Natacha Rambova
Winifred Hudnut, better known as Natacha Rambova ( born January 16, 1897 in Salt Lake City, Utah; † June 5, 1966 in Pasadena, California ) was an American costume and stage designer, graphic artist, writer, actress, fashion designer, Egyptologist, archaeologist and collector of antiques.
Natacha Rambova was also known as the second wife of the silent film legend Rudolph Valentino.
Life
Winifred O'Shaunessy was born the daughter of an electrical engineer Michael O'Shaunessy and his wife Winifred Kimball to the world. Her parents separated when she was little. Then she grew up with her grandparents and her mother. Later, her mother married his third wife Sands Edgar de Wolfe, a brother of the well-known interior designer Elsie de Wolfe, whose business partner she was. After the early death of her husband († 1906), the widow went again a marriage. After the adoption by her stepfather, the cosmetics manufacturer (now L' Oréal ) Richard Hudnut, Winifred took its name retroactively as birth name.
On the initiative of her aunt Elsie Winifred received a comprehensive and excellent education in Europe. After completing her education in the boarding school Schloss Salem at Lake Constance and the École des Roches in Normandy Winifred joined the Imperial Russian Ballet. With the Russian choreographer Theodore Kosloff (1882-1956) had a long love affair and it changed its name to Natacha Rambova.
In the United States Natacha Rambova excited not only as an artist but also by scandals and affairs - including Charlie Chaplin and Rudolph Valentino - stir.
In 1922, the capricious heiress of the actress and film producer Alla Nazimova, with whom she had previously turned already Billions and Camille, for whose film Salomé requires the equipment and costume designs to make was. To have implemented The fabulously - fantastic book illustrations by Aubrey Beardsley in scene backgrounds and costumes, is then also the greatest merit of Nazimowa and Rambova; her film reflects the decadence of the 1920s and eccentricity of its creators resist well. Although today Salomé is considered the first art film in the U.S., ended his career as a financial failure Nazimova independent filmmaker.
In 1923 she married the actor Rudolph Valentino in Mexico, whom she had met on the set of his films. After the couple was back in the U.S., her husband was arrested for bigamy. Since he had not waited for the full year between his divorce with Jean Acker (1892-1978) and his new marriage, as prescribed California law, he was detained for three days and had to pay a $ 10,000 penalty. Shortly after, the two were married again. Natacha Rambova steadfastly refused, in his house - to draw and began Valentinos negotiate contract provisions and catching on the sets of his films - Falcon Lair in the hills above Los Angeles. In 1926 their marriage was with Valentino.
After her divorce Natacha Rambova also worked as a fashion designer and in 1928 opened her first store in New York. Her clients included Beulah Bondi, Aline MacMahon and Mae Murray. In late summer 1931, she had to close her business again, probably because of the economic depression and the declining interest in Russian- inspired clothing. In the same year she had a love affair with Talbot Mundy. A little later Natacha Rambova met her second husband, the Spanish journalist and aristocrats Alvaro Conde de Urzaiz to know and love. Together they later lived in Mallorca. After her divorce, she returned to America and worked in the 1960s with the German -born Egyptologist Alexandre Piankoff together.
On June 5, 1966 Natacha Rambova died at the age of 69 years in a hospital in Pasadena of a heart attack. In life, they had acquired in a cemetery in New York holds a large tomb near her ex- husband, Rudolph Valentino.