Name: | Vidal Sassoon |
Occupation: | Stylist |
Gender: | Male |
Birth Day: | January 17, 1928 |
Death Date: | May 9, 2012 (age 84) |
Age: | Aged 84 |
Country: | England |
Zodiac Sign: | Capricorn |
Vidal Sassoon
Trivia
Does Vidal Sassoon Dead or Alive?
As per our current Database, Vidal Sassoon died on May 9, 2012 (age 84).
Physique
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Before Fame
He worked as a messenger and played football.
Biography
Biography Timeline
Sassoon and the other children at the school were evacuated after WWII began on 3 September 1939. He was eleven. “It’s a date I’ll never forget,” he said. “Suddenly my brother and I and all our fellow orphans were on trains with hundreds of thousands of other kids, moving out of London.” He and his brother were taken to Holt, Wiltshire, a small village of a thousand people.”
In 1948, at the age of 20, he joined the Palmach (which shortly afterwards was integrated into the Israeli Defence Forces) and fought in the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, which began after Israel declared statehood. During an interview, he described the year he spent training with the Israelis as “the best year of my life,” and recalled how he felt:
Sassoon trained under Raymond Bessone, in his salon in Mayfair. Sassoon opened his first salon in 1954 in London; singer-actress Georgia Brown, his friend and neighbour, claimed to be his first customer.
Sassoon married his first wife, Elaine Wood, his salon receptionist, in 1956; the marriage ended in 1958. In 1967, he married his second wife, actress Beverly Adams. They had three biological children and one adopted son: daughter Catya (1968–2002), an actress who died from a drug-induced heart attack; son Elan BenVidal (b. 17 January 1970); son David (b. circa 1972); and daughter Eden Sassoon. Some sources additionally cite Oley Sassone, a music-video director who spells his last name slightly differently, as a son but this appears to be in error. Sassoon and Adams divorced after 13 years of marriage. His third wife was Jeanette Hartford-Davis, a dressage champion and former fashion model; they married in 1983 and divorced soon after. In 1992 he married designer Rhonda “Ronnie” Sassoon.
In 1964, Sassoon created a short, angular hairstyle cut on a horizontal plane that was the recreation of the classic “bob cut.” His geometric haircuts seemed to be severely cut, but were entirely lacquer-free, relying on the natural shine of the hair for effect. Advertising and cosmetics executive Natalie Donay is credited with discovering Sassoon in London and bringing him to the United States, where in 1965 he opened his first New York City salon, on Madison Avenue.
In 1966, inspired by 1920s film star Clara Bow’s close cropped hair, he created designs for Emanuel Ungaro. Director Roman Polanski brought him to Hollywood from London in 1968, at a cost of $5,000 (equivalent to $37,000 in 2019), to create a unique pixie cut for Mia Farrow, who was to star in Rosemary’s Baby.
Sassoon was twice a guest on BBC Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs, on 27 June 1970 and 9 October 2011, when he was also Resident Thinker on the Nowhereisland art project. He was a mystery guest on What’s My Line? in March 1967.
In the early 1970s Sassoon made Los Angeles his home. In 1971 he promoted his 30-year-old second-in-command, artistic director Roger Thompson, to director of the Sassoon salon, explaining jocularly that, “Twenty-five years of schlepping behind a barber chair are enough!” John Paul DeJoria a friend of Sassoon co-founded Paul Mitchell Systems with Paul Mitchell, one of Sassoon’s former students. Mitchell said that Sassoon was “the most famous hairstylist in the history of the world.”
Sassoon began his “Vidal Sassoon” line of hair-care products in 1973. The actor Michael Caine, who when young and struggling “was roommates with Terence Stamp and Vidal Sassoon – he used to cut my hair, and he always had a lot of models around,” claimed to have inspired this, saying, “I told him that he must have something that is working for him while he slept. I told him he had to make shampoos and other hair-care products.” Whatever the inspiration, Sassoon’s brand was applied to shampoos and conditioners sold worldwide, with a commercial campaign featuring the slogan “If you don’t look good, we don’t look good.” Former salon colleagues also bought Sassoon’s salons and acquired the right to use his name, extending the brand in salons into the United Kingdom and the United States.
The El Paso, Texas-based Helen of Troy Corporation began manufacturing and marketing Sassoon hair-care products in 1980. In 1983, Richardson-Vicks purchased the Los Angeles-based Vidal Sassoon Inc. as well as Sassoon’s Santa Monica, California, hairdressing school; the company had already bought his European businesses. Sassoon’s 1982 sales of hair products had topped $110 million, with 80 percent of revenues derived in the US.
He sold his business interests in the early 1980s to devote himself to philanthropy. By 2004, it was reported that Sassoon was no longer associated with the brand that bears his name. He also had a short-lived television series called Your New Day with Vidal Sassoon, which aired in 1980.
Having had a lifelong commitment to eradicating anti-Semitism, Sassoon started the Vidal Sassoon International Center for the Study of Antisemitism, or SICSA, in 1982. Located at Hebrew University of Jerusalem, it is devoted to gathering information about antisemitism worldwide.
Two years later the company was bought by Procter & Gamble. Vidal, who remained a consultant through at least the mid-1990s, sued in 2003 for breach of contract and fraud in federal court for allegedly neglecting the marketing of his brand name in favour of the company’s other hair product lines, such as Pantene.
Sassoon was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) by Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace in the 2009 Birthday Honours.
Sassoon disinherited his son David, with whom he was estranged. Sassoon in his 2010 autobiography described David, adopted in 1975 at age 3, as an “African-American / Asian boy … with twinkling eyes and an irresistible smile” who nonetheless became troubled and was eventually sent to a reform school.
In June 2011 it was reported that Sassoon had been diagnosed with leukemia two years earlier. He died on 9 May 2012 at his home in Bel Air, Los Angeles. His death was originally reported to be a result of natural causes, and later reported to have been a result of his leukemia. He died in the presence of his family. Los Angeles Police Department spokesman Kevin Maiberger said that when the police arrived at his residence at Mulholland Drive he was already dead. A memorial service was planned for a later date.
🎂 Upcoming Birthday
Currently, Vidal Sassoon is 94 years, 10 months and 20 days old. Vidal Sassoon will celebrate 95th birthday on a Tuesday 17th of January 2023.
Find out about Vidal Sassoon birthday activities in timeline view here.
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