightly, for it is about to bring out into the open the veneration, the adoration, the idolization of the Negro ... "
When Stone asked her about whether her appearances in Hollywood films would benefit the cause of black actresses, Luna answered, "If it brings about more jobs for Mexicans, Asians, Native Americans, Africans, groovy. It could be good, it could be bad. I couldn't care less."
, to an unnamed Danish photographer, and to Georg Willing, a German actor who appeared in European horror films (such as 1970's "Necropolis") and with the Living Theatre.
Around 1969 Luna was also romantically involved with German actor Klaus Kinski
. Both posed together on several photographs. The relationship ended when Kinski asked her entourage to leave his house in Rome: he was concerned that their drug use could damage his career.
Luna married the Italian photographer Luigi Cazzaniga. In 1977 they had a child: Dream Cazzaniga.
: "I think it's great. I learned that I like to live, I like to make love, I really do love somebody, I love flowers, I love the sky, I like bright colors, I like animals. [LSD] also showed me unhappy things -- that I was stubborn, selfish, unreasonable, mean, that I hurt other people."
Luna died in Rome
, Italy
, in a clinic, after an accidental drug overdose.
Model (person)
A model , sometimes called a mannequin, is a person who is employed to display, advertise and promote commercial products or to serve as a subject of works of art....
and cover girl
Cover girl
A cover girl is a woman whose photograph features on the front cover of a magazine. She may be a model, celebrity or entertainer. The term would generally not be used to describe a casual, once-off appearance by a person on the cover of a magazine....
. She also appeared in several films, in Camp by Andy Warhol
Andy Warhol
Andrew Warhola , known as Andy Warhol, was an American painter, printmaker, and filmmaker who was a leading figure in the visual art movement known as pop art...
, Qui êtes-vous, Polly Maggoo?
Qui êtes-vous, Polly Maggoo?
Who Are You, Polly Maggoo? is a 1966 French film directed by William Klein.It is a satirical art house movie spoofing the fashion world and its excesses. It stars Dorothy McGowan as supermodel Polly Maggoo being followed by a French television crew...
by William Klein
William Klein
William Klein is a photographer and filmmaker noted to for his ironic approach to both media and his extensive use of unusual photographic techniques in the context of photojournalism and fashion photography...
, as Groucho Marx
Groucho Marx
Julius Henry "Groucho" Marx was an American comedian and film star famed as a master of wit. His rapid-fire delivery of innuendo-laden patter earned him many admirers. He made 13 feature films with his siblings the Marx Brothers, of whom he was the third-born...
's companion in Otto Preminger
Otto Preminger
Otto Ludwig Preminger was an Austro–Hungarian-American theatre and film director.After moving from the theatre to Hollywood, he directed over 35 feature films in a five-decade career. He rose to prominence for stylish film noir mysteries such as Laura and Fallen Angel...
's Skidoo
Skidoo (film)
Skidoo is an American comedy film directed by Otto Preminger, starring Jackie Gleason and Carol Channing, written by Doran William Cannon and released by Paramount Pictures on December 19, 1968...
, and most notably as Oenothea in Federico Fellini
Federico Fellini
Federico Fellini, Cavaliere di Gran Croce OMRI , was an Italian film director and scriptwriter. Known for a distinct style that blends fantasy and baroque images, he is considered one of the most influential and widely revered filmmakers of the 20th century...
's Satyricon and as the title character in Salomé, a film by director Carmelo Bene
Carmelo Bene
Carmelo Bene was an Italian actor, film director and screenwriter. He appeared in 20 films between 1967 and 2002...
.
Birth and childhood
She was born Peggy Ann Freeman in Detroit, MichiganDetroit, Michigan
Detroit is the major city among the primary cultural, financial, and transportation centers in the Metro Detroit area, a region of 5.2 million people. As the seat of Wayne County, the city of Detroit is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan and serves as a major port on the Detroit River...
. She attended the prestigious Cass Technical High School
Cass Technical High School
The Cass Tech Technicians football team is a high school football program in Division 1 Public School League, representing the prestigious Cass Technical High School in Detroit, MI. Cass Tech High School has long been recognized nationwide for its extraordinary football program dating back to its...
. Her parents were Peggy and Nathaniel Freeman; her mother killed her father, who was reportedly abusive, when Donyale was 18. Luna's mother wanted her to become a nurse.
Despite the parentage stated on her birth certificate, she insisted that her biological father was a man with the surname Luna and that her mother was Indigenous-Mexican and of Afro-Egyptian lineage. According to the model, one of her grandmothers was reportedly an Irish former actress who married a black interior decorator. Whether any of this background is true is uncertain. In the mid 1960s, a relative described Luna as being "a very weird child, even from birth, living in a wonderland, a dream."
Modeling career
After being discovered by the photographer David McCabeDavid McCabe
David McCabe may refer to:*Dave McCabe, lead vocalist and guitarist for English rock band, The Zutons*David McCabe , British photographer...
, she moved from Detroit to New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
to pursue a modeling career. In January 1965, a sketch of Luna appeared on the cover of Harper's Bazaar
Harper's Bazaar
Harper’s Bazaar is an American fashion magazine, first published in 1867. Harper’s Bazaar is published by Hearst and, as a magazine, considers itself to be the style resource for “women who are the first to buy the best, from casual to couture.”...
. She became the first African American model to appear on the cover of a Vogue
Vogue (magazine)
Vogue is a fashion and lifestyle magazine that is published monthly in 18 national and one regional edition by Condé Nast.-History:In 1892 Arthur Turnure founded Vogue as a weekly publication in the United States. When he died in 1909, Condé Montrose Nast picked up the magazine and slowly began...
magazine, the March 1966 British issue, shot by British photographer David Bailey.
According to The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
, she was under exclusive contract to the photographer Richard Avedon
Richard Avedon
Richard Avedon was an American photographer. An obituary published in The New York Times said that "his fashion and portrait photographs helped define America's image of style, beauty and culture for the last half-century."-Photography career:Avedon was born in New York City to a Jewish Russian...
for a year at the beginning of her career.
An article in Time
Time (magazine)
Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
magazine published on 1 April 1966, "The Luna Year", described her as "a new heavenly body who, because of her striking singularity, promises to remain on high for many a season. Donyale Luna, as she calls herself, is unquestionably the hottest model in Europe at the moment. She is only 20, a Negro, hails from Detroit, and is not to be missed if one reads Harper's Bazaar, Paris Match, Britain's Queen, the British, French or American editions of Vogue.
In 1967, the mannequin manufacturer Adel Rootstein
Adel Rootstein
Adel Rootstein was a British mannequin designer responsible for premium designs that are sold worldwide.-Early life:Rootstein was born in Warmbaths, South Africa in 1930. She married the industrial designer Richard Hopkins...
created a mannequin in Luna's image, a follow-up to the company's Twiggy
Twiggy
Lesley Lawson née Hornby known as Twiggy is an English model, actress, and singer. In the early-1960s she became a prominent British teenage model of swinging sixties London with others such as Penelope Tree....
mannequin of 1966.
Luna appeared in a nude photo layout in the April 1975 issue of Playboy
Playboy
Playboy is an American men's magazine that features photographs of nude women as well as journalism and fiction. It was founded in Chicago in 1953 by Hugh Hefner and his associates, and funded in part by a $1,000 loan from Hefner's mother. The magazine has grown into Playboy Enterprises, Inc., with...
; the photographer was Luigi Cazzaniga.
Acting career
During the late 1960s and early 1970s, Luna appeared in several films.She appeared in several movies produced by Andy Warhol
Andy Warhol
Andrew Warhola , known as Andy Warhol, was an American painter, printmaker, and filmmaker who was a leading figure in the visual art movement known as pop art...
. These included Screen Test: Donyale Luna (1964), in which critic Wayne Koestenbaum described Luna as "pure diva, presenting a delicious mobile excess of mannerism"; Camp (1965), and Donyale Luna (1967), a 33-minute color film in which the model starred as Snow White.
In Federico Fellini
Federico Fellini
Federico Fellini, Cavaliere di Gran Croce OMRI , was an Italian film director and scriptwriter. Known for a distinct style that blends fantasy and baroque images, he is considered one of the most influential and widely revered filmmakers of the 20th century...
's Fellini Satyricon (1970), she portrayed the witch Oenothea, "who," according to one commentator, "in a trade-off with a wizard long ago ended up with fire between her legs. And it's real fire too, because Fellini shows us a scene in which a long line of foolish-looking peasants wait with unlit torches at Oenothea's bed. When their time comes, each devoutly places his torch between her legs to her sex, and, Poof."
Luna also appeared in The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus
The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus
The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus is a film released in 1996 of an 11 December 1968 event put together by The Rolling Stones. The event comprised two concerts on a circus stage and included such acts as The Who, Taj Mahal, Marianne Faithfull, and Jethro Tull...
, the Otto Preminger comedy Skidoo
Skidoo (film)
Skidoo is an American comedy film directed by Otto Preminger, starring Jackie Gleason and Carol Channing, written by Doran William Cannon and released by Paramount Pictures on December 19, 1968...
(in which she was featured as the mistress of crime boss "God", who was portrayed by Groucho Marx
Groucho Marx
Julius Henry "Groucho" Marx was an American comedian and film star famed as a master of wit. His rapid-fire delivery of innuendo-laden patter earned him many admirers. He made 13 feature films with his siblings the Marx Brothers, of whom he was the third-born...
), and the British documentary Tonite Let's All Make Love in London
Tonite Let's All Make Love in London
Tonite Lets All Make Love in London. is a soundtrack album released on LP in 1968, for the 1967 semi-documentary film made by Peter Whitehead about the "swinging London" scene of the sixties...
.
Luna starred as the title character in the 1972 Italian film Salomé, by director Carmelo Bene
Carmelo Bene
Carmelo Bene was an Italian actor, film director and screenwriter. He appeared in 20 films between 1967 and 2002...
.
Racial identity issues
According to the journalist Judy StoneJudy Stone (journalist)
Judy Stone is a journalist and film critic who wrote film reviews for the San Francisco Chronicle from 1961 to 1993....
, who wrote a profile of Luna for The New York Times in 1968, the model was "secretive, mysterious, contradictory, evasive, mercurial, and insistent upon her multiracial lineage -- exotic, chameleon strands of Indigenous-Mexican, Indonesian, Irish, and, last but least escapable, African." A London magazine (The Sunday Times Magazine, article by Harold Carlton) hailed her as "the completely New Image of the Negro woman. Fashion finds itself in an instrumental position for changing history, however slightly, for it is about to bring out into the open the veneration, the adoration, the idolization of the Negro ... "
When Stone asked her about whether her appearances in Hollywood films would benefit the cause of black actresses, Luna answered, "If it brings about more jobs for Mexicans, Asians, Native Americans, Africans, groovy. It could be good, it could be bad. I couldn't care less."
Romantic relationships
In the mid 1960s, Luna was married to an actor for 10 months. Later she reportedly was engaged to the Austrian-born Swiss actor Maximilian SchellMaximilian Schell
Maximilian Schell is an Austrian-born Swiss actor who won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his role in Judgment at Nuremberg in 1961...
, to an unnamed Danish photographer, and to Georg Willing, a German actor who appeared in European horror films (such as 1970's "Necropolis") and with the Living Theatre.
Around 1969 Luna was also romantically involved with German actor Klaus Kinski
Klaus Kinski
Klaus Kinski, born Klaus Günter Karl Nakszynski , was a German actor. He appeared in more than 130 films, and is perhaps best-remembered as a leading role actor in Werner Herzog films: Aguirre, the Wrath of God , Nosferatu the Vampyre , Woyzeck , Fitzcarraldo and Cobra Verde .-Early...
. Both posed together on several photographs. The relationship ended when Kinski asked her entourage to leave his house in Rome: he was concerned that their drug use could damage his career.
Luna married the Italian photographer Luigi Cazzaniga. In 1977 they had a child: Dream Cazzaniga.
Drug use and death
In the late 1960s, in an interview, Luna expressed her fondness for LSDLSD
Lysergic acid diethylamide, abbreviated LSD or LSD-25, also known as lysergide and colloquially as acid, is a semisynthetic psychedelic drug of the ergoline family, well known for its psychological effects which can include altered thinking processes, closed and open eye visuals, synaesthesia, an...
: "I think it's great. I learned that I like to live, I like to make love, I really do love somebody, I love flowers, I love the sky, I like bright colors, I like animals. [LSD] also showed me unhappy things -- that I was stubborn, selfish, unreasonable, mean, that I hurt other people."
Luna died in Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
, Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
, in a clinic, after an accidental drug overdose.
Film and television
- Screen Test: Donyale Luna (Andy Warhol, 1964)
- Camp (Andy Warhol, 1965)
- Screen Test 3 (Andy Warhol, 1966)
- Screen Test 4 (Andy Warhol, 1966)
- Qui êtes-vous, Polly Maggoo?Qui êtes-vous, Polly Maggoo?Who Are You, Polly Maggoo? is a 1966 French film directed by William Klein.It is a satirical art house movie spoofing the fashion world and its excesses. It stars Dorothy McGowan as supermodel Polly Maggoo being followed by a French television crew...
(1966) - The Tonight Show Starring Johnny CarsonThe Tonight Show Starring Johnny CarsonThe Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson is a talk show hosted by Johnny Carson under the Tonight Show franchise from 1962 to 1992. It originally aired during late-night....
(12 December 1966) - Donyale Luna (Andy Warhol, 1967)
- Tonite Let's All Make Love in LondonTonite Let's All Make Love in LondonTonite Lets All Make Love in London. is a soundtrack album released on LP in 1968, for the 1967 semi-documentary film made by Peter Whitehead about the "swinging London" scene of the sixties...
(Dave DaviesDave DaviesDavid Russell Gordon "Dave" Davies is an English rock musician best known for his role as lead guitarist and vocalist for the English rock band The Kinks....
, 1967) - The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll CircusThe Rolling Stones Rock and Roll CircusThe Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus is a film released in 1996 of an 11 December 1968 event put together by The Rolling Stones. The event comprised two concerts on a circus stage and included such acts as The Who, Taj Mahal, Marianne Faithfull, and Jethro Tull...
(1968, released 1996) - SkidooSkidoo (film)Skidoo is an American comedy film directed by Otto Preminger, starring Jackie Gleason and Carol Channing, written by Doran William Cannon and released by Paramount Pictures on December 19, 1968...
(Otto Preminger, 1968) - Fellini Satyricon (Federico Fellini, 1970)
- Salvador Dalí (1971)
- Salomé (Carmelo Bene, 1972)