In 1978, Young murdered his 31-year-old wife three weeks after their wedding before turning the gun on himself and committing suicide at the age of 64.[1]
Early life
Born Byron Elsworth Barr in St. Cloud, Minnesota, he and his older siblings were raised by his parents, John and Emma Barr, in Washington, D.C., where his father was a reformatory chef.[2] He attended McKinley High School, where he developed his first love of acting appearing in school plays.[3]
Career
Theatre
After graduating from high school he worked as a used car salesman and studied acting at night. He moved to Hollywood when a friend offered him a ride if he would pay for half the gas. After some amateur experience he applied for and received a scholarship to the acclaimed Pasadena Playhouse. "I had two jobs to support me, never rested, but it was great training and when I landed the part at Warner Bros., I was ready for it", he said.[4][3]
Barr made early appearances in Misbehaving Husbands (1940), credited as "Byron Barr", and in the short Here Comes the Cavalry (1941). While acting in Pancho, a south-of-the-border play by Lowell Barrington, he and the leading actor in the play, George Reeves, were spotted by a Warner Brotherstalent scout. Both actors were signed to supporting player contracts with the studio.[5]
Warner Bros. as Byron Barr
His early work was uncredited or as Byron Barr (not to be confused with another actor with the same name, Byron Barr) or Byron Fleming. It included appearances in Sergeant York (1941), Dive Bomber (1941), Navy Blues (1941), and One Foot in Heaven (1941). Barr had a bigger part in a short, The Tanks Are Coming (1941) which was nominated for an Oscar.
In 1942, six months into his Warner Brothers contract, he was given his first notable role in the feature film The Gay Sisters[6] as a character named "Gig Young". Preview cards praised the actor "Gig Young" and the studio determined that "Gig Young" should become Barr's stage and professional name.[7][8] About the name change, Young later admitted to having "some hesitancy... but I weighed the disadvantages against the advantages of having it stick indelibly in the mind of audiences. There'd be no confusion with some other actor called Gig."[9] His parts began to get better: a co-pilot in Howard Hawks's Air Force (1943); and Bette Davis' love interest in Old Acquaintance (1943).
Young began freelancing at various studios, eventually obtaining a contract with Columbia Pictures before returning to freelancing. He came to be regarded as a popular and likable second lead, playing the brothers or friends of the principal characters. In a 1966 interview he said, "Whenever you play a second lead and lose the girl, you have to make your part interesting yet not compete with the leading man. There are few great second leads in this business. It's easier to play a lead – you can do whatever you want. If I'm good it always means the leading man has been generous."[12]
Young received critical acclaim for his dramatic work as an alcoholic in the 1951 film Come Fill the Cup with James Cagney, back at Warner Brothers. He was nominated for both an Oscar and Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actor. Young later gave Cagney a great deal of the credit for his performance.[12]
MGM loaned Young to Republic Pictures for City That Never Sleeps (1953), where he had the starring role as a disillusioned cop. In 2008, Martin Scorsese selected this film to open a Republic Pictures retrospective that he curated at New York's Museum of Modern Art, citing the movie's amazing energy and creativity. Back at MGM, Young had the lead in a 3-D Western, Arena (1953), which was a hit. He was a second male lead again – to Michael Wilding – in the Joan Crawford vehicle Torch Song (1953). Then he left MGM. "I played terrible parts there", he later said.[16] He decided to relocate to New York.[17]
Broadway
Young said he rarely performed in comedies, until he appeared on Broadway in Oh Men! Oh Women! (1953–54) which ran for 382 performances. Young recalled, "It was a big smash hit but never helped change my type in Hollywood for quite some time. I still played dull, serious parts like Errol Flynn's brother. Yet on Broadway, they offered me nothing but comedies."[12]
Young is remembered by many James Dean fans for the "driving safety" interview made shortly before Dean's fatal car accident in September 1955. Dean wears a cowboy outfit as he was taking a break during shooting of the 1956 film Giant while playing with a lasso and counseling the audience to drive carefully.
On the 1964–65 NBC TV series The Rogues, he shared appearances on a rotating basis with David Niven and Charles Boyer, although in practice Young helmed the greater number of episodes since Niven and Boyer were both busy with other film projects.[22] The charming con man he played on that show was one of Young's favorite roles, and raised his profile with the television viewing public. He later said, "I loved it, the public loved it, only NBC didn't love it."[12] Despite its popularity and critical acclaim, The Rogues was cancelled after one 30-episode season.
During the filming of The Rogues, Young's alcoholism was starting to take a toll on his career; Larry Hagman had to be brought in as a substitute for the final two episodes. After The Rogues ended, Young went on tour as Harold Hill in The Music Man, his first stage musical.[23] He supported Rock Hudson in the comedy Strange Bedfellows (1965), had the lead in a British horror film, The Shuttered Room (1967), and starred in a TV mystery movie, Companions in Nightmare (1968). He enjoyed a successful return to Broadway in the hit comedy from Britain There's a Girl in My Soup (1967–68), which ran for 322 performances.[24]
They Shoot Horses Don't They?
Young won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role as Rocky, the alcoholic dance marathonemcee and promoter in the 1969 film They Shoot Horses, Don't They?. Young had not been the choice of director Sydney Pollack, but his casting was mandated by the head of ABC Pictures, Marty Baum, Young's former agent.[25] According to his fourth wife, Elaine Williams, "What he was aching for, as he walked up to collect his Oscar, was a role in his own movie—one that they could finally call 'a Gig Young movie.' For Young, the Oscar was literally the kiss of death, the end of the line."[26]
Young himself had said to Louella Parsons, after failing to win in 1951, "so many people who have been nominated for an Oscar have had bad luck afterwards."[26] However, when he finally won Young called the Oscar "the greatest moment of his life."[27]
Young had a good part in the popular Lovers and Other Strangers (1970), also from ABC Pictures, and toured in Nobody Loves an Albatross (1970) in summer stock. He was in the TV movie The Neon Ceiling (1971), his performance earning him an Emmy nomination. A profile of Young around this time said "The well-established image of the boozy charmer Gig plays on and off camera fools you. That armour surrounds an intense dedicated artist, constantly involved with his profession."[28]
Young was one of several names to star in The Hindenburg (1975). He guest-starred on McCloud, had a support role in Sherlock Holmes in New York (1976) and was a semi-regular in the TV series Gibbsville (1976–77), a spinoff from the TV movie The Turning Point of Jim Malloy. His last role was in the 1978 revised version of Game of Death, which was released nearly six years after the film's original star, Bruce Lee, died during production in 1973.[31]
Personal life
Young was married five times. His first marriage to Sheila Stapler, a Pasadena Playhouse classmate, lasted seven years, ending in 1947. "We were too young, it couldn't have lasted", he later said.[3] In 1950, he married Sophie Rosenstein, the resident drama coach at Paramount, who was several years Young's senior. She was soon diagnosed with cancer and died just short of two years after the couple's wedding. For a time, he was engaged to actress Elaine Stritch.[32]
Young met actress Elizabeth Montgomery after she appeared in an episode of Warner Bros. Presents in 1956, and the two married later that year.[29] In 1963, Montgomery divorced Young because of his alcoholism.[33] Young married his fourth wife, real estate agent Elaine Williams, nine months after his divorce from Montgomery was final. Williams was pregnant at the time and gave birth to his only child, Jennifer, in April 1964. After three years of marriage, the couple divorced. During a legal battle over child support with Williams, Young denied that Jennifer was his biological child. After five years of court battles, Young lost his case.[34][35]
On September 27, 1978, Young, age 64, married his fifth wife, a 31-year-old German magazine editor named Kim Schmidt.[36] He met Schmidt in Hong Kong while working on Game of Death.[37]
Death
On October 19, 1978, three weeks after his marriage to Schmidt, the couple were found dead in their apartment at The Osborne in Manhattan.[38] Police surmised that Young shot his wife and then himself. Young was found face down on the floor of his bedroom, a .38 caliberSmith & Wessonpistol in his hand. His wife was found face down beside him. Young had apparently shot himself in the mouth and the bullet exited the back of his head. His wife had been shot in the back of the head. No suicide note was found.[citation needed]
A motive for the murder of his wife, and Young's suicide, was never discovered.[39] Police said there was a diary opened to September 27 with "we got married today" written on it. The couple appear to have died around 2:30 p.m., when shots were heard by a building employee,[1] and their bodies were found five hours later.[38] Young was at one time under the care of the psychologist and psychotherapist Eugene Landy, who later had his professional California medical license revoked amid accusations of ethical violations and misconduct with patients.[40] Author Stephen King wrote the short story "1408" inspired by King's stay in room 1402 at New York's Park Lane Hotel, which was misrepresented by a hotel bellman as the location of Young's murder/suicide.[41]
Young's remains were taken to Beverly Hills for his funeral service,[42] but he was later buried in the Green Hill Cemetery in Waynesville, North Carolina,[43] under his birth name, Byron E. Barr, in his family's plot along with his parents, siblings and an uncle.[44] Young's will, which covered a $200,000 estate, left his Academy Award to his agent, Martin Baum, and Baum's wife, Bernice.[26] Young's daughter Jennifer launched a campaign in the early 1990s to get the award back from his agent, and struck an agreement that she would get the award back upon the agent's death, which occurred in 2010.[44] For his contribution to the television industry, Young has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6821 Hollywood Boulevard.[45]
^Parish, James Robert (2002). The Hollywood Book of Death: The Bizarre, Often Sordid, Passings of More Than 125 American Movie and TV Idols (3 ed.). Contemporary Books. p. 335. ISBN0-8092-2227-2.
^ abcR. L. (September 3, 1978). "The survivors -still on scene". The Washington Post. ProQuest146924710.
^Cozad, W. Lee (2006). More Magnificent Mountain Movies: The Silverscreen Years, 1940–2004. W. Lee Cozad. p. 147. ISBN0-9723372-2-9.
^Longstreet, Stephen (1942). The Gay Sisters. USA: Random House / Grosset Dunlap.
^Monush, Barry (2003). Screen World Presents the Encyclopedia of Hollywood Film Actors: From the Silent Era To 1965. Hal Leonard Corporation. p. 810. ISBN1-55783-551-9.
^"Former Washingtonian steps up into big time". The Washington Post. July 28, 1942. ProQuest151500647.
^Grant, H. (February 27, 1965). "Gig Is No Gag". Chicago Tribune. ProQuest179803477.
^Hopper, H. (May 17, 1959). "Gig Arrives At Last". Chicago Daily Tribune. ProQuest182304400.
^ abcdeThomas, K. (September 6, 1966). "Gig young: It's harder to be no. 2". Los Angeles Times. ProQuest155514736.
^Thomas F Brady (January 3, 1948). "Gig Young to play In '3 Musketeers'". The New York Times. ProQuest108153635.
^Ames, W. (February 11, 1951). "Television This Week programs day by day". Los Angeles Times. ProQuest166187653.
^Schallert, E. (October 2, 1951). "Drama 1-...". Los Angeles Times. ProQuest166235151.
^Hopper, H. (November 29, 1964). "Gig Young overcame Barr at start of career". Los Angeles Times. ProQuest155062644.
^Scheuer, P. K. (March 31, 1958). "'Simple life' out for Gig". Los Angeles Times. ProQuest167249210.
^Thompson, Robert J.; Burns, Gary (1999). Making Television: Authorship and the Production Process. Greenwood Publishing Group. pp. 95–96. ISBN0-275-92746-6.
^"Gig Young will play two roles for Warners". Los Angeles Times. July 31, 1955. ProQuest166804371.
^Oscar Godbout (February 10, 1958). "TV murder story hits near home". The New York Times. ProQuest114363731.
^"Gig young reported in line for TV award". Los Angeles Times. January 5, 1958. ProQuest167183910.
^Guida, Fred; Wagenknecht, Edward (2006). A Christmas Carol and Its Adaptations: A Critical Examination of Dickens's Story and Its Productions on Screen and Television. McFarland. p. 193. ISBN0-7864-2840-6.
^Smith, C. (August 2, 1965). "Gig Young as Harold Hill—distant cousin of rogues". Los Angeles Times. ProQuest155286594.
^C. B. (October 19, 1967). "Theater: Frisby comedy, 'There's A Girl in My Soup'". The New York Times. ProQuest117476946.
^Begley, M. (March 31, 1970). "Gig hitches Oscar hopes to 'Horses'". Los Angeles Times. ProQuest156403491.
^A. H. (April 26, 1970). "Gig finally made it, didn't he". The New York Times. ProQuest119156135.
^Smith, C. (February 7, 1971). "Gig young: The rogue at twilight stars in 'the neon ceiling'". Los Angeles Times. ProQuest156616256.
^ abDonnelly, Paul (2005). Fade To Black: A Book of Movie Obituaries (3 ed.). Omnibus. p. 746. ISBN1-84449-430-6.
^Parish, James Robert (2008). It's Good to Be the King: The Seriously Funny Life of Mel Brooks. John Wiley and Sons. p. 9. ISBN978-0-470-22526-4.
^Eleftheriotis, Dimitris; Needham, Gary (2006). Asian Cinemas: A Reader and Guide. University of Hawaii Press. p. 423. ISBN0-8248-3085-7.
^Kirsta, Alix (February 20, 2009). "Nobody's Perfect". Telegraph. Archived from the original on January 12, 2022. Retrieved April 20, 2009. Despite a long engagement to Gig Young and living with Ben Gazzara, whom she threw over for Rock Hudson ('and we all know what a bum decision that turned out to be') she got married only once, at the age of 47, to the actor John Bay whom she met in London on Small Craft Warnings.
^Strodder, Chris (2000). Swingin' Chicks of the '60s: A Tribute to 101 of the Decade's Defining Women. Cedco Pub. p. 167. ISBN0-7683-2232-4.
^Lindsay, Mark; Lester, David Lester (2004). Suicide By Cop: Committing Suicide by Provoking Police to Shoot You. Baywood Publishing Company, Inc. pp. 72–73. ISBN0-89503-290-2.
^"Suit by gig young denied". The New York Times. February 25, 1971. ProQuest119371124.
