Claudine Longet, the French-born star and ex-wife of singer Andy Williams who became notorious for the fatal shooting in 1976 of her boyfriend, Olympic skier Vladimir “Spider” Sabich, has died. She was 84. Her death was announced on Thursday (May 14) and was confirmed by her nephew, Bryan Longet.
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The shooting, and especially the light sentence Longet received for it – just 30 days, to be served “at a time of her choosing” – made headlines around the world and inspired both a Saturday Night Live sketch and a Rolling Stones song. Many saw it as evidence that the American justice system favors the wealthy and well-connected.
Before the scandal, Longet had achieved fame, mostly in connection with Williams on his long-running variety TV series, but also, for a couple of years in the late 1960s, on her own. She recorded seven albums (the first five of them for A&M Records), which were mostly filled with light pop and bossa nova songs — music that has been rebranded in recent decades as “lounge music.”
Claudine Georgette Longet was born in Paris on Jan. 29, 1942. In 1960, when she turned 18, American impresario Lou Walters (father of future broadcasting legend Barbara Walters) hired her to join his Folies Bergère revue at the Tropicana Resort & Casino in Las Vegas.
In the period that she was dancing lead in that show, Longet met Williams, who was 14 years her senior. Williams had already had such hits as “Canadian Sunset” and “Butterfly.” The two were married in December 1961.
In 1962, Williams released “Moon River,” which quickly became his signature song, and launched a weekly TV variety series, events that combined to make him a superstar. The newlyweds left Las Vegas and moved to Malibu, California where they had three children.
Longet appeared frequently on The Andy Williams Show and on her husband’s annual holiday specials. She teamed with Williams to sing “Let It Be Me” (“Je t’Appartiens”) on The Wonderful World of Andy Williams, a gold-certified album which reached No. 9 on the Billboard 200 in February 1964.
Longet also occasionally sang on other variety and music programs, including those of singers Bobby Darin and Tom Jones. Her breakthrough occurred in 1966 when she guest-starred on the hit weekly drama series Run for Your Life. She performed a bilingual (English-French) rendition of Antônio Carlos Jobim‘s bossa nova song “Meditation (Meditação).”
A&M Records cofounder Herb Alpert offered Longet a recording contract with his company, which was the hottest adult contemporary label of the era, with such red-hot artists as Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass and Sergio Mendes & Brasil ’66. Longet recorded five albums for A&M between 1966 and 1970.
The first of these, Claudine, reached No. 11 on the Billboard 200 in July 1967. It was certified gold in April 1970. Tommy LiPuma produced the album, which included two songs that made the bottom rungs of the Billboard Hot 100 – the aforementioned “Meditation (Meditação)” and “Hello, Hello.” The album also included a breathy version of The Beatles’ “Here, There and Everywhere” which became her first hit on Billboard’s Easy Listening chart (now called Adult Contemporary).
LiPuma, who went on to win five Grammys for work with George Benson, Natalie Cole, Diana Krall and Paul McCartney, also produced Longet’s next three albums, The Look of Love (also 1967, titled after the Burt Bacharach/Hal David song which became a 1968 smash for Mendes & Brasil 66); Love Is Blue (1968)and Colours (also 1968). All four made the Billboard 200; the first three made the top 40. Longet’s highest-charting Hot 100 hit was a vocal version in French of Paul Mauriat’s Hot 100-topping instrumental smash “Love Is Blue.” Longet’s version, titled “Love Is Blue (L’Amour Est Bleu),” reached No. 71 on the Hot 100 in March 1968.
Nick DeCaro had arranged all of these albums. DeCaro stepped into the producer role on Longet’s fifth and final A&M album, Run Wild, Run Free (1970) and her subsequent We’ve Only Just Begun (1971), which she recorded for Williams’ Barnaby Records. The title song had been a smash for the Carpenters on A&M in 1970.
Ken Mansfield produced Longet’s second and final album for Barnaby Records, Let’s Spend the Night Together (1972), which was an attempt to move in more of a pop-rock direction. The title song was a cover version of the 1967 Rolling Stones classic.
In April 1968, Longet co-starred with Peter Sellers in The Party, which Blake Edwards wrote, produced, and directed. Longet sang the Henry Mancini and Don Black song “Nothing to Lose” on-screen in the film.
Longet and Williams were close friends of Sen. Robert F. Kennedy and his wife, Ethel. They were at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles when the senator was shot on June 5, 1968, and at the a nearby hospital where he died a day later. Longet and Williams attended Kennedy’s funeral mass at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City on June 8. At the mass, Williams and a choir sang “The Battle Hymn of the Republic.” Afterwards, Longet and Williams accompanied Kennedy family members on the funeral train that took Sen. Kennedy’s body to Arlington National Cemetery in Washington, D.C. for burial. Longet and Williams named their son after Robert F. Kennedy.
By 1970, Williams and Longet’s marriage was on the rocks, and the pair legally separated. They divorced in January 1975. Williams blamed himself for the split in a 2009 interview on CBS’ This Morning. “It was all my fault, and I just didn’t take care of my marriage,” he said. The two remained friendly afterwards, and Williams stood by Longet when tragedy struck in 1976.
Longet met Olympian skier Sabich at a celebrity skiing exhibition in 1972. Longet relocated to Aspen, Colo., and moved into the skier’s Starwood chalet around 1975. On March 21, 1976, Longet shot Sabich in the abdomen with an imitation World War II .22-caliber German‐made pistol. Her daughter, Noelle, was in the house at the time.
Longet was subsequently questioned by investigators and charged with felony reckless manslaughter. At her trial, Longet claimed the gun accidentally discharged as Sabich was showing her how it worked.
Longet initially faced up to 10 years in prison. But in January 1977, after four days of testimony and 3½ hours of deliberations, Longet was acquitted of the felony charge and convicted of a misdemeanor charge of negligent homicide. She was sentenced to pay a small fine and spend 30 days in jail. The trial judge even allowed Longet to choose the days to be served, believing this arrangement would allow her to spend time with her children. She decided to serve most of her sentence on weekends.
Williams publicly supported Longet throughout the trial, paid for her legal defense team, and escorted her to and from the courthouse. He later told This Morning that he supported his ex-wife because he believed in her innocence. “I did because I thought it was unfair,” he said. “I thought she was innocent. I thought it was an accident.”
Sabich’s parents filed a $1.3-million civil suit against Longet later the same year, but the case was settled out of court two years later with the provision that Longet never discuss or write about the killing or the settlement. Longet subsequently vacationed with her defense attorney, Ronald D. Austin, who was then married. Longet and Austin married in 1985.
The Sabich case became a media sensation. In April 1976, Saturday Night Live, then nearing the end of its Emmy-winning first season, aired a biting sketch titled “The Claudine Longet Invitational,” in which Chevy Chase and Jane Curtin played sports commentators who offer a play-by-play of a competition in which male skiers are “accidentally” shot by Longet as they race down the slopes.
Longet’s lawyer threatened legal action. This led to a rare, on-air apology (constructed as a “non-apology apology”) from announcer Don Pardo, which was quoted in SNL writer Anne Beatts’ book, Saturday Night Live:
“On April 24th, 1976, Saturday Night included a sketch about a Claudine Longet Invitational Ski Championship in Vail, Colorado, as part of the program’s topical humor. It is desirable to correct any misunderstanding that a suggestion was made that, in fact, a crime had been committed. The satire was fictitious and its intent only humorous. This is a statement of apology if the material was misinterpreted.”
In 1980, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards wrote a song, titled “Claudine,” that was intended to appear on the Rolling Stones album Emotional Rescue. “You’re the prettiest girl I ever seen/ I want to see you on the movie screen/ I hope you never try to make a sacrifice of me, Claudine,” sang Mick Jagger. “Nah ah/ Don’t get, don’t get trigger happy with me, Claudine.”
The song was deemed too controversial and was removed from the album, although it was included on several bootleg Rolling Stones albums. In November 2011, the track was released on the deluxe reissue of their 1978 album Some Girls.
According to The Los Angeles Times, Longet’s last known public appearance was in 2003 on the A&E channel’s Biography program about Williams, in which she recorded only voice-over, saying: “To this day people stop me in the street and say how much they loved the Christmas show.”
