Gig Young

 Gig Young, born Byron Elsworth Barr (November 4, 1913 – October 19, 1978)

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?. 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. 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. 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. After the war, he 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. Young also is remembered by many James Dean fans for the "driving safety" interview made shortly before Dean's death in September, 1955. After They Shoot Horses, Don't They? (1969), he had another good supporting role in Lovers and Other Strangers (1970).

Young was married five times, including once to Elizabeth Montgomery. He married his last wife, Kim Schmidt, On September 27, 1978. Three weeks after his marriage to Schmidt, the couple was 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. A motive for the murder-suicide was never made clear. He is buried at Green Hill Cemetery in Waynesville, NC.