Background
Worth was born in New York City.
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Frank Worth
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His black and white candid pictures are unusual for the era, when most stars limited themselves to carefully posed glamour portraits. He kept many of his photographs private so that they were not seen until after his death. He was rumored to have been intimate with several of his subjects including Marilyn Monroe and Jayne Mansfield.
He confirmed his affair with Monroe shortly before his death.
He became interested in photography in high school. Moving to Hollywood, he was hired to photograph movie stars but quickly became a freelance photographer.
Among his early subjects was Rita Hayworth, then an unknown starlet. These friendships plus "a knack for being in the right place at the right time" allowed him to capture unique images of the stars.
He was allowed onto the set of classic films such as Rebel Without A Cause and The Seven Year Itch.
He filmed Elizabeth Taylor"s first wedding. He also did sports photography and was the original photographer for the Los Angeles Dodgers. He gradually gave up photography and fell into poverty, but he refused to sell the photographs of the people who had been his friends.
Eventually a friend realized the possible value of the photos and formed a company to publish them.
They were the subject of several heavily publicized exhibitions, including one in London in 2002 which Christie"s auction house described as "the most extraordinary collection of its kind for the past 50 years" and a Sotheby"s exhibition in 2003. The London exhibition was curated by twins Austin and Howard Mutti-Mewse, whose longtime obsession with Hollywood helped them to sort out the long-lost collection.
