ArtistInfo

Edie Sedgwick

1943-1971
Spoken Word
A.k.a. Edith Minturn Sedgwick

Born: April 20, 1943 in Santa Barbara, CA. Died: November 16, 1971 Santa Barbara, CA. Artist, socialite, model, and actress born into and aristocratic Massachusetts family. Her youth was marked by mental illness, drug use, and an unstable family relationship. She met artist Andy Warhol in March 1965 and became a staple of "The Factory" scene, appearing in at least 10 of Warhol's films. By the end of 1965 her relationship ended with Warhol, and she requested he stop showing any films with her in them. In her last film with Warhol, the scenes cut out featuring Sedgwick were replaced by Nico (singer for Velvet Underground). In 1966 she collaborated on a film making fun of Warhol, which was shown once at The Factory and then allegedly destroyed by some of the artist's bodyguards. She had a short lived relationship with Bob Dylan which ended when he married Sara Lownds secretly in November 1965. She claimed to have carried Dylan's child and subsequently have an abortion, but there is no evidence to support this. Supposedly, the songs "Leopard Skin Pill Box Hat" and "Just Like A Woman" were written by Dylan about Sedgwick. She had a short lived relationship with Dylan's friend Bob Neuwirth which was ended by Neuwirth after he could not put up with her heavy drug use and psychological problems. In 1967 she began working on a film, Ciao Manhattan, co-directed by John Palmer and David Weisman, in which she was set to be the star. Her physical and mental health was deteriorating rapidly by now, due to heavy amphetamine use during the waking hours followed by opiates to help sleep. The film was put on hiatus when she was put into several psychiatric hospitals in southern California. Within the last year of her life, Sedgwick recorded an account of her life onto cassette. These recordings, combined with video collected during the filming of Ciao Manhattan, as well as private footage, were ultimately pieced together to create the movie in a format much different than originally planned. Tragically, Edie Sedgwick died within months of completion of the movie, on November 16, 1971. The official cause was "probable acute barbiturate intoxication". She is buried in Oak Hill Cemetery in Ballard, California in a simple grave.