LOS ANGELES (AP) — Comic actor Phil Hartman and his wife left their estate — estimated at $1.23 million — to their two orphaned children, according to the couple’s nearly identical wills filed Tuesday.
The wills also specified cremation. Hartman asked that his ashes be scattered over Santa Catalina Island’s Emerald Bay. His wife, Brynn, didn’t specify what she wanted done with her ashes.
A court hearing on the wills, both signed March 11, 1996, was set for July 1. The wills were filed in Superior Court by attorney Paul Gordon Hoffman.
Hartman, 49, was shot to death last week in his suburban Encino home, apparently by Brynn Hartman, 40, who later committed suicide. The actor died of multiple gunshot wounds to the head. His wife died of a single gunshot wound to the head, coroner’s office spokesman Scott Carrier said.
Results of additional toxicology tests for drugs and alcohol for both should be available by the end of next week, Carrier said. The couple’s 9-year-old son, Sean, and 6-year-old daughter, Birgen Anika, were in the home at the time of the murder-suicide.
The children will be raised by Brynn Hartman’s sister Katharine Wright and her husband, Mike, who publicist Stan Rosenfield said are the guardians. The Wrights, who have no children of their own, live in Eau Claire, Wis.
In their 50-page wills, the Hartmans directed that the first guardian who consents to take care of the children be given $50,000 from their estate, Rosenfeld said.
The will specified the Hartman children would each get a third of their inheritance when they reach age 25 or receive a bachelor’s degree from a four-year accredited university. They will receive half the remaining balance when they turn 30 and the remainder when they turn 35.