Sylvia Ashley
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Sylvia Ashley (April 1, 1904 – June 29, 1977) was an English model, actress and socialite, who was best known for her marriages to British aristocrats and American movie stars.
She was born Edith Louisa Hawkes in Paddington, London, England, a daughter of Arthur Hawkes and Edith Florence Hyde. (Although she preferred giving her year of birth as 1906, the England and Wales Civil Registration Index, Vol. 1a, Page 26, shows it was recorded during the June quarter of 1904, District of Paddington.) Her sister (Lillian) Vera Hawkes (March 6, 1910-January 1, 1997) married the British film producer Basil Bleck.
Taking the name Sylvia, she worked as a lingerie model and became a Cochran Dancer, the British equivalent of a Ziegfeld Follies girl. After this brief career in the chorus line of musical comedy, she went on to appear in a number of West End plays. She made her debut in Midnight Follies. In 1925, she acted in Tell me More at London's Winter Garden Theatre, and in The Whole Town's Talking.
She had five husbands:
- Anthony Ashley-Cooper, Lord Ashley (married February 3, 1927 - divorced November 28, 1934);
- actor Douglas Fairbanks (married March 7, 1936 - his death December 12, 1939);
- Edward John Stanley, 6th Baron Sheffield and Stanley of Alderley (married January 18, 1944 - divorced 1948);
- actor Clark Gable (married December 20, 1949 - divorced April 21, 1952); and
- hotel executive and race-car driver Prince Dimitri Djordjadze (married 1954).
Ashley was described by actor David Niven in his autobiography as "a ravishing blond [sic] beauty, outspoken and impeccable sense of humour. She was a selfish woman. She was a man's woman. She was devoted to the great indoors, to her milky white skin, her flawless complexion, loathed the thought of animals being slaughtered, was happiest among the chattering chic of café society and owned a Chihuahua the size of a mouse called Minnie. She adored spending money."
On March 1, 1941, Sylvia, her sister, Vera Bleck, Constance Bennett, and Virginia Fox Zanuck, as directors, filed articles of incorporation for an organization known as the British Distressed Areas Fund, with headquarters in Los Angeles, with the purpose of soliciting funds to provide food, clothing and medical aid for refugees of World War II.
Princess Sylvia Djordjadze died of cancer at age 73 in Los Angeles. She is interred in the Hollywood Forever Cemetery, Hollywood, her grave not being too far from the tomb of her second husband, Douglas Fairbanks, Sr.
