Lee Radziwill Interview with Truman Capote on Her Acting Career (1967)

Caroline Lee Bouvier (/ˈbuːvieɪ/ BOO-vee-ay), later Canfield, Radziwiłł (Polish pronunciation: [raˈd͡ʑiviww]), and Ross (March 3, 1933[1] – February 15, 2019), usually known as Princess Lee Radziwill, was an American socialite, public-relations executive, and interior decorator. She was the younger sister of First Lady Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy and sister-in-law of President John F. Kennedy. Radziwill was married three times, each marriage ending in divorce, with the marriage to third husband Herbert Ross ending in divorce shortly before his death in 2001. Caroline Lee Bouvier was born at Doctors Hospital in New York City to stockbroker John Vernou Bouvier III and his wife, socialite Janet Norton Lee.[3][1][a] She attended The Chapin School, in New York City, Potomac School in Washington, D.C., Miss Porter’s School in Farmington, Connecticut, and pursued undergraduate studies at Sarah Lawrence College. Career and fame Considered by “New York’s society arbiters and editors“ as the city’s leading debutante, Radziwill had her “coming out“ party in 1950. A full-page photograph of her in her gown was featured in the “debutante“ section of “Life“ magazine (page 71) in the December 25, 1950 issue. During the 1960s, Radziwill attempted a career as an actress. Her acting attempt was unsuccessful, if highly publicized. She featured in the 1967 production of The Philadelphia Story as the spoiled Main Line heiress Tracy Lord. The play was staged at the Ivanhoe Theatre in Chicago, and Radziwill’s performance was much deprecated. A year later, she appeared in a television adaptation of the 1944 movie Laura, which was also deprecated.[6] A London townhouse and a manor, Turville Grange (which she owned and shared with her second husband), had both been decorated by Italian stage designer Lorenzo Mongiardino and were greatly admired and frequently photographed by Cecil Beaton and Horst P. Horst. She worked briefly as an interior decorator in a style influenced by her association with Mongiardino. Her clientele were wealthy; she once decorated a house “for people who would not be there more than three days a year“.[7] She frequented celebrity company, including travelling with The Rolling Stones during their 1972 tour of North America,[8] which she attended alongside the writer Truman Capote.[9] The 1975 film Grey Gardens is widely considered a masterpiece of the documentary genre. It was later adapted as a 2006 musical of the same name, in which the characters Lee and Jackie Bouvier appear as visiting children in retrospect. An HBO television movie based on the lives of the Beales, also named Grey Gardens, appeared in 2009. Personal life and death Radziwill was married three times. Her first marriage, in April 1953, was to Michael Temple Canfield, a publishing executive. They divorced in 1958, and the marriage was declared annulled by the Sacred Rota in November 1962.[19] Her second marriage, on March 19, 1959, was to the Polish aristocrat Prince Stanisław Albrecht Radziwiłł, who divorced his second wife, the former Grace Maria Kolin,[citation needed] and received a Roman Catholic annulment of his first marriage to re-marry. (His second marriage had never been acknowledged by the Roman Catholic Church, so no annulment was necessary.)[19] Upon her marriage, she claimed the title of Her Serene Highness Princess Caroline Lee Radziwiłł and was sometimes referred to as Princess Radziwill in the American press. They had two children, Anthony (1959–1999) and Christina (b. 1960).Their marriage ended in divorce in 1974.[24] In 1976, The New York Times reported Peter Tufo was a “frequent escort“ of Radziwill.[25] On September 23, 1988, Radziwill married for a third time, becoming the second wife of American movie director and choreographer Herbert Ross.[26] Their divorce was finalized during 2001; he died later that year, and she returned to using Radziwill, the transliteration of her children’s name, Radziwiłł. Radziwill died on February 15, 2019, aged 85, in her apartment on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. Half of her ashes are buried at the Bouvier family plot at Most Holy Trinity Catholic Cemetery in East Hampton, New York. The other half of her ashes were scattered on the Amalfi Coast in the Mediterranean Sea, per her wishes. Truman Garcia Capote born Truman Streckfus Persons; September 30, 1924 – August 25, 1984) was an American novelist, screenwriter, playwright and actor. Several of his short stories, novels, and plays have been praised as literary classics, including the novella Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1958) and the true crime novel In Cold Blood (1966), which he labeled a “non-fiction novel“. His works have been adapted into more than 20 films and television dramas.