Dorothy Stratten was a Canadian model/actress who was best known for appearances as a Playboy Playmate. She was the Playboy Playmate of the Month for August 1979 and Playmate of the Year in 1980. Furthermore, she starred in films and shows like Americathon, Skatetown, U.S.A., Fantasy Island, Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, etc.
Before stepping into modeling, she worked part-time at Dairy Queen, where she met her 26-year-old future husband, Paul Snider. Snider was a Vancouver-area club promoter and pimp who married her in June 1979. However, according to ABC News, it didn’t take long for cracks to appear in the newlywed’s relationship. While Stratten’s career took off, her husband felt left out. Furthermore, several people at the Playboy Mansion said that almost everyone was appalled by Paul Snider.
According to Popsugar, while shooting the film Galaxina, Stratten fell in love with its director Peter Bogdanovich, and separated from her husband. Snider made several attempts to win his wife back but Stratten was adamant on getting a divorce. Eventually, the depressed Snider hired a private investigator and even purchased a 12-gauge, pump-action shotgun.
On August 14, 1980, Dorothy Stratten went to the couple’s shared Los Angeles home to negotiate a divorce settlement where Paul Snider brutally raped and shot her with his shotgun. After killing his wife, Paul took his life by shooting himself with the same gun.
In 2022, Hulu released a miniseries titled Welcome to Chippendales, where Nicola Peltz played Dorothy Stratten.
What happened to Dorothy Stratten?
According to ABC News, on August 14, 1980, Dorothy Stratten went to the house she once shared with Snider, and two more individuals named Stephen Cushner and Patti Laurman. The purpose of this visit was to negotiate a divorce settlement with her husband. Reports suggest that many were bothered by the fact that Stratten was meeting with Snider alone.
Playmate of the Month for November 1980, Jeana Keough, stated, “Hef and Peter kind of forbid her from going to see him. They forbid it. She had to sneak. She had to lie.”
Keough further said, “She just misjudged that guy so badly. She just had that little flaw that was her flaw: not being able to see the evil in people.”
Stephen Cushner and Patti Laurman weren’t at home when Stratten arrived to visit her husband. When they returned, they began watching TV upstairs and assumed that the estranged couple had reconciled. However, they grew concerned after hours of silence. Cushner soon opened Snider’s bedroom door, only to discover the couple’s naked corpses.
According to ABC News, Stephen Cushner said,”[Snider] ultimately had to do what he did, and basically — to Hefner, to Bogdanovich, [to] everybody else, to society in general — put up not one but two middle fingers and say, ‘That’s what you get for messing with Paul Snider.”
After this tragic incident, the late Hugh Hefner said, “There is still a great tendency… for this thing to fall into the classic cliché of ‘smalltown girl comes to Playboy, comes to Hollywood, life in the fast lane. That is not what really happened. A very sick guy saw his meal ticket and his connection to power, whatever, slipping away. And it was that that made him kill her.”
Dorothy Stratten was born to Simon and Nelly Hoogstraten in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, on February 28, 1960. Her parents were Dutch emigrants. Furthermore, Stratten has two siblings named Arthur and Louise.
