Nicolas Coster divorced his first wife, Candace Hilligoss in 1981 after being together for 20 years. He remarried the next year later to Beth Pantel. His second wife has been with him from 1982 to his death on June 26, 2023. However, back in 2016, they both suffered the loss of their only child together, son Ian Russell Coster.
Nicolas Coster’s first wife is an author, model, and former actress. She is famous for playing the role of Mary Helen in the 1962 horror film Carnival of Souls.
She is also the mother to his 2 surviving daughters, Candace Coster and Dinneen Coster.
Candace Hilligoss was Married to Nicolas Coster for 20 Years
Nicolas Coster’s first wife is Candace Hilligoss who was born on August 14, 1935. She was born and brought up in Huron, South Dakota. Her father is identified as L. F Hilligoss.
Candace attended Huron College and then had her University education at the University of Iowa where she partook in theatrical productions. This further propelled her to the career she pursued in theatre and film.
Eventually, the first wife of Nicolas Coster got a scholarship to study acting for 3 years at the American Theatre Wing in New York.
Her acting debut was in Pennsylvania and then she went on to be featured in Cape Cod. She also performed in Television productions of Idiot’s Delight. Hilligoss starred alongside Nina Foch in this production.
She also had several roles as Marilyn Monroe in the theatrical production Bus Stop and Seven Year Itch. In 1962, she starred in The Carnival of Souls which is one of her biggest roles ever.
Hilligoss worked as a dancer at Copacabana nightclub and this is where she met Nicolas Coster.
She was one of the ‘World Famous Copa Girls’. At about the same time, she got the opportunity to be under the tutelage of Lee Strasberg whose acting classes she was part of.
She is also a model and the author of a memoir ‘The Odyssey and the Idiocy, Marriage to an Actor’. In the book, she spilled tea about her marriage and how she was warned not to marry any actor. Additionally, Candace is a public speaker and a grandmother.
Her Marriage to Nicolas Produced 2 Daughters
The Carnival of Soul’s actress, Candace Hilligoss was with Nicolas Coster for 20 years. They started dating and eventually got married after meeting while she was studying under Lee Strasberg.
Through the 2 decades, the actress supported her husband whose career in the movie industry was also just beginning. According to excerpts from her book, ‘The Odyssey and the Idiocy, Marriage to an Actor’, she narrated how she sacrificed a lot while with Nicolas.
Candace even had to pause her career in theatre and film for her husband’s career to blossom.
Their union which started in the early 1960s saw the birth of 2 girls. The first daughter is Candace Coster Smoller who was born on October 1, 1963. Her younger sister was born a few years later and was named Dinneen Coster.
Candace followed in her parent’s footsteps and became an actress starring in movies such as The Green Stone (1980) and Queens Logic (1991).
Dinneen Coster is a photographer who has worked with so many big names and personalities. She shoots for actors, models, TV personalities, authors, and even realtors.
Divorce and Aftermath
Nicolas and his marriage with Candace Hilligoss ended in a messy divorce according to the author. In her book, she referred to the divorce which happened during the longest Actor’s Guild Strike ever, as an ‘Armageddon’. This was in comparison to the hellish marriage she was in.
Candace Hilligoss revealed that when her husband became a huge success, her marriage became hell. He began to cheat on her incessantly and would intimidate her, belittle, and scare her.
During the court proceedings for their marriage, Candace was made to see a psychologist because the court did not believe she previously had a career in acting. When the truth eventually surfaced, it was believed that she didn’t need so much money from Nicolas.
Coster, at that time even claimed his acting career had suffered and he was penniless. He purportedly did so to avoid paying alimony.
In the end, he was only made to pay his ex-wife, Hilligoss, 1 dollar a year.
Many years later, on October 18, 2016, she published her ‘tell all’ book about the entire experience.
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Nicolas Foster’s Second Marriage was to Beth Pantel
Certainly being married to a famous actor would propel most people to the spotlight. For Beth, Nicolas Foster’s second wife, it wasn’t totally so.
The Circa 1955-born got married to the actor just a few months after his first marriage to Candace ended. This marriage lasted from January 17, 1982, until the demise of the English-born American actor. The A Fire in the Sky actor, Nicolas Coster, died on June 26, 2023, at the age of 88.
Together, they had a son named Ian Russel Coster. The boy was born on July 2, 1990, in Los Angeles, and he was also an actor like his father. Ian’s debut movie was as Arthur in the 2016 movie Chemical Cut.
Ian, unfortunately, passed away at the age of 26 on December 21, 2016. According to reports, he died of a drug overdose which was supposedly a suicidal act.
Upon the death of her son, Beth Pantel Coster’s whereabouts haven’t been public knowledge. The only way to have reached out to her then was through letters as she didn’t want to see or be visited by anyone.
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