Gloria Vanderbilt biography

Synopsis

Early Life

A member of the affluent and influential Vanderbilt family, Gloria Vanderbilt was born into wealth on February 20, 1924, in New York City. Her father, Reginald Vanderbilt, was the great-grandson of Cornelius Vanderbilt, the creator of a railroad empire and one of America's first millionaires. Her mother, Gloria Morgan, was a young woman who loved parties more than parenthood. Gloria lost her father to liver disease when she was a toddler. She received a multimillion-dollar trust fund upon her father's death. For several years after her father's death, Gloria lived abroad with her mother and was often in the care of her maternal grandmother and her nurse Dodo.

When she was ten, Gloria Vanderbilt made headlines as the central figure in a bitter and very public custody battle. Her aunt Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney successfully fought her mother for Gloria. The court decided that Gloria could spend the summers with her mother, and that Dodo, Gloria's most beloved companion, would have to be let go.

In her teens, Vanderbilt emerged as a popular young socialite with her own distinct style. She even appeared in Harper's Bazaar magazine in 1939. A while later, Vanderbilt headed out to Hollywood where her mother was already well ensconced in popular social circles. Gloria started dating much older men, including Errol Flynn and Howard Hughes. In 1941, she married Hollywood agent Pat De Cicco—she was only seventeen at the time.

It proved to be an unhappy union, and Vanderbilt divorced her husband in 1945. Even before the divorce, she had found love again with Leopold Stokowski, a famous conductor. Vanderbilt and Stokowski married shortly after her divorce was complete. They had two sons together, Stanley and Christopher. Around this time, Vanderbilt also discovered her passion for art and studied at the Art Students League of New York. She explored an interest in acting as well, studying with Sanford Meisner at the Neighborhood Playhouse.

Career Highlights

Vanderbilt appeared on Broadway in the short-lived revival of William Saroyan's The Time of Your Life in 1955. She showed promise as a writer, too, publishing a collection of poems around this time. Vanderbilt also made some changes in her personal life around this time, divorcing Stokowski. After a short encounter with Frank Sinatra, she wed film director Sidney Lumet in 1956. Vanderbilt tackled some acting roles around this time, but she was better known for her social life. She was good friends with Truman Capote among others in the New York's intellectual and social elite. After divorcing Lumet, Vanderbilt married writer Wyatt Cooper in 1963. The couple had two sons together, Carter and Anderson.

In the 1970s, Vanderbilt burst onto the fashion scene.