Hair History Tommy Yeardye – 1930-2004
Photos: Getty Images, pbase.com
This is the backfile, the inside scoop, on Tommy Yeardye who was a colorful and controversial character. A few feathers maybe ruffled but, in the interests of hair history, and with the help of a few well informed sources, see links below, here are the some interesting facts.
Tommy Yeardye (1930-2004) was born in Ireland. Before he became the Managing Director of Vidal Sassoon, he had been a stuntman known as “Muscles” and stunt doubled for Rock Hudson and Victor Mature, worked for Carmen Rollers also Glemby. He is perhaps best known as a boyfriend of Diana Dors, England’s blonde bombshell Marilyn Monroe, and the scandal when Dors accused him of taking a large sum of her money, which he eventually returned in the presence of police officers. But before, this he was also a “heavy – a minder at one time for Peter Rachman,” landlord in the Notting Hill area of London in the ’50s and early ’60s who became notorious for his exploitation of his tenants, according to Wikipedia. He later married Ann Davis, a Chanel model, his daughter, Tamara Mellon was the co-founder of Jimmy Choo Couture Shoes, Yeardye was chairman of Jimmy Choo until his death. Later, Tamara sued her Mother, charges were dropped, but “maybe a chip of the old block because,” one well-informed source says, ” Yeardye wanted to open a chain of Vidal Sassoon salons in malls or wherever but that was a non-starter. He left, Sassoon sued and Yeardye counter sued. It seems he had copies of files showing financial shenanigans of Vidal Sassoon. They both dropped charges.” I won’t go on, there’s more but …
Daily Telegraph Obituary (but know there are some errors here, especially about his involvement with Sassoon products) … You can read more on Diana Dors here … Tamara Mellon, now an OBE, and ranked as one of the richest women in the UK, click here
Photos: Getty Images, http://www.pbase.com/john_santilli/santilli_at_sassoons
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