But Margaux wasn’t just a model — she was a cultural force. She was also very well aware that her last name attracted attention.
“Of course I capitalize on my name. But, gee, I do it in style!” she told a magazine in 1979.
And there were definitely some similarities between Margaux and her grandfather. Her first modeling jobs included a shoot for Town & Country magazine in Key West. Of all Ernest Hemingway’s granddaughters, Margaux inherited his size and broad, handsome features. She carried herself with a rolling, athletic gait and embraced a philosophy of living big and seeking adventure. She once said she had “Hemingway’s spirit in her marrow.”
“I used to say that,” Margaux once explained in 1984. “But now, I’m more humble. That’s something for other people to say. I’m sort of a daredevil, I guess.”
Skiing accident in 1984
At the height of the disco era, Margaux partied at Studio 54 with icons like Bianca Jagger and Andy Warhol. She starred in her first movie, Lipstick (smeared by critics), alongside her sister Mariel Hemingway, and followed it with films like Killer Fish and Over the Brooklyn Bridge.
But behind the flashbulbs, Margaux was struggling. As a frequent presence at Studio 54, she started experimenting with alcohol and drugs.
Since her teens, she battled depression, bulimia, and epilepsy. Alcohol became her way of self-medicating. A skiing accident in 1984 left her injured and vulnerable. The weight gain that followed, along with career setbacks, sent her spiraling. She checked into rehab. She posed for Playboy in 1990 in a bid to reinvent herself.
“I’m a Hemingway. I know all about addiction. We all have the curse of alcoholism,” she once admitted.
”All drugs do is screw you up. It’s junk,” she also said.
Cause of death
The pressures of fame, the shadow of her famous grandfather, and a lifetime of internal pain created a toxic storm. Her relationships were strained — her marriages ended in divorce, and her ties to her family, especially her father, fell apart.
In the early 1990s, Margaux alleged that her father had sexually abused her during childhood. He and her mother denied it and cut off contact. Years later, her sister Mariel confirmed the claims.
On July 1, 1996, Margaux Hemingway was found dead in her small Santa Monica apartment. She had recently moved into a studio apartment near the beach.
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