Lee Radziwill
Caroline Lee Bouvier (/ˈbuːvieɪ/ BOO-vee-ay), later Canfield, Radziwiłł (Polish pronunciation: [raˈd͡ʑiviw]), and Ross (March 3, 1933[1] – February 15, 2019),[2] was an American socialite, public relations executive, and interior designer. She was the younger sister of former First Lady Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis and sister-in-law of President John F. Kennedy.
In this Slavic name, the surname is Radziwiłł, sometimes transliterated as Radziwill.
Caroline Lee Bouvier
Caroline Lee Bouvier
March 3, 1933
New York City, U.S.
February 15, 2019 (aged 85)
New York City, U.S.
Radziwiłł (by marriage)
Prince Anthony Stanislaw Albert Radziwiłł
Princess Anna Christina Radziwiłł
Early life and ancestry[edit]
Caroline Lee Bouvier was born at Doctors Hospital, Manhattan, 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.[5] In her birth announcement, and from her earliest years, she was known by her middle name "Lee" rather than Caroline.
Career and fame[edit]
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 criticized. A year later, she appeared in a television adaptation of the 1944 movie Laura, which was also criticized.[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]
Radziwill was named to the Vanity Fair International Best Dressed Hall of Fame in 1996.[10][11] Her Paris (Avenue Montaigne 49)[12] and Manhattan (160 East 72nd Street)[13] apartments were featured in the April 2009 issue of Elle Décor magazine. She was interviewed by director Sofia Coppola in February 2013 about her life as part of Radziwill's cover story for T: The New York Times Style Magazine as well as about Coppola's movie The Bling Ring and the loss of privacy.[14] She was listed as one of the 50 best-dressed people older than age 50 by The Guardian in March 2013.[15]
Family at Grey Gardens[edit]
Radziwill hired documentary filmmakers Albert and David Maysles in 1972 to work on a movie about the Bouvier family. At the outset, the brothers filmed two eccentric and reclusive members of the extended family, Radziwill's aunt and cousin, Edith Ewing Bouvier Beale ("Big Edie") and her daughter Edith Bouvier Beale ("Little Edie"). The Beales lived in a rambling, decaying home in East Hampton, New York, and were funded by other members of the family.[16]
Radziwill's original movie project was suspended, and she retained the footage of the Beales. However the Maysles brothers saw the cinematic potential of the two women and their peculiar lives, and after raising funds for film and equipment of their own, returned and recorded many hours of new footage with Big Edie and Little Edie—the resulting 1975 film Grey Gardens is widely ranked among best of the documentary genre. The film was adapted as a 2006 musical of the same name, where the characters Lee and Jackie Bouvier appear as visiting children in retrospect. HBO produced the 2009 television movie Grey Gardens based on the lives of the Beales.[17]
Surviving footage of Radziwill's 1972 visit to the Beales was included in the 2017 film That Summer.[18][19]
In popular culture[edit]
Gilda Radner, performing a Roseanne Roseannadanna skit on Saturday Night Live, notably mused about "Princess Lee" in December 1978.
Radziwill was portrayed by Calista Flockhart in Feud: Capote vs. The Swans (2024).