From The Towering Inferno to the Afterlife: Mary Guillermin’s True Story of Love and Death
Legendary director John Guillermin’s widow shares the 100% true story of her magical life and afterlife communication at Hollywood Fringe 2026.
In the heart of Topanga Canyon, nestled among mountains and wildlife, Mary Guillermin lives what she describes as a “magical way of life”. A licensed Marriage & Family Therapist, a prolific collage artist, and a guide to the Feminine Divine, Mary has devoted five decades to the study of the Divine Mother. This June, she steps out of the canyon and onto the stage of the Zephyr Theatre to share the 100% true story that interweaves her professional wisdom with her most profound personal losses in Love On The Other Side Of Death: A Trilogy.
Mary is the widow of John Guillermin, the acclaimed director behind some of the 1970s’ most iconic blockbusters, including The Towering Inferno, Death on the Nile, and the 1976 version of King Kong. His career spanned 34 feature films, a legacy Mary meticulously preserved by co-writing and editing the award-winning biographical book John Guillermin: The Man, The Myth, The Movies. Despite their deep connection, their union was one that occurred “against all odds,” pairing a spiritual guide with a staunchly atheist filmmaker.
From “Frozen Grief” to Connection
The first installment of her upcoming production, Love on the Other Side of Death: A Trilogy, delves into the “frozen grief” that followed John’s passing. Titled Part I: Loss and Love, the play chronicles Mary’s journey and her discovery that death did not mark the end of their connection. In a narrative that bridges the gap between the earthly and the ethereal, Mary shares the true story of how she continued to communicate with her husband after his death, despite his lifelong lack of belief in an afterlife.
The narrative journey deepens in Part II: Meet the Rook, where Mary recounts the sudden loss of Michael Brooks, the “white hat hacker” turned security consultant she adopted at age 35. The play explores the deep joys of motherhood he brought her and his continued existence after his sudden death only two years later.
This transitions into the trilogy’s climax, Part III: The Island Queen, which unravels a 3,000-year-old past-life story of a matriarchal queen and her son. This final installment allows the archetypes of Mother and Son to come alive in the present, revealing how ancient themes interweave with Mary’s 21st-century experience. It is within this ancient narrative that the trilogy features its only purely imagined moment: a poignant dialogue between Mary and the Island Queen herself—every other scene is 100% faithful to her true life experience.
Directed and developed by Jessica Lynn Johnson, the trilogy will debut at the Zephyr Theatre (7456 Melrose Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90046) as part of the Hollywood Fringe Festival 2026.
Experience the Trilogy:
PART I: LOSS AND LOVE on Sunday, June 7 at 4:45 pm; PART II: MEET THE ROOK on Saturday, June 20 at 2:30 pm and PART III: THE ISLAND QUEEN on Friday, June 26 at 4:45 pm.
Tickets are available at HollywoodFringe.org
For more on Mary’s work and her “magical life” in the canyon, visit:
