Steve Bing dead: Liz Hurley’s ex dies by suicide aged 55
Hollywood power player and the father to Liz Hurley’s only son, Damian, Steve Bing has died in Los Angeles by apparent suicide aged 55.
Movie mogul and father to Liz Hurley’s only child, Steve Bing has died by suicide at the age of 55, it is being reported.
TMZ reports that Bing, who wrote the comedy film Kangaroo Jack in 2003 and later invested nearly $US100 million in the animated hit Polar Express, has died at his luxury apartment building in LA’s Century City neighbourhood.
The outlet quotes sources close to Bing as saying he had been depressed about being isolating in quarantine during the coronavirus pandemic.
Bing became a Hollywood power player after inheriting $US600 million from his grandfather on his 18th birthday, dropping out of college and using the money to found his own company, Shangri-La Entertainment.
His credits as an executive producer include Get Carter (2000), Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World (2005), Youth in Revolt (2009) and Rock the Kasbah (2015).
But many celeb watchers would better know Bing for his turbulent personal life rather than his behind-the-scenes Hollywood career. He reportedly dated actresses including Farrah Fawcett, Sharon Stone, Uma Thurman, model and TV personality Brooke Burns and Aussie Nicole Kidman.
Bing and Kidman were linked in 2004 and again the next year, when Kidman was spotted showing Bing around Sydney. She wed husband Keith Urban in 2006.
A relationship with actress and model Elizabeth Hurley from 2000-01 produced a son, actor and model Damian Hurley, born in 2002. Bing initially denied paternity, claiming that he and Hurley’s relationship was brief and non-exclusive - a DNA test later showed he was the father. It’s understood Bing and his only son did not have a relationship.
He is survived by Hurley and a daughter, Kira Bonder, who he had with tennis player Lisa Bonder. Both of his children were at the centre of high profile paternity disputes. After Kira’s birth in 1999, private detective Anthony Pellicano famously swiped a piece of dental floss used by Bing to prove his DNA matched hers.
Last year it was reported that Damian, 18, could stand to inherit nothing of his father’s vast fortune amid a nasty legal battle with his biological grandfather.
The bulk of Bing’s fortune came from his grandfather, New York real estate baron Leo S. Bing.
Hurley’s grandfather, Dr Peter Bing, last year argued that the teen isn’t eligible to become a Bing heir as he was “born out of wedlock”.
The trust, established in 1980, “would not benefit any person bought out of wedlock unless that person had lived for a substantial period of time as a regular member of the household”, according to court documents, The Mirror reports.
An affidavit in that court case claimed that Bing had never met his son Damian, and had only met daughter Kira once she was an adult.
But Bing’s own legal team rejected that claim, accusing his father of “orchestrating a massive money-grab” with his sister Mary, 53, so her children would inherit more money.
But a Los Angeles judge ruled that Damian and Kira were beneficiaries to Dr Peter Bing’s trust, meaning both stand to inherit many millions of dollars after the sad news of Steve’s death today.
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