Modeling agency co-founder Eileen Ford, known for launching the careers of Candice Bergen, Lauren Hutton, and Jane Fonda among several others, died Wednesday at the age of 92. Arielle Baran, a spokeswoman for Derris & Co, officially announced the death on Thursday.

Born Eileen Otte in New York City in 1922, Ford graduated from Barnard College with a degree in psychology. She acquired some modeling experience as a student and helped several friends book modeling jobs, before founding the Ford Model Agency in 1946 with her husband, Jerry Ford.

I am “fortunate to have worked in the industry at a time when legends like Eileen Ford were still reigning,” said supermodel Christy Turlington Burns, who was one of Ford’s protégés. “Being a part of the Ford Agency when I began my career was truly special. I will always remember Eileen and her indomitable presence with fondness and gratitude.”

Ford was known for typically favoring tall, thin, often blonde models with wide-set eyes and a long neck, but she helped shape a generation’s idea of beauty by maintaining that a model’s charisma is as important as her looks. Ford prided herself on her ability to detect successful personalities, and demanded professionalism from all of her clients. This constant discipline helped her turn the Ford Model Agency into one of the most successful agencies in the world.

“I see girls that I know — I absolutely know — will be star models within just a matter of weeks, and they always are,” Ford told Life magazine in 1970.

“Models are a business, and they have to treat themselves as a business,” she said in 1988. “Which means they have to take care of themselves and give up all the young joys.”

Those who knew her often noted that Ford felt a motherly responsibility toward her models. She extended invitations to her youngest models to live with her in her Upper East Side apartment, and even forbade model Kim Basinger from going out until she finished her French homework.

Eileen and Jerry’s daughter Katie took over as CEO of the Ford Model Agency in 1995, but stepped down after the company was sold to an investment bank, Stone Tower Equity Partners, in 2007.