Kriti Mehrotra
If there’s one thing absolutely nobody can deny, it’s that Steve Martin is a legend in the world of entertainment considering he’s not just a comic but also an actor, writer, producer, and musician. This much has actually even been evidenced in Apple TV+’s ‘Steve! (Martin) A Documentary in 2 Pieces,’ which truly delves deep into all aspects of his incredible yet complex life up until now. Thus, of course, there’s mention of his personal relationships and ex Mitzi Trumbo too — so now, if you simply wish to learn more about her as well as her current standing, here’s what we know.
Who is Mitzi Trumbo?
Since Melissa (aka Mitzi) was born in 1945 to renowned screenwriter Dalton Trumbo and his loving wife Cleo Fincher Trumbo as the youngest of three, she grew up in quite a creative environment. It thus comes as no surprise she ended up developing a keen interest in photography at a relatively early age, driving her to pursue a full-fledged professional career in the same by her early 20s. Little did she know this is how she’d soon come across then-rising comic Steve Martin, only for her to subsequently become his official shutterbug and for them to fall head over heels in love.
Steve actually penned in his 2007 memoir ‘Born Standing Up: A Comic’s Life’ that Mitizi often “snapped dozens of rolls of film [when it came to him], all to find the perfect publicity photo.” He then went on to detail the way they connected over their views on the Vietnam War, how they spent most of their time together, plus his admiration for her father and family as a whole. But alas, things changed once Dalton encouraged his daughter to join him in Budapest while he was there for work because it unintentionally resulted in her being swept away by someone new.
The entertainer wrote, “After I’d received several charming letters from her…, [I] noticed a lag in the regularity of their arrival. Mitzi sent me a gentle and direct Dear John letter. She had been swept away by the director John Frankenheimer… Mitzi was simply too alluring to be left alone in a foreign country, and I was too hotmonal to be left alone in Hollywood.” Yet it all worked out in the end as they both ultimately found their life partners in different people; while he has since tied the knot with former New Yorker employee/writer Anne Stringfield, she has settled down with entrepreneur/internet executive Richard Gingras.
Though we should mention Mitzi and Steve have ostensibly always remained on amicable terms, which is rather clear from the fact she agreed to be a part of the aforementioned documentary. Within it, she fondly recalled his stand-up career before adding, “I think I tried hard to get him to be romantic that summer. His brain works in many interesting ways… He had fun with my family. We would smoke a little pot and laugh and eat, [opening his eyes to what it means to be a tight-knit group]… You know, the way we look at each other when we’re that age, we don’t know anything about anything. And so, I broke up with Steve. I think I could have seen he would go someplace. I didn’t think he would stop; and he didn’t.”
Where is Mitzi Trumbo Now?
From what we can tell, it appears as if California native Mitzi continues to reside in the San Francisco Bay Area at the moment, from where she still serves as not only a professional photographer but also a sister, wife, mother, as well as grandmother. We deliberately didn’t mention the title of daughter because her father sadly passed away from a heart attack at the age of 70 in 1976, whereas her mother died of natural causes at 93 in 2009 in the home they shared in Los Altos. It’s even imperative to note that although this youngest daughter of Dalton and Cleo prefers to lead a relatively quiet life these days, she does sometimes make public appearances to keep her father’s legacy alive — it doesn’t matter she herself is now 79.
In fact, in early 2016, following the release of a biographical drama titled ‘Trumbo’ on her father, Mitzi told The Guardian “It’s an important story to get out there. [Director] Jay Roach and [actor] Bryan Cranston have done a wonderful job. They really care about it.” Yet, she did add that seeing him portrayed on screen was a surreal experience for her, “especially when they had him older. At times, I would be on set, and I would say: ‘Gosh, that’s so like him.'”
This did get canceled out at times since not everything depicted in the movie was factual, but it was enough to make her reminisce about their past shared experiences in the best ways. “There’s a scene where he takes me and my sister for ice cream,” Mitzi said. “I was laughing with her afterward saying, ‘That would never have happened!’ My father worked all the time and if we had issues we went to our mum. But he was fiercely entertaining. We learned about language and politics and how to think from him. That was pretty great.” Moreover, she has never minded discussing the fact he was once blacklisted from his beloved industry for being a Communist party member or their ensuing struggles as she’s content with how it all panned out.
Read More: Steve Martin’s Family: Who Were His Parents? Where is His Sister Now?
