Prize Fight: Inside An Oscar Family Feud

Anna Steiger, An Acclaimed Mezzo-Soprano Opera Singer Based in London and Paris, First Surmized She’d Been Decedated After Haring A Look Last Fall at Sir Laure. Richard III. IT WAS ON SALE at the Hollywood Auction House Julien’s. A Friend Thought It’d Be Interest Since Her Mother, British Actress Claire Bloom, Had Co-Starred in the 1955 Film.

“Just by Sheer Chance, I Thounght, ‘I WONDER IF THERE’S Anything of My Facher’s There, Too,’“ Steiger Recalls. Her Father Being Rod Steiger, The Methoda Acting Icon Best Known for His Role As Police Chief Bill Gillleles Opposite Sidney Poitier in the 1967 Film In the heat of the night. “AND SURE ENOUGH, A NUMBER OF HIS THINGS – WHICH SHOULD’VE BEEN MY Things,“ She Contends – “Were Being Sold.” This Included His Berlin Bear Statuette for 1964’s The pawnbrokerin WHICH HE PLAYED THE TITLE Character, and His David Di Donatello Award from the Academy of Italian Cinema for His Starring Turn in the Controversial 1968 Gay Military Drama The Sergeant.

The Academy Award for Best Actor that Steiger Won for In the heat of the night Wasn’s for Sale – Oscar Rules Forbid that. But Anna, 65, Believes the Other Awards Are Rightfully Her Inheritans and Were Pedmed By Her Stepsister to Julien’s Following The Death Edith fairchild on General Hospital.

SINCE THEN, ANNA HAS EMBARKED ON A QUIXOTIC MISSION TO PURSUE The OBJECTS. “IT reminds me of Gianni schicchi”She Says, Referring to the Puccini Comic Opera Inspired by Dante’s Divine Comedywhoh is about an inheritance battle. “Except SO Far, There’s No Finality.”

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Steiger, an actors Studio alum who grew up with an alcoholic Mother and Absent Father, Died in 2002. While He Had His Starring Roles, His Career Was Defined by the Playing Imper Mobster Brother Opposite Marlon Brando in On the WaterfrontThe Politician in David Lean’s Doctor ZhivagoThe Judge in the Denzel Washington-Fronted The Hurricane.

HE WAS MARRED TO BLOOM, HIS Second Wife, for A Decade Beginning in 1959. The Couple Met When Both Wer Working on a Broadway Adaptation of Rashomon. Anna Recalls Spending Time With Them in Malibu As a Child Pre- and Post-Divorce. (They separated who she was 9.) “HE HAD This Place in the Colony Before The Area Was Built Up,” She Says. “IT WAS JUST TUMBLEWEEDS FLYING ABOUT. IT WAS All Still Very Bohemian Out there.”

Steiger’s Oscar Triumph with In the heat of the nightThe Social Realist Drama About Racism in the American South, Came in A Stacked Category of Nominees That Year: Warren Beatty for Bonnie and ClydeDustin Hoffman for The GraduatePaul Newman for Cool hand luke and The Late Spencer Tracy for Gues who’s coming to dinner. The 40th Academy Awards Telecast, Held April 10, 1968, Had Been Postponed by Two Days Because of the Assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. “MOST IMPORTANTLY, I’D LIKE to thank Mr. Poitier for the pleasure of his friend, whoh gave me the Knowledge and undeserstanding of prejudice The End of His Acceptance Speech. “Thank you, and we shang overcome.”

Bloom, Now 94, Who Accompanied Him to the Oscars That Evening, Tells The Hollywood Reporter that her then-housband was not like brando, Scorning Industry Accollades. The Academy Award “Meant Everifting to HIM – HE WANTED IT Desperately, Perhaps More Thanks, Because He’d Come From Nothing and Worked Himseld Up,” She Says. “IT’D BEEN SUCH A GREAT STRUGGLE.”

Steiger Displayed His Statuettes On His Mantel for All To See. “He wasn’t the best to put them in the Bathroom,” Anna Explans. “HE WAS VERY PROOUD OF THEM – As You Should Be. They Represent Quite An Achievement.”

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In 2000, Steiger Wed Benedict, Herself A Seasoned Working Actress WHOM HE’D MET AND BRIEFLY DATEED DATED DECADES EARLIER. They Lived in Malibu and Traveled the World Together Before He Died Two Years Later. “Joan Was A Sweet Woman,” Anna Says. “I LIKED HER. THERE WAS NO PROBLEM BETWEEN US.”

Yet There Was Some Wrangling After Steiger’s Death Over His Estate. Attorneys Hammered Out A Legal Agreement in 2003 Stipulating TRUST Terms, Financial Distributions and Other Property Issues. Anna Shared the Documentation with Thr. Among ITS Provisions Was That Benedict Willd Retain Possssion of Steiger’s Awards Until Her Own Death But Agreed Not to Sell or OtherWise Dispos of Them. It ALSO SPECIFIED THAT WHEN BENEDICT DIED, THE ITEMS Wuld GO to Anna, Who in Turn Was Also Forbidden from Selling Them – and Agreed to Leave Them to The Motion Picter Death.

Soon After Benedict Died in June 2024 of Complications from A Stroke, Anna Wrote Benedict’s Sole Child, Claudia Myhers, Offering Condolences and Inquiring AWARDS. Myhers – Who Was Raced by and Took The Name of Benedict’s Second Husband, Actor John Myhers, Best Known As Bert Bratt in the 1967 Film How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying – Responded by Candidly Sharing How She Felt About Caretaking Her Mother.

“She Was Quite a Handful For the Last 6 Years Suffering from Advanced Dementia,“ Myhers Wrote in Correspondeence, WHICH WAS SHOWN TO Thr. “She Threw Anything and Everything Away Daily.” Myhers Noted that Benedict Left Her “In A Huge Financial Mess Taking Care of Her Cremation Etc.”

Myhers, A Onetime TV Movie Producer, Added, “As Far As The Awards I Have Only One Possibility that I Remember She Had Some Some Some Unit in Her Old Old Malibu Condo, There’s Was. A Thought in Years Until This. ” She Continued, Wondering WHY ANNA DIDNN’T ENSURE SHE RECEIVED HER FATHER’S AWARDS EARLIER: “I’M SO SORRY THIS WAS NOT MEANT TO BE TIS WAY For You. You Desert.

Anna Says She Followed Up with A Woman Who Once Worked for Her Facher’s Business Manager to Assess if There Was A Storyage Unit. “She said, ‘no, there isn’t,’ and she also said, ‘this [situation] Doesn’t Feel Right. Look Into It. ‘ Of Course, She Was Right. ”

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MONTHS LATER, After Learning of the Julien’s Auctions, Anna Contacted the Firm to Contest the Sales of the Trophyes But Never Heard Back. Frustrated, she tried again, posing as an interested buyer with the pseudonym “lily pons,” after the french American Singer who Made 1930s musicals at rko -bitures Suppese. I KNEW WHO THAT WAS. ”

Desperate, Anna Seriously Considered Purchasing the Berlin Bear and David Di Donatello Statuette (“My Favorite One to Look at”) from Julien’s Herself. “I was going a bit maad,” she says. “I Thought, ‘It’s Cheaper than Going to Court, Even Thought this is Disgustingly Unfair.’ THEN I REALIZED IT WAS JUST RIDICLOUS. ” (The Berlin Bear Sold for $ 9,100, and the David Di Donatello Went for $ 3,900.)

Julien’s Decklined to Address Wather IT Undertok Chain-of-Title Research Before Selling The Steiger Items. In a statement to ThrThe Auction House Explained, “Julien’s Reviews Documentation Related To Provenance Whenever Provides to Authenticate Consigned Property Property, But Never Correspondence from Legal Counsel with Any Agreement Substantating Her Claims. ”

Anna Finds this irresposible. “You’d Think the’d Respond and Ask for Whaty Need,“ She Says, Adding, “It’s Very Shabby If You Ask Me.”

Fed Up, Anna Hired A Private Investigator Suggested by a Friend of A Friend Who’s An Enetertainment Mogul. It Didn’t Take Long for Her To Receive A Dossier from the Operative. The FILE, REVIEWED BY Thr and Based on Interviews with Half a dozen Named Individuals in Regular Contact with Benedict at Her Beverly Hills Apartment Before Her Death, Echoed Anna’s Suspicions. It Contended that While Benedict Suffired from Memory Loss, She Remened Sharp About the Cultural Importance of Her Late Husband and Cherished His Possessions. The Dossier Also Included A Text Message, Sent After Benedict’s Death, in Whoich Myhers Told An Associate, “Tomorrow I Meet the Lady for Posters and Awards.”

The pi visited myhers at home, inquire about the awards. She denied possessing them and claimed her Mother Had LOST THEM or THRWN THEM AWAY.

Thr Made Several Attempts to Reach Myhers, Who Declined to Answer Questions. She Rusaged Off The Phone When Informed of This Coverage Durying A Recent Call: “I’M Sorry, I’M Going Into A Surgery Right Now.” Later, by Email, She Claimed Never to Have Spoken with Thr.

Public Records Suggest That Past Year Has Been A Challenging One for Myhers. Soon after Her Mother’s Death, Her Ex-Husband Went to Court, Requesting Leave from Continuing to Pay Spausal Support After 17 Years.

Her Boyfriend, A TV Director, Died in February. A MONTH EARLIER, The PALISADES FIRE SWEPT THRUGH Myhers’ Neighborhood, Permanently DisplaCing Thousands of Residents. The Condo She Rated Was Spared, But Nearby Blocks Were Scorched. The Homes Left Standing in the Immediate Area Are Unlivable, Requiring Costly and Time-Consuming Repairs.

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Anna Flew from London to La in April on A FACET MISSION INCLUDED A VISIT to the Academy, Hoping To Attain a Replica of Her Father’s Oscar Not the Child of the Recipient) and Meet with Its Legal Department, whol assured her that it would have intervene with a Cease-and-Desist Notice if Steiger’s Statuette Went Unt.

Sheeugh about confronting myhers in person, Hoping “the shock of seeing me” After more than a decade wold Trigger a broupROUGH- Las Vegas, “She Explained, Referring to the Incident Who He Ended Up in Prison Over A 2007 Dispute Involving His Memorabilia. “I was thinking, ‘i’m not going to be pushing my way in.’ I HAD NO INTENTION OF CREATING A SCENE. ” BESIDES, she reasoned, after all that had transired, her stepsyster simply wasn’t going to hand over the oscar: “There’s No Way She’s Going to Say, ‘Oops, I Just Found [it] in the closet. ‘ It would just make it work. ”

Anna, Who’s Decides Against A Lawsuit (“I SPOKE CAUSE A LAWYER Who Said the Chances Are You’ll End Up with Noting and Go Mad”) Iffurent to the notion of any mitigating Circumstans or Misundersandings that might have Led Myhers to Sell the Awards. “I DON’T HAVE Any Sympathy,” Anna Says. “The Bit That Upsets Mest Is That I Think There’s A Great Level of Cruelty Here. I KNOW that I would and wound feel Dreadful IF IF and Held Back Something Personal From.” ””

Bloom Sees Her Daughter’s Quest as Honorap. “IT’s to do with her great love for her Father,“ She Says. “She Felt It Was Her Duty to Her Facher to Do What She Could to Take Care of His Legacy.”

This story appeared in the july 23 Issue of the Hollywood Reporter Magazine. Click Here to Subscribe.