Carmen Dell Orifice Biography

Name : Carmen Dell'Orefice

Date of Birth : 3 June 1931, New York City, New York, USA

Height :" 5' 9" (1.75 m)

Occupation : Model

Carmen Dell'Orefice was born on June 3, 1931 and she is a famous actress.

In 1942, Carmen reunited with her mother and moved to New York City. At the age of 13, while riding a bus to ballet class, she was approached to model by the wife of photographer Herman Landschoff. Her test photos, taken at Jones Beach, were a "flop" according to Carmen. Her godfather though introduced her to Vogue, where Carmen signed a contract for $7.50 per hour in 1946 at age 15. She appears in the December 15, 1946 issue of VOGUE as Little Red Riding Hood, Snow White and Cinderella along with supermodel Dorian Leigh, actors Ray Bolger and Jose Ferrer.

Despite modeling, Carmen and her mother were poor. They had no telephone and Vogue sent runners to their apartment to let Carmen know about modeling jobs. She roller-skated to assignments to save bus fare. Carmen was so malnourished that famed fashion photographers Horst P. Horst and Cecil Beaton had to pin back dresses and stuff her body with tissue. Carmen and her mother were also accomplished seamtresses and made extra money making clothes. One of their customers was Dorian Leigh. Carmen would later become best friends with Dorian's younger sister, model Suzy Parker. Together they would be bridesmaids at Dorian's second wedding to Roger Mehle in 1948.

In the late 1980s, Carmen was engaged to television talk-show host David Susskind. He died before they were married. In 1993, a neighbor introduced her to Norman F. Levy, who was Bernard Madoff’s best friend. He was her boyfriend for several years.

In June 2011, Carmen celebrated her 80th birthday. On July 19, 2011 she was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of the Arts London, in recognition of her contribution to the fashion industry. The university also presented a dedicated retrospective exhibition curated by illustrator and long-term friend David Downton, showing Carmen’s Vogue covers, some of her finest modelling moments, and photographs from her personal archives.