Rex Anthony Bell

Rex Anthony Bell Jr. was born December 16, 1934, in Santa Monica, California, to Rex Bell Sr., the cowboy actor and two-term lieutenant governor of Nevada, and Clara Bow, the silent-film star. He attended the University of Notre Dame from 1953 to 1955, graduated from the University of Nevada, Reno, in 1957, and earned his law degree from Willamette Law School in Oregon in 1963.

Admitted to the Nevada bar on November 17, 1969, Mr. Bell built his career in the Clark County District Attorney's office, beginning as a deputy district attorney in 1969. He served as legal advisor to the Clark County sheriff and the Las Vegas Police Department, which merged in 1973. In 1972 he was elected a Las Vegas justice of the peace. He returned to the district attorney's office in 1978 as an assistant district attorney, was elected Clark County District Attorney in 1986, and served until 1995, after which he formed a law partnership with Drew Christensen.

Mr. Bell was widely respected as a trial lawyer, and colleagues recalled that he never lost a case as a deputy district attorney - a record his former superiors attributed in part to opponents who underestimated his modest demeanor and Western manner. He died July 8, 2011, at the age of 76.