Women Celebs I Love #4 - Sharon Tate

A journalist once asked Sharon Tate in a late July 1969 interview if she believed in fate, to which she replied, "Certainly. My whole life has been decided by fate. I think something more powerful than we are decides our fates for us. I know one thing — I've never planned anything that ever happened to me."

As fate would have it, Sharon Tate will be forever linked to her brutal murder at the hands of Charles Manson's psychotic thugs in 1969 in the hills of Beverly Hills on Cielo Drive. I've been up there many times (I know someone who lives next door). The original gate - the original house that stood there the night Sharon breathed her last breath is gone - a palatial, resortesque spec mansion stands in its place. Rumors are they can't give the place away.

(Wait! There's more pictures of Sharon...)

But I'm not blogging about Sharon's death. If you want the full story, Google her. Instead I'll dwell on Sharon's life and beauty, or rather her beauty. She was 27 when she died and like Marilyn Monroe, James Dean, Heath Ledger and others, she will be eternally 27. She took those cheesecake photos. The pinup ones. Posed in the nude a few times. She didn't understand what the big deal is. And looking at her, most of us don't either.

Sharon made a handful of TV shows and movies. I've seen just a few - Valley of the Dolls probably being the biggest. She could be very funny. She later married director Roman Polanski and the couple quickly became part of a social group that included some of the most successful young people in the film industry, including Steve McQueen, Warren Beatty, Mia Farrow, Peter Sellers, Jacqueline Bisset, Leslie Caron, Joan Collins, Joanna Pettet, Laurence Harvey, Peter Fonda and Jane Fonda, older film stars like Henry Fonda, Kirk Douglas, Yul Brynner and Danny Kaye, musicians such as Jim Morrison and the Mamas and the Papas, and record producer Terry Melcher and his girlfriend Candice Bergen. It was quite the life - one many would die for.

I've only seen a smattering of interviews with her so I'm not sure what her personality was like but if the company she kept was any indication, then I would've approved.

I have a larger version of this one in color - my favorite photo of Sharon.

But her life - the life that dreams are made of - came to an abrupt end the night of August 9, 1969. Her husband, Polanski, found out about her death while in Europe prepping a film. His life would crash and burn as a result, and then resurrect itself (see post below). I'm planning to visit her grave site this weekend - I had no idea it's right here in Culver City where I live. She inadvertantly caused so much pain to those she loved by her death, and yet those same people, including her mother - Doris, father - Col. Paul and two sisters, Debra and Patti - cherished her memory and worked diligently to let the world not forget her. Doris died in 1992. Patti died of breast cancer in 2000. Dad died in 2005. And Debra continues to bear Sharon's cross.

Sharon's not my favorite actress, per se. Simply put, she was a gorgeous, erotic, sexy woman that both men and women loved to be around.

Wouldn't you?