Limited
Edition - September 2003
Twiggy is branching out...
She acts, she sings, she hosts chat shows. And with a career about to branch into it's fifth decade, Twiggy sure seems to know how to bend in the wind without snapping.
The last most people will remember of Twiggy Lawson being in the public eye she was getting a bit of a panning as one of the ill fated replacements for Richard and Judy. But she says she's long got over that small hiccup and counts her blessings for an unbelievable career. And quite stunning one it has been. "I don't know how you can plan your career in this business, you don't go and get a job, you need to be asked," she said.
Lesley Hornby was born in Neasden, north London, on September 19th, 1949. Her father Norman was a carpenter and she grew up with her two sisters, Shirley and
Viv.
At school, her friends called her 'sticks because of her extremely thin figure, which in turn became 'twigs' and then Twiggy.
She got her first job as an assistant in a hairdressers where her sister Viv worked.
A true 'mod', she wasn't able to afford to buy the designer outfits sold in the new London boutiques, but she was talented in sewing and designing and would look through magazines to get ideas which enabled her to keep up with the fashion trends of the era.
In the 60s, Lesley met Justin de Villeneuve through his brother Tony who also worked at the hairdressers.
Justin and Lesley began to see one another, though her parents didn't approve as he was ten years older than her. Justin was sure Lesley had the looks to be a model and took her to see Leonard's a friend of his who was a very famous haidresser in competition with Vidal Sassoon.
Leonard spent over seven hours cutting and colouring and then took her to a studio where he got some shots done to display in his salon. A new look was born, and the rest, as they say, is history.
She was named 'The Face Of '66' by the Daily Express and at 16 years of age, became internationally known as the world's first supermodel, though she would never do a catwalk show, concentrating on photographic
modelling.
Everything she earned she split with Justin 50/50, much to her father's
dissaproval. None of the money was invested, instead it was spent on luxuries like fast cars.
She did whatever Justin said which included recording her first album which included the single 'I Need Your Hand in Mine' which went to be number one in Japan.
Soon after, Twiggy ventured across the Atlantic and became one of the best known faces of the entire decade of the 60s
Ken Russell noticed her and offered her a part in his film The Boyfriend.
Acting came naturally for Twiggy and considering that The Boyfriend would be her first time on screen, she did pretty well winning the 1971 Golden Globe for most promising actress as well as for best actress in a musical or comedy. It was through The Boyfriend that Twiggy met Tommy Tune the talented tap dancer from Texas who she would later work with on Broadway.
It was then the relationship between Twiggy and Justin began to fall apart. Justin wanted major crediting on The Boyfriend expecting Ken to make him the film's producer, obviously Ken declined. The couple soon split much to the relief of Twiggy's father.
Tommy Tune took her to Broadway to star in My One and Only, which won a Tony Award, and since then she's had her own BBC series called Twiggy,
won acclaim for a TV portrayal of Eliza Doolittle in Pygmalion and starred in numerous television dramas. Film credits, with top actors, have also stacked up and among other appearances, she lists The Blues Brothers, The Doctor and the Devils, with Robin Williams and Peter O'Toole, and Madame
Sousatzka, with Shirley Maclaine and Peggy Ashcroft on her CV.
In 1977 Twiggy married actor Michael Whitney, who was in her second movie. They had a daughter,
Carly. In 1983 Whitney died of a heart attack and in 1988
she married the respected English actor Leigh Lawson (who was formerly in a relationship with Hayley Mills), and they now live in England.
More recently, Twiggy has just finished touring in the title role of George Bernard Shaw's Mrs Warren's Profession, produced and directed by Peter Hall.
She has also recorded several albums and has two silver discs to add to her awards cabinet. At the end of July, Twiggy brought out a new CD called Midnight Blue which includes some previously unreleased 60s songs.
She has also hosted her own series of television chat shows called Twiggy's People, has written two best-selling autobiographies and, now in her 50s, she was called in to model with Kate Moss for the cover of a special supplement in The Times for January 1, 2000. Not bad for a north London girl who had no ambition to perform. "I was incredibly insecure and shy just like any other teenage kid," she said. "I loved fashion and clothes and was
thinking about going to art college to study fashion design."
She has kept her famous nickname, saying if she gave it up now, she would only spend the rest of her life being called 'Lesley Lawson, formerly known as Twiggy'.
