Anthony Dryden Marshall
Anthony Dryden Marshall (born
May 30,
1924) is an American theatrical producer who is a former
marine,
C.I.A. intelligence officer, and
ambassador. He also is the former vice president of the
Vincent Astor Foundation, which was established by his stepfather.
Known as Tony, Marshall is the only child of the American philanthropist
Brooke Astor and her first husband,
New Jersey state senator
John Dryden Kuser. He was the stepson of Charles H. Marshall (his mother's second husband, whose surname he adopted at the age of 18) and also of the American millionaire
Vincent Astor (his mother's third husband).
[According to a former housekeeper of Brooke Astor's, in the 1960s, Anthony Dryden Marshall suggested changing his surname once again, this time to Astor. Marshall has denied the housekeeper's story, which was published in the New York Daily News on 30 July 2006.]By his father's second marriage, he has a half-sister, Suzanne Dryden Kuser, who served with the U.S.
Department of State, was an intelligence officer with the
Central Intelligence Agency, and has been a consultant to the
National Security Agency.
He also had two stepsiblings, Peter Marshall and Helen Huntington Marshall (Mrs.
Ernest Schelling).
Marshall attended Brooks School in
North Andover,
Massachusetts, and attended
Brown University.
He served with the U.S.
Marine Corps during World War II and participated in the battle of
Iwo Jima.
Anthony Dryden Marshall was the U.S. ambassador to the
Malagasy Republic,
Kenya,
Trinidad and Tobago, and the
Seychelles.
Marshall was an assistant to
Richard M. Bissell Jr. during the development of the
U-2 reconnaissance aircraft.
Anthony Marshall and his second wife, Charlene, have produced Broadway productions of "
Alice in Wonderland," "
Long Day's Journey into Night" (2003), and "
I Am My Own Wife" (Tony Award, 2004). They formed Delphi Productions in 2003 with producer
David Richenthal.
He married, as his first wife, on
26 July 1947, Elizabeth Cynthia Cryan. The ceremony took place at All Saints Episcopal Church in
Wynnewood,
Pennsylvania. The groom's stepfather, Charles Marshall, was his best man. The couple had twin sons, Alexander (Alec) Marshall, a photographer, and Philip Cryan Marshall, a professor of architectural preservation at
Roger Williams University. He had a second wife, to whom he was married for 23 years. More information about her is needed, including the date of his divorce from his first wife and the date of his marriage and divorce to and from his second.The couple separated in
1990 and were divorced shortly thereafter, following the revelation of Anthony Marshall's affair with Charlene T. Gilbert, the wife of an Episcopal priest in
Northeast Harbor, Maine.He married in 1992, as his third wife, Charlene T. Gilbert (born
July 27,
1945), the former wife of the Rev. Paul E. Gilbert. By this marriage, he has two stepdaughters, Arden Delacey, who is the music director at the Cathedral School of the
Cathedral of St. John the Divine, and Inness Hancock, an artist.
[Inness Hancock's web page]In
July 2006, Philip Marshall filed suit against his father, alleging mistreatment of his grandmother Brooke Astor and mismanagement of her funds. He requested that Anthony Marshall be dismissed as her guardian and replaced by family friend
Annette de la Renta. That request was granted, temporarily, pending a court hearing on
8 August 2006.
On
1 August 2006,
The New York Times reported that Anthony Marshall was accused by Alice Perdue, who was employed in his mother's business office, of diverting nearly $1 million from his ailing mother's personal checking accounts into theatrical productions. Marshall, through a spokesman, said that Brooke Astor knew of the investments and approved of them. Perdue countered that Marshall had advised her never to send to his mother any documents of a financial nature because "she didn't understand it."
