In her 2019 memoir, Face It: A Memoir, Harry describes having been raped at knifepoint during a burglary of the home she shared with Stein. [59] She also wrote that during the early 1970s, the serial killer Ted Bundy lured her into his car in New York City, but she escaped. Harry's description of the white vehicle stripped on the inside and missing the passenger door handle matched the 1968 VW Bundy was driving, but authorities believed him to be in Florida at the time. Ann Rule, an author of the Bundy biography The Stranger Beside Me, commented that erroneous claims of Bundy abductions are fairly common. [60] [61] [62] Deborah Ann Harry (born Angela Trimble; July 1, 1945) is an American singer, songwriter and actress, best known as the lead vocalist of the band Blondie. Four of her songs with the band reached No. 1 on the US charts between 1979 and 1981.

In June 1979, Blondie was featured on the cover of Rolling Stone. Harry's persona, combining cool sexuality with streetwise style, became so closely associated with the group's name that many came to believe "Blondie" was the singer's name. The difference between the individual Harry and the band Blondie was emphasized by a "Blondie is a group" button campaign by the band in 1979. [25] The band's success continued with the release of the platinum-selling Eat to the Beat album (UK No. 1, US No. 17) in September. [26]

Born in Miami, Florida, Harry was adopted as an infant and raised in Hawthorne, New Jersey. After college she worked various jobs—as a dancer, a Playboy Bunny, and a secretary (including at the BBC in New York)—before her breakthrough in the music industry. She co-formed Blondie in 1974 in New York City. The band released its eponymous debut studio album in 1976 and released three more studio albums between then and 1979, including Parallel Lines, which spawned six singles, including " Heart of Glass". Their fifth studio album, Autoamerican (1980), spawned such hits as a cover of " The Tide Is High", and " Rapture", which is considered the first rap song to chart at number one in the United States. [1] I wasn’t making a new wave album,” said producer Mike Chapman, of Parallel Lines, “I was making a pop album.” Nowhere is that clearer than on the effortlessly commercial Sunday Girl: teen romance lyrics, the irresistible sweetness of its melody given a hint of toughness by Harry’s vocal. 10. One Way Or Another (1978) Hampton, Howard (December 27, 2016). "Experience Necessary: Deborah Harry in Videodrome". Criterion Collection. Archived from the original on October 9, 2019.

Harry said of her relationship with Warhol, "I think the best thing [Andy Warhol] taught me was always to be open to new things, new music, new style, new bands, new technology and just go with it. Never get mired in the past and always accept new things whatever age you are." [32] 1981–1996: Solo work and acting [ edit ] In film, Harry co-starred with Pruitt Taylor Vince and Liv Tyler in James Mangold's directorial debut Heavy (1995), playing a misanthropic waitress at an upstate New York restaurant. The following year, she filmed Mangold's Cop Land (1997), a neo-noir thriller in which she portrayed a bartender.Reed, Ryan (May 29, 2019). "Blondie's Debbie Harry Memoir 'Face It' to Release in October". Rolling Stone. Although Blondie's "Rapture" was the first song with a rap to go No. 1, Vanilla Ice's "Ice Ice Baby" was the first No. 1 rap song by a rapper". DailyRapFacts. October 2, 2019 . Retrieved June 9, 2020. As of 2019, Harry lives in New York City and in Monmouth County, New Jersey with her four dogs. [55] Philanthropy [ edit ] Harry performing in 2018, displaying an environmentalist message Her collaboration and friendship with Warhol continued and she was his first guest on the MTV show Andy Warhol's Fifteen Minutes. The first episode opened with Harry announcing the theme: "Sex, Vegetables, Brothers and Sisters". [31]