Vikki LaMotta, born Beverly Thailer in The Bronx, New York, was an ex-wife of boxer Jake LaMotta. She married LaMotta when she was 16. It was his second marriage and Vikki's first. They divorced in 1957, after 11 years of marriage. They had a daughter Christi and two sons ? Jake Jr. and Joe ? both of whom died in 1998. Jake Jr. died of liver cancer, and Joe was killed in an airplane crash. In 1962 she married Tony Foster; they had a son, Harrison, and later divorced. She was portrayed by actress Cathy Moriarty in the Academy Award-winning 1980 film Raging Bull. She posed nude for Playboy magazine in November 1981 at age 51. She died following open-heart surgery in Boca Raton, Florida, on January 25, 2005, two days after her 75th birthday. Her book, Knockout! : the sexy, violent, extraordinary life of Vikki Lamotta, was published posthumously. [More at Wikipedia]

January 23rd, 1930 in The Bronx  /  Died:   Jan 25th, 2005 - 6 Months After Having Open Heart Surgery