Gig Young

Amiable supporting player and occasional lead who broke into film in the early 1940s. Young appeared in several bit parts under his given name, Byron Barr, and the pseudonym, Bryant Fleming, before adopting the name of his character in the 1942 feature, "The Gay Sisters." While he proved capable in several dramatic parts (notably as the sleazy emcee in the haunting "They Shoot Horses, Don't They?" which brought him a Best Supporting Actor Oscar), Young seemed destined to play debonair cads and slightly inebriated playboys who never win the female lead in the end in sophisticated light comedies such as "Desk Set" (1957), "Teacher's Pet" (1958) and "That Touch of Mink" (1962). Young's third and fifth wives were actresses Elizabeth Montgomery and Kim Schmidt; he allegedly shot the latter three weeks into the marriage before turning the gun on himself.