Lauren Hutton (born November 17, 1943, in Charleston, South Carolina) is an American former supermodel and occasional actress. She is best known for her starring roles in the movies American Gigolo and Once Bitten, and also for her fashion modeling career.
Hutton became one of the first students to attend the University of South Florida in Tampa, Florida in 1960, but later she transferred to Tulane University, where she graduated with a bachelor of arts degree in 1964.
Hutton parlayed her looks into one of the major modeling careers of the 1970s and 80s, including the first huge contract by a model with a cosmetics company.
As an actress, Hutton made her film debut in the Paper Lion (1968), and she won interesting notices for her performances in James Toback's The Gambler (1974), opposite James Caan. She played the wealthy adventurous adulteress in the American Gigolo (1980). Important roles in major films were relatively few, however, and her acting career slowly diminished during the 1980s, with most of her appearances being in minor European features or American films that fizzled at the box office, such as Lassiter (1985), Once Bitten (1985), and Guilty as Charged (1992). Hutton's modeling career blossomed anew in the 1990s with a highly successful return, and then more acting offers following suit. Considerable media coverage as she approached the age of 50 highlighted her still exceptional, unashamedly middle-aged beauty, her love of world travel and anthropology, and her mature, mellow attitude towards the trappings of fame.
Huttons's travels took her often to Africa, where she enjoyed the beauty of that continent as well as its people.
1995 was a notable year for Hutton, since she was cast in the ensemble of the obscure CBS soap-opera Central Park West, playing the wealthy socialite Linda Fairchild; and also her late night talk show Lauren Hutton and ... also debuted. The talk show was short-lived, but Hutton continued to work steadily, appearing in film roles and in the occasional assignment as a hostess.
The actress, an avid motorcycle enthusiast, made headlines in October 2000, when at the age of 55 she was involved in a serious motorcycle accident, while on a 100-mile ride near Las Vegas with motorbikers, and also fellow celebrities, including Dennis Hopper and Jeremy Irons, to celebrate a planned motorcycle exhibit at the Hermitage-Guggenheim museum. Irons reportedly had given Hutton a full-face helmet just minutes before she crashed. Losing control on a curve, she skidded about 100 feet and then went airborne, ultimately suffering multiple leg and arm fractures, broken ribs, a punctured lung, cuts, and bruises. Hutton subsequently traveled down a long road of physical rehabilitation. Hutton endured, and soon she became the spokeswoman for her own signature brand of cosmetics, Lauren Hutton's "Good Stuff", sold primarily via the Home Shopping Network in the USA as well as through numerous secondary distribution channels throughout Europe and South America. Her well known purist approach to life is also well known to be mirrored in her cosmetics company, in that the company reputation and mandate for using nothing but the best of ingredients is invariably attributed to her very karmic approach to life.
In October 2005, at the age of 61, Hutton agreed to pose nude for Big magazine. "I want them (women) not to be ashamed of who they are when they're in bed," Hutton told ABC's Good Morning America.
She is signed to IMG Models in New York City.
When appearing on the Today show, Hutton blamed gay writers for stereotyping single women as sluts on Sex & the City. Hutton said, "It's written by guys, who happen to be gay, who are sluts. That's what I think. Let's face it most men are sluts. That's what testosterone is supposed to do. As a hunter, if you stayed alive after 30, nature wanted your genes out there. Women were just trying to get the best sperm to make a masterpiece. You have a bunch a guys who are sluts, writing for women and telling them they are supposed to act like this." The comments caused uproar in the gay community although Hutton denied having homophobic views.
