9 Vintage Photos of Sharon Tate That Capture the Glamour of the 1960s

Sharon Tate had the world at her fingertips in the 1960s.

Born in Dallas, Texas, in 1943, she quickly became Hollywood’s It girl, emerging as an actress and model and later as the wife of film director Roman Polanski and a mother-to-be.

On August 8, 1969, Tate, her unborn child, and four acquaintances visiting her Los Angeles rental were brutally murdered by followers of cult leader Charles Manson. Manson sent three "Family" members to the house with instructions to kill everyone "as gruesomely as you can," according to Encyclopedia Britannica. Polanski was in London at the time of the murders and flew back to the States upon receiving the heartbreaking news. Tate, just 26, was laid to rest with her unborn child, whom she and Polanski planned to name Paul, in a cemetery in Culver City.

Before her life was cut short, Tate was admired for her undeniable talent and charisma. There was something luminous about her; a star, if you will, whose life continues to overshadow her death, even as her murder remains a constant topic of conversation in pop culture decades later.

THE LIFE OF HOLLYWOOD'S GOLDEN GIRL

A military brat, Tate moved frequently as a teen before relocating to Verona, Italy, in 1962, when her father, a U.S. Army officer, was stationed there. It was in Italy that her love for film blossomed, and she even appeared as an extra in a few Italian productions.

Returning to America in 1963, Tate traveled to Hollywood and was immediately cast in cigarette and car commercials. She landed minor roles in several TV series, most notably The Beverly Hillbillies, and her return to the silver screen came in 1966 with the thriller Eye of the Devil. The following year, while filming a horror movie in Europe, she met Polanski and starred in Valley of the Dolls, which catapulted her to international fame. In 1968, she married Polanski (amid other film projects, including The Wrecking Crew with crooner Dean Martin), and by early 1969, the couple was expecting their first child.

Tate’s beauty and brilliance were immortalized on film, and in countless photo shoots that captured her captivating spirit. These images are a time capsule of the 1960s, when turtlenecks and mod fashion were all the rage, and few embodied the era more glamorously or effortlessly than Sharon Tate.

Let’s flip through nine photos that follow Tate through a life of love, fashion, and creativity, all of which remain incomparably etched in the halls of Hollywood. 

HER '60s TIME CAPSULE

1965

1966

1967

1968

1969

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