Hutton seriously injured in motorcyle crash in Nevada

Monday, Oct. 23, 2000 | 11 a.m.

Actress and model Lauren Hutton was seriously injured when her motorcycle crashed 25 miles east of Las Vegas during a group ride with other celebrities.

Hutton, 55, was listed in serious condition Sunday at University Medical Center, where she's being treated for multiple leg fractures, scrapes and bruises, said hospital spokesman Dale Pugh.

Hutton was riding Saturday along Nevada Route 167 in the Lake Mead National Recreation Area when her motorcycle ran off the roadway and crashed.

The National Park Service said she was wearing a helmet at the time and the cause of the accident is under investigation.

Hutton was riding with actors Dennis Hopper and Jeremy Irons and other motorcycle enthusiasts as part of a planned 100-mile trip across Southern Nevada.

The ride was held in conjunction with Friday's announcement of plans by the Hermitage-Guggenheim Museum to open next year with masterpieces from both collections at The Venetian resort on the Las Vegas Strip.

The inaugural exhibition will be "The Art of the Motorcycle" that opened at the Guggenheim Museum in New York in 1998.

The Guggenheim Motorcycle Club, to which Hutton belongs, was born out of the success of the exhibit.

Guggenheim Foundation Director Thomas Krens said a medical team accompanied Saturday's ride and immediatly administered first aid to Hutton before she was flown by helicopter to the hospital.

Hutton has said she started riding motorcycles before she bought her first car.

"I love the feeling of being a naked egg atop that throbbing steel," she told the Las Vegas Review-Journal on Friday. "You feel vulnerable but so alive."

Hutton, known for the signature gap between her front teeth, became called the first supermodel by some after appearing on the cover of Vogue a record 25 times in the 1960s and 1970s.

Since she began acting in 1968, she has appeared in more than 50 films, including "American Gigolo" in 1978 and "Lassiter" in 1984.

She had cut down on her film work recently, returning to a successful modeling career.