Erik Lee Preminger

Personal

Vocation

Notable

Family

American writer, film producer and noted family, the son of Otto Preminger and Gypsy Rose Lee. He had no association with his dad until he became an adult. As a kid, he had the last name of his mom's second husband, William Kirland, until he learned at 17 the true identify of his parentage. Entering the film industry, he was the Assistant Producer of "Such Good Friends," 1971, the year that he was adopted by his dad. He was the author of "Gypsy and Me: At Home and on the Road With Gypsy Rose Lee," 1994, after taking six years to write the book. It reads like a real-life "Auntie Mame," with a childhood that was idyllic and unconventional. He grew up in a trunk, so to speak, touring with his mom from the time he was six months old. When he was 12 (and she, 42), Gypsy decided she was too old to be taking her clothiers off in front of strangers. She became a talk-show hostess and settled them into a Manhattan town-house, succeeded in the early '60s by a Beverly Hills mansion. As a youth, Preminger began to rebel with increasingly bitter and reckless consequences but eventually was reconciled with his mom before her death. A heavy smoker, she was stricken with the lung cancer and died in 1970. Link to Wikipedia biography