Personal Life
Spelling was born in Dallas, Texas. He was the son of Pearl (née Wald) and David Spelling. His father worked as a tailor. His paternal ancestors were immigrants from Russia and Poland. They chose to change their surname from Spurling to Spelling upon their move to the United States. Spelling had three brothers: Sam, Max, and Daniel, and a sister, Becky.
At the age of 8, Spelling lost the use of his legs psychosomatically, due to trauma caused by constant bullying from his schoolmates, and was confined to bed for a year. Spelling attended Forest Avenue High School. During World War II, he served in the United States Armed Forces. Spelling graduated from Southern Methodist University in 1949, where he was a cheerleader.
He married actress Carolyn Jones in 1953, in California. They divorced in 1964. Spelling remarried to Candy Gene (née Marer) in 1968. The couple had two children: daughter Tori (born 1973) and son Randy (born 1978). Spelling bought the home and 6-acre (2.4 ha) lot of Bing Crosby's former Los Angeles house. Following his demolition of the property, he built a 123-room home in 1988. Known as "The Manor", it was valued at US$11,000,000, has 56,500 square feet (5,250 m2) of floor space, and is the largest single-family dwelling in Hollywood (34°4'23"N 118°25'41"W). Spelling's widow Candy listed the home for sale in 2008 for $150,000,000, and heiress Petra Ecclestone purchased the property for $85,000,000 in 2011.
Read more about this topic: Aaron Spelling
Famous quotes containing the words personal and/or life:
“The basis of shame is not some personal mistake of ours, but the ignominy, the humiliation we feel that we must be what we are without any choice in the matter, and that this humiliation is seen by everyone.”
—Milan Kundera (b. 1929)
“A woman can get marries and her life does change. And a man can get married and his life changes. But nothing changes life as dramatically as having a child. . . . In this country, it is a particular experience, a rite of passage, if you will, that is unsupported for the most part, and rather ignored. Somebody will send you a couple of presents for the baby, but people do not acknowledge the massive experience to the parents involved.”
—Dana Raphael (20th century)