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Bernard Lafferty (14 April 1945 – 4 November 1996) was an Irish butler and heir to American tobacco heiress and philanthropist, Doris Duke.Duke hired Lafferty in 1987 and named him the executor of her $1.2 billion estate six months prior to her death in October 1993.
Doris Duke died at her Falcon Lair home in Los Angeles on October 28, 1993, at the age of 80. The cause was progressive pulmonary edema resulting in cardiac arrest, according to a spokesman. [28] [15] Duke was cremated 24 hours after her death and her executor, Bernard Lafferty, scattered her ashes into the Pacific Ocean as her last will ...
In 1987, Doris Duke, considered the wealthiest woman in the world, hires Bernard Lafferty, who lists Elizabeth Taylor and Peggy Lee as former employers on his résumé, as her majordomo. He explains a six-month gap in his employment history was due to "health issues," a euphemism for time spent in rehab to deal with his addiction to alcohol.
Another film about the relationship between Duke and her butler, Bernard Lafferty, Bernard and Doris, directed by Bob Balaban and starring Susan Sarandon and Ralph Fiennes, was released in 2007 to much greater critical acclaim, receiving three Golden Globe and ten Emmy nominations.
Duke befriended Sharon Tate, her Benedict Canyon neighbor. [5] Eventually, she settled on a pattern where she would rotate her residence during the year, staying at Duke Farms in New Jersey and Rough Point in Newport, R.I. during the summer, flying to Falcon Lair on her birthday, November 22 and spending the winter months at Shangri La in ...
Doris's memorable debutante ball was held at the estate in 1929. Doris Duke continued to spend her summers at Rough Point; but, after the New England Hurricane of 1938 that devastated Rhode Island, and with the advent of World War II, Doris Duke's visits became less frequent. In the early 1950s, Doris Duke took up permanent residence in New ...
She also tries to be attractive to Duke, by purring to him and sending him nude photos of herself. Doris lives in a very spacious and luxurious apartment, affordable to her since it has been "rent controlled since 1946", and also for the fact that Duke pays her $300,000 per annum, believing that this was what average people earned.
Construction of Shangri La took place from 1936 to 1938, [1] [2] after Doris Duke's 1935 honeymoon which took her through the Islamic world. For nearly 60 years, Duke commissioned and collected artworks for the space, eventually forming a collection of over 4,000 objects. [3] The structure was designed by Marion Sims Wyeth.