Gia Carangi

Gia Marie Carangi was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and rose to fame as one of the first supermodels. She appeared on the covers of numerous magazines, including multiple editions of Vogue and Cosmopolitan, and modeled for brands like Armani, Dior, Versace, and Yves Saint Laurent. In 2023, Harper's Bazaar ranked her 15th among the greatest supermodels of the 1980s.

Carangi's career was short, lasting from 1978 to 1983. She struggled with heroin addiction, which led to a rapid decline and her eventual decision to quit modeling. She died in 1986 at age 26 from AIDS-related complications, believed to have been contracted from a contaminated needle. She was one of the early notable women to die of the virus. Her life was dramatized in the 1998 television film Gia, starring Angelina Jolie. Carangi was of Irish, Italian, and Welsh descent and identified as a lesbian.