She was 20 years old, newly crowned, and standing at the threshold of everything Hollywood had promised her.

A celebrated director believed she could become a serious actress. Audrey Hepburn had worked beside her. Agents saw the possibility of an international star, while magazines presented her as the next great screen beauty.

But one man watched her rise with growing panic.

He had discovered her, photographed her and managed her first steps toward fame. Now she was learning to live without him—and he could not accept losing control.

Her story began in Vancouver, Canada, in 1960. Born to Dutch immigrant parents, she grew into a shy, gentle teenager who attended high school in nearby Coquitlam. Fame did not appear to be part of her plan.

She worked part-time behind the counter at a Dairy Queen.

That was where Paul Snider noticed her.

He was 26, nearly nine years older, and moved through Vancouver’s nightclub world with a confidence the teenager did not possess. He reportedly saw her beauty as an opportunity and quickly began directing her future.

Snider persuaded her to pose for professional nude photographs and submitted the images to Playboy. Because she had not yet reached the legal age of majority in British Columbia, her mother’s signature was reportedly forged on the model-release form.

The pictures opened the door.

She moved to Los Angeles, shortened her Dutch surname and entered a world of mansions, photographers and powerful men. Snider came with her, presenting himself as her manager and protector.

In August 1979, she became Playmate of the Month.

Less than a year later, she received the magazine’s highest modeling honor: Playmate of the Year for 1980. The title reportedly brought approximately $200,000 in money and prizes, including a new Jaguar.

The teenager who had once served ice cream was suddenly appearing on The Tonight Show and being photographed as one of America’s most desirable women.

Hollywood soon called.

She appeared in the science-fiction comedy Galaxina, playing a beautiful android aboard an intergalactic police cruiser. The production was modest, but she had the leading role—and audiences discovered that the centerfold possessed a warm, slightly awkward charm.

A far more important opportunity followed.

Director Peter Bogdanovich cast her in They All Laughed, a romantic comedy featuring Audrey Hepburn, Ben Gazzara and John Ritter. She played a young woman trapped in an unhappy marriage, unaware that the role was beginning to mirror her own life.

People around the production sensed that she had greater potential than the publicity photographs suggested. She was still inexperienced, but the camera responded to her naturally. One agent reportedly predicted that she could become one of Hollywood’s biggest stars.

Snider saw something different.

He saw himself being left behind.

The professionals surrounding his wife no longer needed his management. He was increasingly unwelcome in the glamorous world she had entered, and Hugh Hefner reportedly regarded him as controlling and unsavory.

As her independence grew, the marriage deteriorated.

Snider’s behavior became increasingly possessive. He reportedly monitored her movements, argued with her and attempted to retain control of her earnings. When she traveled to New York to film They All Laughed, she convinced him to remain in Los Angeles.

During the production, she and Bogdanovich began a relationship.

By the summer of 1980, she had separated from her husband and was preparing for divorce. Snider hired a private investigator to follow her. He was losing his wife, his professional connection to her and the status her fame had brought him.

Still, she tried to treat him kindly.

She agreed to meet him at the West Los Angeles home they had once shared, reportedly hoping to discuss their financial separation and divorce.

Friends feared the meeting was dangerous.

The day before she arrived, Snider purchased a used 12-gauge shotgun through a classified advertisement. He told acquaintances that he intended to go hunting.

On August 14, 1980, the young actress drove to the house alone.

Hours passed.

Snider’s roommates noticed that her car remained outside and that the bedroom door was closed. At first, they assumed the estranged couple wanted privacy. Later that night, growing concern finally led them into the room.

The scene they discovered was almost impossible to comprehend.

The actress had been sexually assaulted and shot. Snider had then used the same weapon to kill himself.

The woman recently presented as Hollywood’s newest dream lay dead at only 20.

The murder shocked the entertainment industry, but the struggle over her identity continued even after death. Was she an innocent destroyed by one jealous man—or a young woman exploited by an entire network of men who believed they understood what her beauty was worth?

Journalist Teresa Carpenter examined that question in “Death of a Playmate,” a Pulitzer Prize-winning article. Peter Bogdanovich later wrote The Killing of the Unicorn, while Bob Fosse transformed the tragedy into the disturbing film Star 80.

Her final movie, They All Laughed, was released posthumously. When its initial distribution failed, Bogdanovich spent millions attempting to bring the film to a wider audience, eventually contributing to his bankruptcy.

The movie survived.

So did the image of the shy young woman smiling beside Audrey Hepburn, standing only weeks away from a future she would never experience.

She was more than a centerfold, a murder victim or the prize in a struggle between controlling men. She was a young performer beginning to discover her own ambitions just as someone decided that her freedom was intolerable.

The Dairy Queen cashier who became Playboy’s 1980 Playmate of the Year and was murdered on the eve of Hollywood stardom was Dorothy Stratten.