Considered by "New York's society arbiters and editors" as the city's leading debutante, Radziwill had her "coming out" party in 1950. A full-page photograph of her in her gown was featured in the "debutante" section of Life magazine (page 71) in the December 25, 1950 issue.
During the 1960s, Radziwill attempted a career as an actress. Her acting attempt was unsuccessful, if highly publicized. She featured in the 1967 production of The Philadelphia Story as the spoiled Main Line heiress Tracy Lord. The play was staged at the Ivanhoe Theatre in Chicago, and Radziwill's performance was much criticized. A year later, she appeared in a television adaptation of the 1944 movie Laura, which was also criticized.[6]
A London townhouse and a manor, Turville Grange (which she owned and shared with her second husband), had both been decorated by Italian stage designer Lorenzo Mongiardino and were greatly admired and frequently photographed by Cecil Beaton and Horst P. Horst. She worked briefly as an interior decorator in a style influenced by her association with Mongiardino. Her clientele were wealthy; she once decorated a house "for people who would not be there more than three days a year".[7] She frequented celebrity company, including travelling with The Rolling Stones during their 1972 tour of North America,[8] which she attended alongside the writer Truman Capote.[9]
Radziwill's original movie project was suspended, and she retained the footage of the Beales. However the Maysles brothers saw the cinematic potential of the two women and their peculiar lives, and after raising funds for film and equipment of their own, returned and recorded many hours of new footage with Big Edie and Little Edie—the resulting 1975 film Grey Gardens is widely ranked among best of the documentary genre. The film was adapted as a 2006 musical of the same name, where the characters Lee and Jackie Bouvier appear as visiting children in retrospect. HBO produced the 2009 television movie Grey Gardens based on the lives of the Beales.[17]
Surviving footage of Radziwill's 1972 visit to the Beales was included in the 2017 film That Summer.[18][19]
Books
Radziwill, Lee (2001). Happy Times. New York: Assouline. p. 168. ISBN9781614280545.
Radziwill, Lee (2015). Lee. Foreword by Peter Beard, introduction by Richard David Story. New York: Assouline. p. 184. ISBN9781614284697.
Personal life and death
Lee Radziwill with President John F. Kennedy and other family on Christmas Day 1962 in Palm Beach, Florida
Her second marriage, on March 19, 1959, was to the Polish aristocrat Prince Stanisław Albrecht Radziwiłł, member of the House of Radziwill, who divorced his second wife, the former Grace Maria Kolin (Grace later married William Ward, 3rd Earl of Dudley as his third wife. Dudley's second wife was Viscountess (Frances) Laura Long née Charteris who later married Michael Temple Canfield, Lee's first husband) and received a Roman Catholic annulment of his first marriage to re-marry. (His second marriage had never been acknowledged by the Roman Catholic Church, so no annulment was necessary.)[20] Upon her marriage, she began to use the title of Her Serene Highness Princess Caroline Lee Radziwiłł and was sometimes referred to as Princess Radziwill in the American press.[21][22] However, the Second Polish Republic had abolished the legal recognition of noble titles in the March Constitution of 1921 (article 96),[23] with the effect that the Radziwills were pretenders to the title. They had two children, Anthony (1959–1999) and Anna Christina (b. 1960).[24] Their marriage ended in divorce in 1974.[25]
In 1976, The New York Times reported Peter Francis Tufo, a lawyer and real estate developer, was a "frequent escort" of Radziwill.[26]
On September 23, 1988, Radziwill married for a third time, becoming the second wife of American movie director and choreographer Herbert Ross.[27] Their divorce was finalized during 2001; he died later that year, and she returned to using Radziwill, the transliteration of her children's name, Radziwiłł.
Radziwill died on February 15, 2019, aged 85, in her apartment on the Upper East Side of Manhattan.[28][29][30]
^Though some sources say she was born in Southampton, the New York Times of 14 March 1933 reported that "A daughter was born to Mr. and Mrs. John Vernou Bouvier 3d on March 3 at the Doctors Hospital".[4] New York City is likely correct, as she was born in late winter; Southampton is a summer retreat.
^VF Staff (1996). "World's Best Dressed Women". Vanity Fair: The International Hall of Fame: Women. Archived from the original on July 12, 2013. Retrieved February 15, 2012.
^Zilkha, Bettina (2004). Ultimate Style: The Best of the Best Dressed List. Assouline. p. 160. ISBN2-84323-513-8.
