Pat Ast, 59; Model, Actress in Warhol Films, B Movies

Pat Ast, 59, the model and actress who was the muse of the designer Halston in the 1970s, died Oct. 2 at her West Hollywood home. Relatives said Ast, who had a history of diabetes, died of natural causes.

She was born in Brooklyn, and her father was a comic who performed in the Catskills. After graduating from high school, she worked as a receptionist and clerk and in a box factory into her late 20s, when she became associated with artist Andy Warhol and appeared in some of his films. This led to meeting Halston at a party in New York. The two developed a friendship. She worked in his store on Madison Avenue and became one of his models, despite the fact that she weighed 210 pounds.

Ast told a reporter for The Times some years ago that she was the total put-on. “And I love it, every minute of it,” she said.

“My main thing is that if I can make you smile, it makes me happy. I have a superiority complex, so don’t worry about me. People love me.”

In the mid-1970s, she moved to Los Angeles and appeared in several films, including such B movie classics as “Reform School Girls” and “The Incredible Shrinking Woman.”