70 Facts About David Whiting

David Andrew Whiting was an American writer and personal manager who died in unusual circumstances.

David Whiting made an impression on fellow students there, and some faculty, with his intelligence and persona.

David Whiting began gravitating toward film at the expense of his journalistic career, and was able to help Miles and her husband, playwright and screenwriter Robert Bolt, get Lady Caroline Lamb, Bolt's only directorial effort, produced in 1971.

Private investigators and experts hired by David Whiting's mother came to different conclusions.

The couple divorced when David Whiting was three years old; Robert began a new family in Chicago and became estranged from Louise and David Whiting, though he did send child support payments he could scarcely afford.

David Whiting resented her, finding her uncaring, and only called her "Mater".

David Whiting said after his death that she had not been able to remember his exact birthday, even when he was a child.

David Whiting then attended high school at the St Albans School back in Washington.

Journalist Mary Anne Dolan, who knew David Whiting then, said that he aspired to live as a combination of Fred Astaire, Cary Grant, Frank Sinatra and Cole Porter.

David Whiting had a fascination with F Scott Fitzgerald and particularly The Great Gatsby.

David Whiting continued to be mentored by St Albans' assistant headmaster John C Davis, whom he saw as a father figure, for several years.

David Whiting skipped his senior year and enrolled at Georgetown University that fall, but underperformed academically his freshman year and had to leave.

David Whiting then found a job as a script writer for documentary company Trans Africa Films, and left to work in the Libyan Sahara, becoming fitter and slimmer.

David Whiting became an English major in the Haverford College class of 1968, enrolling as a sophomore with Davis' help.

David Whiting wrote a thesis on either F Scott Fitzgerald or Hamlet, according to his mother.

In 1968, straight out of Haverford, David Whiting was hired by Time, becoming the magazine's youngest ever correspondent.

David Whiting interviewed many film stars, befriending some; Candice Bergen nicknamed him "Preppy".

David Whiting wrote an in-depth article about her for Time, under the pseudonym Anthony Blaine.

David Whiting had met Bergen while at the Cannes Film Festival in 1970, though he was not officially covering it; he tried to woo her and followed her to Spain, where she was filming, and then around Beverly Hills when she returned.

David Whiting wrote a story about Paula Prentiss and her marriage to Richard Benjamin for Cosmopolitan in 1971.

Lanahan said that David Whiting had set his sights on that career as soon as he worked on a set in Libya, and had always been obsessed with movies and movie stars.

In 1971, David Whiting interviewed English actress Sarah Miles for Time; the story was ultimately published by Cosmopolitan.

David Whiting pursued Miles, who was married to screenwriter Robert Bolt: the day after the interview, Whiting requested another meeting; a few days later, as Miles was due to fly to New York for other interviews, Whiting approached her in Los Angeles International Airport.

David Whiting told her he was booked on the same flight, and arranged to sit next to her on the plane; in New York, Whiting appeared at her hotel with a room on the same floor.

At the hotel in New York, David Whiting was in the room when Miles became angry at MGM staff who could not secure her a work permit to appear on talk shows after 10 days of trying; David Whiting intervened and got her one in a half hour.

David Whiting allowed him to accompany her during her stay in New York.

David Whiting developed an obsession with Miles, who nicknamed him "Whiz Kid", and neglected his journalism work.

David Whiting was fired from Time; Miles soon hired him as her manager.

David Whiting had proposed writing a story about Miles and Bolt's marriage, but did not work on it.

David Whiting called all of his film contacts, as well as other companies he could ask for financial backing, and took Miles to the Cannes Film Festival to network.

David Whiting told Miles and Bolt that he had quit Time to work on the film, so the couple hired him as "Director of Publicity and Exploitation" for their film company, Pulsar Productions.

David Whiting stayed in his room dealing with anxiety and not doing his work.

David Whiting was fired from Pulsar but Miles kept him on as her manager.

In 1972, David Whiting got Miles the coveted lead role opposite Burt Reynolds in The Man Who Loved Cat Dancing.

David Whiting was found dead in Miles' motel room at the Travelodge in Gila Bend, Arizona, on February 11,1973, aged 26.

Agronsky noted that David Whiting was one of three St Albans classmates to die tragically young, each in ways Agronsky said "seemed to reflect the struggles our generation had faced while coming of age".

David Whiting said he would not but told the friend he planned to be in Hollywood the following week.

David Whiting rode with Reynolds on the way out but returned early with Lee J Cobb to ride in his new car.

David Whiting seemed to have entered while she was not present and waited for her return, demanding to know the details of her night.

David Whiting screamed as a result, alerting Evans in the adjoining room.

David Whiting testified that she had wanted to call or check on Whiting, worrying that he would be depressed after the fight, but Reynolds convinced her to wait until morning.

David Whiting's body was later found laying across the threshold of the bathroom and dressing room, but Evans said she saw no body and was drowsy at the time.

David Whiting returned to Evans and asked her to call Reynolds again.

In Reynolds' testimony he said that, once on the scene, he noticed David Whiting clutching a bottle of pills and removed it, taking them to Miles to ask what the bottle contained, saying she was too upset to answer.

Miles said she did not initially know David Whiting was dead, learning of this some time between discovering the body and speaking to the police sergeant first on scene.

Local police sergeant Forrest Hinderliter was called to the Travelodge on reports of David Whiting's death at 12:06pm The dispatcher told him that David Whiting's death was an overdose.

David Whiting was "curled up on his left side", laying across both the bathroom and dressing room of the motel room, and his arms "were wrapped in an embrace around an empty polyethylene wastebasket".

Campbell, David Whiting's mother, came to Gila Bend four days after his death, accusing Reynolds of his murder.

David Whiting had been tracked down after police issued calls for information on Whiting's family.

David Whiting told them not to contact Whiting's father, who she claimed had almost died himself of a heart attack three weeks earlier and was recovering, or his stepfather, who she said suffered ill-health and was spending the winter in Hawaii.

David Whiting behaved erratically, trying to steal Whiting's personal belongings from evidence, and taking her own pathologist to the funeral home to make sure his organs were still in his body.

The wound on David Whiting's head had been stitched up to prevent leakage, which Campbell complained about, but then stuck her finger into it.

The autopsy doctor, Heinz Karnitschnig, testified that the star-shaped wound was consistent with a fall, but did not exclude David Whiting being pushed as a possibility.

Karnitschnig noted bruising and marks on the upper body consistent with David Whiting being involved in a "scuffle or fight" shortly before death, but felt that these did not contribute to his death.

Miles said in the inquest that she believed David Whiting had committed suicide, and that she did not fight back when he began to beat her on the night of his death.

David Whiting's blood was found in three motel rooms; the jury said it was likely he had been involved in a fight, but could not determine with whom or if this contributed to his death.

Miles, among others, has suggested that David Whiting was murdered, with many implicating Reynolds.

In 2007, she said that being accused of David Whiting's murder was the lowest point in her life.

Writer Ron Rosenbaum said he was driven by a need to form a family bond; Rosenbaum suggested that David Whiting felt he had found this with Miles, Bolt, and their son Thomas.

The family lived on a country estate in Surrey; shortly after getting to know Miles, David Whiting proposed he write an article for Time about the couple and moved in with them.

Four months after moving in, David Whiting threatened suicide, causing Miles and Bolt to not mention his departure for several more months.

David Whiting threatened to kill himself if they ever made him leave.

Miles recalled in later years that when David Whiting lived with them, she prevented three suicide attempts.

Miles later suggested that David Whiting's madness was the price for his brilliance.

David Whiting had already married 22-year-old flight attendant Nancy Cockerill in Cook County, Illinois, in January 1970.

David Whiting used Cockerill's job to travel often at reduced cost, claiming when others asked that it was because his father was a Pan Am executive, one of many extravagant lies he used to create his persona.

David Whiting has been described as ambitious and unbalanced, as well as very generous to his friends.

One anecdote describes David Whiting regularly flying from California to London to be fitted for a Savile Row suit, returning, and then flying back to London a week later to collect it.

In 2000, film journalist Harry Haun wrote that making reference to David Whiting's death in promoting the film was a "tawdry tactic", and that Reynolds had to threaten MGM with a lawsuit to make them change the slogan.

In 2019, David Whiting's death was included in a tabloid list of "famous unsolved Hollywood murders".