Amanda Lear

Vietnamese-born French singer, songwriter, painter, television presenter, actress, and former model, and a widely recognized gay icon.

She began her professional career as a fashion model in the mid-1960s, and went on to model for Paco Rabanne, Ossie Clark, and others. She met Spanish surrealist painter Salvador Dalí, and remained his closest friend and muse for the next 15 years. Lear first came into the public eye as the cover model for Roxy Music's album For Your Pleasure in 1973. From the mid-1970s to the early 1980s, she was a million-album-selling disco queen, mainly in Continental Europe and Scandinavia, signed to Ariola Records. Lear's first four albums earned her mainstream popularity, charting in the top 10 of European charts.

By the mid-1980s, Lear had become a leading media personality in Italy, where she hosted many popular TV shows. She has written a number of autobiographies, including My Life with Dalí.

Since the 1990s, her time has been divided among music, television, movies, and painting.

On 11 December 1965 in the UK, she married Morgan Paul Lear, a Scottish architecture student, and adopted his name. She lived at David Bowie's home in London from 1972 to 1974.