Remembering the socialite, model, and Warhol Superstar Edie Sedgwick
By 1965, Edie had become the quintessential “It Girl” of Andy Warhol’s Factory, where her gamine beauty and restless energy made her both muse and star. She appeared in a string of Warhol’s short films—most notably “Poor Little Rich Girl”
Remembering the socialite, model, and Warhol Superstar Edie Sedgwick
Edie Sedgwick was born Edith Minturn Sedgwick on April 20, 1943, in Santa Barbara, California, into a wealthy New England family with deep society roots. The youngest of five children, she was raised amid privilege but struggled with her parents’ divorce and the pressures of her family’s expectations. Tall and striking, with wide eyes and a habit of stacking jewelry, Edie was sent to a series of boarding schools and treatment centers before finding herself drawn to the burgeoning art scene in New York City in the early 1960s.
By 1965, Edie had become the quintessential “It Girl” of Andy Warhol’s Factory, where her gamine beauty and restless energy made her both muse and star. She appeared in a string of Warhol’s short films—most notably “Poor Little Rich Girl”—and became a fixture of the downtown cocktail circuit, rubbing elbows with pop artists, jazz musicians and avant‑garde performers. Photographers and fashion magazines clamored for her image, and she was celebrated as the face of the Swinging Sixties, embodying a cool, rebellious glamour that few could resist.
But Edie’s meteoric rise was shadowed by personal demons. She battled chronic insomnia, depression and drug addiction, and her relationships—both personal and professional—became increasingly fraught. After her split with Warhol in 1966, she attempted to launch a singing and acting career, releasing a single and taking small roles in mainstream films, but success eluded her. As her health declined, she returned to California and entered rehabilitation, though her struggles only intensified.
On November 16, 1971, at the age of 28, Edie Sedgwick died in Los Angeles of an acute barbiturate overdose. In death as in life, she left behind a legend: a dazzling yet tragic figure whose brief but brilliant presence forever altered the landscape of art, fashion and pop culture.
Remembering Edie Sedgwick through her words and footage
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