Michael Wittenberg, Husband of Bernadette Peters, Dies in Helicopter Crash

Michael Wittenberg, husband of Bernadette Peters, died on September 27 in a helicopter crash in the small European country of Montenegro. He was approximately 43 years old. According to B92, a Bosnian news service, Wittenberg was one of four people that died in the crash, which was thought to be caused by the helicopter's rotor blade striking a power line.

Broadway star Peters married Wittenberg, an investment advisor, on July 20, 1996 at the home of friend Mary Tyler Moore. She told the Philadelphia City Paper in 2000 that she met her future husband in front of her Manhattan apartment building one night, as she was waiting for a date that was late. "Michael was on his way to a charity event and was in a tuxedo," she remembered. "So he walked up to me, a stranger, and said: 'Are you ready to go?' How's that for a sense of confidence and a sense of humor?"

Both Wittenberg and Peters were involved in the animal rescue charity Broadway Barks. They couple did not have any children.