They Shoot Their Wives, Don’t They?

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New day, new song, new rabbit hole. Today I used the Oscar-winning song “For All We Know” from the film Lovers and Other Strangers. A lot of you who know the song may be completely unaware of the fact that the song, popularized by the Carpenters, was even in a movie. And, as I mentioned earlier, it was released when I was a kid and an R-rated movie, so there was no chance I was going to see it. The film had an ensemble cast of then-relatively unknowns, including Bea Arthur (who later went on to fame in Maude and The Golden Girls), Cloris Leachman, Richard S. Castellano (who’d later become well known for his role as Peter Clemenza in The Godfather); and, in her first role, Castellano’s future Godfather co-star Diane Keaton. Heck, even Sylvester Stallone had a small, uncredited role in it. (And no, he did NOT say “yo!” ) The biggest name, at the time, was probably Gig Young. Young, born Byron Barr, was a two-time Oscar nominee (1952 and 1959) before he won the Best Supporting Actor Academy Award in 1969 for the film They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? in which he played the dance marathon emcee. Less than ten years after his greatest triumph he would be dead, by his own hand. Young had a longstanding problem with alcohol. His second wife was future Bewitched star Elizabeth Montgomery, and she divorced him because of his alcoholism in 1963. After his victory for They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?, the critical acclaim of Lovers and Other Strangers, and an Emmy nomination for The Neon Ceiling, Young’s life should have been improving. Instead, he went on a downward spiral that is just about as tragic as you can get. Had Young been able to hold his liquor, the film Blazing Saddles might have been much different. He was originally signed to play “The Waco Kid.” The first scene that Mel Brooks filmed with Young was the scene where the Waco Kid wakes up, hanging upside down in the cell, and sees Sheriff Bart. When Young was put in that position for filming, he was so drunk that he vomited and passed out. Young’s agent told Brooks that Young was “a recovering alcoholic,” to which Brooks reportedly replied, “He hasn’t recovered enough,” and fired Young. The role went to Gene Wilder. (Blazing Saddles co-writer Richard Pryor didn’t get the role as Bart for a similar reason, although Pryor’s problem was cocaine. ) Later, Young was slated for the role as Charlie on Charlie’s Angels, but, again, his alcoholism cost him the job that went to John Forsythe. On September 28, 1978 Young married for the fifth time. Three weeks later, he shot his new wife to death, then turned the gun on himself. He didn’t leave a suicide note explaining why. He was 64, his murdered wife was 31. What could have been. Here’s Gig Young’s acceptance speech for his Oscar: