Actress and Model Catya Sassoon, Daughter of Hairstylist Vidal Sassoon, Dead at 33

The Associated Press Published: Jan 4, 2002

LOS ANGELES (AP) - Actress and model Catya Sassoon, the daughter of celebrity hairstylist Vidal Sassoon, died in her sleep after attending a New Year's party at a friend's house. She was 33. "She complained of feeling woozy and they left the party and went home," her manager, Hilly Elkins, said Thursday.

When her husband, Joe Myers, checked on her a few hours later Tuesday morning, he discovered she wasn't breathing, said Elkins. The coroner's office said autopsy results were pending.

Elkins said she suffered from high blood pressure.

Sassoon had lived a flamboyant lifestyle in her younger years, and later acknowledged severe drug and alcohol problems.

"There were times I felt I was going to lose her," her mother, Beverly Sassoon, once said.

Catya Sassoon had dropped out of Beverly Hills High School at 14 to pursue a modeling career in New York. She signed with the Prestige Agency, which moved her into a group apartment with a dozen other models, she recalled in a People magazine interview.

"It was sheer hell living there with 12 girls fighting for one of the two available showers every morning at 6," she said. "Everyone stole everyone's makeup."

Sassoon later appeared on the covers of Seventeen, Bride and other magazines. In 1985, Rolling Stone declared, "Catya Sassoon defines the word nubile."

She made her movie debut that year, appearing opposite James Spader and Robert Downey Jr. in the film "Tuff Turf."

Other film credits included "Bloodfist IV: Die Trying," "Modern Girls," "Angelfist" and "Dance With Death."

She was the oldest daughter of Vidal and Beverly Sassoon.

AP-ES-01-04-02 0619EST

-- Anonymous, January 04, 2002