Nick Raynes — the grandson of Marvin Davis, once one of the wealthiest men in America — was found dead in his apartment on East 65th Street on Friday morning. He was 33.
Sources say Raynes’ body was found on his bathroom floor and that the cause of death will be determined pending toxicology reports.
“Devastated,” tweeted Matthew Modine[1], who made a short film, “I Think I Thought,” with Raynes in 2008. “This man loved artists more than anyone I’ve ever met. A champion of love, peace and forgiveness.”
Club owner Noel Ashman, who had a joint party with Raynes earlier this month at the Bryant Park Hotel, said, “Nick was one of the kindest, most loyal human beings I have ever known.”
Raynes, who went to Professional Children’s School and graduated from the New School as a film major, had been trying to produce a biopic on jazz legend Miles Davis, based on “Dark Magus: The Jekyll and Hyde Life of Miles Davis,” the 2006 biography by Davis’ eldest son, Gregory Davis.
Nick’s grandfather Marvin, who made a fortune with Davis Petroleum, had once owned 20th Century Fox, the Pebble Beach Corporation, the Beverly Hills Hotel and the Aspen Skiing Company.
Marvin’s friend Aaron Spelling loosely based the Carrington characters of his hit TV series “Dynasty” on the Davis family.
But the family fortune had largely disappeared by the time Marvin died in 2004.
The following year, Nick’s mother, Patty Raynes, sued her four siblings, her mother and several family advisers, claiming they had helped her father loot her trust fund. Patty settled with all 14 parties, and the case was closed in 2008.
Patty, her ex-husband Marty Raynes, and Nick’s brother Matt and sister Ashley