Claudine Longet, the French singer and actress whose life was forever marked by the 1976 shooting of Olympic skier Spider Sabich, has died at 84.
Born in Paris on January 29, 1942, Longet began performing at age 10 in a production of The Turn of the Screw.
She later appeared on French television and stages in Milan and Venice before moving to Las Vegas, where she worked as a showgirl at the Tropicana’s Folies Bergère revue.
Her career took off after meeting American singer Andy Williams in 1960.
The pair married in 1961, had three children, and Longet became a familiar face on The Andy Williams Show.
She also acted in episodes of McHale’s Navy, Dr. Kildare, Combat!, Hogan’s Heroes, and Run for Your Life.
Her singing career blossomed when Herb Alpert and Jerry Moss signed her to A&M Records.
It lead to her debut album Claudine in 1967, which sold over a million copies.
Longet’s Hollywood presence included singing “Nothing to Lose” in Blake Edwards’ 1968 film The Party, opposite Peter Sellers.
She and Williams were close to Robert F. Kennedy and his family, even present during the senator’s final campaign night in Los Angeles in 1968.
Her personal life took a tragic turn after divorcing Williams in 1975.
Longet began living with Spider Sabich, a charismatic Olympic skier she met at a celebrity ski event in 1972.
On March 21, 1976, Sabich was fatally shot in his Colorado home.
Longet claimed the .22-caliber German-made gun discharged accidentally while Sabich was showing her how it worked.
The trial drew national attention.
Prosecutors faced setbacks due to mishandled evidence and illegal searches.
In January 1977, Longet was convicted of criminally negligent homicide, a misdemeanor, and sentenced to 30 days in jail, two years’ probation, and a $250 fine.
Sabich’s family later settled a civil suit against her, with Longet agreeing never to speak publicly about his death.
Longet eventually remarried in 1985 to her defense attorney Ronald Austin, settling in Hawaii.
She lived a private life in later years, away from the spotlight.
