Six months after his death, it’s come to light that film legend Tony Curtis chose to leave none of his children, including film star Jamie Lee Curtis, his daughter with Psycho star Janet Leigh, a single cent. His second of six wives Christine Kauffman, mother of two of his daughters, told the London Daily Mail recently she could think of no reason the star of Hollywood classics, such as Some Like It Hot and Spartacus, would disinherit any of his children.
In actuality, the $60 million estate has been left in trust with the apparent intent for it to be distributed among the children. The problem is that his wife, Jill Vandenburg, a former lingerie model, was named the administrator and given “absolute discretion.”
The fast-living matinee idol’s six children, however, don’t have much faith in their stepmother. Some have contemplated and even taken legal action.
Inheritances are an emotional subject for the survivors — and even for the living, who sometimes can’t anticipate the consequences of their action or inaction.
Lucille Ball, famous for the mayhem she caused on the landmark television 1950s program I Love Lucy, had no way of knowing the challenges her children would face two decades after her death.
Following Ball’s death, her second husband and widower Gary Morton married Susie Morton. Gary Morton died in 1999. Susie Morton, who was deemed his heir, was in possession of some of Ball’s memorabilia, including jewelry, love letters, awards and other personal items, and decided in 2010 to auction it off.
Incensed, Lucie Arnaz Luckinbill, Ball’s daughter with first husband Desi Arnaz, claimed the items headed for the auction block were rightfully hers. Susie Morton filed a suit in L.A. Superior Court to determine ownership.
Luckinbill won on a legal basis, but Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Robert O'Brien agreed to block the sale only if she could put up a $250,000 bond. The price, Luckinbill’s lawyer said, was too steep.
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