Close Friend Of Sharon Tate Succeeds In 2nd Suicide Try
Hollywood Gossip Columnist Stephen Brandt, Who Was Questioned In
Murder Probe, Found Dead In New York
November 29, 1969
Los Angeles Times
By Jerry Cohen
Times Staff Writer
A Hollywood gossip columnist who attempted suicide here last month after
being questioned in the Sharon Tate murder investigation succeeded in killing
himself Friday in New York City.
The body of Steven A. Brandt, 30, was found in his room at the Chelsea Hotel,
where he had gone after an evening with friends, including underground movie
actress Ultra Violet.
In a telephone conversation with the friends, shortly before he died, Brandt
said he had taken "22 pills."
He died of an apparent overdose of drugs, according to the New York Medical
examiner's office.
Brandt, a columnist for Photoplay magazine, attempted to poison himself here
with a similar overdose October 31 in his apartment 1260 N. Kings Road.
But before losing consciousness, he telephoned Singer Eddie Fisher, a friend,
in Las Vegas to tell him he was dying. Brandt didn't get Fisher, but he did get
the singer's secretary.
Fisher Phones Police
The secretary reached Fisher, who immediately notified authorities here.
Brandt was found unconscious and saved by emergency treatment, though he was
in critical condition for several hours.
At that time, friends said he was depressed over the massacre of Miss Tate
and four others August 9 in the actress's Benedict Canyon Mansion. He also had
been in ill health.
It is understood that Brandt offered investigators little that was useful in
the way of clues during several interviews. However, he reportedly gave them a
graphic filled-in on the exotic drug-oriented life allegedly led by intimates of
Miss Tate and her husband, Polish film director Roman Polanski, who were close
friends of the columnist.
Brandt, who was widely acquainted in the movie colony, stood as their witness
when the actress and director were married in London in January, 1968.
Slight, pale and long-haired, Brandt was in frequent demand as an escort for
female movie stars, but chiefly when they were between romances.
He was in New York, his hometown, at the time of the Tate murders.
He went into seclusion after his suicide attempt here, but said during a
brief telephone conversation with a reporter that when he regained consciousness
in the County-USC Medical Center two Los Angeles detectives were waiting to
question him again about the Tate case.
"They want to know if what I've done had been connected with the case, " said
Brandt. He had told police earlier that he had received a menacing phone call
after being named as police informant in the mystery.
"But I didn't have anything to tell them," Brandt said.
"The case has been terribly depressing to me. I left Hollywood because I
wanted to get away from it. When I came back to town, everywhere I went people
would ask me what was new in the case. It depressed me so, and I tried to kill
myself."
Ultra Violet, the actress who reportedly found Brandt's body, starred in
three underground movies made by "pop" artist Andy Warhol.
