Dorothy Stratten

The short life and career of Playmate and budding actress Dorothy Stratten was one of the grimmest tragedies in Hollywood's often tragic history. A naturally beautiful and vivacious young woman, Stratten had the unfortunate luck to encounter a small-time hustler named Paul Snider, who took over her life while still a teenager, and used her physical charms to usher them both into the limelight. But Snider's latent mental instability proved a downfall for both he and Stratten. Jealous over his meal ticket's budding relationship with acclaimed director Peter Bogdanovich, Snider gruesomely murdered Stratten in 1980 before turning the gun on himself. Only 20 years old, Stratten would become a bigger star in death than in life and, as the years passed, emerge as the ultimate woman-as-object cautionary tale.