Aug 14, 2025
Dorothy Stratten in Galaxina (1980).
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Dorothy Stratten in Galaxina (1980).
The ethereally beautiful Dorothy Stratten as the android title character in the Crown International Pictures/William Sachs science-fiction fantasy comedy Galaxina, 1980. Born in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada on February 28th, 1960, Dorothy was discovered by small-time nightclub promoter and pimp Paul Snider (who eventually became her husband) while Stratten was working at a local Dairy Queen to earn money for her family in 1977. By all accounts sweet, gentle and innocent, Dorothy was reluctantly coerced by Paul shortly after her eighteenth birthday to pose for photos that he submitted to Playboy magazine, where Dorothy soon after became a Playmate of the Month, going on to be named Playmate of the Year in 1980. After marrying Paul and moving to Los Angeles, Dorothy started to get small film roles and eventually caught the eye of What's Up Doc? and Paper Moon director Peter Bogdanovich who cast her in his film They All Laughed as the ingenue/love interest, co-starring alongside Audrey Hepburn, John Ritter and Ben Gazzara. While working on the movie in New York, Peter and Dorothy fell in love and Stratten decided to leave her abusive, controlling husband who was floundering in Los Angeles and had fallen into drug use, growing increasingly jealous of his wife's success and enraged when he was banned from the Playboy mansion on the orders of the magazine's founder Hugh Hefner after Paul behaved badly at parties held at the infamous estate. Upon her return to Los Angeles, Dorothy moved in with Bogdanovich and embarked on divorce proceedings, meeting with her financial advisor on the morning of August 14th, 1980 to work out the details of a financial settlement. Advised not to deliver the down payment to him herself due to his volatile nature, Dorothy replied that it would be "easier" if she bypassed a lawyer and dealt with Snider on her own, stating that she wished to remain friendly and amicable with him following their divorce. After arriving at noon at the home she previously shared with Snider in the Mercedes Benz she won as Playmate of the Year with the license plate "STAR 80" (and without telling anyone where she was going), Dorothy was never heard from again. After Snider's roommates returned home from work and watched TV for a while, they received a phone call from a private investigator Paul had hired to spy on Dorothy which prompted them to go to Paul's bedroom door and see if he was okay. The scene they encountered around midnight was one of utter horror, with both Dorothy and Paul dead in a ghastly murder/suicide (after assaulting Dorothy, Paul grabbed a shotgun he'd purchased in a newspaper classified ad days earlier and shot his estranged wife in the face, killing himself an hour later). Dorothy was only 20 years old. A grief stricken Bogdanovich handled Dorothy's funeral and burial and she rests at Westwood Memorial Park near Natalie Wood and Marilyn Monroe (Bogdanovich was buried next to Stratten following his own passing in 2022). A promising starlet with a bright future ahead of her, Dorothy's untimely and violent death shook the Playboy empire to its foundation, allegedly causing Hugh Hefner to have a stroke when he was publicly criticized and partially blamed for his role in Dorothy's life. Peter Bogdanovich wrote a book about Dorothy entitled The Killing of the Unicorn in 1984 which also pointed a finger at Hefner, prompting a public feud between the two (it should be noted that Peter later controversially married Dorothy's younger sister Louise in 1988, divorcing in 2001). Immortalized in multi-media after her passing, Dorothy was played by Jamie Lee Curtis in the 1981 NBC TV movie Death of a Centerfold, by Mariel Hemingway in the Bob Fosse film Star 80 in 1983, and by Nicola Peltz in the Hulu miniseries Welcome to Chippendales in 2022. In music, fellow Vancouverite Bryan Adams wrote and recorded the hit song The Best Was Yet to Come about Stratten, also co-writing the Prism song Cover Girl in her memory. The Red Hot Chili Peppers also referenced Dorothy's life in their 2000 song Californication.
Galaxina (1980) // dir. William Sachs
Galaxina poster art by Robert Tanenbaum.
Showcasing art from some of my favourite artists, and those that have attracted my attention, in the field of visual arts, including vintage; pulp; pop culture; books and comics; concert posters; fantastical and imaginative realism; classical; contemporary; new contemporary; pop surrealism; conceptual and illustration.
The art of Robert Tanenbaum.
Galaxina, movie version and Aircel version.
