{"page":"\u003clink rel=\"stylesheet\" href=\"https://lessonplanet.com/assets/packs/css/resources-c03aa079.css\" /\u003e\n\u003clink rel=\"stylesheet\" href=\"https://lessonplanet.com/assets/packs/css/lp_boclips_stylesheets-517835be.css\" media=\"all\" /\u003e\n\u003cdiv data-title='Clifford Irving, Howard Hughes prankster, has died at 87' data-url='/boclips/videos/5c54d6bed8eafeecae206074' data-video-url='/boclips/videos/5c54d6bed8eafeecae206074' id='bo_player_modal'\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='boclips-resource-page modal-dialog panel-container'\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='react-notifications-root'\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='rp-header'\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='rp-type'\u003e\n\u003ci aria-hidden='true' class='fai fa-regular fa-circle-play'\u003e\u003c/i\u003e\nVideo\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003ch1 class='rp-title' id='video-title'\u003e\nClifford Irving, Howard Hughes prankster, has died at 87\n\u003c/h1\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='rp-actions'\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='mr-1'\u003e\n\u003ca class=\"btn btn-success\" data-posthog-event=\"Signup: LP Signup Activity\" data-posthog-location=\"body_link_boclips\" data-remote=\"true\" href=\"/subscription/new\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cspan\u003eGet Free Access\u003c/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"\"\u003e for 10 Days\u003c/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e!\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/a\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='rp-body'\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='rp-info'\u003e\n\u003cdiv aria-label='Hide resource details' class='rp-hide-info' role='button' tabindex='0'\u003e\u0026times;\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003ci aria-label='Expand resource details' class='rp-expand-info fai fa-solid fa-up-right-and-down-left-from-center' role='button' tabindex='0'\u003e\u003c/i\u003e\n\u003ci aria-label='Compress resource details' class='rp-compress-info fai fa-solid fa-down-left-and-up-right-to-center' role='button' tabindex='0'\u003e\u003c/i\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='rp-rating'\u003e\n\u003cspan class='resource-pool'\u003e\n\u003cspan class='pool-label'\u003ePublisher:\u003c/span\u003e\n\u003cspan class='pool-name'\u003e\n\u003cspan class='text'\u003e\u003ca data-publisher-id=\"30356011\" href=\"/search?publisher_ids%5B%5D=30356011\"\u003eCurated Video\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\n\u003c/span\u003e\n\u003c/span\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='rp-description'\u003e\n\u003cspan class='short-description'\u003eCLIFFORD IRVING, HOWARD HUGHES PRANKSTER, HAS DIED AT 87              Clifford Irving, whose scheme to publish a phony autobiography of billionaire Howard Hughes created a sensation in the 1970s and stands as one of the all-time literary...\u003c/span\u003e\n\u003cspan class='full-description hide'\u003eCLIFFORD IRVING, HOWARD HUGHES PRANKSTER, HAS DIED AT 87\u003cbr/\u003e              Clifford Irving, whose scheme to publish a phony autobiography of billionaire Howard Hughes created a sensation in the 1970s and stands as one of the all-time literary hoaxes, died after being admitted to hospice care. He was 87.\u003cbr/\u003e              Irving's wife, Julie Irving, confirmed that he died Tuesday (19 DEC. 2017) at a hospice near his Sarasota home, The New York Times reported . She said he had been admitted there after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer about a week earlier.\u003cbr/\u003e              A novelist of little note in 1971, Irving conned McGraw-Hill publishers into paying him a $765,000 advance for a book about the reclusive Hughes. His elaborate ruse became the subject of the 2006 movie \"The Hoax,\" starring Richard Gere.\u003cbr/\u003e              Irving served 17 months in federal prison for fraud after Hughes emerged to condemn the work as a fabrication. The bogus autobiography wasn't published until 1999, when it was printed as a private edition.\u003cbr/\u003e              The scam \"was exciting. It was a challenge. It became an adventure,\" Irving told the Los Angeles Times in 2007.\u003cbr/\u003e              The International Herald Tribune called the fake autobiography \"the most famous unpublished book of the 20th century.\" Time magazine dubbed Irving \"Con Man of the Year\" in a 1972 cover story.\u003cbr/\u003e              Irving said the idea of fabricating an autobiography of Hughes came to him after reading a magazine article about the billionaire's eccentric lifestyle. Hughes' hermit-like obsession with his privacy all but guaranteed that the \"gorgeous literary caper\" would succeed, Irving wrote in \"The Hoax,\" his 2006 account of the scheme.\u003cbr/\u003e              \"Hughes would never be able to surface to deny it, or else he wouldn't bother,\" he wrote.\u003cbr/\u003e              At the time of the hoax, Hughes had long withdrawn from his life as a powerful industrialist, aviator and filmmaker. He reportedly lived the final 10 years of his life, from 1966 to 1976, in near-total seclusion, even neglecting personal hygiene to avoid contact with the outside world.\u003cbr/\u003e              Hughes' intense aversion to publicity gave rise to skepticism about Irving's claims to have interviewed the billionaire.\u003cbr/\u003e              Irving insisted that he had several clandestine meetings with Hughes. He submitted to a lie-detector test and produced documents purportedly from the billionaire, including a handwritten letter written to McGraw-Hill.\u003cbr/\u003e              The letter, forged by Irving, was deemed authentic by handwriting analysts hired by McGraw-Hill. At that point, the publisher decided to move forward with the book.\u003cbr/\u003e              Irving put the cash advance into a Swiss bank account, opened in the name Helga R. Hughes.\u003cbr/\u003e              The deception unraveled when investigative reporter James Phelan, writing a book about Hughes, recognized passages of his work in an excerpt from Irving's manuscript of the autobiography.\u003cbr/\u003e              Hughes himself then surfaced to conduct a telephone conference with reporters during which he repudiated Irving's story and said that he never met him. His lawyer sued Irving and his publisher.\u003cbr/\u003e              At the urging of McGraw-Hill, Swiss authorities investigated the Helga R. Hughes bank account and learned that the deposits had been made by Irving's wife, Edith.\u003cbr/\u003e              Irving and his collaborator, Richard Suskind, were indicted on fraud charges and were found guilty in June 1972. In addition to his prison term, Irving returned the $765,000 advance to McGraw-Hill. Suskind was sentenced to six months and served five.\u003cbr/\u003e              Edith Irving served a total of 16 months in U.S. and Swiss jails for fraud. She left jail announcing her intent to file for divorce.\u003cbr/\u003e              Irving was unhappy with the movie version of his escapades and asked to have his name removed from the credits as a technical adviser.\u003cbr/\u003e              \"Movie Clifford has the energy of a not-too-bright psychopath. If I were that man, I'd shoot myself,\" he wrote on his website. \"The movie is best thought of as a hoax.\"\u003cbr/\u003e              Born in 1930, Irving grew up on Manhattan's Upper West Side. He attended public schools and his boyhood friends included William Safire, the late columnist and speechwriter for President Richard Nixon.\u003cbr/\u003e              He attended Cornell University and stayed on for a year after graduation in 1951 on a creative writing fellowship. He worked odd jobs after leaving academia and traveled to Europe, where he finished his first novel, \"On a Darkling Plain.\"\u003cbr/\u003e              He moved in 1962 to an artists' colony on the island of Ibiza off the east coast of Spain. It was there that he wrote \"Fake!\", the story of art forger Elmyr de Hory. The reviews of the book were favorable, but it sold fewer than 30,000 copies.\u003cbr/\u003e              In all, Irving wrote more than a dozen books. In recent years, he and fifth wife Julie lived in Mexico, Colorado and Florida.\u003cbr/\u003e            \u003cbr/\u003e\u003cbr/\u003e              +4:3 MATERIAL+\u003cbr/\u003e              New York, 26 January 1972\u003cbr/\u003e              1. Medium Clifford Irving, fends off questions from press \u003cbr/\u003e              SOUND UP (English) Clifford Irving: \"I'm sorry I've got no comment at this point\"\u003cbr/\u003e              (Reporter: \"Will you meet with us when your voice is better?\"\u003cbr/\u003e              Irving: \"Thank you, what? No, because it's probably the most horrible experience that I've ever gone through, to see a gang of you guys looking down my throat like this. I'll answer that when I'm better, thank you. I tell you something, this isn't really my cup of tea, this kind of thing.\"\u003cbr/\u003e              \u003cbr/\u003e              +4:3 MATERIAL+\u003cbr/\u003e              FILE: Lewisburg, 27 August 1972\u003cbr/\u003e              2. Medium, Clifford Irving walks down courthouse steps with lawyer\u003cbr/\u003e              3. Various, Clifford Irving gets into car\u003cbr/\u003e              4. Medium sign \"Federal Prison Camp\"\u003cbr/\u003e              5. Medium car, Clifford Irving inside drives into prison yard\u003cbr/\u003e              \u003cbr/\u003e              +4:3 MATERIAL+\u003cbr/\u003e              FILE: 13 February 1974\u003cbr/\u003e              6. Various Clifford Irving is released, speaks to press\u003cbr/\u003e              SOUND UP (English) Clifford Irving: \"Prison was a nice place to visit, but I don't want to live there.\"\u003cbr/\u003e              (Reporter: \"Do you owe anybody any money at this point?)\u003cbr/\u003e              Irving: \"Yes, I owe a little total of about, just under one million dollars to the IRS, to McGraw-Hill and to my various attorneys.\"\u003cbr/\u003e              (Reporter: \"How do you think you're going to pay that off, or are you?\"\u003cbr/\u003e              Irving: \"Slowly.\"\u003c/span\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv class='action-container flex justify-between'\u003e\n\u003cbutton aria-expanded='false' aria-label='Read more description' class='rp-full-description' type='button'\u003e\n\u003ci class='fai fa-solid fa-align-left'\u003e\u003c/i\u003e\n\u003cspan id='read_more'\u003eRead More\u003c/span\u003e\n\u003c/button\u003e\n\u003cdiv 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