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Scott Thorson, who wrote about his relationship with Liberace in Behind the Candelabra, has died. He was 65.
Thorson published his memoir in 1988 a year after the famed pianist’s death, and was played by Matt Damon in the book’s Emmy-winning 2013 adaptation.
Variety reports that Thorson died on August 16. He had been a patient at a Los Angeles healthcare facility and was suffering from cancer and a heart condition.
Thorson was born in La Crosse, Wisconsin on January 23, 1959. He first met Valentino Liberace as a 17-year-old, when the singer and pianist was 57 and one of the most highly paid entertainers in Las Vegas.
When he was 18, Thorson was hired by Liberace as a personal friend and companion. He was also given a small role in Liberace’s Vegas show, driving his Rolls Royce onstage. Thorson later wrote that this was the beginning of a five-year romantic relationship during which he was showered with lavish gifts.
At Liberace’s suggestion, Thorson had plastic surgery, including a chin implant, which was intended to make him look more like Liberace.
In 1982, Thorson was fired from his job with Liberace and subsequently filed a $113m lawsuit against his former employer. This included a palimony suit, the first same-sex palimony suit ever to be filed in the United States.
Liberace consistently denied that he was a homosexual, and claimed they had never been in a relationship. The suit was eventually settled out of court in 1986, and the pair reconciled before Liberace died the following year.
Thorson’s 1988 memoir Behind the Candelabra was adapted into a hit HBO film in 2013, with Steven Soderbergh directing Michael Douglas as Liberace and Matt Damon as Thorson. The film won eight Emmys, including Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or Movie for Douglas.
Outside of his association with Liberace, Thorson was also a witness in the high-profile and still unsolved Wonderland murders of 1981. Four people were killed in a known drug house on Wonderland Avenue in the Laurel Canyon area of Los Angeles.
Thorson testified that prior to the murders he had witnessed nightclub owner Eddie Nash threatening porn star John Holmes into revealing that the Wonderland murder victims had been involved in a robbery at Nash’s home. The murders partially inspired 1997’s Boogie Nights and formed the basis of the 2003 film Wonderland.
Thorson was placed in witness protection after testifying, later going by the name Jess Marlow. He was convicted in 2013 of burglary and credit card fraud and sentenced to five years’ probation, later going to prison after testing positive for methamphetamine. He was released in 2022.
