Cyrinda Foxe (Katheleen Victoria Hetzekian)

Cyrinda Foxe

Foxe was born Katheleen Victoria Hetzekian in Santa Monica, California, to an Armenian family. She grew up as an army brat in an abusive household. After graduating high school, she lived in Texas briefly before settling in New York City, where she got a job working as an assistant to Greta Garbo. She later changed her name and began frequenting Max’s Kansas City, the famous nightclub, and became an actress. Foxe is best known for her role in Andy Warhol’s Bad (1977). Foxe had an affair with David Bowie, while working as a publicist for MainMan Artistes LTD, Bowie’s management company. She also appeared in the music video for Bowie’s 1973 single, “The Jean Genie”. Foxe was described as being “bright, very magnetic,” and having “an effervescence about her.” And that “she was very much a character of her own creation.” Foxe grew up idolizing the Rolling Stones. She later became involved with the New York Dolls, a protopunk band often compared to the Stones. In 1977, after years of dating, Cyrinda married David Johansen, the singer for the New York Dolls. It was while Foxe was married to Johansen that she met Aerosmith’s lead singer, Steven Tyler. After less than a year of marriage to Johansen, Foxe left him for Steven Tyler. Foxe and Tyler married and had a daughter, Mia, but the marriage was troubled by drug addiction, extramarital affairs, and physical and emotional abuse. Foxe and Tyler divorced shortly before Aerosmith made a comeback in the late 1980s. She raised Mia in Sunapee, New Hampshire and New York City.

In 1997, Foxe’s memoir, Dream On: Livin’ on the Edge with Steven Tyler and Aerosmith, co-written with Danny Fields, was published. Not long after the book was released, Foxe announced that the paperback edition of Dream On would include nude photos of Steven Tyler, but Tyler won a lawsuit in 1999, preventing Foxe from publishing the photos. In 2000, she launched a web site in which she was selling nude pictures of Tyler, but by the end of the year, the site closed. In 2001, Foxe had a mild stroke. She received Medicare and food stamps but she had no apartment or place to live. Myra Freidman organized a benefit at CBGB to raise money for Foxe. Embarrassed by Foxe’s poverty, Steven Tyler met with her and their daughter Mia at Balthazar, later donating a signed Aerosmith guitar to the benefit, which sold for $5000. David Bowie also donated an acoustic guitar. Tyler agreed to pay for a room for Cyrinda at the Gramercy Park Hotel where on August 28, 2002, she married musician Keith Waa. Foxe died from an inoperable brain tumor on September 7, 2002.

Born

  • February, 22, 1952
  • USA
  • Santa Monica, California

Died

  • September, 07, 2002
  • USA
  • New York, New York

Cause of Death

  • brain tumor

Other

  • Cremated

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