EXCLUSIVE: Inside Rod Steiger's Family's Brutal Battle Over Hollywood Icon's Awards — 'It's Just Sad'

His daughter Anna Steiger, now 65, claims awards belonging to him were sold without her knowledge following the 2024 death of his widow, actress Joan Benedict, who was 96.

Anna says a legal agreement guaranteed the trophies would pass to her – yet several have since appeared at high-profile Hollywood auctions.

A source told us Anna explained to pals: "By chance I looked through a Julien's catalog and suddenly I saw my father's awards. They were meant to come to me, and instead, they were being sold.

"It was heartbreaking."

She is said to have added: "It feels cruel. These were the physical symbols of his life's work, and they are slipping away."

Among the items auctioned were Steiger's Berlin Bear statuette for The Pawnbroker (1964) and his David Di Donatello award for The Sergeant (1968).

The Academy Award itself could not be sold due to Oscar rules, but Anna insists the other prizes were covered by the inheritance agreement.

Steiger's second wife, Claire Bloom, 94, who attended the Oscars with him in 1968, said the award represented his greatest professional triumph.

She told friends: "It meant everything to him – he wanted it desperately because he had come from nothing. It had been such a great struggle."

Steiger, a celebrated Method actor, was known for portraying bruising, imperious men in films such as On the Waterfront (1954), Doctor Zhivago (1965), and The Hurricane (1999).

He married Benedict, his fifth wife, in 2000. She was granted possession of his awards during her lifetime under the estate's terms, but the agreement stipulated they would pass to Anna upon Benedict's death and eventually to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

After Benedict died in June 2024, Anna reached out to her stepsister, Claudia Myhers, 68, but was told the awards might have been discarded during Benedict's struggle with dementia.

Anna told pals that explanation made little sense.

"Friends of my stepmother insisted she treasured my father's things," she said, adding: "I believe they were knowingly sold."

Records show Steiger's Berlin Bear sold for $9,100, and his David Di Donatello fetched $3,900.

Julien's auction house said it had received documentation from a family member but rejected Anna's claims of poor provenance checks.

Frustrated, Anna even posed as a buyer under the name Lily Pons to confirm the seller's identity.

"They told me it was a family member – and of course I knew exactly who that was," she confided to her inner circle.

Bloom described her daughter's campaign as an act of devotion rather than greed, saying it is about her love for her father and the duty she feels to protect his legacy.

Anna admits she has considered legal action, but has been warned her chances of reclaiming the awards are slim.

"I'm told the fight could destroy me emotionally and financially," she told friends.

"But I can't ignore the cruelty of being cut out of my father's history. It's just sad."