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.
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“It is very certain that each man carries in his eye the exact indication of his rank in the immense scale of men, and we are always learning to read it. A complete man should need no auxiliaries to his personal presence.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
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