Passages

On Oct. 31, Donald Trump, 51, filed a breach-of-contract suit in Palm Beach, Fla., against former bodyguard Spencer Wagner, 35, for breaking a confidentiality agreement. Wagner had claimed, in a story he sold to a supermarket tabloid, that he had an affair with Trump’s wife, Maria Maples, 34, before Trump filed for divorce from Maples last June….

Priscilla Presley, 52, filed a $6 million infringement suit on Oct. 23 in Los Angeles against Third Coast Entertainment, producers of a movie project based on the book Child Bride: The Untold Story of Priscilla Beaulieu Presley. Presley charged the company had falsely implied in a press release that she was an adviser to the film. She has also filed a $10 million suit against Currie Grant, 55, one of the book’s key sources, for claiming that he had sex with her before her 1967 marriage to Elvis Presley….

Actor Steven Seagal, 45, filed a $25 million breach-of-contract suit in L.A. superior court on Oct. 20 against Prince Abdulilah Bin Abdul Aziz al Saud of Saudi Arabia, charging the prince reneged on his promise to provide $30 million in financing for Seagal’s upcoming film Man of Honor….

Actress Kelly Preston, 35, wife of John Travolta, obtained an injunction from a Miami judge to prevent Joseph Cheffo, 30, a recent law school graduate, from contacting her. Preston claims that in October Cheffo delivered a “disturbing” letter to her on the set of the movie Holy Man in Miami Beach. Cheffo has given Preston a written apology and insisted that the offending letter was “satirical.”

Samuel Fuller. 85. IUJ iconoclastic director, screenwriter and producer of low-budget urban dramas and such gritty war movies as The Big Red One (1980), died of undisclosed causes on Oct. 30 in Hollywood Hills, Calif. In 1982, Paramount deemed Fuller’s antiracist White Dog, a film about a dog trained to attack black people, too controversial for release. The movie eventually was given a limited run in 1991….

Luther Simjian, 92, who held some 200 patents for inventions including the automated teller machine, the TelePrompTer and the flight simulator, died of undisclosed causes on Oct. 23 in Fort Lauderdale….

Screenwriter Paul Jarrico, 82, who was nominated for an Academy Award in 1941 for Tom, Dick and Harry and subsequently blacklisted after he refused to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee, died in a car crash on Oct. 28 in L.A. Jarrico was returning from a luncheon held by the entertainment industry to honor blacklisted writers….

Journalist Brad Darrach, 76, who wrote more than 50 cover stories for PEOPLE, TIME and LIFE magazines over his 54-year career, died of a heart attack on Nov. 3 in Montecito, Calif. In 1955, Darrach spent 10 hours in bed with Marilyn Monroe—chastely—to interview her for a TIME story and later persuaded her to reveal for the first time the details of her unhappy childhood.

R.E.M. drummer Bill Berry, 39, announced he is leaving the rock band after 17 years. R.E.M. will continue as a trio, and the group will not replace him. Berry, who has recovered fully from a brain aneurysm he suffered in 1995, said his illness had forced him to reassess his priorities.

Boxer Mike Tyson, 31, I broke a rib and punctured his right lung on Oct. 30 after crashing his motorcycle in Manchester, Conn. Police issued Tyson a $77 ticket because his Nevada driver’s license does not allow him to operate a motorcycle. Tyson was released from Hartford Hospital after two days.