Body of Margaux Hemingway Found

The body of actress-model Margaux Hemingway, granddaughter of legendary author Ernest Hemingway, was found Monday in her Santa Monica studio apartment half a block from the beach.

Hemingway, 41, who had not been seen by friends in several days, was identified through her dental records, authorities said.

“There is no sign of forced entry or foul play,” said Santa Monica Police Sgt. Gary Gallinot. “We have no evidence of suicide, no note or anything like that. But we’re not ruling it out.”

Hemingway’s body was discovered by friends who had stopped by her apartment with a workman. Hemingway, older sister of actress Mariel Hemingway, had moved in a few weeks ago, and her friends had planned to help her complete some improvements to the apartment and help her finish moving in. When they found her door locked, one of them climbed a ladder to peer through a glass door and saw the body inside.

Hemingway had a history of eating disorders and alcohol abuse and spent a month at the Betty Ford Center in 1988.

“For a time, I was living the life of Ernest Hemingway,” she told a magazine writer. “I think alcohol drove my grandfather to suicide, but I’m still alive because I did something about it.”

She was 5 when her grandfather killed himself with a shotgun at his home in Idaho.

The last time Hemingway’s friends or neighbors saw her was Saturday evening.

“She looked haggard and disturbed,” said neighbor Peter Osterlund, who spotted her walking down Main Street in Santa Monica. “I remember thinking she was a sad figure.”

Hemingway first gained acclaim just a year after embarking on a modeling career, when she appeared on the cover of Vogue and a number of other fashion magazines.

The 6-foot model then signed a $1-million contract with Faberge to promote its new perfume, Babe.

In 1976 she starred in “Lipstick,” her movie debut.

Hemingway, unlike her younger sister, who won acclaim for her performances in such films as “Manhattan,” was unable to sustain a successful acting career. Constant dieting and hard drinking took their toll, she later said.

Two years after checking into the Betty Ford clinic, Hemingway sought to revive her film career, posing nude in Playboy to gain attention and prove she was in great shape.

During her career she appeared in a number of obscure films, including “Over the Brooklyn Bridge,” “Mass in C Minor,” “Killer Fish,” “They Call Me Bruce?” “Killing Machine,” “Porta Mi la Luna,” “Inner Sanctum” and “Deadly Rivals.”

Hemingway, twice divorced, also made several documentaries, including an award-winning special for ABC’s “Wide World of Sports” titled “Hemingway’s Adventure: Fly Fishing in South America.”

In “Lipstick,” her best known movie, Hemingway played a woman who is raped but stalks her perpetrator and takes revenge.

While the movie was panned by many critics, she was gratified when the California Legislature passed Margaux Hemingway Resolution No. 109. The resolution prohibited the mention of a rape victim’s sexual history during a trial.

The California Bar Assn. presented her with a citizenship award for her role in “Lipstick.”