Winifred Kimball Shaughnessy Hudnut was born 19 January 1897 in Salt Lake City, Salt Lake County, Utah, United States to Michael Shaughnessy (1844-1910) and Winifred Kimball (1871-1957) and died 5 June 1966 Pasadena, Los Angeles County, California, United States (Las Encinas Hospital) of heart attack and contributing problems from scleroderma. She married Rudolph Valentino (1895-1926) 13 May 1922 in Mexicali, Baja California, Mexico. She married Alvaro de Urzaiz (1893-) 17 June 1933 in Palma de Mallorca, Balearic Islands, Spain.
Born under name of Winifred Kimball Shaughnessy. Adopted by step-father, Richard Hudnut, making her legal name Winifred Kimball Hudnut. Beginning in 1914 she began using the stage name, Natacha Rambova. Silent movie set and costume designer, dancer and actress and 2nd wife of silent film star Rudolph Valentino.
Vital Stats
- Daughter of Michael Shaughnessy (1844-1910), a union civil war veteran and businessman, and Winifred Kimball (1871-1957), granddaughter of Mormon Pioneer, Heber Chase Kimball and interior designer.
- 1897-Jan-19 : Birth in Salt Lake City, Salt Lake, Utah, USA
- 1922-May-13 : Marriage (1) to Rudolph Valentino (1895-1926) in Mexicali, Mexico; resulted in Valentino's arrest for bigamy, California law at the time required a 1 year waiting period after divorce before being allowed to remarry. Valentino's studio at the time, Famous Players-Lasky, refused to post bail, eventually, a few friends posted bail. The marriage was annulled. They remarried quietly while on a dance tour 14 Mar 1923 Crown Point, Lake, Indiana. They divorced in Jan 1926.
- 1933-Jun-17 : Marriage (2) to Alvaro de Urzaiz (1893-) in Palma de Mallorca, Spain. They divorced in 1939.
- 1966-Jun-05 : Died in Pasadena, Los Angeles, California, USA
- She had no children
Biography
Natacha Rambova (January 19, 1897 – June 5, 1966), was born Winifred Kimball Shaughnessy, In 1914, desiring to make her name sound more Russian for the ballet troup she was in, she changed her name to Natacha Rambova. She would later become an American silent film costume and set designer, artistic director, screenwriter, producer and occasional actress. Later in life she worked as a mildly successful fashion designer, author and Egyptologist. Though she had a successful career in her own right before meeting Valentino, she is best known as the second wife of film star Rudolph Valentino.
Her father was an Irish Catholic civil-war veteran and had her christened as an infant at the St. Madeline Cathedral in Salt Lake City (27-June-1897).
Her mother married millionaire perfume manufacturer, Richard Hudnut who adopted her and her name was legally changed to Winifred Hudnut. Rambova was rebellious, and mocked her stepfather for being passive. She was sent home from a boarding school for "conduct unbecoming of a lady". She was sent to a strict British boarding school, where she learned ballet, French, drawing, and studied mythology.
Marriage to Rudolph Valentino
Rambova met Valentino on the set of Uncharted Seas in 1921. They began working together on the set of Camille shortly after. They began to take picnics together and attended a costume ball together. They formed a relationship based on a love of reading, art, antiques, and the finer things in life.
The pair moved in together less than a year later but had to separate (or at least pretend to) as the divorce proceedings for Valentino's marriage to Jean Acker began. Once the divorce was final, the pair married on May 13, 1922 in Mexicali, Mexico. However, the law at the time required a year to pass before remarriage and Valentino was jailed as a bigamist. Valentino's studio at the time, Famous Players-Lasky, refused to post bail. June Mathis, George Melford, and Thomas Meighan eventually were able to raise enough to post bail. Rambova had been sent to New York by the studio before Valentino's jailing, and was informed at a stop in Chicago. Throughout the bigamy scandal she refused to speak to the press. The pair had to wait a year to remarry. They legally remarried on March 14, 1923.
Marriage to Alvaro de Urzaiz
Rambova met Count Alvaro de Urzaiz on a trip to Europe in 1934. de Urzaiz was a British educated, Spanish aristocrat. The couple wed in a civil ceremony in France. After closing her dress shop in New York, Rambova moved with her husband to Mallorca, Spain. They went into business buying and renovating old houses. At the request of Alvaro's family, the pair married a second time in a religious ceremony on 6 Aug 1934, which was covered by the press around the world.
When the Spanish Civil War erupted in 1936, de Urzaiz was on the pro-fascists nationalist side, becoming a naval commander. When Rambova denounced the Nationalists for their treatment of former leftist sympathizers, however, she became a political liability and was forced to escape Mallorca on a coal freighter headed for France. de Urzaiz stayed behind to serve the Nationalist forces, thus placing the dual strain of physical and political separation on the marriage.
In 1936, shortly after her arrival in France, Rambova suffered a heart attack at age 40. This marked the beginning of health problems that would affect her for the rest of her life. de Urzaiz left her for another woman and the couple divorced in 1939.
Rambova become a student of symbolism and comparative religion, embracing the philosophy of George Gurdjieff. She returned to the United States Oct 1939 and settled near her mother in New York. She co-authored several articles on mental and physical exercises for Harper's Bazaar, Town and Country and American Astrology Magazine, and a book "Technique for Living".
Rambova became interested in Egyptological studies and in 1946 received a grant which enabled her to travel to Egypt to study artifacts. After returning to the United States in 1951, she taught classes in symbolism, mythology, and comparative religion.
In 1953 her health began to deteriorate. She had been diagnosed with scleroderma, a disease of the immune system which causes the internal organs to harden. This restricted her ability to eat or digest food.
Final Years
Rambova left New York and took up residence in the Connecticut country house she had purchased with part of her inheritance from her step-father, Richard Hudnut. She made her last visit to New York to see her lawyer in 1965 to discuss her will.
29 Sep 1965, after an episode in a hotel elevator, she was admitted to Lenox Hill Hospital, where she was diagnosed with paranoid psychosis arising from malnutrition. Her doctors administered shock treatment. She remained hospitalized until November when a cousin brought her to California. Here she was admitted to Methodist Hospital in Arcadia, and remained there until Jan 1966 when she was transferred to Las Encinas Hospital in Pasadena. Rambova spent her last months hooked up to feeding tubes, which she described as purgatory. Rambova suffered a massive heart attack on 5 Jun 1966 at the age of 69. Per her request, she was not embalmed and no funeral services were held. Her body was cremated and the ashes were spread over the northern forest of Arizona.
Her collection of Egyptian antiquities were donated to the Utah Museum of Fine Arts. She willed a huge collection of Nepali and Lamaistic art to the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
Siblings
| Name | Birth | Death | Joined with |
| Eudora B O'Shaughnessy(1869-1949) | |||
| Philip Sheridan O'Shaughnessy(1874-1913) | |||
| Mary Violet O'Shaughnessy(1876-1968) | |||
| Frances H O'Shaughnessy(1879-1888) | |||
| Walter Douglas O'Shaughnessy(1881-1911) | |||
| Irene O'Shaughnessy | |||
| Name | Birth | Death | Joined with |
| Natacha Rambova (1897-1966) | 19 January 1897 Salt Lake City, Salt Lake County, Utah, United States | 5 June 1966 Pasadena, Los Angeles County, California, United States (Las Encinas Hospital) | Rudolph Valentino (1895-1926) Alvaro de Urzaiz (1893-) |
References
- Spencer Kimball Family Ancestry
- Natacha Rambova - Wikipedia Article
Footnotes (including sources)
| ₪ Wedding |
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| ₪2 Wedding 2 |
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| § Remains |
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