Sharon Tate was born in Dallas, Texas, on January 24, 1943, the oldest daughter of U.S. Army Major Paul J. Tate. At the age of six months Sharon Tate was elected Miss Tiny Tot of Dallas. Her mother had sent in photos of the beautiful baby to contest officials. Sharon’s father was in the Regular Army, and was then stationed in Dallas. (Both her parents were natives of Houston.) As Sharon grew up, the family moved around in Army style, her father frequently absent from home.  

"S. Paul J. Tate and family moving into the first home of New Government Leasing Program at 2815 Otis Drive Alameda – 13 February 1956 – San Francisco – California" (Left to right: S. Paul Tate, Sharon Tate, Mrs. Tate holding Debra Tate)

She lived the typical gypsy existence of an army brat for 16 years, moving from Dallas to Houston, El Paso, Tacoma, Washington, D.C., and Verona, Italy.

At 16 she was elected Miss Richland, Washington, and a short time later named Miss Autorama. At the age of 17 she was in Verona, Italy, where her father was stationed, and the prizes mounted. At Vicenza American High she was a cheerleader and baton twirler, and was chosen Homecoming Queen and Queen of the Senior Prom. 

She daydreamed at this time about becoming a psychiatrist and a ballerina, and had little to do with her classmates. Yet if any far-out stunts or fads were proposed, this terribly quiet girl was ready to lead the way, “If miniskirts had come in then, ”she said, “I’d have worn the shortest one.”

Her father was very strict with her as she budded through adolescence, turning thumbs down on potential boyfriends and making her stay in nights. He was very strong and knew how to take charge.

It was in Verona that she met a handsome American actor named Richard Beymer who was making a film called "The Adventures of a Young Man"  .

“Richard told me ‘you oughta be in pictures’ and I believed in him,” said Sharon.  “I always had Hollywood on my mind.”

She worked as an extra in "The Adventures of a Young Man"  and at the time she also dated him, seen in the picture below with Sharon, Ricardo Montalban and Susan Strasberg.

Beymer gave her Hal Gefsky's phone number - who was his agent in Hollywood - and said that she should call him whenever she went back to the States. In the same spring, on a tour of Venice, she was spotted by the choreographer for The Pat Boone Show, which was being filmed in Italy. She next appeared very briefly in one of Boone’s TV shows.

While in Italy, she also got a bit part in "Barabbas"

"I was so happy when my father was transferred from Italy back to Southern California (February 1962), which is such easy distance of Hollywood."

Back in the United States, Sharon called Hal Gefsky. He later said that "she was so beautiful that I didn't know what to do with her. I think the first thing I did was take her to a puppet show.” And he signed her immediately. 

with Hal Gefsky

She appeared in television commercials for Chevrolet automobiles, Santa Fé cigarettes and also took a job handing out Kelly-Kalani wine to Hollywood dinners (in the photo below, with the Mayor of Los Angeles).  

He also got her work because her father, in Calvinistic style, had only given her a few dollars to sink or swim on. People who knew her during this period agree on one thing: She was the most beautiful girl in the world. “Everywhere I took her she caused a sensation,” Gefsky said. “I would take her into a restaurant and the owner would pay for her meal. Photographers kept stopping her on the street. I’ve lived in Hollywood since the mid-Forties, but I’ve never seen anything like it before or since.”

Since they shared the same agent, Sharon and Richard Beymer dated for a while at the time and he became her first lover.

In 1963 Gefsky tried to get an audition for Sharon for a new TV show and that's how she met the producer Martin Ransohoff, who was so impressed with her beauty that decided to sponsor her for motion pictures. “Draw up a contract,” he shouted. “Get her mother. Get my lawyer. This is the girl I want! Sweetie, I’m gonna make you a star!”. He had not seen a screen test, not even a still photograph. She had hardly opened her mouth. But Marty Ransohoff had his fantasies and Sharon Tate walked into one of his fondest ones. “I have this dream,” Ransohoff said in an interview in 1967, “where I’ll discover a beautiful girl who’s a nobody and turn her into a star everybody wants. I’ll do it like L. B. Mayer used to, only better. But once she’s successful, then I’ll lose interest. That’s how my dream goes, I don’t give two cents now for Tuesday Weld or Ann-Margret...”

Sharon signed an exclusive 7-year-contract with Filmways Inc. (she would receive around $750.00 a month) and Ransohoff took charge. Gefsky, a nice man, bowed out. At first, she lived in complete fear of Ransohoff, and did as she was told.

Sharon Tate, the little girl from Dallas, was going into hiding. Sharon Tate, Movie Star, was going to be manufactured.

“She wouldn’t even eat a hamburger if he told her not to,” a friend from that period said.

“They said they had a plan for me. They would train me and prepare me,” she said in an interview. “I was immediately put into training - like a racehorse.” Dramatics. Singing. Dancing. Bodybuilding. Walking. Talking. Three years went by. Sharon was completely under wraps.

While she was being prepared, she also appeared on the television series Mr. Ed, The Man from U.N.C.L.E. and The Beverly Hillbillies, all produced by Ransohoff. Most of the time she was wearing a black wig. He was believed to have invested over $100,000.00 to promote Sharon as the next Hollywood star.  

It was also Gefsky who introduced her to Phillipe Fourquet later in 1963 at 20th Century Fox where he was shooting Take her she's mine with Sandra Dee. 

According to her biographer ,their relationship was rather turbulent and once she was even rushed to the hospital for emergency treatment. But these allegations were never proven as is mentioned in Biography Channel's bio of Sharon Tate. The relationship lasted for over a year and he eventually went back to France.

In 1964 Ransohoff wanted to cast her in "The Cincinnati Kid” – his own movie - with Steve McQueen, Ann Margret and Edward G. Robinson, directed by Sam Peckinpah. She had her first screen test but the director thought she didn't have enough experience and they decided to cast Tuesday Weld instead.

On Thanksgiving Day she met Jay Sebring and they soon became an item.

Jay Sebring was one of the remarkable Hollywood figures at that time. He was the first celebrity barber, and he became part of the scene. He was also part of Warren Beatty’s composite character in the film Shampoo.

“Jay was a wonderful guy and when he was in a good mood, he could be very funny. I think he had a social hang-up about being a barber, feeling that it put him on a lower step than the crowd he palled around with. He craved acceptance. He lived in the house where Jean Harlow’s husband Paul Bern had committed suicide shortly after they were married. Paul Newman and Steve McQueen were Jay’s special buddies. They all loved motorcycles.  Jay was credited with launching the trend of hairstyling for men. He was called a hairstylist, never a barber. Practically every male movie star in town went to him. He brought out his own line of products. Jay had a private room for his steady clients so that they wouldn’t have to be seen by the other customers “ Dominick Dunne later recalled. It was in that room that Sharon Tate would often be sitting in a chair, just to be with Jay as he worked. “Jay was so proud of her. He couldn’t stop looking at her. It was as if he couldn’t believe he had a girlfriend that beautiful. I’ve never seen a guy more madly in love than Jay was with Sharon”

At Jay's home

Later that year she was offered a role in Tarzan and The Valley of Gold  but Ransohoff turned it down because he thought that it wasn't good enough for her. 

"Mike Henry with Major, a 7-year-old lion, and Sharon Tate, who was originally intended for the part that went to Nancy Kovac"

Some time later Sharon was persuaded by Jay and Steve McQueen to change agents and with some reluctance she signed with Stan Kamen, of the famous William Morris Agency. But Sharon was loyal to Gefsky and was adamant that he should continue to benefit from her career. Kaman would pay Gefsky ten percent of Sharon’s income, while he himself also took a regular commission. She was in effect paying commission to two different men, one of whom was no longer representing her. “It was one of the most selfless and loyal things anyone’s ever done for me in this business,” Gefsky later said.

Jay Sebring really wanted to get married but Sharon feared she was too young. In an interview in 1966 she said that she had not married him because she was “not organized” and “not ready for wifehood”.

In the summer of 1965 Ransohoff finally found a suitable role for her and in September she went to Europe to shoot Eye of the devil .

“Sharon was ecstatic, and Jay was ecstatic for her. The movie was being shot in England and France, and before Sharon left, we drank champagne in Jay’s private room and wished her well.” remembers Dominick Dunne.

Sharon’s apartment in London  – 65, Eaton Place