Trivia

Son, Damian Hurley (b. 4 April 2002), with Elizabeth Hurley.

Most renowned as the billionaire real-estate tycoon, and former lover of Elizabeth Hurley who originally denied fathering her baby.

Dated Elizabeth Hurley (9/2000 - 11/2001).

In a very bold move, he personally invested close to $80 million of the budget of The Polar Express (2004). He covered roughly half the cost of the Robert Zemeckis film.

Son of Helen, a nurse, and Peter Bing, a doctor who worked for John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson and who serves on Stanford University's board of trustees.

Grandson of Leo S. Bing, namesake of the auditorium at the L.A. County Museum of Art.

The Bing Wing of Green Library at Stanford University is also named after the family.

Had a daughter out of wedlock with Lisa Bonder, Kira Kerkorian, who was acknowledged by Kirk Kerkorian when his ex-wife Bonder told him the child was his.

He was of Ashkenazi Jewish (father) and Serbian (mother) descent.

Attended Stanford University but dropped out. He later pledged a $25 million donation to Stanford.

Bing died by suicide on June 22, 2020, at the age of 55 by jumping from his condominium on the 27th floor of the Ten Thousand building at 10000 Santa Monica Boulevard in the Century City neighborhood of Los Angeles. He had been depressed about lack of human contact during the Coronavirus disease quarantine.

With a past linked to drug addiction, including the recent loss of a close girlfriend due to overdose, a history of failed investments in the film industry and failed relationships with both lovers and his own estranged children, at the time of his death, he was worth $300,000 having spent most of the $600 million he had inherited.

On August 5, 2009, a 737 private aircraft owned by Bing and based at Hollywood Burbank Airport in Southern California, was utilized in the return of American reporters Laura Ling and Euna Lee who had spent 5 months of a 12-year sentence in North Korea. Former President Bill Clinton was instrumental in their return and accompanied the reporters back to the United States. Bing reportedly covered the whole cost of the flight, estimated to be around $200,000.

Beginning with a $500 contribution in 1993 to support Senator Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J, in his bid for re-election, Bing contributed more than $10.7 million at the federal level to the Democratic Party and its candidates, according to OpenSecrets.

Bing also financed and produced the independently released Jerry Lee Lewis album "Last Man Standing".

He was the founder of Shangri-La Entertainment, an organization with interests in property, construction, entertainment and music.

In addition to his producing and film finance work, he also co-wrote both the screenplay and the story of Kangaroo Jack (2003).

On December 18, 2008, the William J. Clinton Foundation released a list of all contributors. It included Stephen L. Bing, who gave between US$10-25 million.

In April 2012, Bing committed to join The Giving Pledge, set up by Bill Gates and Warren Buffett, willingly donating the majority of his wealth to charity.

In 2001, Bing sued billionaire Kirk Kerkorian for invasion of privacy. Bing alleged that convicted criminal and private investigator Anthony Pellicano took Bing's dental floss out of his trash to collect his DNA. At the time, Kerkorian was in a legal fight with his former wife Lisa Bonder, a former professional tennis player, over the amount of child support he would pay, with the billionaire reportedly suspecting Bing (a previous boyfriend) to be the biological father of Bonder's daughter Kira. After Bing was proven by DNA testing to be the father of Bonder's child, Bing and Kerkorian settled their dispute out of court.