Sassoon's daughter dies at 33

The troubled daughter of hairdresser Vidal Sassoon has died in her sleep of an apparent overdose.

Actress and model Catya Sassoon, who admitted taking drugs when only six, said she had been raped aged nine and had sexual relations with her father's friends at 13, died after attending a New Year's Eve party in Hollywood. She was 33.

According to her manager, Hilly Elkins, the actress, whose last film was Bloodfist VI - Ground Zero, in 1994, suffered from high blood pressure.

He said: "She complained of feeling woozy and they left the party and went home."

A few hours later her husband-Joe Myers, discovered she was not breathing, said Elkins. Post mortem results are pending.

Ms Sassoon's flamboyant lifestyle followed her multimillionaire British father's move to Hollywood.

Her mother Beverley once said: "There were times I felt I was going to lose her."

Catya Sassoon dropped out of Beverly Hills High School at 14 and became a Prestige agency model in New York. She made her film debut in 1985 opposite James Spader and Robert Downey Jr in Tuff Turf.