Steve Bing dead: Elizabeth Hurley's ex dies suddenly aged 55

Hollywood power player and the father to Liz Hurley's son Damian, Steve Bing has died in Los Angeles by apparent suicide. Photo / Getty Images

Movie mogul Steve Bing has died by suicide at the age of 55, it is being reported.

TMZ reports that Bing, who wrote the comedy film Kangaroo Jack in 2003 and later invested nearly $US100 million in the animated hit Polar Express, has died at his luxury apartment building in LA's Century City neighbourhood.

The outlet quotes sources close to Bing as saying he had been depressed about being isolating in quarantine during the coronavirus pandemic.

Bing became a Hollywood power player after inheriting $US600 million from his grandfather on his 18th birthday, dropping out of college and using the money to found his own company, Shangri-La Entertainment.

His credits as an executive producer include Get Carter (2000), Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World (2005), Youth in Revolt (2009) and Rock the Kasbah (2015).

Bing also had a brief relationship with actress and model Elizabeth Hurley – the pair have a son together, actor and model Damian Hurley, born in 2002. Bing initially denied paternity, claiming that he and Hurley's relationship was brief and non-exclusive - a DNA test later showed he was the father. It's understood Bing and his son did not have a relationship.

View this post on Instagram

theme is circa 2004

A post shared by Damian Hurley (@damianhurley1) on May 21, 2020 at 1:20pm PDT

He is survived by Hurley and his other child, daughter Kira Bonder, who he had with tennis player Lisa Bonder.

Last year it was reported that Damian, 18, could stand to inherit nothing of his father's vast fortune amid a nasty legal battle with his biological grandfather.

The bulk of Bing's fortune came from his grandfather, New York real estate baron Leo S. Bing.

Hurley's grandfather, Dr Peter Bing, last year argued that Damian and his dad had never met, and that the teen isn't eligible to become a Bing heir as he was "born out of wedlock".

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