Along with a roommate named Dr. Stephen Cushner, the newlyweds moved into a two-bedroom, two-bath, 1,424-square-foot home located at 10881 West Clarkson Road in Rancho Park.
Cushner lived in the residence’s upstairs bedroom . . .April 15, 1951 – August 14, 1980 dorothy
Dorothy was 20, and her husband Paul Snider was 29. She was a hot hot hot Playboy model/actress, and he was a sleaze bag loser. They met in their native Canada, and married in Las Vegas in June of 1979.
He forbade her to drink coffee, because it would stain her teeth, and he supposedly poisoned her pet dog because he was jealous of it.!!!!!!!
while Dorothy and Paul stayed in the bottom level room located at the back of the house. There was to be no honeymoon period, though. Dorothy’s star was on the rise and as she grew more successful, Paul grew more possessive and controlling.
Dorothy was named Playmate of the Month in August 1979 and then Playmate of the Year in 1980. Predictably, it was not long before Hollywood came a-callin’. She landed roles in episodes of Fantasy Island and Buck Rogers in the 25th Century and in the movies Americathon, Skatetown, U.S.A., Autumn Born and Galaxina. The starlet caught director Peter Bogdanovich’s eye one afternoon at the Playboy mansion and he cast her in his film They All Laughed shortly thereafter. Dorothy had to relocate to New York for the shoot and, while there, she and Bogdanovich fell in love. Upon returning home once filming wrapped in early August 1980, Dorothy separated from Paul, asked for a divorce and moved into Peter’s Bel Air mansion located at 212 Copa De Oro Road in Bel Air.
Around noon on August 14th, Dorothy agreed to meet Paul at the house the two once shared to discuss the divorce. She brought along $1,000 cash to placate him and keep things amicable. The events that followed were anything but. Paul ended up shooting Dorothy and then killing himself. Their bodies were found at approximately 11 p.m. that evening by Cushner. The details of the murder/suicide are not pretty. If interested, you can read more about them on Findadeath and in this 1980 article from The Village Voice. In an odd twist, Bogdanovich, who still considers Dorothy the love of his life, wound up marrying her much-younger sister, Louise, in 1988. They divorced 13 years later.
She was wearing flats and slacks, carrying a big zippered handbag. She had withdrawn $1000 in cash to give to Snider, and hoped to settle her split from him, once and for all. At 12:30, the private investigator called Paul, and Paul told him that “everything was going fine.” Whatever.
They saw that Paul’s door was closed, and they heard no sounds. They assumed that Paul and Dorothy wanted privacy. At 6:00 they watched the news, and then went out to eat. At around 7, Dr. Cushner came home and he too decided to give them privacy. At 8, the women returned home. At around 11, the investigator called the Doctor on his private line (no one was answering Snider’s phone, and it was continually ringing), and suggested they take a peek into the room. Boy oh boy did they get a surprise. They called the cops.
Cops arrived at 12:30am. They found Dorothy lying across the end of a low waterbed. Get this: she had black ants crawling all over her. Wild, eh? They found a bullet hole from a 12-gauge Mossberg shotgun (that Snider had bought from and ad in a local newspaper) on her cheek, blood on the walls and curtains, and she was missing the tip of her left index finger.
No one knows for sure what transpired during their meeting, but blonde hair was found in Snider’s fists. The only scenario that makes sense, was that Dorothy was sitting on a corner of the bed when Snider put the gun up to her cheek. She tried to shield her face with her left hand, thus destroying her left index finger when Snider pulled the trigger. A half an hour later, Snider turned the gun on himself, and fell on top of the shotgun. Kinda makes you wonder what he did for 30 minutes. No wait, I don’t want to know. There were bloody handprints on Dorothy’s buttocks. Oh yeah, Paul had ants crawling all over him too.
Near Dorothy, was the “love seat.” According to police, it was set in a position for “possible rear entry intercourse.” There was evidence that the seat had been used, and she had been fastened to it with medical tape.
At 5 in the afternoon, the two female occupants of the apartment came home
“Yours is the light by which my spirit’s born: – you are my sun, my moon, and all my stars.”
― E.E. Cummings
Supposedly, several areas of the real life interior of the dwelling appeared in the movie, as well, including the garage;
Paul and Dorothy’s bedroom, where the murder took place;
the downstairs bathroom;
the downstairs hallway;
and the downstairs living room/office. Without having seen images of the home’s actual interior, though, I cannot say with certainty whether or not that was the case. And because the layout of the windows shown in Star 80 does not match the window layout of the actual residence, I am guessing that the interior was just a set.according to the editor of the film, there was still blood on the walls of the bedroom when they first scouted the location.He was inspired when visiting The Pleasure Chest, a sex shop in LA. The Pleasure Chest opted not to buy the bench, and it stood in a corner of his bedroom for months.
On the morning of August 14th, 1980, Dorothy agreed to meet Snider at the apartment, and showed up just after noon.