Biography of Janice Dickinson

As the child of a violent, pedophiliac father and a pill-popping mother, Janice Dickinson grew up hearing her father's "You'll never amount to nothing!" Determined to become a raging success, Janice Dickinson went to New York City and began calling modeling agencies. It was the 1970s, and the ideal models were blond "girls next door" like Cheryl Tiegs, but Janice Dickinson was a self described "Polish-mutt niggerlips." She was turned down by Eileen Ford -- "Those lips!" -- but ended up going to Paris after Lorraine Bracco told her photographer boyfriend that she liked Dickinson's look. Janice Dickinson became a huge success in Europe, and returned to New York City in 1978. It was the era of Studio 54 and Dickinson partied with the likes of Truman Capote, Andy Warhol, and John Belushi. She seduced the most famous ladies' men, drank every drink and snorted or inhaled every drug. While foggy headed, Janice Dickinson fell off a catwalk and onto Sophia Loren. Dickinson took revenge on Ford by signing with her agency and then jumping ship to Elite when she became established in the US. On her way out the door, she reportedly told Ford, "It's me, big-lipped Janice. I'm going to Elite. I don't like you, I've never liked you."

Janice Dickinson's lengthy list of purported sexual conquests includes Prince Albert II, Warren Beatty, John Cusack, Mick Jagger, Grace Jones, John F. Kennedy, Jr., Kelly LeBrock, Jon Lovitz, Dolph Lundgren, Liam Neeson, Jack Nicholson, Bruce Willis, and Frank Zappa. Janice Dickinson wrote No Lifeguard on Duty: The Accidental Life of the World's First Supermodel, her 2002 autobiography that really names names.

My father was a tall, slim, handsome man with a thick head of silver hair, buzzed flat, and gunmetal gray eyes. People liked Ray. He had an easy smile. A pleasant laugh. He was a good storyteller, a good listener, popular with the neighbors. But I didn't often see that easy smile. Or hear that pleasant laugh. I saw, instead, the way his eyes changed color when he got angry, the whites glowing red. Or the way he balled up his big, freckled fists when he came after me, like a bull in heat. I hated him. I hated his eyes; his hair; that acrid breath; the wife-beater, Fruit of the Loom T-shirts. I hated him with every fiber of my being.

I hated my mother, too; hated her because she was numbed into oblivion with the pills she'd been prescribed for an old back injury. She would come home at the end of the day, floating, and she stayed aloft with the help of those lovely pills. She would glide through the house on a cushion of air, in slow motion, unaware, unseeing, her voice soft, her mind elsewhere, always smiling this benign Hare Krishna smile -- like she was At One With God or something; which she was, I guess, at least chemically. After the end of her marriage to Ninja Turtle producer Simon Fields, Janice Dickinson celebrated, and nine months later had a daughter named Savannah. She was quoted as saying "In the week I conceived, I had made love with five different men." Savannah was the subject of a fierce paternity battle with Sylvester Stallone. He accepted that he was the father until he saw Savannah's coloring, and DNA testing proved that he was not the father. Her date of birth is variously listed as 1953 or 1955. Janice Dickinson is now clean and sober. She is a judge on America's Next Top Model, and a participant on The Surreal Life.