Angie Dickinson was born in Kulm, North Dakota, in 1931, the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. L. H. Brown. Mr. Brown was the publisher of The Kulm Messenger. The family left North Dakota in 1942 when Angie was 11 years old, moving to Burbank, California. In December of 1946, when she was a senior at Bellamarine Jefferson High School in Burbank, she won the Sixth Annual Bill of Rights Contest. Two years later her sister Janet, did likewise. Being the daughter of a printer, Angie at first had visions of becoming a writer, but gave this up after winning her first beauty contest. After finishing college she worked as a secretary in a Burbank airplane parts factory for 3-1/2 years. In 1953 she entered the local Miss America contest one day before the deadline and took second place. In August of the same year she was one of five winners in a beauty contest sponsored by NBC and appeared in several TV variety shows. She got her first bit part in a Warner Brothers movie in 1954 and gained television fame in the TV series The Millionaire and got her first good film role opposite John Wayne and Dean Martin in Rio Bravo. Her success then spiraled until she became one of the nation's top movie stars.



Attended Immaculate Heart College and Glendale College. Measurements: 35-23-36 (as a 1960s starlet), 35C-25-35 1/2 (during "Police Woman" (1974)) (Source: Celebrity Sleuth magazine). Ranked #42 on "Playboy" Magazines "100 Sexiest Stars of the Century," January 1999. Sisters: Mary Lou Belmont, who is deceased, and younger sister, Janet Lee. Her daughter (with Burt Bacharach), Nikki Bacharach, died at age 40 on January 4, 2007, of suicide in Ventura County, California. She was born prematurely in 1966 and battled Asperger's disorder, a form of autism. Born at 6:15 PM. One of three daughters born to Leo and Frederica Brown. Her family owned and operated the North Dakota newspaper offices The Kulm Messenger and, later, the Edgeley Mail in the 1930s. The family moved to California when she was around 10 years old.