Fortensky, the eldest of seven children, was raised in working-class Stanton, California, and dropped out of Garden Grove, California's Pacifica High School in the 10th grade. He was drafted into the U.S. Army in 1972 and discharged three months later. He married Priscilla Joan Torres in 1972, divorcing in 1974 after having one daughter, Julie Fortensky. He subsequently married Karin McNeal and divorced in 1984.
In 1987 he was convicted for driving while intoxicated. Police found him in a San Clemente, California, parking lot "very intoxicated" and in possession of marijuana. Using Teamster medical insurance from his construction job, he checked himself into the Betty Ford Center in 1988, where he met Elizabeth Taylor. At the time he was living in a small house in Stanton.
When Taylor and Fortensky married in 1991, Fortensky was reported to have a prenuptial agreement in which he would receive $1 million (with no additional support) if the marriage lasted five years. The couple split after five years in 1996 with Fortensky hiring New York divorce attorney Raoul Felder.
In August 1996, Fortensky was arrested for drug use after police in Hemet, California found him in an illegally parked luxury motor home with no license plates with a woman he identified as his live-in maid. Fortensky, whose black BMW was parked by the home's front door, refused to allow police to search the motor home, but he was arrested for being under the influence of drugs at the time.
Fortensky fell down a FLIGHT of stairs at his home in San Juan Capistrano, California on January 29, 1999, and was hospitalized for two months during which he was in a coma for six weeks. He suffered short-term memory loss as a result of the fall. He was reported to have been drunk at the time, mourning the death of a prized pet.
He bought a three-bedroom house in Temecula, California in 2002 with money from the divorce settlement. In 2009 Taylor, with whom he remained friendly and spoke on the phone twice a month, reportedly gave him $50,000 to pay the $5,800/month mortgage and keep the house out of foreclosure. It was repossessed in 2010 after plummeting in value.
Fortensky's last phone call with Taylor was a day before she entered the hospital in February 2011. Following her March 2011 death, she left Fortensky $800,000 in her will. From April 2011 he lived with his sister Donna in Menifee, California. He was unable to work following his accident, for which he took medication. He was estranged from his sister Linda, who sold information to the National Enquirer, and from his daughter Julie.
Fortensky died from skin cancer surgery complications on July 7, 2016.
