In the 1940s, Gypsy Rose Lee was in love with the theatrical impresario Michael Todd, who produced two Broadway shows starring Lee ("Star and Garter" and "The Naked Genius"). She married William Kirkland in 1942 in an attempt to make the already-married Todd jealous. They divorced in 1944. While married to Kirkland, she had a brief fling with Otto Preminger. The fruit of their affair was a boy named Erik Lee, who has been known successively as Erik Kirkland, Erik de Diego, and Erik Lee Preminger.

Her mother Rose died from colon cancer in 1954.

Parents: John Hovick and Rose Thompson Hovick.

Measurements: 37-23-36 (Source: Celebrity Sleuth magazine).

Like her mother, Lee was married three times.

Mother of Erik Lee Preminger.

Sister of June Havoc.

Aunt of April Kent.

The walls of her Los Angeles home were adorned with pictures by Joan Miró, Pablo Picasso, Marc Chagall, Max Ernst, and Dorothea Tanning, all of which were reportedly gifts to her by the artists themselves.

Although she was a "stripper," she never actually got undressed.

She had many pets, including cats, turtles, guinea pigs, and Chinese crested dogs.

When she was diagnosed with cancer in 1969, she called it "a present from mother".

At one of her weddings, Gypsy had a chimpanzee as a ring bearer.

Is portrayed by Natalie Wood in Gypsy (1962) and Cynthia Gibb in Gypsy (1993) (TV).

Gypsy Rose started dancing and stripping at burlesque houses at the age of 15 with the assistance of fellow dancer "Tessie The Tassel Twirler." She retired from burlesque 8 years later to appear in films but documented her rise to fame and adventurous relationship with her mother in the autobiographical book, "Gypsy."