LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The Los Angeles County coroner has
opened an investigation into the death of Hollywood legend
Marlon Brando’s eldest son, acting at the request of his
family, a spokesman for the medical examiner said on Tuesday.Medical examiners took custody of Christian Brando’s body
on Monday and performed an autopsy on Tuesday, but a finding on
the cause of death will await toxicology tests that take six to
eight weeks to complete, said Ed Winter, assistant chief of the
coroner’s office.Brando, the troubled son of the late Oscar-winning screen
star and Welsh actress Anna Kashfi, died early on Saturday at
age 49, at a Los Angeles hospital where he was being treated
for pneumonia, according to lawyers for his father’s estate.Winter said Brando’s “family was concerned about his prior
history, both medical and drug history, but I’m not going to go
any further into it until we have a chance to look at it and do
our investigation.”Brando’s ex-wife, Deborah, was quoted in a weekend story on
People magazine’s Web site as saying her former spouse had been
comatose and on a respirator before his death. “His body was
totally compromised,” she said. “He lived so hard. … This is
just so sad.”An attorney for Marlon Brando’s estate, David Seeley, told
Reuters it was Kashfi, Christian’s long-estranged mother, who
asked for a coroner’s investigation.”Neither the estate of Marlon Brando, nor its
beneficiaries, are involved in these decisions,” Seeley said.
“At this point we have no reason to question the hospital’s
actions or the cause of death as previously stated,” he added.The autopsy came a day after Deborah Brando, who has
claimed in the past to be the illegitimate child of Elvis
Presley, filed suit against the executors of Marlon Brando’s
will asserting a claim to the actor’s estate.
ESTATE SAYS SUIT WITHOUT MERITThe suit says Christian Brando transferred his rights as a
beneficiary of the estate to his ex-wife — making her an
“assignee” — under a February 2007 settlement of a domestic
abuse case she brought against him after their brief marriage
was annulled.And she claims the executors of the Brando estate forged a
codicil to his will days before his 2004 death to prevent
anyone “from challenging the will or trust.”Seeley said Deborah Brando’s lawsuit was without merit.And attorney Benjamin Brin, who represented Christian
Brando in his 2007 settlement with his ex-wife, said their
agreement “does not make her an assignee of any rights
whatsoever.”Instead, Christian Brando agreed to pay her the sum of
$45,000, contingent on his receiving future disbursements from
his father’s estate that have yet to be made, Brin said.According to Seeley, Christian Brando was one of nine
beneficiaries who shared equally in proceeds from his father’s
personal property — roughly $2.3 million from the 2005 auction
of the actor’s furniture, clothing, artwork and other effects.The will also established a living trust to manage Marlon
Brando’s remaining assets — including real estate in Tahiti,
residual payments and profit participation from his acting
career — for the benefit of Christian and fellow heirs. But no
distribution from that trust has yet been made, Seeley said.Christian Brando made worldwide headlines in 1990 by
shooting dead the boyfriend of his half-sister, Cheyenne, and
later served five years in prison for voluntary manslaughter.
Cheyenne Brando committed suicide in 1995.Marlon Brando, considered one of the greatest actors of his
generation, died in 2004 at the age of 80.(Editing by Dan Whitcomb and Todd Easstham)
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