Clive Goodwin

Actor, writer, and literary agent Clive Goodwin and his wife, beautiful artist and actress Pauline Boty, were a notable couple in the arts and entertainment scene in the so-called "swinging" London of the 1960's. Pauline was considered to be a founding member of the London pop art scene and in their home, the two counted among their guests many celebrities including David Frost, members of the Beatles and the Rolling Stones (whom she painted), artist Peter Blake, and Bob Dylan during his first visit to London in 1963 and a t other times when he was visiting or touring there. In 1965, Pauline became pregnant and in a follow-up examination, she was found to have leukemia. She was told that her chances of survival were slim if she did not undergo the chemotherapy that would kill her unborn child. She decided to forgo treatment and have the baby, a daughter they named Katy, born February 12, 1966. Pauline then began chemotherapy but by then, knowing that she was dying, she and Clive agreed to rename their daughter Boty, so the child would always have her mother's name, even if she changed her last name later in life due to marriage. On July 1, Pauline died. Goodwin was devastated and never married again. In November 1978, he flew to Los Angeles for various business meetings, including one at the Beverly Wilshire hotel, where he met with Warren Beatty (who was living at the hotel at the time) to discuss the script for Beatty's upcoming film Reds. The following day, November 14, Goodwin had lunch, during which he had one glass of white wine, having never been much of a drinker. He returned to the Beverly Wilshire to meet someone else, not Beatty, and having suffered a terrible headache earlier, he walked into the lobby and began vomiting, telling the lobby clerk that he was very sick. The clerk and a security guard were able to ascertain from Goodwin that he was not staying at the hotel, but Goodwin soon fell unconscious and the two men, who later admitted that they never smelled alcohol on Goodwin's breath, assumed he was drunk and called police, who handcuffed him and took him to the Beverly Hills police station. Goodwin died later that night, alone in the cell, likely never regaining consciousness. At the autopsy, no trace of alcohol or drugs were found in his body. Goodwin was the first person ever to die in custody at the Beverly Hills PD. Four years later, both the police and hotel settled with Boty out-of-court for approximately $1 million. Boty never came to grips with her mother's sacrifice and then the death of her father. Although she had showed talent in art herself and was awarded a scholarship for a Masters in Art in California, she began using heroin, eventually dying of an overdose in 1995 at age 29.