Best Friend Takes Loss to His Heart

Mark Litman and Steve Cohen were longtime friends and business associates who traveled in Europe together in their 20s and often went to Las Vegas.

They snorkeled, sailed and played basketball together. And, in October 1995, they both had physical exams.

But Litman had a stress test and Cohen didn’t.

“If he had, he’d be playing basketball right now,” Litman said. Two months after his physical, which found a slightly high cholesterol count, Cohen, 35, of Woodland Hills, died of a massive coronary attack after pulling himself out of a basketball game. An autopsy found 90% blockage in his arteries.

“To lose a best friend is the worst thing in the world,” said Litman, an Agoura resident who is a real estate associate in Woodland Hills.

Litman and other members of the Boardroom Associates, a small group of San Fernando Valley businessmen who network and socialize together, have started the Steven S. Cohen Heart Fund to raise money for cardiac research at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and promote early heart tests to identify and correct heart disease in adults 20 to 40 years old.

“What makes this unique is that it’s a group of young people who got together, which is rare in fund-raising,” said John Dickson, director of planned giving for the American Heart Assn.

According to the association, about 250,000 Americans die each year of a sudden cardiac attack like Cohen’s.

When Cohen and Litman met at age 19, Litman was quickly attracted to Cohen’s stable manner--his friends called him “The Rock”--and sense of humor. “Steve would work hard, play hard and relax hard,” Litman said. “He would go to Hawaii for a week and not move from the sand.”

They were partners in a sporting goods store in Calabasas for four years. The business didn’t last, but the friendship did as Cohen went into the diamond business and later into the travel industry.

Although Cohen would have supported the heart fund, “he would have hated to have his name out there on this,” Litman said. “He was shy.”

A video that Litman may play at a Beverly Hills fund-raiser for the heart fund in May shows continuous still pictures of Cohen, playing with his two daughters--now 3 and 6--celebrating special occasions with his wife, Eva, laughing and smiling. He was a muscular man with longish hair and deep-set Clark Gable blue eyes.

“If we play this, it might make it a somber night,” Litman said, “and that’s one thing that Steve wouldn’t want.”

Litman said he might have the video playing in the corner where people can view it without disturbing the festive atmosphere he is trying to create. But he still worries. He feels guilty about pushing the memory of Cohen into the public while his widow may want to move on with her life.

“It was wonderful that he had so much love for Steve,” Eva Cohen said after watching the video for only the second time. “It’s a beautiful way to show your love, and what you are doing can save someone else’s father or husband. So you shouldn’t feel guilty. You should feel proud.”

The inaugural gala of the Steven S. Cohen Heart Fund, a black-tie fund-raiser and auction, will be held May 10 at the Beverly Hilton Hotel.

For more information, call Lisa Sapiro at (818) 225-8783.

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