They always told that fairy tales have a happy ending. Poor but beautiful girl and Prince Charming. They have always emphasized the greatness of the American dream. One has a talent and has an opportunity to exploit it. And they lived happily ever after. In some cases, surely it worked but in other things went differently. The life of Dorothy Ruth Hoogstraten is the example of how the stories don’t always end up well and how the American dream can turn into a nightmare, with a dramatic, perverse and unfair ending.
Dorothy Ruth Hoogstraten Dutch-born was born near Vancouver on February 28, 1960. Blonde, flashy, beautiful and with a passion for poetry. She's a sweet girl, innocent and maybe a bit 'naive. Paul Snider was also born in Vancouver but nine years earlier. It's an ambitious guy who works in nightclubs, is a pimp, he organizes car shows and he idolise Hugh Hefner of which he dreams following the career.
The two meet in 1978 in a restaurant the "Dairy Queen," where Dorothy worked as a part-time waitress. Snider perhaps falls in love or maybe he image the potential, and with gifts, and good manner he starts to date with her. The guy has style, must be said, shows her a stylish life, he helps her in studies and then convinces her to pose nude for some photo shoots. The first in his home and the second at the studio of a professional photographer who has excellent contacts with "Playboy". But Dorothy is still underage and above is not very convinced but after some hesitation she tells everything to her mother, who signed the authorization. The photographer, Ken Honey, sends the photos to the famous magazine, and he gain the $ 1,000 prize for anyone who discovers a new potential star. And what a star! So unstoppable that she goes to Los Angeles to further photo shot and become one of the possible winners of the competition for the Playmate of the twenty-five years of the magazine. She enters in Hefner’s circle working as a bunny at the "Century City Playboy Club", her surname became Stratten and above is the Playmate of August 1979. The cinema note her and thanks to a cunning agent of "Playboy" she get small parts in "Americathon", "Skate Town USA" and "Autumn Born".
It looks like the classic American story, from a small town to Los Angeles and from "Playboy" to the cinema. Many commitments, perhaps too many for a girl so young, but all agree in saying that besides being beautiful she has a talent to cure. But there's Paul Snider. He is with her in Los Angeles, is more or less a kept man, works as a promoter in various underground clubs and tries in every way to convince her to marry him. Hefner too doesn’t recommend it to her and everyone tell her to cut all relations, but she seems depend to Snider, maybe even grateful for what he has done and marries him in Las Vegas in June 1979.
Snider who serves as her manager is obsessed with control of Dorothy's life, as well as being very jealous. It's a big problem because in every job he came out of nowhere, as in "Galaxina" whose shots are disturbed by Snider’s visits, which create a significant delay because Dorothy when sees him lose the concentration. After a special "Playboy's Roller Disco & Pajama Party" shot in the Mansion, in which the Canadian actress stands out in all her glory, she gets a role in TV series "Buck Rogers" and "Fantasy Land" and is chosen as "Playmate" for the upcoming 1980.
Snider instead worsens. He wants the absolute control of the assets, money of his wife definitely ruining the relationship. Dorothy, however, got a part in "They All Laughed" by Peter Bogdanovich with John Ritter, Ben Gazzara and Audrey Hepburn, who is shot in New York allowing the actress to move away by the insistent husband. In the Big Apple, she lives a life separate from the rest of the cast and begins a secret relationship with the director.
Snider in Los Angeles has no peace he is destroyed, he sees that he had lost the person who thought he owned and even try to look for a replacement that closely resembles her. Not happy hires a detective to follow her and find out what she is doing while still trying to frame her in some way. The two get in touch again, they also meet to talk, because Dorothy fails to cut permanently every link and tell him always help. Even after the divorce.

Divorce is a word that weighs a lot about on the fragility of Snider, increasingly out of control and under narcotic effect. Dorothy, however, minimize the danger and leave with Bogdanovich for a short break in London during which they plan the wedding. Yes, but she has to get divorced. Dorothy returned home has an appointment with Snider, in their old house in Los Angeles, where she has to take a few more things.
When police opened the door, the scene is chilling. The bodies of Dorothy and Paul are on the ground totally naked. She was devastated by bullets and above was perhaps sodomized before or even after death. Paul Snider committed suicide.

This is the end of the young life of Dorothy Stratten, who in a short time has managed to become an icon, and that even today is remembered with love and admiration. From this sad story were inspired the film "Star 80" and "Death Of A Centerfold: The Dorothy Stratten Story," the book "The Killing Of The Unicorn" Bogdanovich.