Anthony Dryden Marshall


Anthony Dryden Marshall was an American theatrical producer and C.I.A. intelligence officer and ambassador. Marshall died on November 30, 2014, at the age of 90.

Early life and family

Known as Tony, Marshall was the only child of the American philanthropist Brooke Astor and her first husband, New Jersey state senator John Dryden Kuser. Marshall was the stepson of Charles H. Marshall,
By his father's second marriage, he had 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, wife of the composer Ernest Schelling and later of the cellist János Scholz.
Marshall attended Brooks School in North Andover, Massachusetts. After enlisting in 1942, he served with the U.S. Marine Corps and led his platoon in the battle of Iwo Jima, attaining the rank of captain and earning a Purple Heart. After the end of the war, he enrolled in Brown University.

Career

Marshall was the U.S. consul in Istanbul, Turkey, then, during the Nixon administration, served as the U.S. ambassador to the Malagasy Republic.
Later he served as ambassador to Trinidad and Tobago and Kenya ; as well as during the Ford administration, to the Seychelles. He was also appointed special assistant to Richard Mervin Bissell Jr. to oversee the development of the U-2 reconnaissance aircraft.
In the 1980s, Marshall was an officer with United States Trust Company of New York, where he assisted the bank with the management of large estate accounts.

Theatrical productions

Anthony Marshall's first production was the Tony-nominated Alice in Wonderland which he produced with Sabra Jones and WNET. He and his wife, Charlene Marshall, formed Delphi Productions in 2003 with producer David Richenthal, and they produced the Tony Award-winning Long Day's Journey into Night, and I Am My Own Wife.

Personal life

Marshall was married three times. His first wife was Elizabeth Cynthia Cryan, whom he married on July 26, 1947, in Wynnewood, Pennsylvania. The groom's stepfather, Charles Marshall, was his best man. The couple had twin sons:
His second wife was his former secretary Thelma Hoegnell, whom he married on December 29, 1962. The couple were divorced on January 24, 1992, reportedly following Marshall's affair with Charlene Gilbert, the wife of an Episcopal priest in Northeast Harbor, Maine.
His third wife, and widow, whom he married in 1992, is the former Charlene Detwiler Tyler, the former wife of Paul E. Gilbert, a naval officer turned Episcopal priest, and a daughter of Charles Matthew Tyler, an insurance actuary and businessman of Charleston, S.C. By this marriage Marshall had two stepdaughters, Arden and Inness and a stepson, Robert.

Trial

On November 27, 2007, Marshall surrendered to authorities at the Manhattan district attorney's office to face indictment on sixteen counts relating to the handling of Brooke Astor's will and financial affairs. The charges included conspiracy, grand larceny and possession of stolen property. Attorney Francis X. Morrissey was also charged with six counts including conspiracy, forgery and possession of a forged instrument.
At a press conference following Marshall's arrest, Manhattan district attorney Robert M. Morgenthau stated that "Marshall and Morrissey took advantage of Mrs. Astor’s diminished mental capacity in a scheme to defraud her and others out of millions of dollars." He further said that "Marshall abused his power of attorney and convinced Mrs. Astor to sell property by falsely telling her that she was running out of money. He is charged with stealing money from her as well as stealing valuable art work from her Park Avenue apartment."
The trial of Marshall and Morrissey started March 30, 2009, coincidentally his late mother's birthday. On October 8, 2009, Marshall was found guilty of 14 of the 16 charges, including first-degree grand larceny. Although he had his mother's General Durable Power of Attorney since the 1970s, jurors convicted him of giving himself an unauthorized raise bringing his salary up to about $1 million for managing his mother's finances which he had managed since 1977 earning her $82 million.
On December 21, 2009, Marshall was sentenced to one to three years in New York State prison. Marshall's attorneys appealed, citing jury tampering, but the appeal was rejected. 89 year-old Marshall reported to prison on June 21, 2013.
However, after serving just eight weeks of his sentence, the 89-year-old Marshall had grown so sick and frail that he was granted medical parole on August 22, 2013. His health problems included Parkinson's disease and congestive heart failure; his lawyers claimed he could not walk, stand, or dress himself. Marshall died on November 30, 2014, at the age of 90 with his wife Charlene by his side.