Oscar Profile #354: Gig Young

Born November 4, 1913 in St. Cloud, Minnesota, Byron Barr (screen name Gig Young) was raised in Washington, D.C. and Waynesville, South Carolina. Having developed a passion for theatre, he won a scholarship to the famed Pasadena Playhouse. While appearing in a play in Mexico, he and fellow actor George Reeves were spotted by a Warner Bros. scout and offered studio contracts.

Barr’s first twelve films saw him either billed under his birth name or not credited at all. He was first billed as Gig Young, the name of his character, in 1942’s The Gay Sisters in which he was fifth billed. He was second billed in 1943’s Air Force, followed by another major role in 1943’s Old Acquaintance, after which he served in World War II. His first film after the war was 1947’s Escape Me Never, the same year he was divorced from actress Sheila Stapler, his wife of seven years. In 1948, he had important roles in three major films, The Woman in White, The Three Musketeers and Wake of the Red Witch. Now in constant demand, he married acting coach Sophie Rosenstein in 1950. She would die less than two years later.

Well-known as an alcoholic within the industry, Young earned the first of his three Oscar nominations for playing one in 1951’s Come Fill the Cup, which led to roles in such high-profile films as 1953’s City That Never Sleeps and Torch Song, 1954’s Young at Heart and 1955’s The Desperate Hours.

Briefly engaged to fellow alcoholic Elaine Stritch, he married actress Elizabeth Montgomery in 1956, after which he had strong roles in 1957’s Desk Set, 1958’s Teacher’s Pet for which he received a second Oscar nomination, 1959’s The Story on Page One, 1962’s That Touch of Mink, Kid Galahad and Five Miles to Midnight and 1963’s For Love or Money, the year Montgomery divorced him due to his alcoholism. He quickly married real-estate agent Elaine Williams who was pregnant with his only child. The following year, Montgomery became a major TV star in Bewitched while Young became one of the stars of TV’s The Rogues.

Young had a major supporting role in the hit 1965 comedy, Strange Bedfellows and a starring role in the flop The Shuttered Room. Fourth wife Williams divorced him the following year. In 1969, he had the role of his career as the alcoholic emcee in They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? for which he won an Oscar on his third nomination.

His hope that the Oscar would bring him better roles failed to materialize. The 1970 comedy, Lovers and Other Strangers would be his last role of importance. In 1976, he recorded the voice of Charlie for the TV series Charlie’s Angels, but he was so drunk he was fired and replaced by John Forsythe.

Young met fifth wife, German magazine writer Kim Schmidt on the set of his last film, 1978’s Game of Death. Three weeks after their marriage, he shot her and himself to death on October 19, 1978, his Oscar nearby.

ESSENTIAL FILMS

COME FILL THE CUP (1951), directed by Gordon Douglas

James Cagney, James Gleason and Young all deliver Oscar-caliber performances in this story of an alcoholic newspaperman, the former alcoholic who keeps him from the bottle and the younger alcoholic newspaperman who married the girl Cagney threw over for the bottle. Only Young was nominated, largely for his withdrawal scene after he gives up the bottle following Gleason’s death in the crash of a car that Young was driving. Phyllis Thaxter is the girl and Raymond Massey is Young’s uncle, the publisher of a chain of newspapers. Selena Royle is Massey’s sister, Young’s smothering mother.

TEACHER’S PET (1958), directed by George Seaton

Young received a second Oscar nomination for his comic portrayal of Doris Day’s longtime boyfriend who loses her to Clark Gable, a role not much different than similar ones he played in many other films including Desk Set in which he loses Katharine Hepburn to Spencer Tracy; Ask Any Girl in which he loses Shirley MacLaine to David Niven and That Touch of Mink in which he loses Day to Cary Grant. In-between he played the guy who gets the girl in TV adaptations of Ninotchka opposite Maria Schell and The Philadelphia Story opposite Diana Lynn.

THE STORY ON PAGE ONE (1959), directed by Clifford Odets

Odets effectively directed Cary Grant to an Oscar nomination and Ethel Barrymore to an Oscar win for None But the Lonely Heart fifteen years earlier. In his second film, he works his magic on another flawed man and his mother, Young and Mildred Dunnock in this courtroom drama centering on Young and lover Rita Hayworth’s accused murder of Hayworth’s husband. Anthony Franciosa co-stars as Young and Hayworth’s alcoholic ambulance-chasing lawyer who saves his toughest interrogation for Dunnock. Released the same year as Anatomy of a Murder, this one suffers by comparison.

THEY SHOOT HORSES, DON’T THEY? (1966), directed by Sydney Pollack

The world of the grueling, inhumane dance marathons of the 1930s is explored in this mesmerizing adaptation of Horace McCoy’s hardboiled 1935 novel. Accorded nine Oscar nominations, they included a Best Actress nod for Jane Fonda and a Best Supporting Actress nod for Susannah York as two of the contestants in the lengthy marathon under the thumb of Young in Oscar-winning role as the nasty, bulling emcee. There are other fine performances from Michael Sarrazin, Gig Young, Bonnie Bedelia, Bruce Dern, Allyn Ann McLerie and more, but as memorable as they all are, it’s Young who you remember best in his greatest role.

LOVERS AND OTHER STRANGERS (1970), directed by Cy Howard

Like They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?, Young’s follow-up film was an ensemble piece in which many actors excelled. This one, however, is a poignant comedy centered around the wedding of Bonnie Bedelia and Michael Brandon. Young is the boisterous father of the bride and Cloris Leachman is his wife, but acting honors this time around go to Bea Arthur and Oscar nominee Richard Castellano as the parents of the groom and Diane Keaton as the unhappy wife of Brandon’s brother. This was Young’s last well-regarded performance; his decline, reasonably or not, attributed to the fabled Oscar curse.