The Mystery of L.A. Billboard Diva Angelyne’s Real Identity Is Finally Solved
If you’re from L.A., or lived there even a short amount of time, especially in the '80s and '90s, you’re probably familiar with the famous-for-being-famous Angelyne’s billboards. Maybe you’ve even seen her driving around in her pink Corvette. (I haven’t.)
Hollywood Reporter has apparently uncovered her secret past.
I see her all the time in the valley. Last time was probably 5ish months ago she was in her pink corvette at the stop light next to me on Laurel Canyon and Riverside.
She almost ran into me going the wrong way on a one-way street in Hollywood. That would have been late 1988 or early 1989. I had no idea until now that her identity was a mystery.
I only know of her from this board, and when I heard of her, there was a fair bit of information available about her. Hardly surprising, after all: When someone’s going to all that trouble to be famous, she’s not going to hide her story.
I saw her billboards when I was in LA back in the 1980s. Always wondered who she was.
Now I know. Thanks for the link, Johnny!
Did you even read the linked article?
Yeah, right. I actually just ran across an old Angelyne pinup calendar that I bought in the mid 80s. And saved. Yeah, I have a background. When I last saw her, live, she was in that drugstore on La Cienega, don’t remember the name. But it was a celeb kind of place. This was in, I’m going to say 1988, just before my company left West Hollywood for North Hollywood. Talk about going from the penthouse to the outhouse, but I digress. That was almost 30 years ago. She totally looked like if you blew the pancake makeup off her she would collapse in a pile of dust. So, I don’t know. I was born in 1950, and if she wasn’t far older than me at that point, then it was the meth talking. On the other hand, some old birds really last.
Oh, she does look terrible, I agree. But it was definitely her.
This is all over my Facebook feed from my LA folks today. I can recall seeing her on the road at least twice, most recently about a year ago when I was visiting back in LA. Pretty fascinating story.
Not being from LA, the only reason I know about her is because she ran for governor in the 2003 recall and got 29th place (out of 154). Alas, Gallagher and Gary Coleman proved too tough to beat.
All I know about her, I learned from Get Shorty
I only spent a year in LA. Outside of that I haven’t noticed that anyone ever heard of her. I did see the billboard in at least one movie or TV show, but that’s about it. I don’t recall anyone in LA really knowing who or what she was or why she was on billboards.
How does she make money off of this? Do people pay her to show up to parties and clubs as Angelyne? She has a pretty sparse IMDB list, mostly in bit parts or cameos.
I’ve heard of the billboards, and I remember seeing an Angelyne billboard on Futurama, but I can’t find a picture of it at the moment. Thought it was in the opening credits.
I have a vague recollection that she charges people for autographs/selfies and the like.
When the billboards were at their initial heyday in the 80’s, it seemed she was trying to use the backdoor method for becoming famous - get everyone talking, keep it a mystery. Well, 40 years on, someday maybe all this self-promotion will pay off.
My foolishness was thinking the point was to get movie roles, a career, you know, the same thing everyone else wants in Hollywood. Little did I understand at the time was that the fame was the only thing she wanted.
I don’t understand it. I guess there has to be one mystery in Hollywood. But, you can’t have 10 Angelynes running around. What fun would that be? Just another overdone thing in Hollywood.
I don’t believe people WANT this mystery solved. Finding the details takes the mystery away, and people need that. I wouldn’t be surprised if, in a year or two, a new article comes out and “proves” that this article was a hoax.
The psychology of it would be fascinating. What makes her do it? Does she believe she is a success, in whatever way she judges success? She looks like a sad pathetic person in the linked 2017 photo, still trying to live the dream.
Other than that, I could care less.
I couldn’t care less.
How can this *Angelyne *be "now regarded as a forerunner to Paris Hilton, Kim Kardashian and every personal-brand hustler on social media."when clearly that was Zsa Zsa Garbor?
What happened when you called the number on the billboard?
Didn’t it appear in the opening credits of Moonlighting?
