Melvin Belli had many celebrity clients, including Zsa Zsa Gabor, Errol Flynn, Chuck Berry, Muhammad Ali, The Rolling Stones, Jim Bakker and Tammy Faye Bakker, Martha Mitchell, Maureen Connolly, Lana Turner, Tony Curtis, and Mae West.
27 Facts About Melvin Belli
2.
Melvin Belli was the attorney for Jack Ruby, who shot Lee Harvey Oswald days after the assassination of President John F Kennedy.
3.
Melvin Belli graduated from the University of California, Berkeley in 1929.
4.
Over insurance lawyers' objections, Melvin Belli brought a model of a cable car intersection, and the gear box and chain involved in the accident, to demonstrate to jurors exactly what had happened.
5.
Besides his personal injury cases, which earned for him his byname "King of Torts," Melvin Belli was instrumental in setting up some of the foundations of modern consumer rights law, arguing several cases in the 1940s and 1950s that formed the basis for later lawsuits and landmark litigation by such figures as Ralph Nader.
6.
Melvin Belli attempted to prove that Ruby was legally insane and had a history of mental illness in his family.
7.
Melvin Belli received a letter from the Zodiac that same year.
8.
Melvin Belli was representing 800 women in a class action lawsuit against breast implant manufacturer Dow Corning.
9.
Melvin Belli won the lawsuit, but when Dow Corning declared bankruptcy, Melvin Belli had no way to recover the $5 million his firm had advanced to doctors and expert witnesses.
10.
Melvin Belli executive produced Tokyo File 212, Hollywood's first film to be shot entirely in Japan.
11.
Melvin Belli enjoyed his frequent television and movie appearances; in 1965, he told Alex Haley, interviewing him for Playboy, that he "might have been an actor" if he had not become an attorney.
12.
Melvin Belli appeared in "And the Children Shall Lead", a 1968 episode of the original Star Trek series.
13.
Melvin Belli appeared in the Albert and David Maysles documentary Gimme Shelter, which featured his representation and facilitation of The Rolling Stones' staging of the disastrous December 6,1969, Altamont Free Concert.
14.
In 1996 Melvin Belli recited the oratory to David Woodard's brass fanfare setting of Mark Twain's "The War Prayer" at Old First Church in San Francisco.
15.
Melvin Belli was played by Brian Cox in the 2007 film Zodiac in the scene that depicted Melvin Belli's conversation with the Zodiac suspect on AM San Francisco.
16.
Melvin Belli was the author of several books, including the six-volume Modern Trials which has become a classic textbook on the demonstrative method of presenting evidence.
17.
Melvin Belli's autobiography My Life on Trial is an account of his life and the noteworthy events he was involved in during his career.
18.
Melvin Belli wrote the introduction to 847.0 The Whiplash Injury by L Ted Frigard, DC published in 1970.
19.
Melvin Belli accused his ex-wife of having an affair with archbishop Desmond Tutu and of throwing one of his dogs off the Golden Gate Bridge.
20.
Melvin Belli was fined $1,000 for repeatedly calling her "El Trampo".
21.
At one point, Melvin Belli was ejected from the courtroom after accusing the judge of sleeping with his former wife's lawyer.
22.
Melvin Belli was ultimately compelled to pay her an estimated $15 million.
23.
Melvin Belli later married Romanian prince Prince Paul of Romania.
24.
Melvin Belli married his sixth wife, Nancy Ho, on March 29,1996.
25.
Melvin Belli died of complications from pancreatic cancer at his home in San Francisco on July 9,1996, aged 88.
26.
Melvin Belli's death came suddenly, and in the presence of his wife Nancy.
27.
Melvin Belli is buried in Odd Fellows Cemetery in Sonora, California, his birthplace.