Heiress to William Randolph Hearst's empire, born in San Francisco, California, USA. The daughter of newspaper tycoon Randolph Apperson Hearst (d.2000), she was kidnapped in 1974 by the radical Symbionese Liberation Army. After brainwashing, she assumed the name Tania and joined in their bank robberies. She was captured in 1975, tried, and sentenced to prison in 1976. Paroled in 1979, she married her former bodyguard and wrote an autobiography, Every Secret Thing (1982).
Patricia Campbell Hearst (born February 20, 1954), better known as Patty Hearst, now known as Patricia Hearst Shaw, is an American newspaper heiress and occasional actress.
She is the granddaughter of publishing magnate William Randolph Hearst.
Biography
Hearst was born in San Francisco, California, the third of five daughters of Randolph Apperson Hearst and Catherine Wood Campbell. Among her few close friends she counted Patricia Tobin, whose
family founded the Hibernia National Bank, a branch of which Hearst would later aid in robbing.
Kidnapping and her time with the SLA
On February 4, 1974, the 19-year-old Hearst was kidnapped from the Berkeley, California apartment that she shared with her fiancé Steven Weed, by an urban guerrilla group called the Symbionese
Liberation Army (SLA). When the attempt to swap Hearst for jailed SLA members failed, the SLA made ransom demands which resulted in the donation by the Hearst family of $6 million worth of food
to the poor of the Bay Area. After the distribution of food, Hearst was still not released.
In her trial, which started on January 15, 1976, Hearst claimed she had been locked blindfolded in a closet and physically and sexually abused, which caused her to join the SLA. Hearst further
argued she was coerced or intimidated into her part in the bank robbery. Lee Bailey defended Patty Hearst. Legal analysts and Hearst herself later said the famed attorney did a poor job
defending her. Hearst was convicted of bank robbery on March 20, 1976. Her seven-year prison term was eventually commuted by President Jimmy Carter, and Hearst was released from prison on
February 1, 1979, having served only twenty-two months.
Later life
After her release from prison, Hearst married her former bodyguard, Bernard Shaw.
Documentaries about Hearst
Hearst's 1982 autobiography
Every Secret Thing was made into the biopic
Patty Hearst by Paul Schrader in 1988, with Natasha Richardson portraying Hearst. (The film was released
in the UK under the title
Neverland: The Rise and Fall of the Symbionese Liberation Army.)
Acting roles
Hearst has cultivated a surprising part-time career as an actress.
Her notoriety intersected with the criminal obsessions and camp sensibilities of filmmaker John Waters, who has used Hearst in numerous small roles in films including
Cry-Baby,
Serial Mom,
Pecker,
Cecil B. Hearst has also appeared in the films Bio-Dome and
Second Best. Hearst played a crack-addicted prostitute on an episode of
Son of the
Beach. Hearst's voice was used as a caller on the series
Frasier. She's playing the granddaughter of Hearst College's [founder], who in our world is a railroad baron rather than a
publishing baron. It'll be similar, but she is not literally playing Patty Hearst."
Other Work
Disatisfied with other documentaries made on the subject, Hearst presented and produced a special for the Travel Channel entitled 'Secrets of San Simeon with Patricia Hearst' where she took
viewers inside her grandfather's famous mansion; In 1996 Hearst co-authored 'Murder at San Simeon' - a novel based upon the death of Thomas Ince on her grandfather's yacht. Hearst's niece is
model Amanda Hearst. Oates hit is mistakenly assumed to be about Patty Hearst: Oates: "Rich Girl" was actually "Rich Guy," but it sounded terrible to sing, so we changed it to "Rich Girl."
Everyone at the time thought it was about Patty Hearst (web site) Hearst is mentioned and the Law and Order season 6 episode Hot Pursuit is based on her capture. The famous shot of Patty in the
SLA graces the cover of the Chainsaw Kittens album "Pop Heiress" Singer Madonna arguably based the cover image for her 2003 album
American Life on Hearst's famous photo; Comedian Gilda
Radner portrayed Patty Hearst in two sketches on
Saturday Night Live in 1975 and 1976. Warren Zevon's song "Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner" explains the fictional origins of Hearst's
gun, although it identifies it as an M1 Thompson. Patti Smith's infamous debut single featured the monologue "Sixty Days," dedicated to Hearst. (It preceded her cover of rock classic "Hey Joe.")
The monologue describes Smith's view of Hearst's behavior, then adopts an imagined, and somewhat romantic, first-person tone in which Smith declares "I am no pretty little rich girl, I am
nobody's million dollar baby, I'm nobody's Patsy anymore and I feel so free." The punk rock band The Misfits' song "She" is about Hearst. The 1980s rock band Oingo Boingo's debut single included
the songs "Don't Blame Patty, She's just a Poor Misunderstood Teenager" and "You Got Your Baby Back" Hearst was parodied in the 1976 film
Network. In response, Wiggum says, "There's no
need for you to defend your captor, Bratty Hearst!" Patty Hearst." One of Karen's memories is "the horrible, muffled cries of Patty Hearst from behind that closet door," implying that Karen had
been an SLA member. advising her 'even Patty Hearst couldn't pull it off; In her 2006 song, "I Love You More," Sarah Silverman compares Hearst's identification with her kidnappers to Jewish
people driving German cars. Demented, about an actress who is kidnapped by a terroristic independent movie production crew only to end up joining them, is an homage to the Hearst kidnapping.
Hearst herself appears in a minor role in the film. The song "Tania" by Camper Van Beethoven from their album
Our Beloved Revolutionary Sweetheart is about Hearst. In the episode "The
Knight in White Satin Armor" of the HBO television series,
The Sopranos, FBI Agent Skip Lipari says that mobster Sal Bonpensiero’s enthusiastic cooperation with the FBI is “the worse case
of Stockholm syndrome I've seen since Patty Hearst.” His supervisor responds, “That was a sad case.” In the episode The Incredible Mr. Brisby of the Adult Swim show The Venture Bros., the boys
(Hank and Dean) are manipulated using mind-control devices. What, did you turn them all the way up to Patty Hearst?" with the character Patty, a parody of Daphne of Scooby Doo and Patty Hearst.
The Claire Lynch song "Stranger Things Have Happened" includes the line "Well, who'd at first thought that Patty Hearst would join the SLA?"
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