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| An Irving Klaw photo of Bettie Page (date unknown) |
It's been 10 years now since Bettie Page's death. Perhaps the most impactful model of all-time, Bettie's work continues to influence the industry to this day, including in photo shoots by Dita Von Teese, Katy Perry, Madonna, Beyonce, and more. Her status as a pop culture icon is nearly unrivaled.
Like many rock stars who died at an early age and kept their "forever young" image, Bettie's image never aged after she disappeared from the modeling world after working for less than 10 years.
It astonished Bettie to find out that a revival of the popularity of her work surged in the late 70s, 20 years after she quit modeling. She was unaware that many artists were using her images for inspiration of their work and that Dave Stevens' Rocketeer featured a love interest based on Bettie's image. Books and magazines would be released utilizing her images and it was until 1993 before Bettie began to earn royalties for use of her image.
Eventually, Bettie would reemerge occasionally at private Hollywood parties, but any images of her past her mid-thirties are rare to come by.
On December 12, 2008, Bettie passed away, accounts of the cause conflicting with each other.
