Gia Carangi

Gia Marie Carangi (January 29, 1960 – November 18, 1986) was an American model, considered by many to be the first supermodel. She was featured on the cover of numerous magazines, including multiple editions of Vogue and Cosmopolitan, and appeared in advertising campaigns for luxury fashion houses such as Armani, Dior, Versace and Yves Saint Laurent.After Carangi became addicted to heroin, her career rapidly declined, which ultimately led her to quit from a modeling career in 1983. In 1986, at age 26, she died of AIDS-related complications. Believed to have contracted it from a contaminated needle, she became one of the first famous women to die of the virus. Her life was dramatized in the 1998 HBO television film Gia, directed by Michael Cristofer and starring Angelina Jolie as Carangi.