Gloria Vanderbilt

Who is Gloria Vanderbilt?

Gloria Vanderbilt was an American author, artist, heiress, socialite, and fashion designer. She was also a member of the Vanderbilt family of New York, and CNN television anchor Anderson Cooper's mother. 

Vanderbilt is also recognized for her own production of fashion, perfumes, and more. Additionally, Gloria was also noted as a developer of blue jeans.

Gloria Vanderbilt was born as Gloria Laura Vanderbilt on 20th February 1924, in Manhattan, New York, the United States of America, where another famous actor Armin Shimerman was born. Born to her father Reginald Claypoole, a railroad heir, and mother Gloria Morgan (Reginald's second wife), Vanderbilt is of White ethnicity and holds American nationality. 

Gloria was baptized by Bishop Hebert Shipman in the Episcopal church as Gloria Laura Vanderbilt. When her father passed away, she was raised in the Catholic Church where her mother belonged. Laura also has a half-sister named Cathleeh Vanderbilt (1904-1944), from her father first marriage with Cathleen Neilson.

Regarding her studies, Vanderbilt, joined Greenvale School located on Long Island and Miss Porter's School in Connecticut, later attended the Wheeler School. Moreover, she also joined the Art Student League based in New York, in order to develop the artistic talent for which she would be famous at the time of her career.

Professional Career

Theater

From 1954-1963, Laura enrolled in acting. She took acting classes via Neighborhood Playhouse with her coach Sanford Meisner and made her first stage appearance in The Swan. The show was performed at Pocono Playhouse. 

Later, Vanderbilt also made her appearance in various live and television dramas such as Studio One in Hollywood, The Dick Powell Show, and Playhouse 90. In addition to her other television programs which includes The Oprah Winfrey Show, the Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, Person to Person, CBS News Sunday Morning and Live! with Kelly and Michael. 

Fashion

At the early age of fifteen, Gloria started her career as a fashion model and made her appearance in Harper's Bazaar. 

In 1970, Laura also partnered with Glentex and entered into the fashion business. Later in 1976, an Indian designer Mohan Murjani's company named Murjani Corporation offered to launch a line of designer jeans with Vanderbilt's signature on the back pocket, and her swan logo too. 

In the year 1978, Laura Vanderbilt sold the rights to her name to the Murjani Group and re-opened her own company, GV Ltd, which Laura founded in 1976. She launched a various range of blouses, shoes, sheets, leather goods and accessories. 

Art

Besides acting and fashion, Gloria was also popular for her artworks. She gained quite huge fame for her works kin oil paintings, pastels, watercolors. 

Later in 2001, Vanderbilt, opened up her first art exhibition ''Dream Boxes,'' at Southern Vermont Arts Center based in Manchester, which turned out to be a critical success. Additionally, Laura also launched another art exhibition of thirty-five paintings at the Art Center as a panelist during it's Annual Fall Show Exhibition. 

Writings

Multi-talented person Gloria Vanderbilt is also known for her writing works. She wrote two books on four volumes of memoirs, art and home decor, and three novels. 

Moreover, Laura was also a regular contributor to The New York Times, Elle, and Vanity Fair. Later on April 2016, HarperCollins Publishers published a book by co-author Gloria Vanderbilt and her son Anderson Cooper, named The Rainbow Comes and Goes: A Mother and Son On Life, Love, and Loss. 

The Nothing Left Unsaid documentary

On 9th April 2016, HBO released a two-hour documentary titled Nothing Left Unsaid: Gloria Vanderbilt and Anderson Cooper. The project was directed and produced by Liz Garbus. 

Know about Gloria Vanderbilt's Married life and Husband

Laura was married four times, from which three of her relationships ended in divorce. All together she gave birth to four sons, and she also had other affairs. 

Gloria Vanderbilt First Marriage

In the year 1971, at the young age of 17, Vanderbilt shifted to Hollywood, where she married Pat DiCicco. Although this was her first Nuptial, she was the second spouse of Pat DiCicco, who was an agent for actors and alleged mobsters. 

The couple could not last longer than 4 years, which ended up in divorce in 1945. The pair did not share any children together. Regarding their divorce, Laura stated that DiCicco was very abusive to her and called her Fatsy Roo and beat her.

''He would take my head and bang it against the wall,'' 

Vanderbilt added,

 ''I had black eyes.''

However, Pat did not respond to the accusation made by Gloria. 

Gloria Vanderbilt Second Marriage

After few weeks of her divorce in 1945, Gloria Laura married her second husband Leopold Stanislaus Stokowski , who already had three daughters from his previous marriage with Olga Samaroff, an American pianist, and Evangeline Love Brewster Johnson who is an heiress to Johnson & Johnson. 

Vanderbilt was the third wife of Leopold with whom she shared two sons, Stan Stokowski (born on 22nd August 1950), and Christopher Stokowski (born on 31st January 1952).

However, Leopold and Gloria could not last long and they got divorced in October 1955. 

Gloria Vanderbilt Third Marriage

After Gloria's divorce with her second husband, she again married for the third time to spouse Sidney Lumet. He was known as the film director. Laura was the second of four wives of Sidney.

After dating for some months, Laura and Lumet got married on 28th August 1956. Similarly, Vanderbilt and Sidney began facing issues which resulted in their divorce after seven years of their marriage in August 1963. Furthermore, the couple did not share any children together.

Gloria Vanderbilt Fourth Marriage

Vanderbilt married her fourth partner Wyatt Emory Cooper, who was an author, on 24th December 1963, the same year she separated from Sidney Lumet. 

Gloria and Wyatt Emory stayed together as husband and wife for fifteen years, which ended after Cooper's death in 1978, while Wyatt was undergoing open-heart surgery. 

Since their marriage, the pair shared two sons together named Carter Vanderbilt Cooper ( 27th Jan 1965 to 22nd July 1988), and Anderson hays Cooper (born 3rd June 1967), who is a news anchor for CNN. 

Whereas, the reason behind Carter's death is suicide or as the victim of unusual medications that took him into the psychedelic state of mind and jumped from the family's 14th-floor apartment at his young age of 23.  

Gloria Vanderbilt Other Relationship & Affairs

Besides her marital life, Vanderbilt was also involved in a romantic affair with her boyfriend Gordon Parks, a filmmaker, and photographer. The couple dated for a long time until Gordon's death in 2006. 

In addition to her other short-term love affairs, she was romantically bonded with some names like Frank Sinatra, Howard Hughes, Roald Dahl, and Marlon Brandon. 

Besides her personal affairs, Gloria was very close to her mate Diane von Furstenberg, a fashion designer. When Gloria made her guest-appearance on her son Anderson Cooper's television talk show named Anderson on 19th September 2011, she referred to an actress and comedian Kathy Griffin as her ''fantasy daughter''.

Religious beliefs

As we know that Gloria Vanderbilt was baptized into the Episcopal Church as a child, but she grew up as a Roman Catholic. Moreover, her child was fascinated with St. Theresa. Although Laura grew up as a religious woman, she did not practice Catholic during her older days. 

Gloria Laura Vanderbilt's death and burial

On 17th June 2019, the multi-talented figure Gloria died at her age of ninety-five. However, there are no details about the cause of her death. 

Laura was buried right next to her Late son Carter and husband Wyatt in the Vanderbilt family plot located in Moravian Cemetery in New York. 

How Much Is Gloria Vanderbilt's Total Net Worth? 

Gloria Vanderbilt being of the most prominent figure in acting, modeling, and writing of her time has managed to make an enormous amount of money. She was born to a wealthy family. There is no doubt that Vanderbilt's assets are in some big numbers. 

At the age of eighteen months, Laura along with her half-sister was the heiress to a $5 million trust fund which is more than $70 million as of 2019, upon her father Reginal's death from cirrhosis. 

As she was small, the rights to Vanderbilt's share was given to her mother, who traveled to and from Paris for many years along with her daughter. 

Gloria and her mother were accompanied by her nanny Emma Sullivan kieslich, who played a confusing part in Laura's life. This resulted in her spending habits, her mother's use of finances was examined by Gloria's paternal aunt named Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney. 

Gertrude demanded custody for her niece, which concluded in a custody trial. The trial turned out to be very scandalous that the judge would make everyone out of the room in order to listen to what Georgia had to say without influencing her. 

As a result, the testimony was heard depicting Vanderbilt 's mother as an incapable parent, which also included an allegation about Laura's mother having a lesbian affair with a member of the British royal family. At last, Gloria's mother lost the battle and Vanderbilt's custody was taken by her aunt. 

Moreover, Vanderbilt's mother had to live on a drastically reduced portion of her daughter's trust, which was more than $4 million (more than $7 million as of now). 

In addition to her earnings through her career time. Gloria has managed to sum up a huge amount of money from her career as a fashion designer, actress, author. Although the exact numbers of her salary income are not available, there is no doubt that Laura had a staggering salary amount. 

Till date, she has made her appearance in various theater, and film productions. Prior to her fashion collections with one of the most notable work in blue jeans, which adds up to her entire wealth. Even though details regarding her house, cars, and lavish expenses are not disclosed, there is no doubt that Gloria had several luxury mansions along with expensive cars and other materials of that time.

Considering all her income, expenses and inheritance, Gloria's total net worth is estimated to be more than $200 million, as of 2019, which is more than Yaron Varsano, an American real estate developer. However, following Laura's death, all of her assets will be inherited by her son Anderson Cooper.

Fraud

Besides her earnings and net worth, Vanderbilt was once accused by her ex-partners in GV Ltd. and her lawyers of fraud. After a long-term trial (when the lawyer passed away), Laura won the case and she was also awarded almost $1.7 million, which was never recovered, but, Gloria was awarded $300 thousand by the New York City Bar Association.

Additionally, Gloria also owed million dollars in back taxes, since the4 lawyer passed away and he never paid the IRS, which made Laura sell her Southampton, New York, and New York City, New York Homes. 

At present, Gloris' son Anderson Cooper is making his mother proud. Not only, but he also had a staggering wealth from his parents, Cooper struggled very hard to make his own money. As of 2019, Anderson Cooper makes a staggering $12 million every year as his salary, and his total wealth is assumed to be more than $110 million. 

Gloria Vanderbilt Age & Body Measurements (Height, Weight)

Multi-talented actress, fashion designer, artist and author, Gloria was 94 at the time of her death. When it comes to her height she was 1.70 meters / 5 feet 7 inches tall in height and weighed around 132lbs / 60kg.