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- For the outre fashion designer, see Twiggy (performance artist). For the pet in Powerpuff Girls see Twiggy (Powerpuff Girls)
Twiggy Lawson (born Leslie Hornby on September 19, 1949) is a British supermodel, actress, and singer, now usually known by her married name of Twiggy Lawson.
Twiggy was born in the London suburb of Neasden to William Norman (a master carpenter) and Helen Hornby (a half Jewish counter girl at Woolworth's). Twiggy became famous at the age of sixteen, under the influence of her boyfriend and manager, Justin de Villeneuve. Soon she was regarded as "the face" of swinging 1960s London, and gained her nickname from her stick-thin pubescent figure. She was also known for the highfashion mod look that she created.
As she matured, she left Villeneuve and broadened her horizons, appearing as an actress and singer, notably in Ken Russell's 1971 film version of Sandy Wilson's musical, The Boy Friend.
Since then she has played a variety of roles on stage and screen, including My One and Only and as Eliza Doolittle in Pygmalion, opposite Robert Powell, in a 1981 television production. In May 2005, Twiggy was announced as a replacement for Janice Dickinson on UPN's reality series America's Next Top Model, one of UPN's hottest shows.
Her first marriage, to the American actor, Michael Witney, ended with his sudden death from a heart attack. In 1988, she met Leigh Lawson for film Madame Sousatzka, then married.
Comedian Fran Drescher went on a cruise with friend Twiggy and Twiggy's family. The culture shock Drescher experienced inspired her to create her hit sitcom The Nanny.
In 2005, as well as appearing as a permanent judge on cycle 5 of America's Next Top Model, Twiggy returned to modelling, fronting a major new TV, press and billboard campaign for Marks & Spencer, the UK department store chain. Her appearance alongside Erin O'Connor, Laura Bailey and other younger models was intended to portray the breadth and choice of the M&S clothing range, as well as the fact that older women are equally entitled to look good.
In 2006 she got the chance to play herself as a nineteen year-old in the radio play Elevenses with Twiggy for BBC Radio 4's Afternoon Play series. The play, written by Simon Farquhar, was the fictional tale of two Scottish brothers dreaming of an escape from their uneventful lives in a remote fishing village, who win a chance to meet the Sixties icon, and get a tantalising glimpse of the opportunities the Sixties offered to working class people to break away.
Filmography
- Popcorn (1969) (documentary)
- All Talking... All Singing... All Dancing (1971) (short subject)
- The Boy Friend (1971)
- W (1974)
- The Butterfly Ball (1976) (voice)
- The Blues Brothers (1980)
- There Goes the Brides (1980)
- Madame Sousatzka (1988)
- Edge of Seventeen (1998)
TV work
- Twiggy (1975)
- The Muppet Show (1975) (Guest Star)
- Pygmalion (1981)
- Sun Child (1988)
- The Diamond Trap (1988)
- Young Charlie Chaplin (1989)
- Princess Amelia (1991) (canceled after 7 episodes)
- Body Bags (1993)
- Something Borrowed, Something Blue (1997)
- Absolutely Fabulous(2000-2001)*This Morning (presenter in 2001)
- America's Next Top Model (judge in Cycle 5 & Cycle 6) (2005)
- The Taming of the Shrew (2005)
External links
1949 births | Living people | British models | English actors | America's Next Top Model | Reality television participants
"Twiggy"