“The will, signed on February 11, 2016, eight days before her death, directed that the bulk of her assets, including her literary properties, be transferred into a trust she formed in 2011. Trust documents are private.” (Indeed, the Times had to sue just to get the will unsealed.) The executor of the will is also the head of the trust and the late author’s final attorney: the controversial, mysterious, secretive Tonja P. Carter.
Category: people
Lewis Gilbert, Who Directed ‘Alfie’ And Three James Bond Films, Dead At 97
Among the 40 films he helmed were several World War II epics; Alfie, which earned five Oscar nominations and made a star of Michael Caine; the Bond titles You Only Live Twice, The Spy Who Loved Me, and Moonraker; and Educating Rita and Shirley Valentine.
Kevin Spacey Foundation Shuts Down; “No Longer Viable”
The foundation said on its website Tuesday that its trustees have concluded the work of the foundation “is no longer viable.” The foundation helped identify young artists and provide them with training and resources as they developed careers.
Filmmaker Kevin Smith Does Standup Comedy Gig, Has Massive Heart Attack
The director of Clerks, Mallrats, Dogma and other films had finished shooting the first of two comedy specials at a club near Los Angeles when he suffered a “widow-maker” coronary, with one artery fully blocked.
Nanette Fabray, Broadway And TV Star Of 1940s Through ’70s, Dead At 97
On stage, she starred in High Button Shoes, Make a Wish, and Love Life (for which she won a Tony). On the big screen, she’s remembered for Vincente Minnelli’s MGM musical The Band Wagon (she was one of those bratty baby triplets). But television was where she made her biggest mark – costarring with Sid Caesar in sketch comedy (for which she won three Emmys), playing the mothers of the lead characters in The Mary Tyler Moore Show and One Day at a Time, and appearing on countless variety and game shows, from Ed Sullivan to Carol Burnett and Hollywood Squares to Match Game.
Humorist Cynthia Heimel, 70
“In her books” – among them Sex Tips for Girls and If You Can’t Live Without Me, Why Aren’t You Dead Yet? – “and columns, Ms. Heimel wrote about bad boys, bad dates, bad sex and bad birth control, with the occasional reminiscence of blissed-out pleasure thrown in. ‘God protects drunks, infants and feisty girls,’ she once observed, and in a tumultuous, three-decade writing career, she was feistier than most.”
David Greer, Scholar Of English Songs Of The 16th And 17th Centuries, Has Died At 80
Greer, who published two volumes on lute songs and a new edition of John Dowland’s music,”was never happier than when working with old manuscripts and printed sources; he developed an extensive knowledge of these sources, their provenances and their locations.”
Peggy Cooper Cafritz, Collector And Patron Of Black Artists, Has Died At 70
The daughter of a prosperous Black family from Alabama became a force for the arts in Washington, D.C. She “was a voracious collector and champion of African and African-American artists, including Jacob Lawrence, Kara Walker, El Anatsui, Kerry James Marshall and Kehinde Wiley, [and] … she amassed one of the country’s largest private collections of African-American art.”
Emma Chambers, Actress From Vicar of Dibley And Notting Hill, Has Died At 53
Her daffy, loopy Alice on the long-running “Vicar of Dibley” came from very hard work. “Chambers would go over every line to make sure she got the rhythm and the tone of the lunatic she was playing, says Paul Mayhew-Archer, co-writer of the Vicar of Dibley. He told BBC Radio 5 live that despite most comedy series having an idiot, ‘she made Alice a completely unique, very special idiot.'”
Legendary Bollywood Actress Sridevi Has Died At 54
She began working at age four and starred in “Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada films before debuting in Hindi films. Her success led to other regional actresses like Jaya Prada to follow her to Bollywood.”