Gloria Laura Vanderbilt (1924–2019,) fully Gloria Laura Morgan Vanderbilt, later Gloria Vanderbilt-Cooper, was an American heiress, artist, actress, model, fashion designer, and socialite.
Born in New York City, Gloria Vanderbilt was the only daughter of the railroad magnate Reginald Vanderbilt, who died when she was not yet two. “Little Gloria” inherited a trust fund that her mother started to squander to fund a lavish socialite lifestyle full of travel and affairs. Consequently, Gloria, nicknamed “the poor little rich girl,” was the subject of a sensational custody trial at age ten between her mother Gloria Morgan Vanderbilt and aunt Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney. The aunt sued, and won, for custody of the young Gloria, alleging that her mother was unfit to look after her.
Gloria Vanderbilt discovered herself through acting, writing, drawing, painting, and designing. In 1955, she made her professional acting début in The Time of Your Life on Broadway. She also acted in TV shows and modeled around the world. A fashion designer, she created a world-famous line of goods—jeans, shoes, scarves, table and bed linens, designer fragrances, and china.
Vanderbilt wrote four volumes of memoirs and two novels, including Obsession: An Erotic Tale (2009.) She made a documentary film about her life, Nothing Left Unsaid (2016,) with her son Anderson Cooper, the American journalist and television personality. The duo also published a collection of their correspondence, The Rainbow Comes and Goes (2016.)
More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by Gloria Vanderbilt
That is the best — to laugh with someone because you think the same things are funny.
—Gloria Vanderbilt
The fame you earn has a different taste from the fame that is forced upon you.
—Gloria Vanderbilt
Topics: Fame