56 Facts About Natacha Rambova

Natacha Rambova was raised in San Francisco and educated in England before beginning her career as a dancer, performing under Russian ballet choreographer Theodore Kosloff in New York City.

Natacha Rambova relocated to Los Angeles at age 19, where she became an established costume designer for Hollywood film productions.

Natacha Rambova spent her later years studying Egyptology and earned two Mellon Grants to travel there and study Egyptian symbols and belief systems.

Natacha Rambova served as the editor of the first three volumes of Egyptian Religious Texts and Representations by Alexandre Piankoff, contributing a chapter on symbology in the third volume.

Natacha Rambova died in 1966 in California of a heart attack while working on a manuscript examining patterns within the texts in the Pyramid of Unas.

Natacha Rambova has been noted by fashion and art historians for her unique costume designs that drew on and synthesized a variety of influences, as well as her dedication to historical accuracy in crafting them.

In popular culture, Natacha Rambova has been depicted in several films and television series, figuring significantly in the Valentino biopics The Legend of Valentino, in which she was portrayed by Yvette Mimieux, and Ken Russell's Valentino by Michelle Phillips.

Natacha Rambova was featured in a fictionalized narrative in the network series American Horror Story: Hotel, portrayed by Alexandra Daddario.

Natacha Rambova was born Winifred Kimball Shaughnessy on January 19,1897, in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Natacha Rambova's father, Michael Shaughnessy, was an Irish Catholic from New York City who fought for the Union during the American Civil War and then worked in the mining industry.

Natacha Rambova's mother, Winifred Shaughnessy, was the granddaughter of Heber C Kimball, a member of the first presidency of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and was raised in a prominent Salt Lake City family.

At her father's wishes, Natacha Rambova was baptized a Catholic at the Cathedral of the Madeleine in Salt Lake City in June 1897, though she later was baptized a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints at the urging of her mother at age eight.

Natacha Rambova's parents had a tumultuous relationship: Her father was an alcoholic, and often sold her mother's possessions to pay off gambling debts.

Natacha Rambova was adopted by her new stepfather, making her legal name Winifred Hudnut.

Natacha Rambova was given the nickname "Wink" by her aunt Teresa to distinguish her from her mother because of their shared name.

Natacha Rambova sometimes went by Winifred de Wolfe, after her former step-aunt Elsie, with whom she maintained a relationship after her mother's divorce from Edgar.

Natacha Rambova's family had encouraged her to study ballet purely as a social grace, and were appalled when she chose it as her career.

Natacha Rambova retaliated against her mother by fleeing abroad, and her mother ultimately agreed to her continuing to perform with the company.

Around 1917, Kosloff was hired by Cecil B DeMille as a performer and costume designer for DeMille's Hollywood films, after which he and Rambova relocated from New York to Los Angeles.

Natacha Rambova carried out much of the creative work as well as the historical research for Kosloff, and he then stole her sketches and claimed credit for these as his own.

Nazimova requested some alterations, and was impressed when Natacha Rambova was able to make these changes immediately in her own hand.

Natacha Rambova immediately began working for Nazimova on the comedy film Billions, for which she supplied the costumes and served as art director.

Natacha Rambova fled the Hollywood apartment she shared with Kosloff to the set of Aphrodite, where a cameraman helped her remove the birdshot from her leg.

Stylistically, Natacha Rambova favored designers such as Paul Poiret, Leon Bakst, and Aubrey Beardsley.

Natacha Rambova specialized in "exotic" and "foreign" effects in both costume and stage design.

Natacha Rambova strived for historical accuracy in her costume and set designs.

In 1921, Natacha Rambova was introduced to actor Rudolph Valentino on the set of Nazimova's Uncharted Seas.

Natacha Rambova and Valentino subsequently worked together on Camille, a film which was a financial failure and resulted in Metro Pictures terminating their contract with Nazimova.

When it came to domestic life, Valentino and Natacha Rambova turned out to hold very different views.

Valentino cherished Old World ideals of a woman being a housewife and mother, while Natacha Rambova was intent on maintaining a career and had no intention of being a housewife.

Valentino was known as an excellent cook, while actress Patsy Ruth Miller suspected Natacha Rambova didn't know "how to make burnt fudge," although the truth was she did occasionally bake and was an excellent seamstress.

Natacha Rambova knew what I was when I married him.

Natacha Rambova supported his one-man strike against Famous Players-Lasky, which left him temporarily banned from movie work.

In 1923, Natacha Rambova helped design the costumes for friend Alla Nazimova in Salome, inspired by the work of Aubrey Beardsley.

However, the distributor took the opportunity to bill her as 'Mrs Valentino' and changed the title to When Love Grows Cold; Natacha Rambova was horrified by the title change.

Miss Natacha Rambova is not well dressed, nor does she film well, in the slightest degree.

Natacha Rambova published the 1926 memoir, Rudy: An Intimate Portrait by His Wife Natacha Rambova, which contains memories of her life with him.

Natacha Rambova's clientele included Broadway and Hollywood actresses such as Beulah Bondi and Mae Murray.

Natacha Rambova fled the country to a familial chateau in Nice, where she suffered a heart attack at age forty.

Natacha Rambova remained in France until the Nazi invasion in June 1940, upon which she returned to New York.

Natacha Rambova was follower of Helena Blavatsky and George Gurdjieff, and conducted classes in her Manhattan apartment about myths, symbolism and comparative religion.

Natacha Rambova began publishing articles on healing, astrology, yoga, post-war rehabilitation, and numerous other topics, some of which appeared in American Astrology and Harper's Bazaar.

Natacha Rambova secured a second two-year grant of US$50,000 through the Mellon and Bollingen Foundations to help Piankoff photograph and publish his work on the Book of Caverns.

Natacha Rambova settled in New Milford, Connecticut, where she spent the following several years working as an editor on the first three volumes of Piankoff's series Egyptian Texts and Religious Representations, which was based on the research he had done with Rambova and Thomas.

Natacha Rambova continued to write and research intensely into her sixties, often working twelve hours per day.

In 1957, Natacha Rambova moved to New Milford, Connecticut, and devoted her time to researching a comparative study of ancient religious symbolism, which she continued virtually unabated until her death.

Natacha Rambova grew delusional, believing that she was being poisoned, and quit eating, resulting in malnourishment.

Natacha Rambova was admitted to Lenox Hill Hospital, where she was diagnosed with paranoid psychosis brought on by malnutrition.

Natacha Rambova died there six months later of a heart attack on June 5,1966, at the age of 69.

At her wishes, Natacha Rambova was cremated, and her ashes were scattered in a forest in northern Arizona.

Claims that Natacha Rambova was bisexual or homosexual date back to at least 1975 when they appeared in Kenneth Anger's notoriously libelous Hollywood Babylon, in which it is written that Natacha Rambova claimed to have never consummated her marriage with Rudolph Valentino.

The basis of the claim is an alleged relationship Natacha Rambova had with Alla Nazimova, her friend and peer while Natacha Rambova was beginning her career in film design.

Whether Natacha Rambova was bisexual or homosexual is unclear; some have disputed such claims, including journalist David Wallace, who dismisses it as rumor in his 2002 book Lost Hollywood.

Natacha Rambova was one of the few women in Hollywood during the 1920s to serve as a head art designer in film productions.

Natacha Rambova typically dressed in the style of her designs, and thus her personal style was influential: She often wore her hair in coiled "ballerina style" braids, sometimes covered in a headscarf or turban, with dangling earrings and calf-length velvet or brocade skirts.

Natacha Rambova has been depicted across several mediums, including visual art, film, and television: She was the subject of a 1925 painting by Serbian artist Paja Jovanovic.