Marlene Schmidt

Who is Marlene Schmidt?

Marlene Schmidt came to fame as winner of the 1961 Miss Universe pageant. Later she had a career in the movie industry.

She was raised in East Germany where she earned a masters degree in engineering. In 1960, she and her family moved to Stuttgart in West Germany. In 1961, she entered the state pageant of Baden-Württemberg in the hope of winning the car that was offered as prize. From there, she went on to represent her state in the national pageant in Baden-Baden, where she was crowned Miss Germany. She then went on to win the Miss Universe pageant against 47 other participants. She was at that time the tenth consecutive German entrant into the semi-finals of the event and is the first German to be crowned Miss Universe.

In 1962, Schmidt became the third of eight wives of the American TV actor Ty Hardin. They settled in the USA. The marriage lasted until 1966 during which time they produced one daughter, Schmidt's only child.

From 1972 to 1986, Schmidt was involved in the movie industry, where she acquired credits as actress, producer and writer in eleven productions.