Liberace’s former lover Scott Thorson has died at the age of 65.
Thorson – who was portrayed by Matt Damon in 2013 HBO movie Behind the Candelabra, based off his 1988 book – died at a medical facility in Los Angeles August 16 following a battle with a heart ailment and cancer, TMZ reported.
Thorson’s affiliation with Liberace (whose full name was Władziu Valentino Liberace) started when he was 18 and Liberace was 57, according to the outlet.
Liberace fired Thorson from his employ after he fired him after five years in 1982, five years before the entertainer’s death from HIV/AIDS-related complications in 1987.
Thorson filed a $113 million palimony lawsuit against Liberace filing his termination from the entertainer’s employ – noted by TMZ as ‘the first same-sex palimony suit ever filed’ in the U.S. – which was settled out of court in 1986.
Liberace’s former lover Scott Thorson has died at the age of 65. Pictured 2013 in Reno, Nevada
Scott Thorson and Liberace pictured at the Coconut Grove in LA in April of 1979
Liberace said that he wasn’t gay and told the court that he and Thorson had never been intimate with one another, according to Variety.
In the settlement, Thorson got a total of $75,000 cash, three vehicles and three dogs, which had a value of $20,000, Variety reported.
Thorson put out his book Behind the Candelabra: My Life with Liberace in 1988.
Among the claims Thorson raised was that Liberace had funded numerous plastic surgery procedures so that Thorson would resemble a younger Liberace, such as a a chin implant and nose job.
Liberace had Thorson involved in his Las Vegas stage show, as he donned a rhinestone-laden outfit while chauffeuring the entertainer onto the stage.
Thorson had past said that problems with drugs were in part due to the multiple surgeries he had at Liberace’s asking, as he was taking drugs such as quaaludes, amphetamine, cocaine and Demerol in the wake of the medical procedures, Variety reported.
Steven Soderbergh directed the 2013 HBO film based on Thorson’s novel, with Damon playing Thorson while Michael Douglas played Liberace. The film also featured Scott Bakula, Rob Lowe, Dan Aykroyd and the late Debbie Reynolds.
The motion picture was a huge hit with critics, garnering Douglas a Golden Globe for Best Performance by an Actor in a Miniseries or Motion Picture Made for Television and nominations for Damon and Lowe.
Thorson was behind the wheel with Liberace in 1981 at La Cage Aux Folles in LA
Scott Thorson and Liberace were pictured with one another in 1982, the year Liberace terminated Thorson’s employment with him
Thorson filed a $113 million palimony lawsuit against Liberace filing his termination from the entertainer’s employ. Pictured in 1983
The film also captured 13 Primetime Emmy Awards, including Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie for Douglas, and Outstanding Directing for a Miniseries, Movie or a Dramatic Special for Soderbergh.
Thorson was also involved in another violent event in Hollywood’s past, the Laurel Canyon Murders in 1981, which involved late porn star John Holmes.
Thorson in 1989 testified in the trial of nightclub owner Eddie Nash, who had been accused of ordering the murders of four people – Ron Launius, William ‘Billy’ Deverell, Joy Miller and Barbara Richardson – in response to a home robbery Holmes had been linked to.
Thorson said in testimony that he had been at Nash’s home buying drugs and saw Holmes being beaten and questioned about the robbery, two days before the July 1, 1981 murders.
The trial resulted in a hung jury and Nash died in 2014, never convicted in connection with the killings.
Thorson said he would change his name to Jess Marlow and enter the federal witness protection after taking the stand.
The grisly killings inspired a scene in the 1997 film Boogie Nights, as well as the 2003 film Wonderland in which Val Kilmer played Holmes.
It is also set to be reexamined in the upcoming docuseries The Wonderland Massacre & The Secret History of Hollywood, which is set to stream on MGM+ starting September 8.
Thorson was portrayed by Matt Damon in 2013 HBO movie Behind the Candelabra, based off Thorson’s 1988 book
Michael Douglas played Liberace in the 2013 HBO film from Steven Soderbergh
It is adapted off a 2022 podcast Thorson did with author Michael Connelly titled The Wonderland Murders and the Secret History of Hollywood.
Thorson had problems with drug and alcohol abuse over the years, as he was sentenced to four years in prison for in 2008 after entering a guilty plea to felony drug and burglary charges.
In 2014, he was sentenced to 8 to 20 years in custody in Nevada after he failed multiple drug tests while on probation for the aforementioned violation.