Shy and modest? Not two words one would immediately associate with Mariel Hemingway, the grand daughter of prolific writer Ernest Hemingway and sister to Margaux Hemingway, who appeared to have no problem removing her clothes for the cameras.

But those are the words Mariel uses to describe herself when she talks about herself in relation to wearing a bikini on the beach. Hemingway states, ‘I won’t even wear a bikini on the beach. On TV I’m lit well and I can choose the angle. I can’t edit what you see at the beach.'’

Regardless of her feelings of modesty, Mariel has appeared nude in the movie the Star 80, in which she portrayed murdered Playboy model, Dorothy Stratten. Again, in Civil Wars, Mariel acts in a scene in which her character, divorce attorney Sydney Guilford, models for a photographer-artiste, ‘’it was pretty nerve-racking,'’ she reports. ‘’They said ‘Robe off,’ and the crew could see my face turn fuchsia.'’

Evidently, the experience was not too traumatic for the actress who, at the time was 31 years old, as she went on to agree to grace the cover of Hugh Hefner’s Playboy magazine in April 1982.

Mariel has stated she is no prude and in fact finds the American mentality to nudity on the TV baffling, saying, ‘’Sometimes we can say ‘God’ but we can’t say ‘Jesus.’ I don’t get the mentality of that. I still think that people should be more up in arms about the number of people who get shot on TV, not people taking their clothes off. Movies like Basic Instinct are out,  Demi Moore is naked on magazines. There’s Madonna looking like she’s doing kiddie porn on a magazine cover. To me, nudity is not news. I’ve turned on the TV in the middle of the day and seen more on Oprah.'’

Becoming a Playboy model and cover girl is usually regarded as a step up in any girl’s career but for Margaux Hemingway it may well have been a photo shoot that hid the true feelings behind the smile of a celebrity who’s life was clearly not all it appeared to be.

Margaux was the granddaughter of Ernest Hemingway, the daughter of Clarence Hemingway and the sibling of Ursula and Leicester, all of whom took their own lives. So it could have come as no surprise when on July 1 1996 Margaux became the fifth member of her family to end her own life.

Just one day before the anniversary of her grandfather’s own suicide, Margaux was found dead in her studio apartment in Santa Monica, California at age 42. It was later ruled by the coroner’s office that she had taken an overdose of Phenobarbital. Margaux was buried in the Hemingway family plot in the Ketchum Cemetery in Ketchum, Idaho.

Prior to her early death, Margaux had been a successful fashion model with her statuesque six feet tall figure, Hemingway gained a million-dollar contract for Fabergé as the spokesmodel for Babe perfume in the 1970s. Her lucrative contract with Fabergé was the first million dollar contract ever awarded to a fashion model.

As an actress Margaux made her name in the 1976 drama film, Lipstick, which saw her starring alongside her younger sister Mariel Hemingway, it contains one of the most infamous scenes in motion picture history, showing an extremely brutal and distressing rape scene.

Although the movie was intended to catapult Margaux to Hollywood fame, it actually made a bigger impression on Hollywood for her sister, Mariel and led to her successful acting career.

However, in May 1990 Margaux did make the cover of Playboy magazine and to this day remains a sought after edition to Playboy magazine collectors worldwide.