Peggy Ann Freeman, later known as Donyale Luna, was born in Detroit, Michigan, to Nathaniel Freeman, who worked at Ford Motor Company, and Peggy, a receptionist at the YWCA. Her parents had a tumultuous relationship, with her father being abusive and often living separately from the family. When Luna was just five years old, her mother shot her father in self-defense after he returned home drunk and attacked her.
Luna's early life was marked by her mother's desire for her to pursue a career in nursing, but Luna had other aspirations. She was discovered by photographer David McCabe in 1964 while walking around barefoot in a Catholic schoolgirl's outfit at the Fisher Theater in Detroit. This chance encounter led to her moving to New Jersey to live with her aunt and eventually pursuing a career in modeling.
Despite being black, Luna denied her racial identity and claimed her mother was Mexican, her father was Mexican, and her grandmother was Irish. This fabrication was not questioned at the time, and she quickly rose to fame in the modeling world with a feature in Harper's Bazaar and a contract with photographer Richard Avedon.
However, her career was short-lived. Advertisers in the southern United States pulled their ads, and some readers even canceled their subscriptions. The magazine eventually stopped featuring her, and she moved to London in 1965. There, she continued to model and was photographed by famous fashion photographers such as David Bailey and Helmut Newton.
Luna's exotic looks and striking presence made her a fixture in the "swinging sixties" scene in London. She dated celebrities such as Brian Jones and Mick Jagger, appeared in films by Andy Warhol and Federico Fellini, and was a companion to many notable figures in the fashion, film, and music industries.
Despite her success, Luna struggled with drug addiction and her behavior became increasingly erratic. She was involved in a high-profile incident at the Cavendish Hotel in London in 1968 and was arrested and charged with assault. She continued to struggle with addiction and eventually died of an accidental heroin overdose in Rome in 1979 at the age of 34.
