Paige Young in Los AngelesPermanently Incomplete Character List. 10/19/2025
Posted on February 8, 2024
Originally part of the Start Here/About page.
As a Playboy Playmate, Paige Young experienced a minor type of celebrity status as opposed to what we think of as a Major Hollywood star. The Playmates special type of fame was at its’ highest when the issue was current. Within the same year I would say.
This type of fame Paige experienced lasted for a brief part of her short life.
She was, of course, an actual human being with a life and history besides her association with Playboy.
At times, Paige did associate with people who were more famous than she. They were major celebrities known to the mass public.
This includes (that we know of) Hugh Hefner, John Huston, Andy Warhol, Bill Cosby; Jonathan Winters, men who lived for decades with massive fame that continues outlives them. They are still talked about in 2025.
Bill Cosby is still alive as of this writing.
Others were and are famous to a smaller audience.
On this website, I have written about all these men and Paige’s connection to them.
More characters can be found in the chapter: Names Found in Paige’s Phone Book.
The men famous to a more niche audience includes
Peter Gowland, who you see at left.
Peter is the son of English film actor Gibson Gowland. And an LA native like Paige. Peter and his wife Alice ran a successful pinup and commercial photography business from the late 1940s through the 1990s.
They published dozens of books for the amateur photographer. Alice Gowland was the writer of the books and the business manager.
Paige Young was the team’s last contribution to Playboy magazine in 1968. Alice said she did not care for the more explicit direction of the magazine photographs.
Paige had modeled for Gowland years before Playboy I have learned through Richard Sample.
The only photos one can normally find on the internet of Paige Young, were taken by Peter or Alice.
For a few years, Marvin M. Mitchelson represented Paige Young in her divorce against husband Mark F. Segal in 1964. Mitchelson, a Beverly Hills lawyer was a prominent media personality in the 1970s and 80s and 90s.
Mitchelson is credited for introducing the term “Palimony” into divorce court and to the general public. He represented Michelle Triola Marvin in a financial claim against actor Lee Marvin.
Lee Marvin dumped live-in lover Michelle without a penny, or tried to. Marvin Mitchelson became famous representing her. Michelle wanted compensation for the loss of her career as a singer.
M.M.M. is all but forgotten in 2022.
The Hon. Desmond Guinness, is frequently how his name is written, is from the famous Irish beer brand family but also a highly titled, wealthy, socially elite and sometimes controversial family. Legendary photographer Slim Aarons produced some iconic photos of Desmond Guinness, one in particular with his very young children. The photo has probably been seen by more people than know the identity of Desmond Guinness.
He died in August of 2020.
DeWain Valentine, Colorado born, Venice Beach based sculptor-artist, is one of the founding members of the “Light and Space movement” or “Finish Fetish” school which was born in Venice Beach, California in the 1960s. He dated Paige for a while according to his 1st wife Darlene Valentine, who also knew Paige.
Valentine died in February of 2022.
Michael Butler was listed in Paige’s phone book, of which I have seen a portion.
The names and numbers were written down by someone else. Butler was the producer of Hair the Broadway musical. He was also part of the Santa Barbara crowd that Desmond Guinness hung around when he was in town. (One time we know, Paige Young was along as his date.)
Paige Young and her family’s journey encompass both the industry and town of Hollywood. Their experience includes WW2 and post-war Los Angeles. Their/Her journey includes places like Franklin Hills and Gardena, San Fernando Valley in the 1950s, representing the prototypical suburban middle class existence for the nation. Malibu and Topanga Canyon, Venice Beach and Westwood, in the 1960s and 70s, and the scope of the Entertainment industry throughout the 3 decades she lived.
It’s the old story of time and place and people.
Research Methods
My (ongoing) research consisted of obtaining various LA County public records like birth and death certificates, viewing City of LA building permit documents, (online), perusing telephone directories in the DTLA public library, voting records, marriage, divorce, and military records on ancestry.com.
I have spoken with a few firsthand sources. Several others refused to speak with me. I couldn’t locate some sources. At this point, many are dead. And the living people who know, aren’t talking, with the exception of the few I have written about on this blog.
What happened to Paige’s family, ex Husband, Desmond Guinness, Marvin M. Mitchelson. Updated 1/28/2025
Posted on August 26, 2020
Paige’s grandmother Virginia Young LaRocca died in August of 1976 in the Studio City Convalescent Hospital located at 11429 Ventura Blvd. Location is close to the 1950s family home at 13055 Moorpark St.
Cause of Death: Stroke per a relative on a Mormon family website. A family audio recording to a relative on a Mormon MIssion somewhere in the world. Everyone said at least a few words into the tape recorder, except for Virginia, whom they referred to as “Doing really good Today.” Virginia may have had the debilitating stroke in the early 1970s and been unaware of of her GRANDDAUGHTER Paige’s suicide in 1974.
This address is the Chase Knolls Apts in Sherman Oaks. Ironically named Huston St., not a common name.
Virginia was cremated and her ashes scattered in the ocean near the Santa Monica shoreline, just like granddaughter Paige’s ashes two years previous.
Virginia died of a stroke after one year of onset, according to her death certificate. It may have been more than a year.
Josephine’s daughter, former Warner Brothers starlet Mary Jane Harker Lanier died in 1988 in Jacksonville, Florida. Her husband Samuel Lefkovitz Lanier remarried and lived with his second wife for over 10 years until his death in 2007 at age 88, also in Florida.
The oldest child of Jane and Samuel Lanier, Samuel Harker Lanier, passed away in 2018; he was only in his 60s. A Florida lawyer, he had been disbarred due to a cocaine arrest only a few years previous.
Virginia’s sister and former Vaudeville performing and travelling partner, Josephine Young Harker, Paige Young’s great aunt, died in June of 1979 in the Jacksonville, Florida area. Public record.
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Donna Virginia LaRocca Holroyd had moved sometime in the late 60s, with mother Virginia? (had she had her stroke?) and husband Jack, to Simi Valley. Were they divorced already? Possibly as it is looking like Jack Holroyd married and divorced twice after Donna. Still need to confirm.
By 1970, Donna was the head supervisor for the Ocean View Children’s Center (5201 Squires Dr.) in Port Hueneme “for low income and welfare families…. so that the mothers (of the Valley Village neighborhood) could work or go to school.” Oxford News 1970.
Article below mentions that Donna received a degree from UCLA in Early Childhood Education.
Oxford Press Courier March 21, 1971. Her daughter Paige was probably living in Westwood or Trancas Beach by this time.
By the time of her daughter Paige’s suicide in April of 1974, Donna and Jack Holroyd were divorced. Donna was living with her mother Virginia back in Sherman Oaks. They stayed at the lovely and historic Chase Knolls Apartment Community on Huston St.
Donna’s Chase Knolls address is on Paige’s death certificate as her next of kin.
This Huston address is also on Virginia LaRocca‘s death cert. in 1976. Donna is listed as her mother’s next of kin. (See Above)
In 1980 this address appears on Donna’s own death certificate.
Donna dies of a “hypertensive arteriosclerotic cardiovascular disease,” in her Chase Knolls apartment at age 59 years. Her and Jack’s son Wesley would have been about 20 years.
Donna outlives her mother by 4 years, and her daughter by 6.
Oldest daughter and Paige’s sister Constance Smashey is listed on Donna Holroyd’s death certificate as next of kin with a Simi Valley address.
Constance and Steve Smashey divorced and Connie would move to the Palm Desert area in the 1980s. She now lives in Banning, California.
She turned down my request to ask her a few questions about her sister Paige and their family.
Wesley Scott Holroyd died of alcoholism in 2014 at age 53. He was living in the San Fernando Valley where he spent most of his life.
Paige’s father Robert Morgan Cotterell and his wife Pat, moved to Oregon in the 1970s after he retired from Douglas Air. They lived there until their deaths around 2010.
Bob Cotterell’s obituary is no longer online. When it was, there was no mention of his daughters by Donna LaRocca: Diana/Paige and Constance.
It appears that Connie has reunited with her half siblings.
Richard Sample told me that Paige drove him to meet her sister one time only. He said he “didn’t get any impression” they were close.
Paige did not disclose her personal history or childhood, to anyone I’ve talked with who knew her.
Paige’s ex-husband Mark Frederick Segal married a woman named Denise in 1974. A few years later they had a son: Ivan Mark Segal.
1985/86 Mark F. Segal stayed in the car business:
Segal sold his home on Crisp Canyon Ave. to Rex Ramsey and later bought it back from him. He sold it again and moved to Portland in the late 80s? He died there on October 16, 2012.
4133 Crisp Canyon Ave. was razed and replaced with a really horrible McMansion.
His son Ivan Segal lives in Portland and Scottsdale.
Desmond Guinness married Penelope Cuthbertson in 1984.
She is his cousin according to “International Set” gossip writer Suzy Knickerbocker back in 1973. They were not couple at that time.
Desmond continued fundraising for his Irish Georgian Society well into old age. He died on August 20, 2020. I have read Desmond had some degree of dementia.
Ex-wife Mariga and co-founder of the IGS died decades earlier.
There are numerous obituaries online for Hon. Desmond Guinness.
Desmond’s niece is fashion icon and socialite Daphne Guinness. His granddaughter is popular fashion model Jasmine Guinness.
How and where Desmond became acquainted with Paige Young is a mystery. Possibly was through John and CiCi Huston in Ireland.
Desmond on his own was well connected in Los Angeles and Southern California. He had a receptive audience in the area.
In the late 1970s……..
Paige’s divorce lawyer Marvin Mitchelson gained a reputation beyond Beverly Hills and LA. He became internationally famous when he represented Michelle Triola Marvin in her lawsuit against her live-in lover of 6 years, actor Lee Marvin.
Beverly Hills Lawyer Marvin M. Mitchelson
Mitchelson introduced the term and concept of “palimony” into the courts.
Commonly known as Marvin vs. Marvin, the case received major publicity in the mass-media of the time. It’s something I personally remember as a young teenager. I call it “People magazine” famous.
I didn’t learn the back story in detail until I researched this project. I am condensing the details for this website.
Michelle Triola Marvin was a singer in Hollywood. She felt she was owed part of Lee Marvin’s $3.2 million fortune, as she had given up her own career, per his demand, to become his live-in lover, helpmate, career advisor, and even helped to raise his 4 children from first wife Betty.
Triola said Lee Marvin had promised her life-long financial support. Triola-Marvin was abruptly dumped when Lee Marvin suddenly married his high school sweetheart Pamela Feeney in 1970. Marvin kicked Triola-Marvin out of their Malibu home and cut her off financially.
Because Michelle Triola Marvin was not legally married to Lee Marvin, she had no legal standing to demand any financial compensation.
Mitchelson saw an opportunity in California’s newly enacted “no-fault” divorce laws.
Mitchelson filed a breach-of-contract suit against Lee Marvin in February of 1972 asking for 50% of his estate.
After being rejected by two lower courts, Mitchelson pushed the case to the California Supreme Court, where he won.
The Marvin vs. Marvin case finally reached trial in January of 1979 and it quickly became a mass-media event.
The judge in the case, Judge Marshall, awarded about $100,000 to Triola-Marvin, for the salary she potentially lost giving up her career as a singer.
Lee Marvin’s attorneys appealed, and the decision was reversed, leaving Triola with nothing and Mitchelson with nothing.
Mitchelson didn’t care though, because the fame the case brought him was worth millions of dollars in representing “wronged spouses,” mainly women.
The fact that in the end, Triola got nothing was not well publicized in the many media reports. It happened after the initial hoopala had died down and was never emphasized in the reporting.
Over the years, some of the women Marvin represented were celebrities like Bianca Jagger, Zsa Zsa Gabor and Joan Collins ( a reverse of his norm as Collins was the one being sued by estranged husband Peter Holm.)
Mostly though, Mitchelson took cases of non-celebrity live-in girlfriends or mistresses of rich celebrities: Sara Dylan (Bob), Anna Kashfi (Marlon Brando) Nancy Lee Andrews (Ringo Starr), Veronica Buss and Puppi Buss (girlfriends of Los Angeles Lakers owner Jerry Buss) Soraya Khashoggi, Kayatana Harrison (Flip Wilson.)
Marvin represented a few men: Mark Christian, ex-lover of Rock Hudson, in his widely publicized case against Hudson’s estate for failing to disclose his AIDS status to Christian.
Mel Torme, Carl Sagan and Sonny Bono were other clients.
Mitchelson was disbarred in 1988 for grossly overcharging clients and went to prison in 1993 for tax evasion.
Marvin Mitchelson was released from prison in 1998 and died in 2004.
Lee Marvin died in 1987 and is buried in Arlington National Cemetery.
Michelle Triola went on to have a long live-in relationship with actor- comedian Dick Van Dyke. She died of lung cancer in 2009.
Information from: Ladies’ Man: The Life & Trials of Marvin Mitchelson, by John A. Jenkins. The only published biography of Marvin Mitchelson. It’ a fascinating look at an LA character of his time, nearly forgotten today.
Paige Young in Los Angeles 