Claus von Bülow (1926-2019) was a Danish-born British lawyer, consultant, and socialite, renowned for his entanglement in a high-profile attempted murder case that captivated global attention. Born on August 11, 1926, in Copenhagen, Denmark, to a family of minor aristocracy, he received an elite education at Harrow School in England and Trinity College, Cambridge, where he studied law and was called to the bar in 1952. Early in his career, he practiced as a barrister in London before shifting to international finance and consulting roles. He married his first wife, the Austrian actress Hanne 'Sunny' Mørch, in 1957, with whom he had a daughter, and later wed American heiress Martha 'Sunny' von Bülow in 1979, inheriting a vast fortune from her pharmaceutical family background.

Von Bülow's life took a dramatic turn in the late 1970s when his second wife, Sunny, suffered two hypoglycemic comas in December 1979 and December 1980 at their Newport, Rhode Island, estate, the second leaving her in a persistent vegetative state until her death in 2008. Accused of administering insulin to induce the comas—allegedly to secure her $75 million estate and pursue an extramarital affair—von Bülow was convicted in 1982 of two counts of assault with intent to murder, receiving a 30-year sentence. The trial exposed salacious details of infidelity, drug use, and family discord. However, his conviction was overturned on appeal in 1984 due to prosecutorial misconduct and tainted evidence, and he was acquitted at a retrial in 1985, defended by Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz. The saga inspired the 1989 book 'Reversal of Fortune' by Dershowitz and the 1990 film adaptation, for which Jeremy Irons won an Academy Award for portraying von Bülow.

Post-acquittal, von Bülow largely withdrew from the spotlight, residing in London and maintaining a low profile among elite social circles. His case remains a landmark in American legal history, highlighting issues of wealth, privilege, and justice.