Marguerite Littman

Marguerite Littman
Marguerite Littman
	Littman in 1987
Born	Marguerite Lamkin; May 4, 1930; Monroe, Louisiana, U.S.
Died	October 16, 2020 (aged 90); London, England
Occupations	Socialite; activist;
Spouses	Harry Brown; (m. 1952; div.); Rory Harrity; (m. 1959; div.); ; Mark Littman (m. 1965; died 2015)
Relatives	Speed Lamkin (brother)

Marguerite Lamkin Brown Harrity Littman (May 4, 1930 – October 16, 2020) was an

Southern American accent coach she is known to have coached actors including Elizabeth Taylor and Paul Newman

. Littman is remembered for her role in HIV/AIDS advocacy, including fundraising for charities.

Early life

Marguerite Lamkin was born on May 4, 1930, to Eugenia and Ebenezer Lamkin in

Newcomb College and later at Finch College in New York City.^[1] Her brother, Speed Lamkin, went on to become a novelist and playwright.^[2]

Career

She moved to

Holly Golightly, in his 1958 Breakfast at Tiffany's novella, partially after Littman.^[1]

In the early 1960s, she moved to New York City, where she worked with photographer

Polaroid portraits, depicting her transformation over the nine-year period.^[4]

Littman started the AIDS Crisis Trust in 1986, as a charity to collect funds for AIDS research and treatment.

gala events and auctions to raise funds for the cause. The trust went on to become one of Britain's most prominent AIDS-awareness charity groups. The trust's auctions would offer pieces from her socialite friends including Elizabeth Taylor and David Hockney. During this period, Littman was introduced to Diana, Princess of Wales, who was already associated with AIDS-related charities across the world. In 1997, Diana donated her entire wardrobe to Littman to be auctioned. The auction, facilitated by Christie's, raised more than $3 million for the trust and other charities.^[1]^[5]

In 1999, the trust was merged with the Elton John AIDS Foundation, for whom Littman served as a director.^[5]

Personal life

Lamkin married screenwriter

Queen's Counsel Mark Littman, a union which lasted from 1965 until his death in 2015.^[3]

Littman died on October 16, 2020, at her home in London.

New York Times

stated:

By all accounts hypnotically charming, Ms. Littman, who landed in Los Angeles at midcentury, counted among her closest friends the writer Christopher Isherwood and his partner, the artist Don Bachardy, as well as Gore Vidal, David Hockney and, famously, Truman Capote, who is said to have distilled that charm into his most famous character, Holly Golightly of Breakfast at Tiffany's.^[1]