Sharon Tate

 

"My whole life has been decided by fate.  I've never planned anything that's happened to me."

Sharon Marie Tate was born in Dallas, Texas on January 24, 1943.  Her father was an army intelligence officer, and as such, the family was often moving from one city to another.  By the time she was 16, she had lived in six cities and had few friends.

Seeking to change that, she began entering beauty pageants when she was 16.  In 1959, she won the title of Miss Richland in Washington State.  A swimsuit photo from the pageant was published in Stars and Stripes, turning Tate into a local celebrity overnight.  While she planned to compete for the title of Miss Washington, her family relocated to Italy before the pageant.

While in Verona, Tate and her friends were cast as extras in the 1962 film Hemingway's Adventures of a Young Man.  During production, she met actor Richard Beymer, who encouraged her to come to Hollywood and be a star.  She did just that, winning small roles in such popular TV shows as Mister Ed and The Beverly Hillbillies.  

In 1967, Tate was in London starring in a film that would eventually be released as The Fearless Vampire Killers.  During production, she fell in love with the director, Roman Polanski, and the two were subsequently married on January 20, 1968. 

By 1969, the two had settled into married life.  On August 8, while Polanski was out of town, a very pregnant Sharon Tate entertained a group of friends, including celebrity hairstylist Jay Sebring, Wojciech Fryowski and Abigail Folger.  Shortly after midnight, members of the Manson Family cult broke into the home.  What happened next has become the stuff of Hollywood legend.

According to cult member Susan Atkins, the family wanted "to do a crime that would shock the world, that the world would have to stand up and take notice."  One can't deny that they did just that.

Tate and her friends were repeatedly stabbed by the group, with Fryowski and Folger succumbing to their wounds.  Still alive, Tate and Sebring were hanged on a support beam in the living room.  The coroner would later cite a massive hemorrhage as her cause of death.  Her unborn baby died in utero.  Before leaving the scene, cult members wrote the word "pig" on the front door, using Tate's own blood.

Sharon Tate and her baby were laid to rest at Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City.  Her mother Doris passed away in 1992 and was subsequently buried with them, marking three generations within the same plot.

Rest in peace.

Trivia

• Several books have been written on Sharon's life and of the crime itself, including one co-written by Polanski and Tate's sister Debra.  Check out these selections on Amazon.
  
  
• Tate was offered the role of Billie Jo Bradley on the sitcom Petticoat Junction, but she ultimately turned it down.
  
  
• Mattel's "Malibu Barbie" was based on Tate's character in the 1967 film Don't Make Waves.
  
  
• Tate became close friends with actress Victoria Vetri during production of the 1968 film Rosemary's Baby.  Vetri was to have been a guest of Tate's on the night of the murders, but she canceled at the last minute due to poor health.
  
  
• Musician Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails recorded his 1994 album "The Downward Spiral" in the murder house, which was subsequently demolished in 1994.  Reznor purportedly took the "pig" door with him, which is now a part of his Louisiana studio.
  
  
• Tate was a distant cousin of brothers Dennis and Randy Quaid.