Marjorie Wallace
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- Actress
- television host
- model
- beauty queen
-
Michael Klein(m. 1978; div. 1982)
Marjorie Wallace | |
|---|---|
| Born | January 23, 1954 Indianapolis, Indiana, US |
| Occupations |
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| Spouses |
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| Partner | Peter Revson (1973–1974; his death) |
| Children | 1 |
| Beauty pageant titleholder | |
| Title | Miss World 1973 |
| Major competition(s) | Miss World 1973 (Dethroned) |
Marjorie Wallace (born January 23, 1954) is an American actress, television host, model and beauty queen. In 1973, she made history as the first woman from the United States to be crowned Miss World, but just 104 days later, pageant officials announced she would be the first Miss World to have her title taken from her for having an affair. Years later, she helped launch the television program Entertainment Tonight as an original co-host.
Wallace was born on January 23, 1954, in Indianapolis, Indiana, where her family ran an industrial supply business and raised her in the suburbs, she told People magazine. With Indianapolis having a population of about 740,000 in 1970, "dancing at the Holiday Inn was the biggest thing in town," she joked.
When she was 14, her parents divorced. At age 17, she moved in with a guitarist in the Indy rock band Pure Funk.[1]
"My mother always says that if I ever have a daughter, I deserve to have one like myself," she said in 1976.[2]
Wallace also began traveling the 180 miles between Indianapolis and Chicago, to work as a model. A modeling agent pushed her to enter the Miss Indiana World and Miss World USA beauty pageants, both of which she won, opening the door to the 1973 Miss World contest in London.[3]
Win and loss of Miss World title
On November 23, 1973, Wallace defeated 53 competitors at the Royal Albert Hall in London as the first American to be crowned Miss World.[4]
During her time in the UK, she dated celebrities including Welsh singer Tom Jones, Northern Irish football star George Best, and American Indianapolis 500 and Formula One driver Peter Revson, with whom she was reportedly engaged to be married. During her engagement to Revson, she carried on an affair with Tom Jones, being seen kissing him on a beach in Barbados. This violated Wallace's Miss World contract, which prompted pageant authorities to take away her title on March 7, 1974, 104 days after she was crowned.[5] Contest officials announced that Wallace "had failed to fulfill the basic requirements of the job."[6]
Death of Peter Revson
Fifteen days after Wallace was stripped of her crown, Peter Revson was killed in a fiery crash on March 22, 1974, while practicing for the 1974 South African Grand Prix in Johannesburg. He died en route to a hospital and was wearing a gold locket Wallace had given him bearing the engraving, "If not for you ..."[7] Wallace attended Revson's closed-casket funeral at Manhattan's Unitarian Church of All Souls.[8]
Overdose
Less than three months after Revson's death, Wallace was rushed to St. Vincent Indianapolis Hospital after her sister, Nancy, found her unconscious in her apartment, apparently from an overdose of the sleeping pill Doriden. A doctor stated that Wallace was "comatose, and in pretty bad shape." She was put on a dialysis machine to clear her kidneys.[9]
Wallace's mother Alice stated, "She might have felt like she couldn't go on";[10] however, Wallace herself said two years later, "I was depressed and OD'd on a few too many sleeping pills. I never attempted suicide."[11]
