Edie Sedgwick

"Like a Rolling Stone" and "Leapord-Skin Pillbox Hat", both songs by Bob Dylan, were purportedly written about Sedgwick. After a long bout with diabetes, a broken hip, and a number of strokes, Jan Sterling died on March 26, 2004, in Los Angeles, California, a few days before her 84th birthday. The Velvet Underground song Femme Fatale (on the album The Velvet Underground and Nico) is also reported to be about Sedgwick. Inactive for nearly two decades, she made an appearance at the Cinecon Film Festival in Los Angeles in the fall of 2001.
The Cult wrote a song about her life called "Edie (Ciao Baby)" which was on their "Sonic Temple" album released in 1989. They never married but stayed together until his death in 1993. Her death was ruled a suicide/ drug overdose. In the 70s she entered into a strong personal relationship with actor Sam Wanamaker.

Sedgwick died in November 1971 from barbituate poisoning. Herbert Hoover in the TV miniseries Backstairs at the White House. Shooting resumed on Ciao! Manhattan in 1970 and was completed in 1971. She retired from films in favor of the stage in 1969 and returned before the cameras in 1976 to portray Mrs. Electroconvulsive therapy treatments were administered extensively and several efforts at drug rehabilitation were made. Married and divorced to actor John Merivale (http://us.imdb.com/name/nm0580881/) in the 40s, Sterling's career slipped down after the death of her second husband, actor Paul Douglas, in 1959. In August 1969, she was admitted to the Cottage Hospital in Santa Barbara where she met Mike Post whom she married. During the following years, she appears regularly in movies like Slaughter on Tenth Avenue, Kathy O, and The Female Animal.

Sedgwick’s rapidly degenrating health saw her return to family in California and spend time in several different psychiatric institutions. Also the same year, she travelled to England to play the role of Julia in the first film version of George Orwell's 1984, despite being several months pregnant at the time. After shooting some footage in New York, work on the film was abandoned due to budget and legal problems. In 1954 Sterling was nominated for an Academy Award and won a Golden Globe for her great performance in The High and the Mighty. In April 1967 Sedgwick began shooting on Ciao! Manhattan an underground movie in which she was to star. Shuttling between films and television, she showed up in nearly all the major live anthologies of the 1950s, stood out in such 'bad girl' film roles in Caged (1950), The Big Carnival [aka 'Ace in the Hole'] (1951), Flesh and Fury (1952), The Human Jungle (1954), and Female on the Beach (1955), while making a more sympathetic impression in Sky Full of Moon (1952). The relationship ended in 1967. In 1948 she broke into films supporting the Academy Award winner Jane Wyman in Johnny Belinda, in a key, emotional role.

During this relationship she became dependent on heroin and barbituates. Then, the actrees Ruth Gordon insisted she change her stage name and the two hit upon 'Jan Sterling'. In 1966, Sedgwick began a tumultuous relationship with Bob Neuwirth. Seldom cast in passive roles, Sterling was at her best in parts calling for hard-bitten, sometimes hard-boiled determination. While involved with Dylan, Sedgwick was introduced to LSD. As a teenager she returned to Manhattan, and billed as Jane Sterling, made her first Broadway appearance in Bachelor Born and went on to appear in such major stage offerings as Panama Hattie, Over 21 and Present Laughter. In 1947, she made her movies debut in Tycoon, now billed as Jane Darian. Following her departure from Warhol’s circles, Sedgwick began living at Hotel Chelsea where she became involved with Bob Dylan. Dylan’s friends convinced Sedgwick to sign up with Albert Grossman, Dylan's manager. She was schooled by private tutors in London and Paris, and was enrolled in Fay Compton's dramatic school in London.

The friendship did not last beyond 1966 when Warhol and Sedgwick made an acrimonious public split. Sterling was educated in private schools before heading to Europe with her family. During this period the pair would often dress alike and Sedgwick frequently called herself 'Mrs Warhol'. Jan Sterling was born Jane Sterling Adriance on April 3, 1921, in New York City, NY, into a prosperous family. She became Warhol's Girl of the Year during 1965 when she accompanied him everywhere in the New York social scene. One of Hollywood's most talented and versatile stars, often cool and stunning blonde in Hollywood film noir movies of the 1940s and '50s, the actrees Jan Sterling ensured audiences of a real good time with her sexy roles in soaps, crime action and comedies. It was during this period that Sedgwick began using illegal drugs, particularly amphetamines.

In 1965 she met Andy Warhol and quickly became his favourite 'Warhol superstar', featuring in many of his underground films including Poor Little Rich Girl, Vinyl, Beauty #2, the Chelsea Girls and Diaries, Notes and Sketches. She appeared in TIME, Life and Vogue between 1963 and 1965. In 1964, Sedgwick moved to New York to pursue a career in modelling. As a young woman Sedgwick suffered with clinical depression and anorexia nervosa.

Later in life, Sedgwick claimed to have experienced sexual abuse as a child. She was born in Santa Barbara, California as Edith Sedgwick to a troubled and eccentric establishment family which was seriously blighted by alcoholism and mental illness. Edie Sedgwick (April 20, 1943 - November 15, 1971) is best known as a star of underground films made by artist Andy Warhol in the 1960's. The Philosophy of Andy Warhol.

Andy Warhol. American Girl. Jean Stein: Edie. Jean Stein: Edie an America Biography.

Film Factory. Michael Opray: Andy Warhol. Victor Bockris: Andy Warhol. All Movie Guide (http://www.allmovie.com/cg/avg.dll/).

Edie Sedgwick fan site (http://www.rams.demon.co.uk/esmain.htm/). Ciao! Manhattan (1972). Diaries, Notes and Sketches (1970). The Chelsea Girls (1967).

**** aka the Four Star Movie (1965). Outer and Inner Space (1965). Beauty #2 (1965). Poor Little Rich Girl (1965).

Restaurant (1965). Vinyl (1965). Screen Test #2 (1965). Space 1965.