I sang an original song, Somebody Loves You at his funeral in 1989. Cornel was a man of solid integrity and he sincerely loved my mother, Colleen. I wrote a story based on his 1972 TV movie, Gargoyles before I met him. He gave me the script to read and was considering me as the soundtrack artist. Years later, when Cornel made his expansion, at the time he was working on the sequel to his movie The Naked Prey from 1966. Made for television, this monster-horror-thriller begins with anthropologist Dr. Cornel and Colleen actually got married on a cruise ship in international waters, but then never had it officiated in the US, so she remained Mrs. The theme of the party was lingerie, so most of the women and some of the men were dressed for bed time. One event that stands out was the New Year’s Eve party at The Playboy Mansion. We all went to dinner and different events together. Cornel was a full package of talent – actor, writer, director, producer, soundtrack composer, fencing champion, artist, linguist, etc. Mom had always said that Richard knew his time was short and that he wanted her to hook up with Cornel. Recently, I found two handwritten notes from Richard (Nicky) Conte to his wife Colleen (my mother) reminding her to be sure and get a certain movie poster to Cornel Wilde as a gift. Many years after my stepfather Richard Conte made his expansion (as I call it), another movie star entered my mother’s life, Mr.
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