Anthony Shaffer (1926-2001)

Barrister, heal thyself

 

Anthony Shaffer was born in Liverpool, attended Cambridge University, qualified as a barrister and specialised in divorce for a few years before becoming a highly successful playwright and screenwriter. His main credits include the Tony Award-winning play Sleuth and the screenplay for The Wicker Man. He did not write Amadeus or Equus. The author of those eminent plays was his younger brother Peter (his identical twin, younger by a few minutes).

Anthony's first wife, Henrietta, is ancient history. The marriage was a goner from day one, and she divorced him on the grounds of his adultery with three women.

He was also divorced (in 1983) from his second wife, Carolyn Soley, with whom he had two daughters, Claudia and Cressida. Carolyn also adopted a son later.

Shaffer met Diane Cilento in the early 1970s when he was writing the screenplay for Wicker Man, and she was one of the actresses in the cult horror film about human sacrifice. She was married, not happily, to Sir Sean Connery at the time. Shaffer's relationship with Carolyn was also shaky, and he and Cilento soon started living together in Australia. They married in 1985 after their respective divorces, and set up a permanent home, Karnak, in the Australian state of Queensland.

In 1999 Shaffer, who was in his early 70s and in less than perfect health, made a will leaving everything to Cilento, his brothers (Brian as well as Peter), his former wife Carolyn and their daughters.

Around the time that he made his new will, he met Marie Josette Capece Minutolo, an American who was descended from Italian nobility. Although their relationship continued for several years after he made his final will, he never revised it to include her. Minutolo's best shot at getting a piece of his financial action was through the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975.

Relatively permanent

During five days of hearings in early 2004, Minutolo claimed that she and Shaffer were more than mere lovers. They intended to marry, and he had even given her an engagement ring.

However close Shaffer and Minutolo actually were, and whatever his ultimate intentions, he kept it close to his chest: their relationship was a secret not only to his wife but to his close friends as well.

In August 2001, shortly before his death but, more importantly, well after he had begun his relationship with Minutolo, Cilento visited his London flat and was shocked as well as surprised to find another women's clothing, cosmetics and other items there. Nevertheless, Shaffer's solicitor had written to Cilento's lawyers asserting that he did not want their marriage to end.

For Minutolo, there was also the vital and vexing question of his domicile.

Shaffer's links to England were undeniably strong. After all, he was not only born there but, in a peripatetic life, he also died there. Nor was his body shipped to Australia for burial. He was interred in Highgate Cemetery, London.

But his links with Australia were also strong. He and Cilento were married in Australia, and their permanent home was on a 200-acre estate in a house that included a private theatre and vast library.

Shaffer qualified for permanent residency down under, voted in Australian elections,and had Australian bank accounts and credit cards. He told the Australian tax office that he was a permanent resident and was living there indefinitely.

Furthermore, some of his English ties were less than met the eye. For example, his London flat was actually owned by his Australia-based company. And the solicitor who helped him compose his will was Australian.

Maybe Shaffer would have divorced Cilento and married Minutolo, and maybe the playwright and wife number four would have settled permanently in London. Those are big 'maybe's.

The judge's assessment of those possibilities was pithy and widely quoted: "I must attempt to assess his state of mind up to the day he died. It may be that his intention to return to Queensland was withering. But I do not consider that it died before Anthony did. I conclude that Anthony died domiciled in Queensland."

The victors were Shaffer's relatives, and the losers were the Inland Revenue as well as Minutolo. If Shaffer's domicile had been England, the tax man would have taken a 40-percent chunk of his taxable estate. Queensland levies no IHT at all.

The end, or the beginning of the end?

Minutolo lost the big jackpot but won a consolation prize. She successfully sued the Evening Standard for libel, winning £35,000 (with costs the newspaper paid out more than three times that amount) and, instead of an apology, accepted a two-page article that, as she was given final approval, gave her side of the story.

Her point of view is also provided in a 2008 document that appears to have been written by, or for her, that appears as the sole item on a website. This 1,000-word document describes the circumstances of his death, the mourning period and his funeral. In it, she also notes that Anthony never became an Australian citizen, and that he wrote a new will with her in mind but had not yet signed it at his death.

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Another will dispute arose after Shaffer's second wife Carolyn died in 2006. Carolyn's daughter Claudia was to inherit the valuable Holland Park flat, and her three children - two by Anthony Shaffer - were each to receive cash.

But a firm of solicitors blocked Claudia's inheritance, claiming that she owned them money. Further delay occurred after Carolyn's executor, a solicitor, died. The solicitor's husband and two daughters were then appointed executors, but they were challenged by yet other solicitors. Further developments will be reported here as and when they occur.