Leon Klinghoffer
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Leon Klinghoffer (September 24, 1916–October 8, 1985) was a retired appliance manufacturer of New York who was disabled and used a wheelchair for mobility.
Leon and Marilyn Klinghoffer, Jewish-Americans, were celebrating their 36th wedding anniversary in 1985 by taking a cruise aboard the Achille Lauro. He was killed by Palestinian terrorists aboard the Achille Lauro. In the afternoon of October 8, 1985, four Palestinian terrorists who had hijacked the Achille Lauro, shot Leon Klinghoffer while he was sitting in his wheelchair, and then threw him overboard (while still alive). His wife watched in horror.
Klinghoffer was buried at Beth David Memorial Park in Kenilworth, New Jersey.Four months after Leon Klinghoffer's murder, Marilyn Klinghoffer died of colon cancer. His daughters are Ilsa and Lisa.
The hijacking was made into a television movie in 1990, Voyage of Terror – The Achille Lauro Affair starring Burt Lancaster and Eve Marie Saint. John Coolidge Adams' second opera, The Death of Klinghoffer, with a libretto by Alice Goodman, opened to great controversy in 1991. The concept for the opera was suggested by director Peter Sellars. The Los Angeles Opera shared in the works' commission but never presented it.nl:Leon Klinghoffer