The daughter of songwriter Burt Bacharach and actress Angie Dickinson has committed suicide. A spokesman for the family has confirmed that the couple's only child, who suffered from Asperger's Syndrome, died at her home in California. Linda Dozoretz said Nikki Bacharach, who was 40, died "quietly and peacefully" to "escape the ravages to her brain" brought on by her condition. A spokesman from Ventura County Coroner's Office confirmed that she had suffocated herself.
Bacharach and Dickinson were married from 1965 and 1981 - Nikki was born in 1966 and later studied geology at Cal Lutheran University, but was unable to pursue a career in the field due to poor eyesight. In their statement the family told reporters that Nikki loved "kitties, and earthquakes, glacial calving, meteor showers, science, blue skies and sunsets, and Tahiti".
Bacharach had already pulled out of a series of live dates in New Zealand after breaking his collar bone over the Christmas break, before news of his daughter's death was confirmed on Friday.