Editing Dorothy Stratten (section)

==Life and career==
Dorothy Stratten was born in [[B.C. Women's Hospital & Health Centre|Grace Maternity Hospital]] in [[Vancouver]], [[British Columbia]], Canada, on February 28, 1960, to Simon and Nelly Hoogstraten, who had emigrated from the Netherlands.<ref name=wekinglypigs/><ref name="carpenter">{{cite news| title = Death of a Playmate|first = Teresa |last = Carpenter|work = [[The Village Voice]]|date = November 5, 1980| url= http://www.teresacarpenter.com/voice_playmate.pdf |access-date = July 22, 2008}}</ref> In 1961, her brother John Arthur was born; her sister Louise followed in May 1968.

In 1977, Stratten was attending [[Centennial Secondary School (Coquitlam)|Centennial High School]] in [[Coquitlam]]. Centennial classmates remember Dorothy as "sweet and kind." One friend, Leslie Buchanan, recalls: "The crowd that Dorothy hung out with were party people. They weren't the sports crowd, just kind of a very cool group."<ref>{{Cite web |title=Dorothy Stratten |url=https://www.americanlegends.com/magnet/dorothy_stratten.html |access-date=2024-12-31 |website=www.americanlegends.com}}</ref> Concurrently, she was working part-time at a local [[Dairy Queen]], where she met 26-year-old Vancouver-area club promoter and pimp [[Paul Snider]], who began dating her. Snider later had a photographer take professional nude photos of Stratten which were sent to ''[[Playboy]]'' magazine in the summer of 1978. She was under the age of 19 (the legal [[age of majority]] in British Columbia), so she had to persuade her mother to sign the model release form.<ref name="carpenter"/>

In August 1978, Stratten moved to [[Los Angeles]], [[California]], United States, where she was chosen as a finalist for the 25th Anniversary Great Playmate Hunt.<ref
name="carpenter"/> Snider joined her in October, and they married in June the following year. With her surname shortened to Stratten, she became ''Playboy's'' Miss August 1979 and began working as a [[Playboy Bunny|bunny]] at the [[Playboy Club]] in [[Century City, Los Angeles]].<ref name="carpenter"/> [[Hugh Hefner]] had high hopes that Stratten could have meaningful crossover success as an actress.<ref name="carpenter"/> She featured in episodes of the television series ''[[Buck Rogers in the 25th Century (TV series)|Buck Rogers]]'' and ''[[Fantasy Island]]'' in 1979. Also that year, she had small roles in the films ''[[Americathon]]'', the [[roller disco]] comedy ''[[Skatetown, U.S.A.]]'', and a lead role in the exploitation film ''Autumn Born'', all released in 1979.

Hefner was told by Playboy employees that Stratten should sever ties with Snider. In a documentary about Stratten, Hefner says that he tried to warn Stratten about Snider but that he was in a tough position. [[Rosanne Katon]] and other friends also warned Stratten about Snider's behavior. 

===March 1980 – July 1980===
On March 22, 1980, Stratten flew to [[New York City]] to begin work on what became her last film project, ''[[They All Laughed]]'' (1981), a romantic comedy being directed by [[Peter Bogdanovich]].<ref name="bogdanovich">{{cite book|last = Bogdanovich|first= Peter|title = The Killing of the Unicorn: Dorothy Stratten 1960-1980|location= New York, NY|publisher = William Morrow and Company|date = 1984|isbn= 0-688-01611-1|page= 71|url-access = registration |url=https://archive.org/details/killingofunicor00bogd/page/151}}</ref> This would be Stratten's fifth movie in a career that had only begun the year before and represented her first substantial role in a big-budget picture, playing the unhappily-married love interest of [[John Ritter]], one of the film's stars.{{efn|Coincidentally, Ritter had played a lead role in Stratten's first movie, the comedy ''[[Americathon]]'' (1979), although the two had no scenes together.}} Bogdanovich, who also wrote the screenplay, said in an interview that he had based the backstory of Stratten's character on what he had learned about her marriage to Snider.<ref name="dvd interview">{{cite AV media
 | people = Bogdanovich, Peter; Anderson, Wes (Interviewer)
 | date = 2006
 | title = They All Laughed 25 Years Later: Director to Director - A Conversation with Peter Bogdanovich and Wes Anderson
 | type = DVD
 | publisher = Home Box Office
}}</ref> Stratten and Bogdanovich began an affair during the production.<ref name="carpenter"/>

Stratten had spent the first two and a half months of 1980 completing her Playmate of the Year shoot and making her previous movie, ''[[Galaxina]]'', in [[southern California]]. With all her work close to home, Snider assumed the role of his wife's chauffeur, as well as her ersatz manager and acting coach. However, Snider's near-constant presence, as well as his criticism of and almost daily arguments with his wife, caused Stratten so much stress that her co-workers at ''Playboy'' and the ''Galaxina'' set took notice of the tension in the relationship. As the spring of 1980 approached, Snider insisted on accompanying his wife to New York for the shoot for ''They All Laughed'', but Stratten recognized the problems he could cause on set and wanted the freedom to pursue her relationship with Bogdanovich. Stratten convinced Snider to remain in Los Angeles after explaining that the director had decided to close the set of his new film to all but the cast and immediate crew.<ref name="carpenter"/> Stratten and Bogdanovich consummated their affair on the day after her arrival in New York.{{sfn|Bogdanovich|1984|p=74}}

In April, Stratten briefly returned to California to prepare for her upcoming introduction as the new Playmate of the Year and follow-on publicity tour.<ref name="rhodes">{{cite magazine| last1= Rhodes| first1= Richard| date= May 1981| others= Based in part on the research of John Riley and Laura Bernstein| title= Dorothy Stratten: Her Story| magazine= [[Playboy]]| location= Chicago, IL| volume= 28| issue= 5| issn= 0032-1478| page= 222}}</ref> With several months of filming left to be completed in New York, this was the last time that she would live with Snider in their Los Angeles–area home.
[[File:Dorothy Stratten - Syracuse Herald-Journal (1980).jpg|thumb|upright|Newspaper clipping, April 30, 1980]]

On Wednesday, April 30, at a luncheon held on the grounds of the Playboy Mansion, Stratten was presented to the assembled entertainment press as the 1980 Playmate of the Year.{{sfn|Rhodes|1981|p=224}} In his introductory remarks, Hefner noted that Stratten was from Canada and had received $200,000 in cash and gifts in addition to the title. In a fleeting comment, he also acknowledged the effect that Stratten's charming combination of beauty, intelligence, and sensitivity had on many who knew her when he said, "...and she is something rather special. They always are, but Dorothy is really quite unique." After taking the lectern, Stratten thanked [[Mario Casilli]], the photographer who shot both her Playmate of the Month and Year pictorials, several Playboy executives, and finally Hefner, whom she declared "has made me probably the happiest girl in the world today."<ref name="playboy video">{{cite AV media
 | date = 1983
 | title = Playboy Video Magazine Vol. 4
 | type = VHS
 | publisher = CBS/Fox Video
}}</ref> Later that evening, Stratten appeared as a guest on [[NBC]]'s ''[[The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson]]''.<ref name="carpenter"/>

The next day, Stratten began a two-week promotional tour in Canada. Having no events scheduled over the first weekend, she flew to New York on a whim to surprise Bogdanovich. Increasingly conflicted about her marriage, Stratten wrote to Snider from Canada asking for more freedom in their relationship. With his wife beyond his immediate control and fearing the worst, Snider telephoned from Los Angeles in response and flew into a rage when Stratten answered. Stratten's tour was arranged to end in her hometown of Vancouver so Stratten might relax for a few days with family before returning to New York. However, Snider appeared in Vancouver at the last minute and coerced her into spending some of her brief vacation making personal appearances at several local nightclubs. Since Snider knew many of the club owners, he personally negotiated and collected Stratten's appearance fees and then pocketed the entire sum when she returned to New York.{{sfn|Rhodes|1981|p=224}} During this time, it was reported that Stratten and Snider had a particularly heated argument. At some point during the fight, Stratten offered to give up her acting career and suggested the couple permanently return to Canada; however, Snider rebuffed his wife's attempt to save their marriage.<ref name="carpenter"/>

In the days and weeks after Snider returned to Los Angeles, he found it increasingly difficult to get in touch with Stratten. In late June, just a few weeks after their first wedding anniversary, Snider received another letter from Stratten, this one announcing that they were now physically and financially [[marital separation|separated]]. Snider had several responses to the second letter; he emptied the couple's joint bank account, he had a brief affair with an old girlfriend, and, now convinced that Stratten was having an affair of her own with Bogdanovich, hired a [[private detective]] to gather evidence of his wife's infidelity.{{sfn|Rhodes|1981|p=224-6}}

As a foreign national living in the U.S. without a [[green card]] that would allow him to hold a job and having no other source of regular income, Snider relied on Stratten, now through her business manager, to pay the monthly household bills. Little was left over for extravagances, such as the expenses incurred by a private detective working a case 3,000 miles from home. Therefore, over the summer of 1980, Snider began selling Stratten's Playmate of the Year prizes at a loss for quick cash, the most notable example being a [[Jaguar (automobile)|Jaguar]] sportscar that ''Playboy'' had valued at $26,000.{{sfn|Rhodes|1981|p=233}}<ref name="jaguar">{{cite magazine
 | date= June 1980
 | title= Gifts Fit for a Queen
 | magazine= [[Playboy]]
 | location= Chicago, IL
 | volume= 27
 | issue= 6
 | issn= 0032-1478 
 | page= 221
}}</ref>

By mid-July, principal photography on ''They All Laughed'' was completed and the New York production wrapped.{{sfn|Rhodes|1981|p=226}} On Wednesday, July 30, Stratten and Bogdanovich returned to Los Angeles after having spent a ten-day holiday together in England. Stratten's official Los Angeles residence was now at the address of a newly rented [[Beverly Hills, California|Beverly Hills]] apartment, but in actuality she had quietly moved into Bogdanovich's mansion in [[Bel Air, California|Bel Air]].<ref name="carpenter"/>

===August 1980===
On the night of July 31, 1980, Snider, by now aware that his estranged wife was back in Los Angeles and living with Bogdanovich, hid among the shadows just outside the director's estate carrying a borrowed [[handgun]], intending to shoot anyone who appeared at the entrance to the property. After several hours of inactivity, Snider grew impatient and left, drove up into the hills overlooking the city and, he admitted later to a friend, had thoughts of [[suicide]].{{sfn|Rhodes|1981|p=228}}

At approximately noon on Friday, August 8, Stratten and Snider saw each other for the first time in nearly three months at Snider's (and Stratten's former) house in West Los Angeles. After having already persuaded Stratten to pose for ''Playboy'' and then marry him, Snider was supremely confident before the meeting that he would convince his wife to take him back. But his hopes of a reconciliation were quickly dashed when Stratten admitted that she had fallen in love with Bogdanovich and wanted to finalize their separation. A dejected Snider agreed to meet Stratten one more time the following week to discuss a monetary settlement.<ref name="carpenter"/>{{sfn|Rhodes|1981|p=230}} Later that afternoon, less than a week before Stratten's murder, Snider had to return the borrowed gun to its owner.<ref name="carpenter"/> Over the next five days, he would become obsessed with getting another.

On August 9, the day after his meeting with Stratten, Snider and the private detective he had hired went to a local gun store. After being told that the store could not sell him a firearm because of his Canadian citizenship, Snider asked the private detective to buy the gun Snider wanted for him; the detective refused.{{sfn|Rhodes|1981|p=232}} When Snider saw the private detective again the following day, he tried to convince the man to buy him a [[machine gun]] for "home protection", but the detective talked him out of the idea.<ref name="carpenter"/> The next day, August 11, Snider drove out into the [[San Fernando Valley]] to look at a gun he had found for sale in a newspaper. He got lost, however, and eventually gave up and went home before finding the owner's address.{{sfn|Rhodes|1981|p=232}}