A reclusive man has left the entirety of his estate to two actors, men he never met in life but for whom he apparently held in very high esteem.
Ray Fulk, 71, leaves his estate to the actors, Kevin Brophy and Peter Barton, soap opera stars who have each received half of Fulk’s earthly possessions. Fulk died in July of last year, leaving behind a large property in Lincoln, Illinois and hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash and CDs.
Estate attorney Donald Behle assisted the man in leaving his estate to the actors he never met — drawing up the documents in the late 90s, the last time he saw Fulk. Behle said that while he knew the two were actors, he also did not realize Fulk had no personal connection to the two men.
Behle explains:
“He was a loner, and a lot of neighbors didn’t know who he was … He just said they were friends of his.”
The lawyer also says that Brophy and Barton were understandably skeptical when they learned the man had left his estate to the two actors he had never met. Behle adds:
“What’s the first thing you would think if you got a letter like that? … You’d think it was some kind of scam.”
While the man left his estate to two actors he’d never met, the estate lawyer that appears to have known him best despite their limited contact offers a sad possible explanation for the strange will stipulation.
Behle refers back to letters found among Fulk’s remaining possessions after his passing:
“I found a couple of letters he had written to them … They sent back responses that basically said thanks for writing and please watch me in whatever their next movie or show was.”
The house alone left by the man to the two actors he had never met was valued at more than a million dollars.
