Gig Young

Gig Young
Young in 1953
Born	Byron Elsworth Barr (1913-11-04)November 4, 1913 St. Cloud, Minnesota, U.S.
Died	October 19, 1978(1978-10-19) (aged 64) New York City, New York, U.S.
Cause of death	Gunshot wound (self inflicted)
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1940-1978
Spouse(s)	Sheila Stapler (1940-1947) Sophie Rosenstein (1950-1952) Elizabeth Montgomery (1956-1963) Elaine Williams (1963-1966) Kim Schmidt (1978)
Children	Jennifer Williams Young (b. 1964)

Gig Young (November 4, 1913 – October 19, 1978) was an American film, stage, and television actor. Known mainly for second leads and supporting roles, Young won an Academy Award for his performance as a slimy dance-marathon emcee in the 1969 film They Shoot Horses, Don't They?.

Early life and career

Born Byron Elsworth Barr in St. Cloud, Minnesota, his parents John and Emma Barr raised him and his older siblings in Washington D.C.^[1] He developed a passion for the theatre while appearing in high school plays, and after some amateur experience he applied for and received a scholarship to the acclaimed Pasadena Community Playhouse. 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 Brothers talent scout. Both actors were signed to supporting player contracts with the studio.^[2] His early work was uncredited or as Byron Barr (not to be confused with another actor with the same name, Byron Barr), but after appearing in the 1942 film The Gay Sisters as a character named "Gig Young", the studio decided that he should adopt this name professionally.^[3]

Young appeared in supporting roles in numerous films during the 1940s, and came to be regarded as a popular and likable second lead, playing the brothers or friends of the principal characters. Young took a hiatus from his movie career and enlisted in the United States Coast Guard in 1941 where he served as a pharmacist's mate in the US Coast Guard until the end of World War II.^[4] In early 1942, in an uncredited bit part and nearly unseen, in his distinctive voice, he had one line, "How's the ice?", in the Bette Davis film The Man Who Came to Dinner.^[5] Less than two years later, he played opposite her as her much-younger beau in Old Acquaintance.

After Young's return from the war, Warner Bros. dropped his option. He then began freelancing at various studios, eventually obtaining a contract with Columbia Pictures before returning to freelancing. During those years, Young began to play the type of role that he would become best known for, a sardonic but engaging and affable drunk. His dramatic work as an alcoholic in the 1951 film Come Fill the Cup with James Cagney and his comedic role as a tipsy but ultimately charming intellectual in Teacher's Pet starring Clark Gable and Doris Day earned him nominations for Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.

Success and decline

In 1955, Young became the host of Warner Bros. Presents, an umbrella title for three television series (Casablanca, King's Row, and Cheyenne) that aired during the 1955-56 season on ABC Television.^[6] Later, he starred on the 1964-65 NBC series The Rogues, sharing appearances on a rotating basis with David Niven and Charles Boyer in the Four Star Television production.^[7]

Young won the Academy Award for his role as Rocky, the dance marathon emcee and promoter in the 1969 film They Shoot Horses, Don't They? 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".^[8] 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."^[8]

Young also is remembered by many James Dean fans for the "driving safety" interview made shortly before Dean's death in September, 1955.

Young's decline after his 1969 Oscar win was not immediate, as he had another good supporting role in Lovers and Other Strangers (1970) in the following year. However, alcoholism plagued his later years, causing him to lose acting roles. He was fired on the first day of shooting the comedy film Blazing Saddles after collapsing on the set due to withdrawal from alcohol.^[9][10] Young's last role was in the 1978 film Game of Death (1979), a film released nearly six years after the film's star, Bruce Lee, died in 1973.^[11]

Personal life

Young was married five times; his first marriage to Sheila Stapler lasted seven years, ending in 1947. 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. After her death, Young was engaged to actress Elaine Stritch.^[12]

He met actress Elizabeth Montgomery after she appeared in an episode of Warner Bros. Presents in 1956, and the two married later that year.^[9] In 1963, Montgomery divorced Young because of his alcoholism.^[13]

Young married his fourth wife, real estate agent Elaine Williams, nine months after his divorce from Montgomery was final. Williams was pregnant with Young's child 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.^[14]

On September 27, 1978, Young, age 64, married his fifth wife, a 31-year-old German woman named Kim Schmidt.^[15] He met Schmidt in 1977 on the set of the Clive Donner/Gene Roddenberry TV movie Spectre, in which she played a police officer.^[15]

Death

On October 19, 1978, three weeks after his marriage to Schmidt, the couple were found dead at home in their Manhattan apartment. Police theorized that Young shot his wife and then turned the gun on himself in a murder–suicide. Motive for the murder-suicide was never made clear.^[16]

He was buried in the Green Hill Cemetery in Waynesville, North Carolina.^[17] Young's will, which covered a $200,000 estate, left his Academy Award to his agent, Martin Baum and Baum's wife, Bernice.^[8]

For his contribution to the television industry, Young has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6821 Hollywood Boulevard.

Filmography

Awards and nominations

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Gig Young.

• Gig Young at the Internet Broadway Database
• Gig Young at the Internet Movie Database
• Gig Young at the TCM Movie Database