Janice Doreen Dickinson (born February 15, 1955) is an American supermodel fashion photographer, actress, author and agent. She opened her own modeling agency, The Janice Dickinson Modeling Agency, after judging for four cycles on America’s Next Top Model.

First supermodel claim

Dickinson is the self-proclaimed first supermodel. In E! Network’s E! True Hollywood Story, she described how she coined the term “supermodel”. Her manager, concerned that at the peak of her modeling career she was doing too much work, told her, “You are not Superman.” Dickinson replied, “I am not Superman, I am a supermodel”.

Dickinson’s claim as being the first supermodel, however, is disputed. Dorian Leigh is widely recognized as being one of the 20th Century’s first supermodels,and whose career began and ended before Dickinson was born. Lisa Fonssagrives is also considered by most in the fashion industry as the world’s first supermodel.In 1968, an article in Glamour described Twiggy, Cheryl Tiegs, Wilhelmina, Veruschka, Jean Shrimpton and fifteen other top models as “supermodels.”

Television

Dickinson reemerged to the forefront with her four-cycle stint as a judge on the reality series America’s Next Top Model and her subsequent reality show and modeling agency The Janice Dickinson Modeling Agency.

In 2005, Dickinson was a regular on The Surreal Life for its fifth season. On the show, she was constantly fighting with fellow castmate Omarosa. In recent interviews, it appears that Dickinson regrets doing this show, and she would rather it be forgotten.

Dickinson appeared with British model Abigail Clancey in Abbey & Janice: Beauty & The Best, a reality series detailing Clancey’s attempt to break into the American modeling market. The show debuted in England on May 14, 2007 and premiered in the United States on the Oxygen television network on February 19, 2008.

In November 2007, Dickinson became one of the celebrities taking part in the UK reality TV show I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here!. She was in team Snake Rock before the two teams of celebrities joined together. Dickinson competed in the first ‘Bushtucker trial’, but lost because of her phobia of eels.

She was then selected to do a live bushtucker trial, in which she was joined by fellow contestant Christopher Biggins. She now holds the title for the UK show of being the contestant who has had to do the most trials in any series, due to the public voting her in for every Bushtucker Trial she had been eligible for.

In the finale of I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here! it was announced that Dickinson had gained second place in the competition, with Christopher Biggins coming first. During the show she became known for saying “Aw Man!”.

She was a special guest in one episode of Charmed where Paige disguised herself as Janice Dickinson.

Personal life

Dickinson has been married three times. Her former husbands are Ron Levy, Alan B. Gersten, and Simon Fields, by whom she has a son, Nathan Fields (born May 5, 1987). She has a daughter, Savannah Dickinson (born February 23, 1994), by former boyfriend, Michael Birnbaum. A paternity test proved that the biological father was not Sylvester Stallone, as she had thought, but Birnbaum. In her books and in interviews, she has also discussed her numerous sexual relationships with male and female celebrities.

Her past lovers include Warren Beatty, Sylvester Stallone, Jack Nicholson,Liam Neeson,Sir Mick Jagger Dolph Lundgren, Grace Jones, Kelly LeBrock, and Bruce Willis.In an interview on The Howard Stern Show in 2007, Dickinson claimed to have had sex with over 1,000 men.

Dickinson has been open about the emotional and physical abuse she suffered as a child.And how her father used to sexually abuse her sister. During an appearance on the reality show The Surreal Life, Dickinson stated to her cast mates, “My father was a pedophile. He was a dark, angry guy. Being forced to have a pedophile for a father is probably the most horrible thing that can happen to a child, bar none.”She further relayed, “I survived a monster… Sixteen years I was forced to keep the secret… If I ever (exposed) my pedophile father, I would’ve been murdered. So you know what he did instead? He beat me on a daily basis.”In an interview, Dickinson told British magazine Now, “When he was on the way to the hospital, I tossed his medication out of the car window and didn’t tell the doctors. Maybe I wanted to kill the abuser?”

Of her childhood with her “rageoholic pedophile” of a father, Dickinson stated, “Because I wouldn’t give in and let him have sex with me, I was verbally and physically abused on a daily basis. I was told that I looked like a boy and wouldn’t amount to anything. I think if you abuse a child, your balls should be cut off. You should be castrated immediately.”

Age

Dickinson’s date of birth is variously stated as February 15, 17, or 28 in 1951, 1952, 1954, or 1960. Municipal records from Los Angeles California, Hollywood, and Florida give the date as February 15. In Dickinson’s autobiography No Lifeguard on Duty, she wrote, “When I was just eighteen months old, in 1957, the family moved from Brooklyn to Florida.” She also graduated in 1973 from South Broward High School, making 1955 her more likely year of birth.

In the first episode of I’m a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here! on November 12, 2007, Dickinson stated her age as 53. This corresponds with the 1955 date of birth given in this article. 1954 would be more accurate, but her age at time of high school graduation is as yet unknown.