GIG YOUNG
November 4, 1913 - October 19, 1978
That, in a nutshell, sums up Gig Young's screen persona: handsome, charming, affable, and always the second banana. He rarely got the girl; his characters were either too lazy, alcoholic, or vaguely homosexual. Gig was, really, a good-looking, less neurotic Tony Randall, and he excelled in those frothy sex comedies of the 1950's and 1960's: Teacher's Pet (1958, for which he received an Oscar nod), Ask Any Girl (1959), That Touch of Mink (1962), Strange Bedfellows (1965), etc.
GIG YOUNG IN TEACHER'S PET (1958)
In real life, Gig did land several beautiful girls; his third wife was Elizabeth Montgomery, and he had previously had a torrid affair with Elaine Stritch (!), who was, in the 1950's, quite the dish. Unfortunately, although he specialized in playing ingratiating alcoholics onscreen, Gig was a less charming drunk off screen. His looks began to deteroriate, and as films grew grittier and less glossy, his image as a freewheeling playboy seemed out on sync with the times. A surprise Oscar nomination and win for They Shoot Horses, Don't They? (1969) should have rejuvenated his career as a serious character actor, but seemed to have the reverse effect.
The latter half of the 1970's saw Gig in a ghastly downward spiral. He was fired from Blazing Saddles (1974) because of his alcoholism. He had to be replaced by John Forsythe as the voice of "Charlie" on Charlie's Angels, because he couldn't read the lines. He did, however, manage an appearance in drag in The Great Ice Rip-Off (1974):
In 1978, Gig's tumultuous life came to a grotesque end; he shot himself and his new, 21-year-old fifth wife in an apparent murder-suicide. Gig Young was 65 years old.
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