Dorothy Stratten
Dorothy Ruth Hoogstraten (February 28, 1960 – August 14, 1980), who took the stage name Dorothy Stratten, was a Canadian Playboy Playmate, model, and actress. Stratten was the Playboy Playmate of the Month for August 1979, Playmate of the Year in 1980 and was the second Playmate (after Lee Ann Michelle) born in the 1960s. Stratten appeared in three comedy films and in at least two episodes of shows broadcast on US network television. She was murdered at the age of 20 by her estranged husband/manager Paul Snider, who committed suicide on the same day. Her death inspired two motion pictures.
Life and career
Stratten was born in a Salvation Army hospital in Vancouver, British Columbia, to Simon and Nelly Hoogstraten, who were Dutch immigrants. In 1961 her brother John Arthur was born. Her sister Louise Stratten followed in May 1968.
In 1977 she was attending Centennial High School in Coquitlam when, while working part-time at a local Dairy Queen, she met 26-year-old Vancouver-area club promoter and pimp, Paul Snider, who romanced her. Snider later had a photographer take professional nude photos of her which were sent to Playboy magazine in the summer of 1978. She was under the age of 19 at the time, which is the legal age to pose nude in Canada so she had to persuade her mother to sign the model release form.
