Vidal Sassoon (17 January 1928 - 9 May 2012) was a British hairdresser . ^[1] He was born in Hammersmith , London to Sephardi Jewish parents. ^[1] He moved to New York in the late 1960s. ^[1] He later moved to Los Angeles , California . ^[1] Sassoon was married four times. The first three marriages ended in divorce . His second marriage was to Canadian actress Beverly Adams (born 1940). ^[1] The couple had three children together and adopted another. ^[1] Sassoon was diagnosed with leukemia in 2009 ^[1] and died at his Bel Air, Los Angeles home. His fourth marriage lasted until his death.