With a magnetic gaze, a husky voice, model-like legs, and a presence overflowing with confidence, Angie Dickinson became one of the most fascinating figures of late classic Hollywood in the 1950s and television in the 1970s.
Born as Angeline Brown in a rural enclave in North Dakota, her life seemed destined to be a traditional housewife when she found work as a typist in a factory linked to the aerospace industry and married Gene Dickinson in 1952, whom she met as the college football hero. However, the following year her life took a 180-degree turn.
After coming in second in a local Miss America contest, a casting agent discovered her for television. A jury composed of Groucho Marx and Jimmy Durante to find beautiful girls for NBC chose her to be part of the T-Venuses, a group of six endlessly leggy chorus girls who performed on TheJimmy Durante Show. In this famous program, she met Frank Sinatra in 1954, with whom she had an intermittent romance over the next decade. The actress divorced her husband in 1960.
Regarding her affair with The Voice, she told CBS it was "wonderful. We had a long relationship, it wasn't a fling (...) We were about to get married in 1964." She then revealed what the singer told her: "You know, I'm not going to marry an actress.' And I replied: 'Well, I don't blame you. I wouldn't wish that on anyone.' In fact, I didn't want to marry him. So I didn't want him to ask me. I didn't want to say no to Frank Sinatra!".
Despite the rejections, the music star not only supported Angie in the movie industry but also gave her access to his coveted circle. Indeed, in 1960, he introduced her to John F. Kennedy at the mansion owned by his sister Patricia and Peter Lawford in Malibu. From that moment on, the actress joined the Rat Pack, that group of revelers and womanizers formed by Sinatra himself, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr, Peter Lawford, and Joey Bishop, with whom she participated in various Democratic campaigns.
It was common knowledge that Kennedy, married to Jackie Bouvier, had a weakness for blondes, which is why it's not surprising that Angie was included among his lovers. Six decades after the rumors surfaced, Dickinson denied the relationship. "There was no reason or basis to think that I was dating him, and I wasn't," she stated to CBS in 2019. On another occasion, she refused to answer a journalist's question. "I'm going to skip that, okay?" She has been offered blank checks, but she has always refused to give details.
Parallel to her rise as a public figure, after appearing in some of the most popular series of the time like The Virginian or Perry Mason, she reached stardom with Rio Bravo (1959) alongside the legendary John Wayne. As a publicity stunt, the producers spread the word that they had insured the leading lady's legs for a million dollars with the London insurer Lloyd's.
When she freed herself from the matrimonial yoke, the press kept asking her if she would like to marry again. "Right now, I wouldn't be a good wife. A husband needs affection and attention, and I'm too busy taking care of my career. When my life is more stable, I think I'll be a better wife," she replied.
However, on a blind date, she met Burt Bacharach, the prestigious composer of some of the most famous movie themes like Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head from Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, whom she married three years later, in 1965. The following year, their daughter Nikki was born prematurely, and she was diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome.
Nikki took her own life in 2007, at the age of 40. Her parents, who had separated in 1981, issued a joint statement stating that she passed away to escape the neurological deterioration caused by her condition.
Angie Dickinson's golden moment in her career came with the series Police Woman (1974-1978) as it marked a milestone in television history since never before had a woman successfully led an action drama in prime time. The social impact was such that President Gerald Ford rescheduled a White House press conference because it coincided with the show's airing and significantly increased the number of women who enrolled in the American police force.
Once again, the actress caused a sensation when Brian de Palma chose her to star in the big screen thriller Dressed to Kill (1980), a psychological and erotic suspense film that peaked with the steamy shower and elevator scenes. This role turned her into the sex symbol of the decade, and she is still considered as such despite the fact that the naked body behind the fogged glass was not hers but that of a Penthouse model named Victoria Lynn Johnson.
On September 30, the star who cleaned out actors and crew members playing poker on set, turns 95. Since retiring from acting in 2009, she spends long periods secluded in the Beverly Hills mansion she bought from Walter Lantz, the creator of Woody Woodpecker.