French-born Isabelle Collin Dufresne, aka Andy Warhol’s sidekick, Ultra Violet, was among the most unlikely Mormon converts ever.
She died Saturday at age 78 and her funeral was held Wednesday in an LDS chapel on the east side of New York City.
Dufresne left France at 19 for America in the freedom-loving ’60s. She met Warhol in 1964, when she was dining with her then-lover, painter Salvador Dali, according to The New York Times. Warhol cast her in several of his films, including “The Life of Juanita Castro,” an improvised black-and-white political comedy, and “I, a Man.”
Soon she morphed into the flamboyant Ultra Violet and joined Warhol’s pop universe of parties, drugs, orgies, art and filmmaking.
“When she was not in character, with some combination of purple hair, purple lipstick, trowel-heavy purple eye shadow and beet juice as cheek color,” The Times’ obit says, “she looked like the prettiest girl at the prom — a soignée brunette with a shoulder-length bouffant, delicate features and maximum false eyelashes.”
By the late 1970s, though, Dufresne’s days in the art underground were taking a personal toll. Weary of excess, she longed for peace.
She was playing in a rock band and was interviewed by journalist Carl Arrington, who happened to be Mormon.
Read the rest of Peggy Fletcher Stack’s article at sltrib.com.
