Sir Peter Ustinov's estate may be lost on legal fees in bitter feud
The feuding family of late great actor Sir Peter Ustinov may have lost his entire estate to the lawyers, it was claimed today, as their nine-year battle over his money continues.
The double Oscar-winner passed away in 2004 aged 82 Photo: Reuters
6:05PM GMT 23 Jan 2013
The celebrated actor, director and raconteur - who was married three times and had four children - wrote his last will 36 years before his death, which has led judges to rule he died intestate.
The double Oscar-winner, one of Britain's most respected actors who starred in films including Spartacus, Death on the Nile and Logan's Run, passed away in 2004 aged 82. It is estimated that at the time he would have been worth tens of millions.
But the fight over his estate continues as Igor Cloutier von Ustinov, his son by his second wife, brought proceedings to London’s High Court in a bid to freeze out his stepmother Lady Helene Ustinov.
The sculptor is seeking to prove that trusts set up by his father mean his estate should be handed to his offspring in spite of the ruling by Swiss judges which revoked the will.
After the hearing, in which Mrs Justice Proudman reserved judgement, Sir Peter’s son-in-law said that there is little left to fight for.
Malcolm Rennie, who is married to the actor’s daughter Tamara Ustinov Rennie, said outside court: "Peter was a wonderful man and I loved him very much as a son-in-law, but being successful at such a high level as he was, everybody wanted a piece of him.
"He was an actor, writer, raconteur and UNICEF ambassador, criss-crossing the globe daily, and, because of that, he was not able to be the present father that he would have liked to have been to his children and he tried to compensate by trying to provide his children with material things".
He added: "I would be surprised if there is anything left in the estate - it has probably all gone to the lawyers."
The battle over the estate is still ongoing in the Swiss courts, more than five years after they ruled that the June 1972 marriage of Sir Peter and Lady Helene made his previous will – written in 1968 and amended by a codicil in 1970 – invalid.
The judgement paved the way for her to lay claim to a share of his estate, which includes the rights to his works, and property in Switzerland where he lived at the time of his death.
But his son now claims that trusts his father had set up separated off a “sizeable” slice of Sir Peter’s assets for his children.
Ian Meakin, for Mr von Ustinov, said that "overarching" lifetime trusts set up by Sir Peter put valuable "intellectual property rights" in his work out of reach of his widow, and into the hands of his children alone.
He argued the alleged trusts, governed by English law, had survived the revocation of the will and ought now to pass to him and his sisters as his father wanted.
Sir Peter's other three children - his daughters Mrs Ustinov Rennie, Andrea Ustinov and Pavla Ustinov - have all been involved in the legal battle.
Mrs Rennie, an actress, is said to want the matter decided in the Swiss courts Stephen Midwinter, for Ryan Rudolph and Peter Hafter, two retired Swiss lawyers whom Mr von Ustinov claims are the trustees, denied that the trusts even existed.
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