Dennis Hopper is gone, but the bitter war over his estate has just begun.
In one corner is the hell-raising Hollywood icon’s wife, Victoria Duffy, whom he had been trying to divorce since January. In the other are his three adult children, led by his eldest daughter, Marin Hopper, who at 47 is five years older than her stepmother.
At stake are potentially millions of dollars, mainly in the form of coveted modern-art works by the likes of Andy Warhol, Julian Schnabel, Keith Haring and Jean-Michel Basquiat.
According to Hopper’s will, Duffy stands to inherits 25 percent of his estate, plus a $250,000 life-insurance payout, on two conditions: that they were living together and still married when he died, reported celebrity-news Web site TMZ.
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Hopper, while stricken with terminal prostate cancer, filed to divorce Duffy, 42, in January after 14 years of marriage. But the split had not been finalized by the time of Hopper’s death — at age 74 — on Saturday.
So since they apparently remained legally wed, the question now is whether they technically were still living together before his death.
Duffy lives on the Venice, Calif., property on which Hopper’s home also sits — but in a different house.
The question could likely be one for the courts — and one sure to be battled over by Marin Hopper and her siblings.
“It really depends what Mr. Hopper meant by those words, ‘living together,’ ” said Neil Fisher Horton, head of the California Bar’s Trust & Estates Section.
“I’m sure what will happen is that the attorney who drafted the will will be subject [to a] deposition and be asked to produce any notes that may or may not shed light on it.”
Lawyers for both Hopper and Duffy could not be reached for comment yesterday.
The couple’s final months were not happy, with Hopper lamenting that his liquid assets had dwindled to just over $300,000, partly because of the financial demands of his wife. He also accused her of looting his million-dollar art collection.
A small army of Los Angeles cops kept vigil inside and outside Hopper’s home in Venice, Calif., yesterday.
An officer who answered the door said no family members wished to talk.
At one point, Hopper’s adult son, Henry, emerged with two friends.
Asked how he was holding up, the actor’s son gave a reporter a white rose before flipping the finger and shouting, “This is how I’m doing!”