Film producer, financier Steve Bing dies at 55

LOS ANGELES » Movie producer, film financier, real estate heir and major Democratic political donor Steve Bing has died. He was 55.

The Los Angeles County coroner said Bing died Monday at his residence in the Century City section of Los Angeles.

The coroner said the cause of death was suicide. Without giving a name, the city fire department responded to a report of a 55-year-old man jumping from a building at the same time, place.

Bing produced the 2000 Sylvester Stallone film “Get Carter” and was a major investor in the 2004 Tom Hanks animated film “The Polar Express.” He co-wrote the 2003 comedy “Kangaroo Jack,” a film starring Anthony Anderson and Jerry O’Connell that was savaged by critics but made nearly $90 million at the box office.

He was also a producer on director Martin Scorsese’s 2008 Rolling Stones documentary, “Shine a Light,” and a co-producer with Mick Jagger on a forthcoming documentary on Jerry Lee Lewis.

“It’s so sad to hear of Steve Bing’s passing,” Jagger said on Twitter. “He was such a kind and generous friend and supported so many good and just causes. I will miss him very much.”

Bing was the son of Peter Bing, a doctor and philanthropist who specialized in public health, and the grandson of Leo Bing, a New York real estate developer who left him hundreds of millions of dollars that he inherited when he turned 18.

In the 1980s, Steve Bing dropped out of his father’s alma mater, Stanford University, where the elder Bing had donated $50 million, for a career in Hollywood. He got early credits as a cowriter for the 1984 Chuck Norris Vietnam vet movie “Missing in Action” and its two sequels. He wrote an episode of the sitcom “Married… with Children” and in 1994 wrote and directed his own small film starring Judd Nelson, “Every Breath.”

Bing donated millions to the Democratic Party and its candidates, including Hillary Clinton, John Kerry and Nancy Pelosi, to various charities, and to campaigns for liberal-leaning ballot initiatives in California.

“I loved Steve Bing very much,” President Bill Clinton tweeted. “He had a big heart, and he was willing to do anything he could for the people and causes he believed in. I will miss him and his enthusiasm more than I can say, and I hope he’s finally found peace.”

Bing