A Model Mystery Solved

I just solved a mystery today.

Everyone remembers the ad campaign from the French cosmetics company Lancôme that featured Isabella Rossellini, Ingrid Bergman's perfectly lovely daughter. But I'd always wondered who the woman who was Lancôme's spokemodel before Isabella Rossellini was. She had long chestnut brown hair and a strikingly sweet face. I remember those old ads, and how lovely this mystery woman looked. And I never could find out who she was. Attentive readers might remember that I looked into this last year but I didn't get anywhere. Anyway, I found a picture of her on the Internet and renewed my inquiry. All I was able to find out on my own as that the woman's first name was Nancy. After that, I didn't get anywhere.

Until now. I posted "Nancy"'s picture on a message board and asked who she was, and three people gave me the answer. Her name was Nancy Dutiel (sometimes spelled "Nancy Duteil"), and she apparently got married and became Nancy Stafford (not to be confused with the "Matlock" actress of the same name). She was only the Lancôme spokesmodel for the North American market; the much more famous Carol Alt was Lancôme's spokesmodel in Europe. Both were replaced by Isabella Rossellini worldwide in 1982. Okay, that's not a full biography, but it's a whole lot more than I knew about her yesterday. Most of all, I know her name. And I now can say . . . I had such a big crush on Nancy Dutiel. :-)