Dayle Haddon

Dayle Haddon (May 26, 1948 – December 27, 2024) was a Canadian model, actress, author and philanthropist whose career spanned more than four decades. Born in Montreal, Quebec, she trained as a ballet dancer from a young age and joined Les Grands Ballets Canadiens at thirteen, but turned to modeling in the mid‑1960s to finance her dance studies. After a 1966 feature in the Montreal Star caught the eye of Eileen Ford, she signed with the Ford Modeling Agency and quickly became a fixture on the covers of Seventeen, Harper’s Bazaar and other fashion magazines. Her breakthrough came in 1973 when she appeared on the cover of the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue, a feat that cemented her status as an international fashion icon. During the 1970s and 1980s Haddon represented major beauty brands such as Max Factor, Revlon and Estée Lauder, and she also posed nude for Playboy in April 1973. Parallel to her modeling work, she pursued an acting career, debuting in Disney’s The World’s Greatest Athlete (1973) and later appearing in films such as Madame Claude (1977) and North Dallas Forty (1979). Although she was originally cast as Dale Arden in the 1980 remake of Flash Gordon, she was replaced before filming began. After a brief hiatus in the mid‑1980s, she returned to the screen with a starring role in Cyborg (1989). Following the murder of her husband, French businessman Glenn Souham, in 1986, Haddon revived her modeling career in her late thirties, becoming the face of L’Oréal’s anti‑aging campaigns and breaking age‑related taboos in cosmetics advertising. She authored the best‑selling guide Ageless Beauty: A Woman’s Guide to Lifelong Beauty and Well‑Being (1999) and served as a wellness contributor on CBS’s The Early Show. A dedicated humanitarian, she was appointed a UNICEF ambassador in 2008 and founded the non‑profit WomenOne, which partnered with Free The Children to fund girls’ education in Kenya. Haddon died unexpectedly of carbon monoxide poisoning at her daughter’s Pennsylvania home on December 27 2024, aged 76.