Dorian Leigh sibling Suzy Parker
Modeling career
Taking Mrs. Wayburn's advice, in 1944 Dorian went to the Harry Conover modeling agency. At 27, Dorian was not only old by modeling standards, but at barely 5'5", she was shorter than the other models at the agency. Conover immediately sent her to see Diana Vreeland, the editor of Harper's Bazaar. Dorian met with Vreeland and fashion photographer Louise Dahl-Wolfe, who were intrigued by her zig-zagged eyebrows. Vreeland warned her, "Do not -- do not do anything to those eyebrows!" Vreeland asked Dorian to return the next day, to be photographed for the cover of the June 1944 issue of Harper's Bazaar, her very first modeling assignment. Conover told her to tell them she was 19-years-old. Later they were shocked to discover her real age (27), and that she already had two children.
Dorian's parents thought modeling was not respectable, so Dorian used only her first and middle name during her career. When Dorian became an enormous success though, they thought it was acceptable that their youngest daughter Suzy use the Parker last name when she also became a famous model. Their other daughter, Florian, also had modeling photos in Vogue and Harper's Bazaar, but quit when she married a man in the military, and was living in Oahu when Pearl Harbor was bombed in 1941.  Florian was considered the ultimate beauty among the Parker girls.Dorian instantly became busy with modeling assignments, landing on the covers of major magazines such as Vogue, Harper's Bazaar, Paris Match, LIFE, and Elle.  Because of her schedule, Dorian's two children were sent to live with her parents in Florida, while she was based in New York City and traveling to Europe.
In 1946, Dorian appeared on the cover of six American Vogue magazines.  She worked with famous fashion photographers Irving Penn, John Rawlings, Cecil Beaton, and Paul Radkai.  She dated Irving Penn, who later married another model Lisa Fonssagrives.  On one assignment, she argued with Paul Radkai's wife Karen, who wanted to be a fashion photographer and wanted to take many extra, and free photos of Dorian for her portfolio.  When Dorian balked at having to pose for Karen without being paid, Karen warned Dorian she would "ruin her."  Indeed, Vogue never used Dorian again, and Karen became a Vogue photographer for many years.Dorian easily transitioned to working with Harper's Bazaar's new, young photographer, Richard Avedon.  Avedon would become one of the most famous photographers in history.  While living in her apartment in New York, a young author, Truman Capote visited a friend in an apartment near hers.  Capote was fascinated by Dorian's lifestyle of non-stop men, coming-and-goings, and having a store across the street handle her phone calls (since there were no answering machines back in the early 1950s). He struck up a friendship with Dorian, and called her "Happy-go-lucky."  Capote's character Holly Golightly in his famous 1958 novel Breakfast at Tiffany's is said to be largely based on Dorian's life, as well as socialite Gloria Vanderbilt's.Life after modeling
Living in France with her baby son Kim, Dorian was nearing 40. Her career as a model was coming to a close, so Dorian began the first legal modeling agency in France to support her son. She also had lent the financially irresponsible de Portago about $15,000.De Portago, still married, was now also openly dating actress Linda Christian, the ex-wife of actor Tyrone Power, in early 1957. On April 23, 1957, Dorian's 40th birthday, de Portago told Dorian that he was supposedly finally divorcing Carroll so they could be legally married. He told her that he was entering the famous Mille Miglia car race in Italy on May 8, 1957 and Carroll was supposed to sign their divorce papers on May 9. Instead, on May 8, Dorian received a phone call from de Portago's mother Olga, informing Dorian that Fon's tire on his Ferrari race car had blown up because he did not stop in time for a tire change. Fon and his co-driver Edmund Nelson were mutilated and killed in a horrifying crash.  When the tire exploded, he lost control of the car and killed nine spectators, including five children. This catastrophe ended the Mille Miglia forever.
A few days after Alfonso de Portago was killed, Dorian's sister Suzy, making a movie with Cary Grant, told famous gossip columnist Louella Parsons that Dorian had a son with de Portago and she was estranged from her sister because of it. Dorian was shocked that Suzy leaked this secret, and Dorian's parents only learned about this child reading it in the newspaper. Dorian's parents were furious and told Dorian that she would never have custody of her children. They also refused to accept Kim.In 1957, Dorian returned to Florida and visited Young at her parents’ home. Dorian then took Young and fled to Paris. She remained mostly in France for the next twenty-one years. Dorian's two older children had graduated high school. Dorian continued her modeling agency in Paris and became pregnant by yet another man in 1958. While in the hospital in Paris on June 6, 1958, Dorian received news that Suzy and her father had been in a serious car accident. Suzy's father supposedly did not see or hear a train and drove onto the tracks where the train slammed into his car.  They were on their way to visit Suzy's mother who was in the hospital with cancer.  Their father was killed. Suzy had broken arms and was hospitalized for three months. Dorian then had her gynecologist, Serge Bordat, abort the baby. Days later, she then suddenly married Bordat.
Although Dorian already had four children by three different men, she wanted another baby. Bordat claimed he was too young. Dorian moved out of their apartment, but they remained legally married. Dorian was so busy with her Paris modeling agency that she now had branches in Hamburg, Germany, and London.  Dorian often traveled to these offices.  During a solo ski vacation to Klosters, Switzerland over Christmas 1960, 43-year-old Dorian craved a baby and slept with four men in one week. Three months later, her husband found out through one of Dorian's models that she was pregnant by one of these men. In September 1961, Dorian gave birth to her fifth child, Miranda, in France. Dorian thought that a young ski instructor at Klosters was the father. Dorian then divorced Bordat. Dorian did not tell Miranda that Dr. Bordat was not her father until she was a teenager, and despite never meeting her biological father, Miranda kept his last name.
In 1964, 47-year-old Dorian met 23-year-old Israeli writer Iddo Ben-Gurion and they were married. Dorian discovered Iddo was a drug-addict who was embezzling money from her modeling agencies. Dorian divorced him in 1966, and she remained single for the next forty-two years of her life until her death in 2008. Dorian eventually had to close her agencies because so much money was stolen by Iddo. Most of her modeling fortune had been spent recklessly or stolen.
In 1972, Dorian became a born-again Christian at the urging of her sister Georgiabell and her daughter Young. Living in Paris, Dorian studied at Le Cordon Bleu and opened her own restaurant, Chez Leigh, from 1973 to 1975. She tried to get cooking jobs in Corsica and Orleans as well. By 1976, Dorian was broke.
In 1977, Dorian received a phone call from the New York City modeling agency Stewart Cowley asking her to work as his office manager. Dorian agreed to return to New York where her son Kim was living.  Kim's half-brother Anthony de Portago also lived in New York City and the two actually had become good friends. Dorian soon discovered that her 21-year-old son Kim was a serious drug addict, and sent him to live with her sister Suzy in California briefly. He was told to leave when it was discovered that he was continuing to use drugs in their home. Kim returned to New York City, and only six months after Dorian re-settled and reunited with Kim in New York, he jumped 33 floors from his apartment window to his death, leaving a suicide note behind. On March 6, 1990, Kim's half-brother Anthony died of AIDS.After Kim's death, Dorian lived in Pound Ridge, New York, where she made pâtés for delicatessens and specialty food shops, according to a profile in The New York Times by Enid Nemy. She also worked with Martha Stewart in the early 1980s.Dorian wrote two cookbooks, Pancakes: From Flapjacks to Crepes (1987) and Doughnuts: Over 3 Dozen Crullers, Fritters and Other Treats (1994) at the age of 77.
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