Michelle Triola (November 13, 1932 – October 30, 2009) was an American actress who unsuccessfully sued actor

Lee Marvin Lee Marvin (February 19, 1924August 29, 1987) was an American film and television actor. Known for his bass voice and prematurely white hair, he is best remembered for playing hardboiled "tough guy" characters. Although initially typecast as th ...

in 1977, having cohabited with him from 1965 to 1970. The trial, which brought about the concept of palimony, was widely covered in the media. During this time, she was Michelle Triola Marvin, having legally changed her name to add Marvin's surname to her own. She was represented by attorney Marvin Mitchelson.

Personal life and career

Triola was born in

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

and majored in theater arts at

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school then known as the southern branch of the C ...

. Triola was married to actor Skip Ward for six months from November 1961 to June 1962. She lived with actor

Dick Van Dyke Richard Wayne Van Dyke (born December 13, 1925) is an American actor, entertainer and comedian. Dick Van Dyke on screen and stage, His work spans screen and stage, and List of awards and nominations received by Dick Van Dyke, his awards includ ...

from 1976 until her death in 2009. She had no children. Triola was a lounge singer and dancer. She danced in the original 1958

Broadway Broadway may refer to: Theatre * Broadway Theatre (disambiguation) * Broadway theatre, theatrical productions in professional theatres near Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, U.S. ** Broadway (Manhattan), the street ** Broadway Theatre (53rd Stre ...

production of ''

Flower Drum Song ''Flower Drum Song'' was the eighth musical theatre, musical by the team of Rodgers and Hammerstein. It is based on the 1957 novel, ''The Flower Drum Song'', by Chinese-American author C. Y. Lee (author), C. Y. Lee. It premiered on Broadway the ...

'', directed by

Gene Kelly Eugene Curran Kelly (August 23, 1912 – February 2, 1996) was an American dancer, actor, singer, director and choreographer. He was known for his energetic and athletic dancing style and sought to create a new form of American dance accessibl ...

. Her film acting career consisted of minor roles, including a

stand-in A stand-in, sometimes a lighting double, for film and television is a person who substitutes for the actor before filming, for technical purposes such as lighting and camera setup. Stand-ins are helpful in the initial processes of film and tele ...

in Lee Marvin's 1965 film '' Ship of Fools'' and a guest role on the

television series '' Diagnosis: Murder''.

Suing Lee Marvin

Although she and Marvin never married, Triola sought financial compensation similar to that available to spouses under California's

alimony Alimony, also called aliment (Scotland), maintenance (England, Republic of Ireland, Northern Ireland, Wales, Canada, New Zealand), spousal support (U.S., Canada) and spouse maintenance (Australia), is a legal obligation on a person to provide ...

and

community property Community property (United States) also called community of property (South Africa) is a marital property regime whereby property acquired during a marriage is considered to be owned by both spouses and subject to division between them in the e ...

laws. The result was the landmark case '' Marvin v. Marvin'', 18 Cal. 3d 660 (1976). The

Supreme Court of California The Supreme Court of California is the Supreme court, highest and final court of appeals in the judiciary of California, courts of the U.S. state of California. It is headquartered in San Francisco at the Earl Warren Building, but it regularly ...

held that Triola could proceed with her suit, as it did state a cause of action and the trial court erred in granting judgment to Marvin on the pleadings. On April 18, 1979, Judge Arthur K. Marshall ordered Marvin to pay $104,000 to Triola for "rehabilitation purposes", but denied her community property claim for one half of the $3.6 million which Marvin had earned during their six years of cohabitation. The award was overturned in 1981 by the California Second District Court of Appeals, which ruled that the award was not proper but left intact the precedent, which permitted unmarried couples to sue for division of property when they separate. The appellate court found that there was no basis for the award.

Death

In April 2008, she underwent surgery for

lung cancer Lung cancer, also known as lung carcinoma, is a malignant tumor that begins in the lung. Lung cancer is caused by genetic damage to the DNA of cells in the airways, often caused by cigarette smoking or inhaling damaging chemicals. Damaged ...

. The cancer caused her death on October 30, 2009, at the home she shared with Van Dyke. She was 76 years old.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Triola, Michelle 1932 births 2009 deaths 20th-century American actresses American film actresses American television actresses Deaths from lung cancer in California Actresses from Greater Los Angeles UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science alumni Burials at Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Hollywood Hills) 20th-century American singers 20th-century American women singers 21st-century American women