The 1960's supermodel, Wilhelmina was born in 1940 in the Netherlands. As both a model and models agent, she enjoyed success, international fame, fortune and respect throughout her career two careers.

Her birth name is Wilhelmina Behmenburg. Her family moved to Chicago, Illinois in 1954 for better opportunities. By this time, "Willy" (as she became known to her close circle of friends and colleagues), was fourteen years old. She had begun to blossom into a beautiful girl. As a model, the Dutch beauty became internationally famous a Wilhelmina. And as an agency owner she was known as Wilhelmina Cooper.

Willy met with Eileen and Jerry Ford at Ford Models in New York City. They signed her to the agency, and she soon became one of the highest paid models of the 1960s. By this time, Willy had a modern style of beauty that was easy to promote. She was elegant, beautiful and had enough class to model the latest couture collections in the top glossy magazines such as Vogue and Harper's Bazaar. Yet, she had just the right touch of "mod" to compete with the British supermodels like Twiggy and Jean Shrimpton, and the Prussian-born Veruschka.

In 1965, she married Bruce Cooper. He was a former executive producer of Johnny Carson's The Tonight Show. Bruce gave Wilhelmina the confidence and the support that she needed to take on new challenges.

In 1967, Wilhelmina was already one of the most sought after high-fashion supermodels thanks to her working with Ford Models. She was well praised in the business, was well liked and knew everyone there was to know in the business and around it too. At the peak of her success, she and her husband founded in New York City her own agency with the help of two minority partners. The agency, called Wilhelmina Models, was an immediate success. Upon the creation of the agency, Wilhelmina was still a top earning model on the books of Ford Models. Eileen Ford did not take too kindly to having "one of her...

1 2 3