Faye Update: the High School Years

Okay, as I have posted before, I have collected stories on Dottie Faye since my teens, when I became fascinated by her. Every time I meet someone in the entertainment industry I ask if they know her. Sadly, 99% of the tales I have heard are not positive ones. About the kindest thing one Academy Award nominated costume designer had to say was, "She's very neurotic."

Well, through my ever-alert gossipy channels, I learned that the father of a coworker of mine went to high school with her! This was 9th grade, I think somewhere outside Salt Lake City. (Dunaway was born in Florida but her father was in the army and they moved around a lot.)

I met him today, and said, "Are you the one who went to school with FAYE DUNAWAY???"

He got kind of a sour look on his face and said "Yes, I did. She was a pain in the @SS even then."

He said she always had three or four boyfriends around her, and he wouldn't say she was "a bully", but he did say she wasn't very nice.

I told him how a friend of mine used to go to the gym with Dunaway and they became close, and this girl seriously thought Dunaway might have some mild form of autism, in that her sense was that Dunaway had some (subtle) trouble with standard social skills, almost an inability to read other people's emotions clearly. (One aspect of autism/Aspergers Syndrome is having a strange gauge as to how people relate.) I told this guy that theory, but he wasn't buying it. He said, "Mmm, no. She knew what her effect was."

I asked if she went by the name Dorothy then (her birth name), and he said "oh, no. It was Faye. Dorothy really isn't a fitting name for a queen bee."

So there you have it: Dorothy Faye Dunaway, the high school years!
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