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Ex-DL fave Jason Davis is dead to us

When times get tough, some parents will tap their children’s savings accounts.

Others will shake up piggy banks – usually intending to pay them back.

For multibillionaires, this can happen on a much grander scale.

So goes this tale of billionaire Marvin Davis, the Denver oil baron who took Hollywood by storm in the 1980s and died at 79 on Sept. 25, 2004.

His eldest daughter, New York socialite Patricia Davis Raynes, 53, claims he looted hundreds of millions of dollars from her trust fund, which was set up under Colorado law by her wealthy paternal grandparents in 1967.

Raynes made these claims in a lawsuit recently filed in federal court in Los Angeles by powerhouse law firm Boies Schiller & Flexner. The suit – alleging “greed, theft and betrayal” – is against Raynes’ father, her mother, all four of her siblings and several family-owned trusts, trustees and companies.

She also claims her father died broke in a tangled web of massive debts.

That’s quite a contrast to a report in Forbes magazine before Davis’ death. Forbes ranked him America’s 30th-richest man, with a net worth of $5.8 billion.

Raynes alleges her father – who once owned 20th Century Fox, Aspen Skiing, Pebble Beach and the Beverly Hills Hotel – spent the last years of his life chasing deals he never intended to close just to maintain his ego and the “illusion” that he still controlled a vast financial empire.

Raynes claims much of the assets in her trust went to pay for these futile exploits. She also claims her father took money to support his lavish lifestyle and support his favored sons’ businesses.

Her family denies all of the claims.

The lawsuit, however, makes for such fascinating reading that it inspired a 14-page spread in the November issue of Vanity Fair, now on newsstands, titled “The Man Who Ate Hollywood.”

But did Marvin Davis – a giant of a man with an enormous appetite – really digest all of his enormous fortune?

The question may be difficult to answer since Davis left behind a byzantine network of trusts, partnerships between trusts, and companies owned directly and indirectly by these trusts.

His wife, Barbara, responded to the claim that her husband died broke through a spokesman in Vanity Fair: “If that was the case, then one would have to ask why Patty would file a lawsuit.”

Perhaps it’s the only thing she can do.

Raynes claims her father told her she was “a very wealthy girl,” with a trust worth more than $300 million. But after his death, she claims her mother told her, “You’re poor, Patty. You’re poor.”

Her father, who controlled her trust, blew “almost all” of it, Raynes alleges.

According to Raynes’ first amended complaint, filed this week, her father coerced her, using threats and violence, to sign documents revoking her trust.

The lawsuit is like a scene from “Dynasty,” the 1980s TV show that Davis’ life is said to have inspired. It reads: “Marvin told Patricia that if she refused to sign or simply insisted on showing the documents to an attorney, Marvin would never permit her to see her mother, brothers or sisters again, that he would make Patricia’s life ‘a living hell,’ that he would make the lives of Patricia’s own family ‘a living hell,’ and that he would tie her up in court for the rest of her life. Threats from Marvin Davis, a billionaire oilman who dined with kings and U.S. Presidents, who never shied from litigation, and who, as far as Patricia knew, had complete and unfettered control over all of her assets, could not be disregarded.

“Marvin backed up those emotional and financial threats with the additional threat of violence,” the lawsuit continues. “Over six foot three, and over 300 pounds, Marvin had a quick temper and had struck Patricia in the past.”

The lawsuit goes on to allege that “Marvin physically beat her to force her to sign the trust documents.”

Time will tell if these soap-operatic allegations will hold up in court.

But if they are true, it looks like ol’ Marvin sure knew how to shake the kid’s piggy bank.

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Abbie Anker

Update: 2024-05-19