CANCER BATTLE

Armie Hammer’s Father, Michael Armand Hammer, Dies at 67

Michael Armand Hammer was exempt from the worst of the allegations that have buffeted the Hammer dynasty since 2020, but reportedly lived with his own demons.

Michael Armand Hammer, the businessman who was bequeathed his grandfather’s oil empire but was perhaps best known as the father of disgraced actor Armie Hammer, has died, sources confirmed to TMZ and People on Tuesday. He was 67. Insiders told the outlets Hammer died on Sunday after a long battle with cancer. As a young man, Michael worked at an investment bank before being handed the keys to Occidental Petroleum by family patriarch Armand Hammer, who passed over his own son in picking his grandson as successor. Always “more interested in a playboy lifestyle than world domination,” according to a Vanity Fair story last year, Michael ducked the worst of the high-profile allegations of abuse slammed into the five-generation Hammer dynasty in 2020, which largely served to destroy the reputation of his elder son, Armie. But Michael struggled with substance abuse issues, problems that were only partially alleviated by his marriage to Armie’s mother, Dru Ann Morley. After 27 years of marriage, the pair split in 2012, and Michael allegedly embarked on a spree that “involved a string of women, illicit substances, and tattoos,” Vanity Fair reported, including one of the Arm & Hammer baking soda brand (which the Hammers never owned, only invested in).