In 2002 A Hollywood movie producer was planning a film of her book My Life With Dali and wanted Claudia Schiffer to play Amanda Lear. "I ran into Claudia at a restaurant," Lear recalls. "She said, 'I love your book! Who wrote it for you?' I said, 'I did, darling. Who read it to you?' So that was the end of that. They never made the movie."
Today may well mark the 70th (or 68th, or 64th, or as she claims, 61st) birthday of that glamorous and mysterious siren, the model, singer and Dali muse Miss Amanda Lear!
Why the mystery? It is so typical of Miss Lear... For apart from evading questions about her age, the debate remains open as to whether she was actually born a man! Apparently old photographs of the young Alain Tapp do exist, and April Ashley stated publicly that she met him/her before the operation in 1963. Nevertheless, he/she climbed to a position of fame as the companion of Salvador Dali (collector of the exotic for many years) and became a fashion model.
It was at one of these catwalk shows in 1973 that Miss Lear was first spotted by Brian Ferry and she became the cover girl on Roxy Music's seminal For Your Pleasure album. David Bowie (another collector of the exotic) adopted her for his Ziggy Stardust tours, and it was he who encouraged Amanda Lear to become a recording artist in her own right. The rest, as they say is history - to date she has remarkably sold approximately 15 million albums and 25-30 million singles worldwide, and has released two albums this year alone!
After her marriage to Frenchman Alain-Phillippe Malagnac in 1979, she began to vigorously deny her transsexuality and as supposed proof posed nude for several men's magazines. While this certainly proved to her delighted fans that she still had an amazing body despite being in her 40's, her case was always unconvincing and the mystery was enhanced, not completely refuted. Tragedy struck Amanda in December 2000 when her home in France burnt down, killing her husband and destroying many of her and Dali's paintings.
Yet she refused to stop working, and is still a much-loved performer (and "gay icon") today. Happy birthday to a true trooper!
Amanda Lear biography
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