Biography

Angie Dickinson

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Angie Dickinson was born in Kulm, North Dakota, in 1931, the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. L. H. Brown. Mr. Brown was the publisher of The Kulm Messenger. The family left North Dakota in 1942 when Angie was 11 years old, moving to Burbank, California. In December of 1946, when she was a senior at Bellamarine Jefferson High School in Burbank, she won the Sixth Annual Bill of Rights Contest. Two years later her sister Janet, did likewise. Being the daughter of a printer, Angie at first had visions of becoming a writer, but gave this up after winning her first beauty contest. After finishing college she worked as a secretary in a Burbank airplane parts factory for 3-1/2 years. In 1953 she entered the local Miss America contest one day before the deadline and took second place. In August of the same year she was one of five winners in a beauty contest sponsored by NBC and appeared in several TV variety shows. She got her first bit part in a Warner Brothers movie in 1954 and gained television fame in the TV series The Millionaire (1955) and got her first good film role opposite John Wayne and Dean Martin in Rio Bravo (1959). Her success then climbed until she became one of the nation's top movie stars.
- IMDb mini biography by: Kulm Diamond Jubilee Supplement

Along with Henry Silva, she is one of only two actors to appear in both Ocean's Eleven (1960) and its remake Ocean's Eleven (2001).
Had a ten-year, on-again/off-again relationship with Frank Sinatra.
Her daughter (with Burt Bacharach), Lea Nikki Bacharach, committed suicide at age 40 on January 4, 2007 in Ventura County, California. She was born prematurely on July 12, 1966 and battled Asperger's disorder, a form of autism.
Said she initially declined to play the ill-fated, sexually frustrated Kate Miller in Dressed to Kill (1980) because she felt her role on the television series Police Woman (1974) had made her into something of a role model, but director Brian De Palma eventually persuaded her to accept the role.
According to director Steve Carver, Dickinson allowed all of the crew to remain on set during the filming of her extensive nude scenes in Big Bad Mama (1974).

My mother was against me being an actress - until I introduced her to Frank Sinatra.
No question - the more powerful men are, the more sexy they are.
When I started shooting Police Woman (1974), someone asked me if I had ever played a sleuth before. I said, "Yes, many times." I thought they were asking me if I had ever played a slut. I didn't know what a sleuth was.
I dress for women, and undress for men.
[on her initial reaction to the screenplay for Dressed to Kill (1980)] I was like "I can't do this, I'm 'Police Woman'!".