Vanessa Williams: Snapshot
- Name
- Vanessa Williams
- Birth Date
- March 18, 1963
- Birth Place
- New York, N.Y.
The first African-American to win the Miss America title, Williams was forced to give up her crown ten months later when nude photos of her were sold to Penthouse. During Pageantgate, she retreated to Millwood, N.Y., where her parents supported her as publicist-turned-husband Ramon Hervey II helped stage her comeback.
Williams eventually became a platinum-selling recording artist, Tony-nominated Broadway actress, film and Emmy-nominated TV star. Her 1991 hit song "Save the Best for Last" could serve as the anthem for this twice-married, and now happily single working mother of four, whose stunning green eyes made her one of PEOPLE's 50 Most Beautiful.
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Vanessa Williams: Five Fun Facts
- Vanessa Williams' description of her infamous racy photos? "I looked like a New Wave female cop," she told PEOPLE in 1984.
- At home in Chappaqua, N.Y., Vanessa Williams is not far from another famous scandal survivor. "The Clintons are just up the road," she told the Post-Standard newspaper.
- Vanessa Williams had her Miss America pin embedded in the ceiling of a powder room in her home.
- Playboy publisher Hugh Hefner turned down a chance to buy the nude photos of Vanessa Williams. "They clearly weren't authorized (by Williams) and because they would be the source of considerable embarrassment to her, we decided not to publish them," Hefner told PEOPLE in 1984.
- Vanessa Williams' ex-husband Rick Fox played her bodyguard on the second season of Ugly Betty.
Vanessa Williams: Biography 
- 1983
Here She Is...Miss America
Williams becomes the first African American to be crowned Miss America, but with much controversy. The Moral Majority bristles when Williams, who is Catholic, expresses pro-choice views, while she finds herself defending her choice of having a white boyfriend. "I never imagined I'd be that depressed about being Miss America," Williams, who receives racist hate mail and even death threats during her reign, tells PEOPLE. The magazine names her one of its 25 Most Intriguing People of 1983.
- 1984
Vanessa the Undressa
Nude photos of Williams taken in 1982 with another woman are sold to Penthouse, and Williams is pressured to give up her crown and at least $2 million worth of contracts. Williams vows to fight back, telling PEOPLE, "I am not a lesbian and I am not a slut, and somehow I am going to make people believe me." Her camp hires publicist Ramon Hervey to do damage control after the scandal.
- 1988
The Right Stuff
Williams releases her first album, The Right Stuff. "I had to beg people to give me any songs at all because nobody thought that they would be hits," she later tells USA Today in 1997. But Williams proves skeptics wrong when the album goes gold and produces three Grammy nominations.
Photo Credits
Top Left: Andy Ryan/Corbis
BIOGRAPHY (top to bottom): AP; amazon.com
