Stuti Gokhale
‘Angelyne‘ is a Peacock original biographical drama series that chronicles the life of the eponymous media icon, who shoots to fame in 80s Los Angeles by featuring on a series of billboards. While Angelyne is a public figure, she remains highly tight-lipped about her background. Moreover, she avoids anyone who tries to poke into her past, but filmmaker Max Allen and journalist Jeff Glasner finally manage to decode the mystery around Angelyne’s identity. The show also delves into her past and depicts her to have a younger sister. But does this sibling exist in real life as well? Let’s find out!
Does Angelyne Have a Sister?
Details on Angelyne’s family remained shrouded in mystery ever since she became known in Los Angeles in the 80s. In addition, she stated in interviews that she is a single child and that her parents died when she was five. This gave rise to a lot of speculations about her obscure beginnings, which were finally put to rest in 2017 when The Hollywood Reporter published an investigative feature by Gary Baum.
The journalist’s work decodes Angelyne’s true identity. It reveals her to be born as Ronia Tamar Goldberg (later Renee Tami Goldberg), the daughter of Hendrik and Bronia, two Jewish Holocaust survivors from Poland. Furthermore, Gary’s findings confirm that, as the show depicts, Angelyne does have a younger sister. Named Annette, she was born in 1952, most likely when the family resided with the Bnei Brak community of Hasidic Jews, east of Tel Aviv in Israel.
As per the report, the family migrated to America in 1959 and settled down in Fairfax, California. In 1965, when Angelyne was 14 and Annette was around 12, their mother passed away from cancer. Their father then married Deborah, a fellow Holocaust survivor and divorcee, who had a daughter named Norma from her previous marriage. Angelyne and Annette then shifted with the rest of the family to Panorama City, where they continued with school.
Angelyne’s former husband, Michael Strauss, also shared with Gary that when they were married for a brief period between 1968-69, they lived with Annette and her first husband at the corner of Hollywood Boulevard and Vine Street in Los Angeles. Following their divorce, Angelyne seemingly cut-off ties from the family and left home, while Michael went on to travel extensively. Apart from his own investigation with the help of a hobby genealogist who profiled Angelyne, Gary also spoke to Jesse Small, a filmmaker who had attempted to make a documentary on her in 2012.
Jesse, who had extensively researched Angelyne’s history, helped piece together more information on the billboard queen’s family. The former revealed to The Hollywood Reporter that she reportedly had another sister named Eugenia AKA Genia. He said, “She was disabled and passed away in 2014. It turns out she’d been living her whole life in a facility in Jerusalem, since the time the family left for America. I had an e-mail exchange with a nun who had been taking care of her.”
Jesse further continued, “She said Genia had difficulty moving but that she’d lived an incredibly long time for the condition she was in and also still had a good sense of humor. It sounds like they took really good care of her.” On top of that, he was unsure whether Angelyne was aware of Genia’s death, as she had no contact with her family for long. Not just that, Jesse was surprised, as she had allegedly denied having any sisters.
Where is Annette Now?
For his research, Jesse reportedly called Annette, who shared that she had tried to get in touch with Angelyne but never received a response. Moreover, Annette’s daughter, Cheyenne, spoke at length with Jesse and shared that her mother and aunt were rather embarrassed by their parents’ European accents while living in America. Furthermore, Cheyenne also claimed that her aunt, Angelyne, was allegedly mistreated by her father during her childhood.
“She told me that Angelyne was locked in a closet as punishment many times when she was growing up, for up to a day at a time. She was beaten in the house — that was her childhood for many years. It was very difficult…Cheyenne said that her mother named her Cheyenne because she wanted the least Jewish-sounding name she could think of, so she picked something Native American,” said Jesse.
Annette does not seem to be on social media and prefers to lead a private life, away from the media eye. As far as we can tell, around 2017, she was living in a town neighboring Oxnard, California. It is also unclear whether she has corresponded with Angelyne in recent times.
Read More: Where is Angelyne’s Wendy Wallach Now?
