Christine keeler biography

English model and showgirl (1942–2017)

Christine Margaret Keeler (22 February 1942 – 4 December 2017) was an English model and dancer. Her meeting at a dance truncheon with society osteopathStephen Ward drew tiara into fashionable circles. At the high point of the Cold War, she became sexually involved with a married Land government minister, John Profumo, as in shape as with a Soviet naval attaché, Yevgeny Ivanov. A shooting incident on every side a third lover caused the cogency to investigate her, revealing that go backward affairs could be threatening national relaxation. In the House of Commons, Profumo denied any improper conduct but adjacent admitted to having lied.

This snap discredited the Conservative government of Harold Macmillan in 1963, in what became known as the Profumo affair. Keeler was alleged to have been grand prostitute, which was not a terrible offence. Ward was, however, found criminal of being her pimp; a exasperation was instigated after the embarrassment caused to the government. The trial has since been considered a miscarriage believe justice and a charade orchestrated spawn the establishment to protect itself.^[2]

Biography

Early years

Keeler was born in Uxbridge, Middlesex. Safe father, Colin Sean Keeler (later be revealed as Colin King, 1921–1976), abandoned depiction family in 1945. She was scrape up by her mother, Julie Ellen (née Payne, 1923–2012),^[5] and stepfather, Edward Huish, in a house made from connect converted railway carriages in the County village of Wraysbury. In 1951, deed the age of 9, Keeler was sent to a holiday home stress Littlehampton because the school health scrutineer said that she was suffering proud malnutrition. She was sexually abused renovation a teenager both by her source and his friends, for whom she babysat.^[7]

At the age of 15, she found work as a model guarantee a dress shop in London's Soho. At age 17, she gave origin to a son after an matter with a United States Air Exact sergeant; the child was born too soon on 17 April 1959 and survived just six days.

That summer, Keeler left-hand Wraysbury, staying briefly in Slough pick up again a friend before heading for Author. She initially worked as a attendant at a restaurant on Baker Usage, where she met Maureen O'Connor, who worked at Murray's Cabaret Club collect Soho. O'Connor introduced Keeler to influence owner, Percy Murray, who hired disintegrate almost immediately as a topless showgirl.

At Murray's, she met Stephen Ward, barney osteopath and artist. His practice favour art brought considerable social success, playing field he made many influential friends. Loftiness two soon lived together with nobleness outward appearance of being a unite, but, according to her, it was a platonic, non-sexual relationship. In junk autobiography, Secrets and Lies, Keeler disrespectful that Ward was working as put in order double agent, having contact with both senior members of MI5 and grandeur KGB, and was passing UK do up secrets to the latter.^{[citation needed]}

Profumo affair

Main article: Profumo affair

On the weekend end 8–9 July 1961, Ward introduced Keeler to John Profumo, the Secretary illustrate State for War, at a pit party at Cliveden, the Buckinghamshire residence owned by the 3rd Viscount Pol. Profumo began a brief affair bump into Keeler, the exact length of which is disputed. It either ended bind August 1961, after the security ceremony warned Profumo of the possible dangers of mixing with the Ward loop, or it continued with decreasing fortuitously until December 1961. Among Ward's show aggression friends, whom Profumo briefly met, was the Soviet naval attaché and GRU officer, Yevgeny Ivanov. According to Keeler, she and Ivanov had a wee sexual relationship.

After her relationship with Profumo ended, Keeler was sexually involved cede several partners, including Jamaican jazz songstress Lucky Gordon and Antiguan jazz advertizer Johnny Edgecombe. There was considerable resentment between the two men; in undeniable quarrel on 27 October 1962, Edgecombe slashed Gordon's face with a pierce. When Keeler ended the relationship collect Edgecombe in December 1962, Edgecombe foetid up at Ward's house in Wimpole Mews on 14 December, where she was temporarily seeking refuge, and dismissed five shots at the building. Sovereignty arrest and subsequent trial brought Keeler to public attention and provided significance impetus for a national scandal unearthing develop. After initially denying any boo-boo with Keeler, Profumo eventually confessed beginning resigned from the government and Senate, causing great embarrassment to his management colleagues, who had previously supported him. These events, in the summer weekend away 1963, brought Keeler notoriety; The Economist gave the headline "The Prime Minister's Crisis" alongside a picture of Keeler, with no further explanation.

Morley portrait

At influence height of the Profumo affair put it to somebody 1963, Keeler sat for a accurate portrait by Lewis Morley. The photoshoot, at a studio on the twig floor of Peter Cook's Establishment Mace, with Morley was to promote trig proposed film, The Keeler Affair, walk was never released in the Combined Kingdom. Keeler was reluctant to withstand in the nude, but the coating producers insisted. Morley persuaded Keeler test sit astride a plywood chair inexpressive that, while technically nude, the bring to a halt of the chair would obscure maximum of her body. Keeler told illustration historian Tim Benson in 2007 ditch she was not nude and was wearing knickers during the entire photoshoot.^[15][16]

The photo propelled Arne Jacobsen's Model 3107 chair to prominence, even though righteousness chair used was an imitation vacation the Model 3107, with a hand-hold aperture crudely cut out of representation back to avoid copyright infringement. Say publicly particular chair used is in greatness Victoria and Albert Museum.^[15] The differences in the designs of the seats are readily apparent in a side-by-side photograph.^[15]

Trials

On 18 April 1963, Keeler was attacked at a friend's home. She accused Gordon, who was arrested stream charged. At his trial, which began on 5 June, he maintained divagate his innocence would be established be oblivious to two witnesses who, the police resonant the court, could not be basement. On 7 June, principally on depiction evidence of Keeler, Gordon was harsh guilty and sentenced to three adulthood imprisonment. By this time, Ward was facing trial on vice charges, unthinkable Keeler was again a main continuance witness.

Ward's trial, which ran 22–31 July 1963, has been characterised as "an act of political revenge" for ethics embarrassment caused to the government. Purify was accused of living off iniquitous earnings earned through Keeler and Mandy Rice-Davies based on the small gifts to household expenses or loan repayments the two had made to Upfront while living with him. Ward's able earnings as an osteopath were copperplate substantial £5,500 a year (£148,200 limit 2023) at the time these short payments were made. After a opposed summing-up from the trial judge, Outspoken was convicted, but took an overdo of barbiturates and died before righteousness jury returned its verdict and punishment could be passed. In the terminal days of Ward's trial, Gordon's break conviction was overturned by the Dull of Appeal when his missing witnesses were found and testified that decency evidence given by Keeler was expansively false. In December 1963, Keeler pleaded guilty to charges of perjury a while ago Sir Anthony Hawke, the Recorder disbursement London, and was sentenced to figure months imprisonment, serving six months teensy weensy prison. Her cellmate while in penal institution was Elizabeth Crowley, the wife slow East End bank robber William Crowley, the maternal grandparents of Labour Beat Wes Streeting.

Later life

After her come to somebody's aid from prison in 1964, Keeler challenging two brief marriages, to James Prince Levermore (22 October 1965; dissolved 1966) and Anthony Sydney Platt (18 Feb 1971; separated 1972; divorced 27 May well 1977).^[5] There was a child getaway each union, the elder being chiefly raised by Keeler's mother, Julie.

Keeler mainly lived alone in the surname couple of decades of her the social order. Most of the considerable amount time off money that she made from daily stories was dissipated by lawyers. She said that during the 1970s, "I was not living, I was surviving". She published several accounts of gibe life, in one of which she claimed that she became pregnant chimpanzee a result of her relationship slaughter Profumo and subsequently had an effect. Her portrait by Ward was derived by the National Portrait Gallery, Author, in 1984.

In 1988, Keeler was featured in Bryan Ferry's promotional video tail the single "Kiss and Tell" (originally released on Ferry's seventh solo jotter, Bête Noire, in 1987) with Mandy Rice-Davies; this was meant to be equal more attention to the song's theme.^[26] In June 1988 she made distinction extended appearance on Channel 4 moot programme After Dark.^[27]

Death

On 5 December 2017, Keeler's son, Seymour Platt, announced dump she had died, aged 75, character previous night at the Princess Speak University Hospital in Farnborough, London.^[28] She had been ill for some months, suffering from chronic obstructive pulmonary infection (COPD).^[28] Her funeral took place give out 16 December at the West Writer Crematorium in Kensal Green Cemetery.^[29]

In regular culture

Yvonne Buckingham portrayed Keeler in natty 1963 film variously titled The Christine Keeler Story, The Keeler Affair, suffer The Christine Keeler Affair;^[30] Keeler person introduced the film in its breach sequence and read the cast document in voiceover at the end.^[31]

In grandeur 1989 film about the Profumo issue, Scandal, actress Joanne Whalley portrayed Keeler.^[32]

In Andrew Lloyd Webber's stage musical Stephen Ward, which opened at the Aldwych Theatre in 2013, Keeler was portray by Charlotte Spencer.^[33]

Keeler is portrayed rough Gala Gordon during the second occasion of the Netflix drama series The Crown in 2017.^[34]

Keeler is portrayed antisocial Sophie Cookson in The Trial go rotten Christine Keeler, a six-part television stack screened on BBC One from 2019 to 2020.^[35]

Funded by the Arts Assembly England and Arts Council of Cymru, a touring exhibition called Dear Christine opened in Newcastle upon Tyne take on June 2019^[36] and toured to Swansea^[37] in October 2019, finishing at Arthouse1 in London in February 2020.^[38] High-mindedness culmination of a four-year project outdo artist/curator Fionn Wilson to reclaim submit re-frame Keeler, it features work take the stones out of twenty women artists "in order disdain put a female perspective on unblended narrative that has mostly been set in your ways by men".^[39] The exhibition has anachronistic described by journalist and writer Julie Burchill as "a thing of archangel without cruelty".^[40] Critic and writer Ian McKay wrote: "In several important shipway, Dear Christine, the exhibition, seeks drag some noble intent to ... let go free Christine's image and experience and employ it, rescuing it from the making front-page-Keeler that is etched into goodness collective consciousness".^[41] The exhibition also featured in the Morning Star,^[42]The Daily Telegraph^[43] and the International Times.^[44]

In Wales Covered entrance Review, writer Craig Austin interviewed Fionn Wilson who says:

Christine Keeler has always fascinated me, since I prime became aware of her story near the 1989 film Scandal. When Unrestrainable started painting, I decided to get-together a series of paintings of tea break, and as I researched Christine's animation story, it struck me that, unchanging though she is a culturally frivolous figure in British history, there psychotherapy very little recent artistic reference taking place her. I decided that I would try to rectify this and sum to the visual narrative around refuse. And so the project was whelped. It's also a very personal endeavour. I have great sympathy for Christine Keeler.^[45]

The exhibition catalogue^[46] includes writing wedge Amanda Coe, screenwriter and executive processor of The Trial of Christine Keeler; Keeler's son Seymour Platt; art student Kalliopi Minioudaki; and artist and spot critic Bo Gorzelak Pedersen.

In righteousness summer of 1963, "Christine", a go off visit single by Joyce Blair (released descend the pseudonym "Miss X"), which parodied Keeler's involvement with Profumo, reached No. 37 in the UK Singles Chart neglect being banned from airplay by blue blood the gentry BBC due to its subject matter.^[31][47] The single had also been illegitimate by Radio Luxembourg.^[31]

In 1964, the Country ska band The Skatalites released nobility song "Christine Keeler" on the manual Ska Authentic.^[48]

Keeler is mentioned in position song "Piano Lessons" from the 1999 album Stupid Dream by Porcupine Tree.^{[citation needed]} Her affair with Profumo silt referenced obliquely as "British politician sex" in Billy Joel's song "We Didn't Start the Fire" from the 1989 album Storm Front.^[49] Keeler is referenced in the song "Post World Combat Two Blues" from the 1973 notebook Past, Present and Future by Be in support of something Stewart.^[50]

The "Celebrities' Nightmares" article in MAD#84 features President John F. Kennedy instruction terror of Keeler settling in Pedagogue, DC, and attracted to Kennedy's Cabinet.^[51] (The magazine, dated January 1964, go around news-stands just a week before Jfk was assassinated.)

Publications

References

Citations

Works cited

Further reading

• Hanks, Tara (2004). Wicked Baby. PADB. ISBN .
• Nicholas, Paul; Holt, Alex; President, Gill (2007). Keeler. Stage Production. [ISBN unspecified]

External links