Gloria Vanderbilt Net Worth

Gloria Vanderbilt's Quotes

• If you don't have a father, you don't miss it, because you don't know what it is. It was really only when I married Wyatt Cooper that I understood what it was like to have a father, because he was just an extraordinary father.
• I don't read anything about myself. As a child, there was something in me that was just instinctive. I want to be clear in my spirit, and I don't want to be blocked by things that get inside of you and kill you.
• I have a tremendous appetite for life; the phone rings and your whole life could change.
• I've had many, many loves. I always feel that something wonderful is going to happen. And it always does.
• When I'm traveling to promote my book, I feel like an artful impostor. What I really am is when I'm in my (painter's) studio and when I'm writing. With actors, it's the same thing. They're kind of artful impostors in public. When you get to know them, they're different people.

Interesting Facts about Gloria Vanderbilt

1. Mother of four sons. By husband Leopold Stokowski, she gave birth to Leopold Stanislaus Stokowski (born August 22, 1950) and Christopher Stokowski (born January 31, 1952). By Wyatt Cooper, she gave birth to Carter Vanderbilt Cooper, born January 27, 1965 (committed suicide July 22, 1988) and Anderson Cooper.
2. Her ancestry included English, Irish, Welsh, Dutch, and one eighth Chilean (Spanish and Indigenous). Her maternal great-grandfather, New Jersey-born Hugh Judson Kilpatrick, was a prominent military figure who was an officer in the Union Army during the Civil War, and a diplomat to Chile. Her Chilean maternal great-grandmother, Luisa Valdivieso Aráoz, was a niece of the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Santiago (Chile) and a reported descendant of Spain's royal house of Navarre.
3. Vanderbilt was born to Reginald Claypoole Vanderbilt (1880-1925), a railroad heir, and his second wife, Gloria Laura Mercedes Morgan (1904-1965), who was 19 years old when she gave birth. Little Gloria lived in Europe until she was 9 years old. Her great-great-great-grandfather was business magnate and family dynasty founder Cornelius Vanderbilt. She was a niece of Harry Hays Morgan and of Thelma Morgan (the mistress of the Duke of Windsor when she introduced him to her friend, Wallis Simpson). She also had a much-older half-sister, Mary Cathleen Vanderbilt (1904-1944), by her father Reginald's first marriage to Cathleen Gebhardt Neilson (1882-1927). At just 15 months old, Gloria became the heiress of a $4,000,000 dollar trust following her father's death in 1925. She later studied at the Art Students League of New York.
4. Was romantically linked to Howard Hughes, Frank Sinatra, Marlon Brando, Gordon Parks, Bobby Short and even Truman Capote.
5. A painter, stage and film actress, author, designer of fashion and housewares, she is best-known for her line of designer jeans in the late 1970s and 1980s.
6. Her first husband, mobster Pat DiCicco, was a henchman for Lucky Luciano. Both men were implicated in the death of Thelma Todd.
7. Was the center of a fierce custody battle between her mother and her mother's sister-in-law, Gertrude Vanderbilt-Whitney, who was convinced Gloria's mother wan an unfit parent. Mrs. Whitney eventually gained guardianship of the then-11 year old. The incident was the basis of the mini-series Little Gloria... Happy at Last (1982), in which Gloria was played by actress Jennifer Dundas.
8. Shared her birthday with her cousin C.V. Whitney.
9. Befriended renowned photographer Gordon Parks when he was commissioned to photograph her for LIFE magazine in 1954.
10. Died at her home in Manhattan on June 17, 2019, after having been diagnosed with stomach cancer 9 days earlier.
11. Gloria Vanderbilt was said to have inspired Noël Coward's famous song "Poor Little Rich Girl".
12. Extremely fittingly, after she had passed away, her own son, Anderson Cooper (who had long been working as a news correspondent for CNN) reported her passing and paid much tribute to her on the program.