Movie fans who love a mystery
will be salivating over the demise of zillionaire film producer Steve Bing, who
was found dead Monday at the base of the Century City residential tower where
he had a luxury apartment on the 27th floor. The strong indication
is that he leaped to his death. I slightly knew his mother Helen, a gracious
lady who was a leading L.A. philanthropist. The fifty-five-year-old Bing was a
do-gooder in his own right, pledging funds to charitable causes and giving
major support to the Democratic Party. He also had a serious connection to
Hollywood. His reported $80 million investment made possible the screen version
of The Polar Express, which went on to earn $285 million globally. He
was behind the Rolling Stones concert film Shine a Light, directed by
Martin Scorsese, as well as a Jerry Lee Lewis album, Last Man Standing.
Nor was Steve Bing just
valued for his money. He wrote several films and TV episodes, and directed one,
Every Breath. Among his 18 producer credits was a popular action flick, Get
Carter. Though he kept a low profile, he made headlines when he was
revealed to be the father of the son born in 2002 to British glamor-girl
Elizabeth Hurley. Now a man who seemed to have everything, and lots of it, is
gone. Suicide, apparently. But why?
There’s no mystery about the
death that same day of 80-year-old Joel Schumacher, who succumbed to cancer in
New York City. I wasn’t aware until recently that Schumacher started out as a
costume designer, beginning with 1972’s adaptation of Joan Didion’s Hollywood
novel, Play It As It Lays. He costumed six films in all, including Woody
Allen’s futuristic romp, Sleeper. He then transitioned into
screenwriting, getting his name on such popular entertainments as Car Wash
and The Wiz, before making the leap into directing with The Incredible
Shrinking Woman in 1981.For the Brat Pack hit St. Elmo’s Fire, he
both wrote and directed. Of his early directorial efforts, I’m partial to the spooky charms of The
Lost Boys, the teen vampire saga set in picturesque Santa Cruz.
Once Schumacher’s directorial
career got rolling, he proved a master at bringing to the screen the tense legal
dramas of John Grisham, including The Client and A Time to Kill. He
won the hearts of fans with thrillers of all kind (Phone Booth, starring
Colin Farrell, is a prime example), and is known for his colorful contributions
to the Batman screen franchise.
(Yes, he’s the genius behind casting George Clooney in Batman &
Robin and adding nipples to the Bat
Suit.)
Despite his mass appeal, top
critical honors eluded him, though that didn’t stop him from trying. In 2004,
he directed a splashy cinematic version of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s stage musical,
The Phantom of the Opera. (Its three Oscar nominations were all in
technical categories.)
But I want to end here with a
nod to one of his earliest films, The Last of Sheila. In 1973 Schumacher
designed the costumes for this twisty whodunit. It was written by none other
than Stephen Sondheim and Anthony Perkins, both great lovers of puzzles and
word games. The story features beautiful Hollywood folk (Richard Benjamin, Dyan
Cannon, Raquel Welch among them) cruising the Mediterranean aboard a luxury
yacht, all of them somehow connected to a gossip columnist who’d died a year
earlier in a hit-and-run attack. Through an elaborate game proposed by host
James Coburn, secrets are revealed and it’s clear that nothing is what it
seems. Which is why I can’t stop wondering about the fate of poor Steve Bing.
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