Gabriel Pascal - Death and Estate Trial

Death and Estate Trial

In spring of 1954, in New York City, just before his passing Pascal had planned a trip to India to see Meher Baba one last time. He was having an affair and divorcing his wife at the time. One day he impulsively wrote on a piece of hotel stationery to his mistress, "If I die on my trip to India I leave my entire estate to you." He signed and dated it before two witnesses, a cook and a maid in the hotel who did not speak English but only Chinese. This was an absurd gesture since Pascal was totally in debt. Pascal had told his wife Valerie (Hídvéghy Valéria) that he would leave her millions.

He died within a short time of this letter in July, 1954. Momentarily reviving from a coma, Pascal's last words were, "I see". Within two years of his death the musical My Fair Lady, which Pascal had managed to retain an option on by borrowing $7000.00 from a Baba follower named Margaret Scott, opened on Broadway. Thus, soon after his death, his estate, which had been worth nothing on his deathbed, grew to an estimated value of $2,000,000 as the movie rights for My Fair Lady (which was filmed in 1964) were also quickly optioned. There was a large court battle in which his widow Valerie (from whom he was not fully divorced at the time of his death) and the mistress fought over his estate. His odd last will and testament on the hotel stationery was entered as evidence in support of his mistress and the case was well-publicized. Several Meher Baba followers were involved in his life at the end including Harold Rudd who testified at his trial. The result of the trial was an even split of Pascal's royalties from My Fair Lady between the mistress and Pascal's estranged widow, each receiving well over one million dollars in settlement.

His widow Valerie attempted to pay back the borrowed option money to Margaret Scott, who had also paid off Pascal's debt to his mistress and his hospital bills. However, by the time the settlement came through Scott had fallen from a New York apartment building window to her death, just two years after Pascal's. Valerie therefore paid the money to Margaret's daughter instead. After Pascal's death, Valerie married the publisher and philanthropist George T. Delacorte, Jr. and spent the rest of her life supporting charitable foundations (under the name Valerie Delacorte). The Disciple and His Devil, her biography of Pascal, was published by McGraw-Hill in 1970 and reissued by iUniverse in 2004.