Steve Bing suicide: What led to filmmaker and philanthropist and the father to Elizabeth Hurley’s 18 year old son Damian, jumping from 27th floor Century City, LA apartment?
Steve Bing, filmmaker and philanthropist and father to British actress, Elizabeth Hurley‘s 18 year old son Damian, on Monday committed suicide after jumping to his death from the 27th floor of the Century City, California neighborhood luxury building where he lived, Deadline reports.
A Los Angeles County Coroner spokesperson told people, Bing having being pronounced dead at the scene at 1:10 p.m.
$590 million worth at time of death
Bing, 55, was estimated to have a net worth of $590 million at the time of his death.
Sources told TMZ that the filmmaker and financier he’d been ‘depressed’ about being isolated during coronavirus, but it is unclear if that had anything to do with his suicide. Others have since fielded the idea Bing’s death may have been politically motivated, linking him to the recent death of Jeffrey Epstein and a big donor of the Clinton’s.
Bing’s fortune came from his grandfather Leo, who built luxury apartment houses in New York in the 1920s.
Rise to prominence following Liz Hurley affair
His father, Dr Peter Bing, worked on public health issues for the Johnson White House before relocating to Los Angeles, where he attends to the family business.
The family has appeared on the Forbes list of the 400 richest Americans.
Despite his huge inheritance, Bing was not well known to the general public until his relationship with Hurley in 2000. The couple had been together for a year before splitting. Prior to the pair meeting, Hurley had been with former partner, British actor, Hugh Grant for 13 years before the pair calling it quits.
The philanthropist fathered, Hurley’s son, Damian. At the time of his 18th birthday, father and son had yet to meet.
Before even finishing high school, Bing co-wrote his first screenplay, ‘Missing in Action,’ with veteran sitcom writer Arthur Silver.
It was made into a Chuck Norris film and spawned a sequel.
He inherited his fortune on his 18th birthday, and dropped out of Stanford in his junior year to pursue filmmaking.
— Us Weekly (@usweekly) June 23, 2020
High flyer, high friends who contested celebrity birth
In the early 1990s he reportedly checked into the Hotel Bel-Air for one night, and then stayed there for nine years.
Bing maintained a low profile, but was forced into the spotlight following his relationship with Hurley and a subsequent paternity suit.
Bing said to count Warren Beatty, James Caan, Hugh Hefner and Mick Jagger among his friends.
Bing was best known professionally for writing the 2003 film Kangaroo Jack.
Soon after the birth of Hurley’s son, Damian, Bing issued a news release saying that the former couple had not been in an exclusive relationship and that it was ‘her choice to be a single mother.’
Bing initially disputed Hurley’s claim he was the father but later a DNA test proved otherwise.
Steve Bing was also one of the driving forces to coerce Graydon Carter of Vanity Fair not to publish a piece on Jeffrey Epstein (and Ghislaine Maxwell) written by John Connolly for Vanity Fair. https://t.co/lHleQiDrRB
— Enty (@entylawyer) June 23, 2020
Entanglement with billionaire Kirk Kerkorian
In the same year that Damian was born, 2001, Bing was faced with a paternity suit from a second woman, professional tennis player, Lisa Bonder.
Bonder, who in 1984 was ranked 9th in the world in singles, was involved in a high-profile child support lawsuit with her ex-husband of 28 days, billionaire Kirk Kerkorian.
Kerkorian, 48 years older than Bonder, suspected that Bing – Bonder’s ex boyfriend – was the father of her daughter.
Kerkorian hired infamous private eye Anthony Pellicano to investigate, and Pellicano took used dental floss from Bing’s trashcan to do a DNA test confirming he was indeed the father.
Pellicano also wiretapped Bonder’s phone calls.
Pellicano subsequently was convicted on various charges, including wiretapping, received a 15-year prison sentence.
Steve Bing was my friend and my partner. He was a good man who loved movies and music and cared passionately about fairness. Simple but important concept. I loved him. Depression is fucking horrible. Hold your friends close.
— Josh Olson (@joshuarolson) June 23, 2020
Attempt to cut illegitimates out of inheritance
Dr Peter Bing, Damian’s grandfather, attempted in 2018 to cut his ‘born out of wedlock’ grandson from a sizeable inheritance from his will.
Peter Bing, who donated $50 million to Stanford University in 2006, established a trust in 1980 to ‘benefit [his] future grandchildren’, who were born or adopted at a young age by Steve or his daughter Mary, according to court papers.
The trust states children who were born out of wedlock and who didn’t live in their parent’s home for a significant amount of time as a minor, would not be considered as beneficiaries.
Close confidante of Bill Clinton & Ron Burkle jumps off a building to his death—another figure in the Epstein nexus dead of an extraordinary suicidehttps://t.co/K8lJd5x5ff
— TrueAnon Pod (@TrueAnonPod) June 23, 2020
Ongoing investments and fundraising
The elder Bing also states that Damian Hurley would not be considered as a beneficiary either because he was born out of wedlock and not only never lived with his film producer father but ‘never met’ him.
However, in July 2019, an LA judge ruled that Damian and his half-sister Kira Kerkorian were indeed beneficiaries to Dr Bing’s trust.
Bing has also been romantically connected to Uma Thurman and Naomi Campbell.
In 2002 Bing was the largest donor to the Natural Resources Defense Council, contributing $10 million.
He had contributed $3.5 million to support and defend the 1998 initiative that imposed a 50-cent-per-pack tax on cigarettes to fund child-care and anti-tobacco programs for preschoolers, and was generous to Democratic candidates.
On the night of the 2000 general election, Bing immediately committed $200,000 to the recount effort.
He also pledged $25 million to Stanford University.
