The Suicide of Lea Nikki Bacharach, Daughter of Angie Dickinson & Burt Bacharach: 17 Sad Years Later

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It’s been seventeen years since the tragic suicide of Lea Nikki Bacharach, the daughter of actress Angie Dickinson and music legend Burt Bacharach. Lea Nikki was only 40 years old when she ended her life in 2007. She battled Asperger’s disorder (a form of autism), and this is her story.

A Closer Look

Lea Nikki Bacharach was born on July 12, 1966, to actress Angie Dickinson, future star of TV’s Police Woman, and songwriter Burt Bacharach, whose work would be recorded by esteemed performers such as Dionne Warwick and Perry Como.

In the 1950s, Dickinson made her initial big screen mark in Western movies like Gun the Man Down (1956) and Rio Bravo (1959). In 1965, she married Bacharach, and her daughter Nikki arrived one year later.

However, Nikki was having issues from birth. As Dickinson later relayed in Los Angeles Magazine, her water broke three months early, placing her in labor for 26 hours.

Upon Nikki’s birth, the infant weighed a mere 1 lb, 8 oz. It was not clear that she would survive. At first, Dickinson found it a challenge to visit her newborn daughter, while both she and Burt were able to hold the child.

Due to the then-known medical knowledge, even just touching premature infants was a risk. As such, little Nikki would spend her initial few months of life in an incubator.

Lea Nikki Bacharach was placed by her mother at the Wilson Center, a psychiatric residential treatment facility for adolescents in Faribault, Minnesota. She remained there for nine years.

Decades Later Suicide Was Niki’s Unfortunate Choice

On January 4, 2007, Lea Nikki Bacharach quietly and peacefully committed suicide to escape the ravages to her brain brought on by Asperger’s. She expired from suffocation utilizing a plastic bag and helium.

Her Parents

When Lea Nikki's parents Angie Dickinson and Burt Bacharach wed, it was the second marriage for both. Bacharach would become the Oscar-winning composer of “Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head,” and “What the World Needs Now is Love,” and Dickinson, beyond TV's Police Woman, would become later known for more movies such as like Dressed to Kill (1980).

Bacharach, who died at 94 in 2023, had three children from other marriages.

Song By Her Father

In 1969, Burt Bacharach composed a song, titled, "Nikki," about his daughter upon learning of the details of her physical malady were clarified. ABC-TV utilized the tune as the opening credit theme for the network's popular Movie of the Week series. It's best known as an instrumental piece but lyrics were written, including the following poignant chorus:

"Nikki, it's you

Nikki, where can you be?

It's you, no one but you for me

I've been so lonely since you went away

I won't spend a happy day

Til you're back in my arms."