Terry Semel’s Alzheimer’s Battle: Inside the Family War Over the Hollywood Titan’s Care
Former Warner Brothers and Yahoo executive, Terry Semel, had been on the top of his game for over two decades as he revolutionized the movie business. But last year, at the age of 75, it became public knowledge how the movie titan’s family were fighting amongst themselves as Terry could no longer handle his own finances or personal business due to Alzheimer’s. His son, Eric Semel, filed a petition for the court to appoint a temporary conservator for his father. Eric claims that his stepmother, Jane, “was in serious breach of her fiduciary duties” after placing Terry in a nursing home two years prior.
Terry, his son claimed, had been reduced to living in a 500-square-foot bedroom at the Motion Picture & Television Fund retirement community in Woodland Hills, against his expressed wish to remain at his home, a 13,000-square-foot Bel-Air mansion. There were also accusations of Jane refusing to allow Terry to leave the facility, not taking him for regular physician visits, and ordering healthcare staff to change or eliminate certain medications. Jane disputes the claims, saying that Terry “is not the man he once was. He is sometimes confused and sometimes upset, but those are functions of his disease, not anything that anyone has done to him.”
How did a multi-millionaire Hollywood mogul with multiple sumptuous homes in all the posh neighborhoods end up in a two-room unit in a retirement home? Terry was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s in 2011, but according to Jane, he had wanted to keep it a secret from his friends and colleagues. Jane largely oversaw decisions about his treatment and care as he declined and after a fall, Jane moved Terry to the retirement home. Eric believes the Bel-Air home should have instead been made appropriate for his father to continue to reside in.
See Stacy Perman, Terry Semel’s Alzheimer’s Battle: Inside the Family War Over the Hollywood Titan’s Care, Los Angeles Times, May 3, 2019.
Special thanks to Joel C. Dobris (Professor of Law, UC Davis School of Law) for bringing this article to my attention.