Actors - Nico

	Actors - Nico

Christa Päffgen (October 16,1938 – July 18, 1988) was a singer-songwriter, fashion model, actress and Warhol superstar, best known by her pseudonym Nico. She is best remembered for a collaboration with The Velvet Underground, in 1967.

The date and location of Nico's birth are disputed. Most sources state October 16,1938, Cologne, Germany. However, at least two other sources have put her birth date at March 15, 1943, in Budapest, Hungary.

Career

Modelling

Nico made her early fame as a fashion model. As a young girl she moved to Paris and met the photographer Tobias, who christened her "Nico" after his ex-boyfriend, filmmaker Nico Papatakis. Nico worked for Vogue, Tempo, Vie Nuove, Mascotte Spettacolo, Camera, ELLE, and various other fashion magazines in the late 1950s. She also claimed she was briefly hired by Coco Chanel.

La Dolce Vita

After appearing in several television commercials, Nico landed a tiny role in Alberto Lattuada's La Tempesta (1958), and then appeared in Rudolph Maté's For the First Time
with Mario Lanza later that year. In 1959, she was invited to the set of Federico Fellini's La Dolce Vita
and attracted the attention of the acclaimed director, who promptly gave her a sizable role in his film. By this time, Nico had moved to New York to take acting classes with Lee Strasberg. After splitting her time between New York and Paris, she landed the lead role in Jacques Poitrenaud's Strip-Tease (1963). For that film, Nico recorded the title track, which was produced by Serge Gainsbourg but not released. During this period she had a son, Ari (born 1962), with actor Alain Delon.

Early films with Warhol

In 1965, Nico met The Rolling Stones' Brian Jones and recorded her first single, "I'm Not Sayin'" for Andrew Loog Oldham's Immediate label. Actor Ben Carruthers introduced her to Bob Dylan in Paris that summer; Dylan wrote a song about her, "I'll Keep It With Mine" shortly afterwards. She began working with Andy Warhol and Paul Morrissey on their experimental films, including Chelsea Girls, The Closet, Sunset, and Imitation of Christ.

The Velvet Underground and Nico

While appearing in the Factory films of Warhol, Nico was introduced to The Velvet Underground, at that time the backing group for Warhol's Exploding. Plastic. Inevitable., a multimedia performance featuring film, music, lights and dancers in a sort of total experience theatre. After Nico was brought into the Factory fold, she gradually began to work with the Velvets and sang on three songs on The Velvet Underground and Nico (All Tomorrow's Parties, Femme Fatale, and I'll Be Your Mirror), the first album either she or the band had made. Released in 1967, the album went on to become highly influential and critically lauded within rock music circles. Nico had a short-lived romantic relationship with the Velvet Underground's main singer and songwriter, Lou Reed, at this time, one of her several romances with prominent musicians including fellow Velvet John Cale, Jim Morrison, Jackson Browne, Brian Jones, Tim Buckley and Iggy Pop.

Shortly after the Exploding. Plastic. Inevitable. tour drew to a close in the spring of 1967, Nico and The Velvet Underground parted ways as a professional working group. The exact reasons for her departure have not been made clear, though both Lou Reed and the Velvet's multi-instrumentalist John Cale played significant parts in various aspects of Nico's solo career. Over the course of the next twenty years she recorded a series of critically acclaimed albums, working with the likes of Brian Eno and Phil Manzanera. Cale was particularly involved in Nico's music, producing four of her albums as well as arranging and playing various instruments on the recordings.

Solo

The Sixties

For her debut album, 1967's Chelsea Girl , Nico recorded songs by, among others, Bob Dylan, Tim Hardin, Jackson Browne and Velvet Underground members Lou Reed, John Cale and Sterling Morrison. Chelsea Girl is largely a traditional chamber-folk album in the vein of Leonard Cohen, complete with strings and flute arrangements superimposed by its producer. Nico was not wholly satisfied with the finished album but had little say in production matters.

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