| Life Story - Vikki LaMotta |
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Vikki LaMotta (January 23, 1930 – January 25, 2005) was born as Beverly Thailer in The Bronx, New York. Vicky LaMota was the wife of boxer Jake LaMotta. Vikki met Jake LaMotta at a community pool and they married while she was still a teenager. The turbulent often abusive relationship of Vikki and Jackie LaMotta was depicted in the 1980 Martin Scorsese Academy Award-winning film "Raging Bull". Vikki was portrayed by then 17-year old Actress Cathy Moriarty. The role garnered Cathy Moriarty a Best Supporting Actress Academy Award nomination. Over the years the film has been ranked by critics as one of the greatest films in history. “Raging Bull” generated great publicity for Vikki who posed nude for Playboy magazine in November 1981 and proved that she was still a beauty at age 51. Four years later came a self-named successful cosmetics company - Vicky LaMota Cosmetics - that marketed what she called "the 60-second facelift." Vicky LaMota moved back to New York City from North Miami Beach, where she had lived with her second husband Tony Foster, to lend her name to a cosmetics line and make commercials and personal appearances on local television and at fight arenas. In 1992, after divorcing from Foster, Vikki returned to South Florida, eventually moving into Port de Mer, where she lived with two cats. To the end she remained friends with her first ex-husband Jake LaMotta. LaMotta, 83, who was in Manhattan at a 25th anniversary screening of “Raging Bull”, mentioned her death to The New York Times. "I spoke to her a few months ago," he said. "I used to speak to her a lot, but as time went by we would only speak on special occasions. But we made up a long time ago." Vikki died in Boca Raton, Florida, after spending a month at a hospital where she was recovering from open-heart surgery. She died on January 25, 2005, two days after her 75th birthday. She was survived by two of the three children from her marriage to LaMotta.
 
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