When Philip Hearnshaw passed away in 2012, his wife Catherine Griff received assistance from the Motion Picture Industry Benevolent Society – an organization she had previously never heard of. In fact, it has been doing its discreet best since the dark days of 1931.
Griff was initially unaware that the MPIBS even existed until she spoke to friend and former AFC colleague Lori Flekser. Griff had interviewed Flekser for her PhD on industry support programs and was surprised to hear of the support she was able to get access to while her husband was ill.
According to Griff, her husband gave an enormous amount to the industry; he was always “helping out people that were new” she said. “It felt to me, not that I was entitled…but if felt right that they cared enough about him and us to offer help”.
