Paul Snider

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Paul Snider
Born
Paul Leslie Snider

(1951-04-15)April 15, 1951
Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
DiedAugust 14, 1980(1980-08-14) (aged 29)
Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Cause of deathSuicide by gunshot
Resting placeSchara Tzedeck Cemetery, New Westminster, British Columbia
NationalityCanadian
Spouse(s)
​
​
(m. 1979; sep. 1980)​

Paul Leslie Snider (April 15, 1951 – August 14, 1980) was a Canadian businessman who is best known for the murder of his ex-wife, Playboy model and actress Dorothy Stratten. Following her murder, Snider killed himself.[1][2]

Biography[]

Snider was born in Vancouver to Jewish parents. By the mid-1970s, he was a nightclub promoter and pimp.[1] In 1977, he met Dorothy Stratten at a Vancouver-area Dairy Queen, where she was working part-time while still attending high school, and groomed her to become a model as well as his lover. In 1979, Snider sent professionally taken nude photographs of Stratten to Playboy magazine, and she was chosen as a Playmate for the month of August that year. Snider and Stratten moved to Los Angeles and married on June 1 in Las Vegas.[3]

While Stratten worked as a "bunny" at the Century City Playboy Club, and was cast in a few television and film roles, Snider had engaged in numerous get-rich-quick schemes, including building and selling exercise benches. Stratten helped support Snider financially throughout their short-lived marriage, as he was a Canadian with no work visa and was not allowed an income within the U.S.[1] In 1979, Snider formed a partnership with Somen Banerjee and the attorney Bruce Nahin to form what became the male strip club format of Chippendales.

In 1980, Stratten was named Playboy's Playmate of the Year and was cast in the movie They All Laughed (1981) directed by Peter Bogdanovich, with whom she began an affair. Stratten and Snider separated and he hired a private investigator to follow her.

Death[]

On August 14, 1980, Stratten was shot and killed in the West Los Angeles house she had shared with Snider, whose body was found next to hers. Police believed Snider raped and murdered Stratten and then killed himself with the same shotgun.[1][4]

Snider's remains are buried at Schara Tzedeck Cemetery in New Westminster, British Columbia.

In popular culture[]

Snider has been portrayed in two films. The first was a made-for-television movie about the murder titled Death of a Centerfold: The Dorothy Stratten Story (1981), which starred Jamie Lee Curtis as Stratten and Bruce Weitz as Snider. Bob Fosse's film Star 80 (1983) dramatized Stratten's life and death. Mariel Hemingway played Stratten, and Eric Roberts portrayed Snider.[4]

References[]

  1. ^ a b c d Carpenter, Theresa (November 5, 1980). "Death of a Playmate" (PDF). The Village Voice. Retrieved July 15, 2014.
  2. ^ Michael H. Stone & Gary Brucato, The New Evil: Understanding the Emergence of Modern Violent Crime (Amherst, New York: Prometheus Books, 2019), pp. 53-57.
  3. ^ Vargas, Theresa (September 29, 2017). "Hugh Hefner, the murder of Dorothy Stratten and the dark side of Playboy". The Washington Post. Retrieved December 18, 2017.
  4. ^ a b Canby, Vincent (November 10, 1983). "Screen: 'Star 80,' a Sex-Symbol's Life and Death". The New York Times. Retrieved May 2, 2009.

External links[]

Retrieved from ""