When was gloria vanderbilt born

Gloria, a society heiress who later launched a fashion empire built on designer jeans, was born on February 20, to Gloria Morgan and Reginald Claypoole Vanderbilt, great-grandson of the famous railroad tycoon.

Reginald was a heavy drinker and gambler who was 24 years older than the teenage Gloria Morgan. By the time Reginald died from cirrhosis of the liver, he had blown through his money and racked up lots of debt. His month-old daughter Gloria stood to inherit part of a family trust fund when she reached age 21, but until then, she and her mother would live on interest payments.

Over the next several years, Gloria Morgan lived in opulent style on those payments. The Swiss-born socialite went back to Europe, where her twin sister lived as mistress to Edward, Prince of Wales. Gloria Morgan moved in the same royal circles and briefly became engaged to the German prince of Hohenlohe-Langenburg.

When her daughter got tonsillitis, she took Gloria back to the U. This is where things started to come to a head. The mother returned to New York City and tried to get her daughter back, but Gertrude objected on the grounds that she was an unfit mother. In , the women went to court to fight for custody. She rented a studio where she wrote poetry and painted. She also began taking acting lessons and performing professionally for a short while. The Stokowskis divorced after ten years of marriage and fought a custody battle over their sons.

Vanderbilt won. Vanderbilt later married Sidney Lumet, a television director. They remained married for seven years; when she ended the union, Lumet attempted suicide.

Vanderbilt's fourth marriage to Mississippi writer, Wyatt Cooper, lasted 14 years, until Cooper's death in , after a series of heart attacks.

The couple had two sons, Carter and Anderson. Vanderbilt began her career as a commercial designer in when Don Hall of the Hallmark company saw Vanderbilt's drawings in an art gallery. The drawings were used in a line of paper goods. A collection of scarves was adapted from her paintings.

Vanderbilt went on to design a line of blouses and a highly successful line of jeans. Her name was seen on such products as perfume, sheets, shoes, leather goods, liqueurs, and accessories. In the mids, she launched a tofu-based frozen dessert.

Vanderbilt was one of the first designers to make public appearances, a difficult thing for her because of her shyness. Friends of Vanderbilt, who wished to remain anonymous, told People magazine in , "There has always been a vulnerable, childlike quality about her.

She has had despair and aloneness, and maybe as a result she has terminal narcissism. A whole slice of her is a dreamy child. But when something interests her she may get on a run and bore you to death about a great piece of lace or something. In the s, Vanderbilt began publishing her memoirs, Once Upon a Time. Vanderbilt said in an interview with People, that she did not write it as a form of therapy to resolve the pain she felt at her mother's indifference.

I consider it a piece of work, not therapy. I always knew I would do the book, and it fell onto the page. In it she wrote of Stokowski, "With time, bitterness and pain gently slipped away, and a mysterious loving light shines strongly through the crystal of memory. Because as I have come to understand myself-I have also come to understand him. My mother, too, I have come to understand … And although I still search for her, and part of me probably always will, it is an ache I have learned to live with, and we have found, she and I, a place of peace where we rest together: closer perhaps in death than we ever were in life.

In July , Vanderbilt experienced the worst nightmare of her life. Her son Carter Cooper, age 23, plummeted from the terrace of her 14th-floor penthouse to his death as she watched powerlessly.

Vanderbilt contended that her son was not depressed or suicidal, but was disoriented from asthma medication he had taken. At first she was unable to accept his death. The Subject Was Roses Premiere. East of Eden premiere. See all related lists ». Do you have a demo reel? Add it to your IMDb page. Find out more at IMDbPro ». How Much Have You Seen? How much of Gloria Vanderbilt's work have you seen? Emmy Nominees for Outstanding Drama Series from the '60s Favorite oft-adapted male literary character from the 19th century Forbes Fictional 15's See more polls ».

Known For. Shirley Temple's Storybook Alice Kipling. Playhouse 90 Elsie. Kraft Theatre Girl. Adventures in Paradise Judith. Show all Hide all Show by Hide Show Actress 8 credits. Gloria Vanderbilt. Connie Carmichael. Alice Kipling. Myra Kent. Marya Alexandrovna.