Nena von Schlebrügge
Nena von Schlebrügge | |
|---|---|
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| Born | Birgitte Caroline von Schlebrügge January 8, 1941 Mexico City, Mexico |
| Occupation | Fashion model |
| Spouse(s) | |
| Children | 4, including Uma Thurman |
Birgitte Caroline "Nena" von Schlebrügge (born January 8, 1941) is a Mexican-born Swedish-American fashion model from the 1950s and 1960s. She started her high-fashion modelling career in London in 1957. She then continued her career in New York City in 1958 at the Ford Modeling Agency. In New York, she worked at Vogue and Harper's Bazaar. She is now the Executive Chairwoman of Menla Mountain Retreat and Managing Director of Tibet House US.
Family[]
Schlebrügge's father belonged to German nobility. Her maternal grandmother's parents were German and Danish.[1] Her mother was Birgit Holmquist, Axel Ebbe's model for Famntaget ("The Embrace"), a 1930s statue of a nude woman that overlooks the harbor of Smygehuk in Sweden.[2] Her paternal half-sister was the grandmother of German-Swedish football player Max von Schlebrügge.
Career[]
Modeling[]
In 1955, at the age of 14, Nena was discovered by Vogue photographer Norman Parkinson when he was on a tour in Stockholm, Sweden. In 1957, Nena moved to London, United Kingdom, to pursue a career in high-fashion modeling. She found immediate success and was invited to come to New York City by Eileen Ford of the Ford Modeling Agency to continue her modelling career.[3]
In the snow storm of March 1958, at the age of 17, she arrived in New York City on the Queen Mary. In New York City, she continued her career as a top model, working at Vogue and Harper's Bazaar. She was photographed by many fashion photographers, including Gleb Derujinsky.[4]
Acting[]
In 1967, she had a part in the Edie Sedgwick film Ciao! Manhattan. The film took four years to make; and drastic changes from the original story were made, causing the filmmakers to remove many scenes. including Nena's, shot in 1967. These deleted scenes can be found on the DVD version.[5]
Open Center and Tibet House[]
From 1987 to 1989, Nena was the Program Director at the New York Open Center from 1991 to 2002. She is the Managing Director of Tibet House US in New York City.[6] Tibet House US was founded in 1986 by the Thurmans, Philip Glass, and Richard Gere, at the behest of the Dalai Lama.[7] Nena oversaw the construction of Tibet House US and the educational programming. With Philip Glass, she initiated the annual benefit concert at Carnegie Hall and the annual benefit auction at Christie's.[7] She was executive producer of The First 30 Years of Tibet House U.S. film, directed by .[8]
Since 2001, Nena has been the Managing Director of the Tibet House US-owned Menla Mountain Retreat and is now the Executive Chairwoman, where she has overseen the construction of a state-of-the-art Tibetan medicinal spa facility and business in the Catskill Mountains in Phoenicia, New York.[9] She is also a psychotherapist.[6]
Personal life[]
Nena married Timothy Leary in 1964 at the Hitchcock Estate (commonly known as "Millbrook"). D. A. Pennebaker documented the event in his short film You're Nobody Till Somebody Loves You.[10] Charles Mingus played piano at the wedding ceremony.[citation needed] The marriage lasted a year before von Schlebrügge divorced Leary in 1965.
In 1967, she married Indo-Tibetan Buddhist scholar and ex-monk Robert Thurman, whom she had met at Millbrook.[3] In the same year, Nena and Robert's first child, Ganden Thurman, was born. In 1970, Robert and Nena's second child, Uma Thurman, was born. They have two more sons: Dechen (b. 1973) and Mipam (b. 1978).[3] The children grew up in Woodstock, New York, where the Thurmans had bought nine acres of land with a small inheritance Nena had received. The Thurmans built their own house there.[3] In addition to their four children, the pair have seven grandchildren, including Maya Hawke.
References[]
- ^ "Well Known Swedish Americans". www.hhogman.se. Retrieved May 8, 2020.
- ^ Kuprijanko, Alexander (July 20, 2006). "Uma Thurmans mormor staty i Trelleborg" [Uma Thurman's grandmother's statue in Trelleborg]. Sydsvenskan (in Swedish).
- ^ a b c d Green, Penelope (May 20, 2017). "50 Years of Marriage and Mindfulness With Nena and Robert Thurman". The New York Times. Archived from the original on July 21, 2021. Retrieved September 23, 2021.
- ^ Derujinsky, Andrea (2016). Capturing Fashion: Derujinsky. Paris: Flammarion. p. 213. ISBN 978-2-08020-273-4.
- ^ "Ciao Manhattan (1972)". IMDb. Retrieved February 4, 2018.
- ^ a b "Menla General Management Staff: Managing Director Nena v.S. Thurman". Tibet House US. Retrieved February 4, 2018.
- ^ a b Hoban, Phoebe (March 15, 1998). "The Night; Thurmans All Come Out to Play". The New York Times. Archived from the original on July 21, 2021. Retrieved September 23, 2021.
- ^ "The First 30 Years of Tibet House U.S." vimeo. Retrieved November 13, 2019.
- ^ "About Us". menla.org. Retrieved December 22, 2020.
- ^ Pennebaker, D. A. "You're Nobody Till Somebody Loves You". Pennebaker Hegedus Films. Retrieved February 3, 2018.
External links[]
- American activists
- American female models
- American women chief executives
- People from Ulster County, New York
- People from Massachusetts
- Converts to Buddhism
- People from Mexico City
- Mexican emigrants to the United States
- American people of German descent
- American people of Swedish descent
- American people of Danish descent
- Mexican people of German descent
- Mexican people of Danish descent
- Mexican people of Swedish descent
- 1941 births
- Living people
- American Buddhists
- 21st-century American women