August 14, 1980
West Los Angeles, California
20-year-old Dorothy Stratten is shot to death by her estranged husband
Stratten’s husband, Paul Snider, had met Stratten while she was working part time at Dairy Queen. He convinced her to submit photos to Playboy which led to her becoming Miss August 1979, two months after they married. The couple separated in 1980, with Hugh Hefner encouraging the split calling Snider a “hustler and a pimp.”
On August 14, 1980, Snider shot Stratten in the face with a 12-gauge shotgun, raped her body, then used the shotgun to shoot himself in the head.
The movies Death of a Centerfold: The Dorothy Stratten Story and Star 80 are both based on the murder-suicide. Bryan Adams dedicated “The Best is Yet to Come” and Bush dedicated “Dead Meat” to Stratten.
