Bettie Page , the pin-up model whose seductive photographs in magazines titillated and outraged Americans in the 1950s , has died , her agent said .
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Bettie Page , the pin-up model whose seductive <m> photographs </m> in magazines titillated and outraged Americans in the 1950s , has died , her agent said .
Bettie Page , the pin-up model whose seductive <m> photographs </m> in magazines titillated and outraged Americans in the 1950s , has died , her agent said .
She was 85 .
`` With deep personal sadness I must announce that my dear friend and client Bettie Page passed away at 6:41pm PST this evening ( 0241 GMT Friday ) in a Los Angeles hospital , '' her agent Mark Roesler said Thursday in a statement .
Page suffered a heart attack nine days earlier and never regained consciousness .
`` She captured the imagination of a generation of men and women with her free spirit and unabashed sensuality , '' Roesler said .
Page , with shoulder-length jet-black hair and bangs , combined sweetness and sexuality in a series of now-legendary posters and photographs in the 1950s , including as one of the inaugural centerfolds in Hugh Heffner 's new magazine Playboy , which named her `` the model of the century . ''
The nice-naughty image -- a sweet and beguiling smile matched with a curvacious figure and Page 's propensity for burlesque films and bondage images -- proved highly combustible on the eve of America 's sexual revolution .
In the late 1950s Page became one of the most photographed women in the world , and her popularity soared even as she left the limelight nearly half a century ago .
Page later said she was puzzled by her effect on pop culture .
`` I have no idea why I 'm the only model who has had so much fame so long after quitting work , '' she told the Los Angeles Times in 2006 .
In her old age , she refused to be photographed , preserving her mythic status .
`` I want to be remembered , as I was when I was young and in my golden times ...
I want to be remembered as the woman who changed people 's perspectives concerning nudity in its natural form . ''
Born in 1923 in Nashville , Tennessee , Bettie Mae Page was one of six children from an impoverished family .
After earning her university degree , she worked as a secretary and aspired to Hollywood stardom but never made it as an actress .
A screen test at 20th Century Fox went badly , with a producer offering her a break in return for sexual favors -- she refused .
Filmmaker and aviator Howard Hughes also doggedly pursued Page but she rebuffed him as well .
`` I never returned any of his calls , '' she once said .
`` I guess people will say I made a mistake .
But sex is part of love , and you should n't go around doing it unless you are in love .
I certainly did n't . ''
She posed for her first pin-up photos in 1947 and by the 1950s provocative pictures of her in bikinis or sexy lingerie were wildly popular , tacked up on the walls of locker rooms , student halls , offices and military barracks .
Although the pictures -- which sometimes played on bondage themes -- seem tame by contemporary standards , they raised alarms in a more conservative era , prompting US senators to investigate pornography .
Page was subpoenaed to appear before a senate committee headed by prominent Democrat Estes Kefauver but in the end never had to testify .
For Page , the bondage photos were harmless fun .
`` But honestly , who could take any of this seriously ? '' she said years later , according to her official website .
`` I never understood how anyone believed those poses were sexy .
To be tied up ?
I do n't get it . ''
By 1958 , at the peak of her fame , Page vanished from public view and her modeling days ended .
She became a born-again Christian but struggled with marital problems and suffered from depression and violent mood swings .
In 1992 , she left a California mental hospital having been diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic .
In the 1990s , a lawyer who later became her agent , Mark Roesler , used Page 's famous images for a lucrative licensing and merchandising deal that helped her financially and renewed her fame .
The merchandise , including a clothing line , along with a film in 2005,
`` The Notorious Bettie Page , '' helped introduce her to a new generation in the United States and abroad .
`` She was reclusive and private , so without intending to be , without quite understanding how , her modeling work made her a pivotal figure in the sexual revolution that began in the 1950s , '' Roesler said .