Daily Style Phile: Photographer & Playboy Gunter Sachs Dies At 78, A Look Back

by Lauren Zanedis · May 9, 2011

    German-born photographer Gunter Sachs committed suicide on Sunday. He was was born into a wealthy family and parlayed his inheritance to fund a glamorous and successful lifestyle. He was best known for being a playboy, his three-year marriage to Brigitte Bardot and his close friendship with Andy Warhol. We take a look back at his life.

    Bio:

    He was 78 years-old.

    Born in Germany; died in Switzerland.

    Made a name for himself as a photographer, documentary filmmaker and art collector.

    Was fascinated by astrology and in the 1950s founded the “Institute for the Empirical and Mathematical Examination of the Possible Truth of Astrology in Relation to Human Behaviour”.

    He was married 3 times

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    The Story

    Swiss business magazine Bilanz estimated his fortune at 300-400 million Swiss francs ($340-$455 million).  Sachs explained in a note that he had shot himself because of what he defined as “no hope illness A”, which some have speculated to be Alzheimer’s.

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    Where you've seen him:

    Trapeezing around the world from 1966-69 with then wife, Brigitte Bardot

    Hung out with Andy Warhol,  Salvador Dali; French presidents Charles De Gaulle and Georges Pompidou; Guy and Marie-Hélène de Rothschild; Prince Rainier and Princess Grace of Monaco; and the Shah of Iran

    Known in his heyday by the nickname “Sexy”, Sachs,  he boasted of “never having worked a day in my life.”

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