AN ACTRESS’ WILL

Waikato Times, Volume 123, Issue 20691, 29 December 1938, Page 9

AN ACTRESS’ WILL

PEARL WHITE REPENTED Pearl White, the famous actress of tsie silent films, cut her brother and sister off with a dollar in a will made last year. Then she changed her mind, and the story of her repentance is told in a drab file at Somerset House, says the Daily Herald. The file contains the proof of another will made last June, disposing of the £50.500 estate that the actress left in England, and certain property in France. Pearl White —her real name was Mrs Pearl McCutcheon—died on August 4 in the American Hospital in Paris. Three weeks later the will in which she had bequeathed is 2d each to her brother and sister was filed in New York. It was revealed that she had left the bulk nf her estate, then estimated at £IOO,OOO. to a wealthy Greek, Theodore Cozzika, her inseparable companion for 12 years. Mr Cozzika lives in Cairo. He is known as the “Commercial Alcohol King of Egypt." He was to inherit her villa in the Avenue Henri Martin, Paris, her jewels and her cars. Money bequests were made to her father and to an actors’ charity. Heard Rumours Rut the lawyer who tiled the will announced on August 25 that its provisions might not be carried out, as lie had heard rumours of another will in This second will was admitted to probate at Somerset House yesterday. It directs that the residue of her estate shall be divided equally between her brother, Frederick G. White, her sister, Grace L. White, her nieces, Evelyn and Eileen White, and her nephews. Loy Milton Williams and Edward White Williams. She leaves her Paris residence and certain effects to Mr Cozzika. and also £IO,OOO to be distributed by him among such charities as he may select. Other bequests are £4OOO to Dmitri Martini, of Cairo: £2OOO to Dr. Ratynzki. of Paris; £IOOO to each of her servants who had been with her three years, and a year’s wages to all other servants. To her executor, Mr Bertram Winthrop. of Paris, she left £SOOO for distribution to stage charities. Had she died in some country far distant from France, she directed that Her vault in Passy Cemetery, Paris, should serve as the last resting-place of some great artist or writer who might have died penniless.