1945–1965: Early life Harry was born Angela Trimble on July 1, 1945, at the
Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami, Florida. At the age of three months, she was adopted and renamed Deborah Ann Harry by Catherine (née Peters) and Richard Harry, of
Hawthorne, New Jersey, later gift shop proprietors in
Cooperstown, New York. She is of Scottish ancestry and her biological parents' surnames were Trimble and Mackenzie. Harry learned of her adoption at four years old. At first, she decided against locating her birth parents, but nonetheless, in the late 1980s, located her birth mother, a concert pianist, who chose not to establish a relationship with Harry. In her memoir, she recalls being a tomboy, spending much of her childhood playing in the woods adjacent to her home. Harry attended
Hawthorne High School, where she was voted "Best Looking", graduating in 1963. She graduated from
Centenary College in
Hackettstown, New Jersey, with an Associate of Arts degree in 1965. Before beginning her singing career, she moved to New York City in the late 1960s, and worked there as a secretary at
BBC Radio's office for one year. Later, she was a waitress at
Max's Kansas City, a
go-go dancer in a
discothèque in
Union City, New Jersey, and a
Playboy Bunny.
1966–1975: Early projects; formation of Blondie In the late 1960s, Harry began her musical career as a backing singer for the
folk rock group
The Wind in the Willows, which released an eponymous album in 1968 on
Capitol Records. In 1973, Harry joined The Stillettoes with
Elda Gentile, Billy O'Connor,
Fred Smith, Rosie Ross, and later with Amanda Jones. Shortly thereafter, the band added guitarist
Chris Stein, who became her boyfriend. In her memoir,
Face It, Harry describes having been raped at knifepoint during a burglary of the home she shared with Stein. In 1974, Harry and Stein left the Stillettoes (along with the band's bassist and drummer) and formed Angel and the Snake with Tish Bellomo and Snooky Bellomo. Shortly thereafter, they changed the name of the band to
Blondie, named after the catcall men often directed at Harry after she bleached her hair blonde. The band quickly became regulars at Max's Kansas City and
CBGB in New York City. Blondie released their
self-titled debut album in 1976; it peaked at in Australia and (later, in 1979) in the United Kingdom. Their second album,
Plastic Letters, garnered some success outside the United States, but their third album,
Parallel Lines (1978), was a worldwide hit and catapulted the group to international success. It included the global hit single "
Heart of Glass". Riding the crest of disco's domination, the track made in the US and sold nearly two million copies. It also reached in the UK and was the second highest-selling single of 1979. In June 1979, Blondie was featured on the cover of
Rolling Stone. Harry's persona, combining cool sexuality with streetwise style, became so closely associated with the group's name that many came to believe "Blondie" was the singer's name. The difference between the individual Harry and the band Blondie was emphasized by a "Blondie is a group"
button campaign by the band in 1979. The band's success continued with the release of the platinum-selling
Eat to the Beat album (UK , US ) in September.
Autoamerican (UK , US ) was released in 1980. Blondie had further hits with "
Call Me" (
American Gigolo soundtrack) (US and UK ), "
Atomic" (
Eat to the Beat album) (UK ), "
The Tide Is High" (US and UK ), and "
Rapture" (US ). During this time, both Harry and Stein befriended
graffiti artist
Fab Five Freddy, who introduced them to the emerging hip-hop scene in the Bronx. Freddy is mentioned in "Rapture". Through Fab Five Freddy they were also able to connect with
Grandmaster Flash who is played by
Jean-Michel Basquiat in the video. Grandmaster Flash said Harry "opened up so many doors for hip hop" by mentioning him in "Rapture".
Andy Warhol in 1980 produced a number of artworks of Harry's image from a single photoshoot at
the Factory. The artist created a small series of four acrylic and silkscreen ink on canvas portraits of the star in different colors, as well as Polaroids and a small number of rare
silver gelatin prints from the shoot. Stein was also present that day to capture Warhol photographing Harry in a series of his own photographs, exhibited in 2013 in London. Her collaboration and friendship with Warhol continued and she was his first guest on the MTV show ''
Andy Warhol's Fifteen Minutes''. The first episode opened with Harry announcing the theme: "Sex, Vegetables, Brothers and Sisters". Harry said of her relationship with Warhol, "I think the best thing [Andy Warhol] taught me was always to be open to new things, new music, new style, new bands, new technology and just go with it. Never get mired in the past and always accept new things whatever age you are."
1981–1996: Solo work and acting In 1981, Harry issued a press release to clarify that her name was not "Debbie Blondie" or "Debbie Harry" but rather Deborah Harry, though Harry later described her character in the band as being named "Blondie", as in this quote from the
No Exit tour book: Harry began her solo career with the album
KooKoo (1981). Produced by
Nile Rodgers and
Bernard Edwards of
Chic, the album peaked at in the US and in the UK; After Blondie split up in 1982, Harry's solo output slowed down as she cared for ailing partner Chris Stein. She released the single "Rush Rush" in 1983 (produced by
Giorgio Moroder and taken from the film
Scarface), but it was commercially unsuccessful. The same year, Harry had a leading role in
David Cronenberg's
body horror film
Videodrome (1983), playing the sadomasochistic lover of a television producer who uncovers an underground video output of
snuff films. Harry received rave reviews for her performance in the film. Critic Howard Hampton noted in a retrospective that Harry "carries herself with the wry, burned-out, but still titillated instincts of a voyager buying a one-way ticket for the outer limits. A vivid, smallish part can either anchor or undo a risky, conceptually spiky film like David Cronenberg's viscerally deranged phantasia: Harry's presence grounds it in acute, self-aware reality." A new single, "Feel the Spin" (taken from the film
Krush Groove), was released as a limited 12" single in 1985, which peaked at on the
Billboard Dance chart. In 1986, Harry released her second solo album, called
Rockbird, which peaked at in the US, and in the UK The track hit on the US Dance Charts and was released with several remixes. Harry also recorded another track with SAW during the same sessions, "Mind Over Matter", which was never officially released. "Liar, Liar" was recorded by Harry for the soundtrack album
Married to the Mob in 1988 and was produced by Mike Chapman. It was their first collaboration since the 1982 Blondie album
The Hunter. The same year, Harry starred as Velma Von Tussle in
John Waters's satirical dance film
Hairspray. Her next solo venture was the album
Def, Dumb and Blonde in 1989. At this point Harry reverted from "Debbie" to "Deborah" as her professional name. The first single "
I Want That Man" was a hit in Europe and Australia and on the US Modern Rock Charts. The success of the single propelled the album to on the UK chart, This was followed by "
Strike Me Pink" in September. Controversy surrounded the latter track's promotional video, which featured a man drowning in a water tank, resulting in its being banned. US editions of the album feature two additional tracks recorded with prerecorded music by
R.E.M.: "Tear Drops" and a cover of
Skeeter Davis's 1961 hit "
My Last Date (with You)". Also in 1993, Harry had a supporting role in a
John Carpenter-directed segment of the anthology horror film
Body Bags. In November 1993, Harry toured the UK with Stein, guitarist Peter Min, bassist Greta Brinkman, and drummer James Murphy. The set list of the Debravation Tour featured an offbeat selection of Harry material including the previously unreleased track "Close Your Eyes" (from 1989) and "Ordinary Bummer" (from the Stein-produced Iggy Pop album
Zombie Birdhouse, a track that, under the moniker Adolph's Dog, Blondie covered in 1997). Tentative plans to record these shows and release them as a live double CD never came to fruition. However, covers of
the Rolling Stones' "
Wild Horses" and
David Oliver's "
Love TKO" exist as bootlegs. In early 1994, Harry took the Debravation tour to the US. In the UK, Harry's long tenure with Chrysalis Records also came to an end after
Debravation lackluster sales, but the label released all of Blondie's albums and Harry's
KooKoo album (for the first time on CD) as remastered editions with bonus tracks. In the mid 1990s, Harry worked as a guest vocalist on several projects: She joined the avant-garde jazz ensemble
the Jazz Passengers in 1994, appearing on their album
In Love (1994). Harry also reunited with Blondie keyboardist Jimmy Destri for a cover of
Otis Blackwell's "Don't Be Cruel" for the 1995 album
Brace Yourself! A Tribute to Otis Blackwell. During this period, she also recorded a duet with actor Robert Jacks titled "Der Einziger Weg (The Only Way)", a theme for the horror film
Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation (1994), which was recorded in German and in English. Harry also served as a vocalist in
Talking Heads side project the Heads' 1996 release
No Talking, Just Head, followed by the Jazz Passengers'
Individually Twisted (1997). The same year, she collaborated with Jazz Passengers' Bill Ware in his side project Groove Thing, singing lead vocals on the club hit "Command and Obey". Another Jazz Passengers collaboration, "
The City in the Sea", appeared on the
Edgar Allan Poe tribute album
Closed on Account of Rabies (1997). In film, Harry co-starred with
Pruitt Taylor Vince and
Liv Tyler in
James Mangold's directorial debut
Heavy (1995), playing a misanthropic waitress at an upstate New York restaurant. The following year, she filmed Mangold's
Cop Land (1997), a neo-noir thriller in which she portrayed a bartender. The singer has suggested she would like her role in any biopic to be played by
Florence Pugh.
1997–2007: Blondie reformation and solo output , 1999 In 1997, Blondie began working together again for the first time in 15 years. The four original members (Harry, Stein,
Clem Burke and
Jimmy Destri) began sessions for what would become Blondie's seventh studio album,
No Exit (1999). The lead single from the album, "
Maria", debuted at in the UK, giving Blondie their sixth UK hit. "Maria" also reached in 14 countries, the top 10 on the US Dance Charts, and Top 20 on the US Adult Top 40 Charts.
No Exit debuted at in the UK and in the US. Harry appears on the 2001
Bill Ware album
Vibes 4 singing the track "Me and You" as well as on former
Police guitarist
Andy Summers's album ''Peggy's Blue Skylight'' on the track "Weird Nightmare". A
techno cover of
Stan Jones' "
Ghost Riders in the Sky" was featured on the soundtrack to the 1998 film
Three Businessmen, and was available on her website to download. Harry sings on two tracks on Andrea Griminelli's
Cinema Italiano project: "You'll Come to Me" (inspired by
Amarcord's main theme) and "When Love Comes By" (from
Il Postino), as well as on a tribute album reinterpreting the music of
Harold Arlen, on which she sings the title track "
Stormy Weather". In May 2002, she accompanied the Jazz Passengers and the
BBC Concert Orchestra in a performance of her jazz material at the
Barbican Centre in London. In 2003, she was featured vocalist on the song "Uncontrollable Love" by DJ duo Blow-Up. She also sang on the version of "
Waltzing Matilda" recorded by
Dan Zanes and Friends, released on the 2003 album
House Party. The same year, Blondie released the album
The Curse of Blondie (2003). In 2006, Harry started work in New York City on her fifth solo album,
Necessary Evil (released in 2007). Working with production duo Super Buddha (who produced the remix of Blondie's "
In the Flesh" for the 2005
Sound and Vision compilation), the first music to surface in was a
hip-hop track titled "Dirty and Deep" in which she spoke out against rapper
Lil' Kim's incarceration. Throughout 2006, a number of new tracks surfaced on Harry's
Myspace page, including "Charm Alarm", "Deep End", "Love with a Vengeance", "School for Scandal", and "Necessary Evil", as well as duets she recorded with
Miss Guy (of
Toilet Böys fame), "God Save New York" and "New York Groove". A streaming version of the lead single, "
Two Times Blue", was added to Harry's Myspace page in May 2007. On June 6, 2007, a downloadable version was released via her official website. In 2007, Harry delineated the different personae (Blondie the band, her role in the band, and Deborah Harry the singer) to an interviewer who asked why she played only solo music on the 2007
True Colors World Tour with
Cyndi Lauper: "I've put together a new trio with no Blondie members in it. I really want to make a clear definition between Debbie's solo projects and Blondie, and I hope that the audience can appreciate that and also appreciate this other material." Harry's fifth solo album,
Necessary Evil (2007), was released after she completed the True Colors World Tour. The first single, "Two Times Blue", peaked at on the US Dance Club Play chart. The album peaked at in the UK and in the U.S.
Billboard Top Independent Albums chart. Harry performed "Two Times Blue" on various talk shows to promote the album. She also started a 22-date US tour on November 8, lasting until December 9, playing small venues and clubs across the country. On January 18, 2008, an official music video for "
If I Had You" was released.
2008–present: Further musical endeavors . Harry contributed to
Fall Out Boy's 2008 album
Folie à Deux, singing on the chorus of the album's closer "West Coast Smoker". In 2010, Harry began a series of recordings (featuring solo songs and duets with
Nick Cave and others) for
The Jeffrey Lee Pierce Sessions Project. Blondie released their ninth studio album,
Panic of Girls, in 2011. In 2014, Harry made a guest appearance with
Arcade Fire at the
Coachella, Harry would appear again, with Blondie, at Coachella in 2023. In May 2014, Blondie released their tenth studio album
Ghosts of Download. In 2015, Blondie members Debbie Harry and Chris Stein made a guest appearance alongside
the Gregory Brothers in an episode of
Songify the News, and they collaborated again to parody the United States presidential election debates, 2016. In March 2015, Harry held a residency of several weeks at the Café Carlyle in New York. Blondie's eleventh studio album,
Pollinator, was released in May 2017, and debuted at in the UK. In October 2019, Harry released a memoir,
Face It, through
Dey Street Books. In 2020, Harry cameoed on the third episode of the romantic comedy web television series
High Fidelity. In 2023,
Rolling Stone ranked Harry at number 168 on its list of the 200 Greatest Singers of All Time. Harry collaborated with the
Dandy Warhols and NALA on the track "IWNSLY", released in July 2023. She also contributed vocals to the track "I Will Never Stop Loving You", which was released as a single and featured on the 2024 Dandy Warhols album
Rockmaker. ==Personal life==