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Donna Summer

Celebrity

Donna Summer: Biography

19 photos

Birth Name: LaDonna Adrian Gaines
Birth Place: Boston, MA
Date of Birth / Zodiac Sign: 12/31/1948, Capricorn
Date of Death: 05/17/2012
Profession: Singer; songwriter; actor

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Donna Summer Fast Facts:

One of seven children (six girls, one boy).
Wasn't permitted to wear lipstick or fingernail polish as a teenager; and had a strict curfew.
Performed with a rock group called the Crow during her teen years.
Left high school two months shy of graduating after winning the part of Sheila in a production of the musical Hair that was being produced in Germany.
Joined the Vienna Folk Opera and appeared in such musicals as Porgy and Bess, Showboat and Godspell.
Worked as a backup singer at a German recording studio during the early 1970s. One of the groups she sang with was Three Dog Night.
Her U.S. debut single, the moan-heavy "Love to Love You Baby," hit No. 2 on the pop charts in 1975.
Scored her first No. 1 hit in 1978 with her rendition of Jimmy Webb's "MacArthur Park."
The 1978 hit "Last Dance," which she sang in the disco-comedy Thank God It's Friday, won the Oscar for Best Original Song for its songwriter, Paul Jabara.
Topped the album charts with three straight releases in the late 1970s: Live and More (1978), Bad Girls (1979) and On the Radio: Greatest Hits Volumes I & II (1979).
Had 19 singles top the dance charts between 1975 and 2008.
Her future husband, songwriter-keyboardist Bruce Sudano, was a member of Brooklyn Dreams, with whom she collaborated on the hit "Heaven Knows." They met in 1977 and married in 1980.
In total, she had 32 hit singles; 14 made the Top 10 and four topped the charts.
Was a talented painter who held exhibitions of her artwork from time to time.