The former owner of the infamous nightclub Studio 54 has died.
Mark Fleischman was 82.
Daniel Fitzgerald, Fleischman’s former business partner, announced the death over Facebook on Tuesday, saying that Fleischman sought out “assisted suicide in Switzerland because he no longer wanted to endure the suffering.”
Fitzgerald and Fleischman owned the Century Club in Los Angeles, BBC News reported.
Fleischman became ill in 2016, E! News reported. At first, Fleischman noticed his leg was dragging. Eventually, he had to use a wheelchair, but doctors were not able to diagnose what was causing the symptoms.
Fleischman had told The New York Post about his decision with the help of nonprofit Dignitas, which helps patients with terminal or severe physical illnesses, E! News reported.
Studio 54 opened its doors in New York in 1977. It was the place where celebrities such as Andy Warhol, Liza Minnelli and Elizabeth Taylor frequented. But it closed in 1980 when its original owners were charged with tax evasion.
Fleischman reopened the club. He talked about the experience in his book “Inside Studio 54.”
“From the very first night we opened, in 1981, I was swept up in a world of celebrities, drugs, power and sex,” Fleischman said, according to BBC News.
“Every night, celebrities and stunning women made their way through the crowd, up the stairs to my office to sip champagne and share lines of cocaine using my golden straw or rolled-up $100 bills.”
Fleischman sold Studio 54 before it closed in 1986, according to The Washington Post.
Fleischman grew up the son of a hotel owner in Great Neck, the newspaper reported.
He was 10 years old when he first went to New York’s Copacabana nightclub.
Fleischman graduated from Cornell University’s School of Hotel Administration in 1962. Afterward, he served in the Navy as the manager of an officers’ club.
He purchased his first hotel in Queens near the U.S. Open tennis venue and expanded his empire to other hotels, restaurants and ski resorts. He also operated other nightclubs and even fitness studios, the Post reported.
Fleischman leaves behind his wife, his daughter from his first marriage and two stepchildren, E! News reported.
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