Claudine Longet, the French singer-actor whose career was eclipsed by a fatal shooting that riveted the country in the 1970s, has died at 84, her family announced Thursday. No cause of death was given, per The Hollywood Reporter. Longet, once a Las Vegas showgirl, married singer Andy Williams in 1961, frequently appearing on his TV specials, and released several soft-pop albums, including the gold-certified Claudine. She also co-starred with Peter Sellers in the 1968 film The Party.
Longet's fame turned to notoriety on March 21, 1976, when Olympic skier Vladimir "Spider" Sabich, her boyfriend, was shot in the abdomen at his home in Colorado and died en route to the hospital. Longet said the gun fired accidentally as Sabich showed her how it worked. Prosecutors charged her with reckless manslaughter, but mishandled evidence and an illegal search undercut their case. A jury convicted Longet instead of the lesser misdemeanor of criminally negligent homicide. She received probation, a small fine, and a 30-day jail term served mostly on the weekends.
A later civil suit filed by Sabich's family was settled with a promise that Longet would never publicly discuss Sabich or the shooting, and her show business career effectively ended. She later married her defense attorney, Ronald Austin, and largely withdrew from public life. "You have been a true inspiration in my life and you will always be," Bryan Longet, her nephew, wrote in a social media post on Thursday, per the AP. "Another star in the sky." People, meanwhile, has more on the three children Longet shared with Williams.
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