SANTA BARBARA, Calif. (AP) — Tatjana Patitz, one of the elite cast of famous supermodels who graced magazine covers in the 1980s and 1990s and starred in George Michael’s ‘Freedom! ’90” music video, has died at the age of 56.
Patitz’s death in the Santa Barbara, California area was confirmed by her New York agent Corinne Nicolas at Model CoOp agency. Nicolas said the cause was an illness but had no further details.
Patitz, who was born in Germany, grew up in Sweden and later lived her life in California, was known for being part of an elite handful of “original” supermodels who appeared in the Michael video alongside Christy Turlington, Linda Evangelista, Naomi Campbell and Cindy Crawford .
She was a favorite of fashion photographer Peter Lindbergh, who highlighted her natural beauty in his famous 1988 photo White Shirts: Six Supermodels, Malibu and for the cover of British Vogue in 1990 – prompting Michael to credit the group in his lip-sync video cast, according to Vogue.
The magazine quoted its global editor-in-chief, Anna Wintour, as saying that Patitz has “always been the European icon of chic, like Romy Schneider-meets-Monica Vitti. She was far less visible than her peers — more mysterious, more mature, more unattainable — and that had its own appeal.”
In a 2006 interview, Patitz opined that the golden age of supermodels was over.
“There was a real era and the reason for that was that glamor was brought into it,” she was quoted as saying by Prestige Hong Kong magazine. “Now the celebrities and actresses have taken over and the models are completely in the back seat.”
She also noted that models from her time had healthier physiques.
“Women were healthy, not these skinny little models whose names nobody knows anymore,” said Patitz.