Edith Minturn Sedgwick Post (April 20, 1943 – November 16, 1971) was an American actress, model and socialite who was one of Andy Warhol's superstars, starring in several of his short films during the 1960s.

Sedgwick abstained from drugs and alcohol after meeting her future husband, Michael Post, and completed filming Ciao!

Sedgwick's mother was the daughter of Henry Wheeler de Forest, the president and chairman of the board of the Southern Pacific Railroad.

At age 13 (the year her grandfather Henry Dwight Sedgwick died), she began boarding at the Branson School near San Francisco.

She was later sent to Bloomingdale, the behavioral health wing in the Westchester County division of New York Hospital, where her anorexia improved markedly.

Around the time she left the hospital, she had a brief relationship with a Harvard student, became pregnant and procured an abortion, citing her present psychological issues.

[11] In the autumn of 1963, Sedgwick moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts, and began studying sculpture with her cousin, artist Lily Saarinen.

Sedgwick was deeply affected by the loss of her older brothers, Francis Jr. (known as "Minty") and Robert (known as "Bobby"), who died within eighteen months of each other.

Francis, who had a particularly unhappy relationship with their father, suffered several mental breakdowns, eventually committing suicide in 1964 while at Silver Hill Hospital.

Robert, her second oldest brother, also suffered from mental health problems and died when his motorcycle crashed into the side of a New York City bus on New Year's Eve 1965.

Written by Factory scriptwriter Ronald Tavel, the film stars Sedgwick, Rene Ricard, Roger Trudeau, Donald Lyons and Elecktrah.

During this period, she developed a distinct look including black leotards, mini dresses, large chandelier earrings and heavy eye make-up.

[17] In a photoshoot for Vogue magazine in August 1965, Sedgwick was photographed by Enzo Sellerio, wearing only hosiery and a black ballet leotard, as she balanced on the back of a leather rhinoceros.

[15] In 1966, Sedgwick was named one of the "fashion revolutionaries" in New York by Women's Wear Daily, alongside Tiger Morse, Baby Jane Holzer, Pierre Cardin, Paco Rabanne, Rudi Gernreich, André Courrèges, Emanuel Ungaro, Yves Saint Laurent and Mary Quant.

[23] Sedgwick was hospitalized again in the summer of 1970 but was let out under the supervision of a psychiatrist, two nurses and the live-in care of filmmaker John Palmer and his wife Janet.

Manhattan and have her story told, Sedgwick reconnected with the film crew and began shooting in Arcadia and Santa Barbara in late 1970.

She also recorded audio tapes reflecting on her life story, accounts Weisman and Palmer incorporated into the film's dramatic arc.

According to Post, Sedgwick started to fall asleep very quickly and her breathing was "bad – it sounded like there was a big hole in her lungs" but he attributed it to her heavy smoking habit and went to sleep.

In December 2006, several weeks before the release of the controversial film Factory Girl, the Weinstein Company and the film's producers interviewed Sedgwick's older brother, Jonathan, who claimed that Sedgwick told him she had aborted a baby she claimed was Dylan's shortly after she was injured in a motorcycle accident.

Nonetheless, Jonathan claimed, "Staff found she was pregnant but, fearing the baby had been damaged by her drug use and anorexia, forced her to have the abortion.

[33] However, in October 1971, Sedgwick relapsed after taking prescription pain medication given to her for a physical illness, which in turn led to abusing barbiturates and alcohol.

[citation needed] In 1982, Edie Sedgwick: An American Biography written by Jean Stein was published by Alfred A Knopf.

It was also reported that a film titled The War at Home was to be loosely based on her life during The Factory years, with Linda Fiorentino slated to portray her.

[36] Actress and model Jennifer Rubin played Sedgwick in the 1991 film The Doors, directed by Oliver Stone.

The film portrays Warhol, played by Guy Pearce, as a cynic who leads Sedgwick into a downward spiral of drug addiction and psychiatric problems.

Dylan was apparently threatening to pursue a defamation lawsuit, claiming the film implicates him as having driven Sedgwick to her death.

Directed by Melissa Painter and David Weisman, the 2010 short film Edie: Girl on Fire, accompanied the book release of the same title, with an archived audio interview of Sedgwick on CD.

[15][42][43] The 2021 animated short film Too Late, by Polish artist Kinga Syrek, was a tribute to Edie Sedgwick's life story and was released for the 50th anniversary of her death.