Albert Salmi was a gentle giant of man who once quit a job as a security guard because he had to carry a gun. Yet he often played cops and robbers, sheriffs and outlaws on both the large and small screen.

Born to Finnish parents in Brooklyn. New York on March 11 th, 1928, he spoke no English until he went to school. And when he did, the combination of Finnish, Brooklynese and English gave his voice a certain distinctiveness. After Army service during WWII, Albert studied first at the Dramatic Workshop and then at the famed Actors Studio in New York where one of the projects landed him a role on Broadway. In 1955 he won the male lead in the stage production of “Bus Stop” and, while touring in the play he met and married former child star Peggy Ann Garner.

While he loved the stage best, he took the role of Smerdjakov in MGM’s film version of Dostoevsky” “The Brothers Karamazov” (1958). His performance was so outstanding that MGM wanted to promote him for an Best supporting Actor Oscar but he declined the offer on the advice of the director, Richard Brooks. He later regretted it. Eventually his talents as one of the screen’s finest character actors was in great demand for both film and television roles. But his face became much more familiar than his name. He was one of the bad guys chased by an obsessed Gregory Peck in “The Bravados” (1958), Audrey Hepburn’s bashful beau in “The Unforgiven” (1960) and Dean Martin’s comic foil in the Western spoof “Something Big”. He was a regular on the television series “Daniel Boone” and he earned the National Cowboy Hall of Fame’s Western Heritage award for a 1966 television episode of “Gunsmoke”.

With Fess Parker in "Daniel Boone"

Guesting on "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea"

On the homefront things didn’t go as well. His marriage to Peggy Ann brought him a lovely daughter but ended in divorce after 7 years (1956-1963). A year later he married Roberta Pollock and they had 2 daughters. In the mid-1980s the little family moved to Spokane, Washington where Albert went into semi-retirement to teach and write his memoirs. But they were never finished before fate took an ugly turn.

On Monday, April 23, 1990 Albert Salmi and his wife Roberta were found shot to death in their home. They had both been shot through the heart….Albert with a Colt .45 and Roberta with a .25 caliber pistol. It was ruled a murder-suicide but mystery still surrounds it.

Gig Young made a career of playing affable, debonair but slightly flawed second leads but won an Oscar for his portrayal of a sleazy dance promoter in “They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?” in 1969.

Off the screen he was just as affable. Born Byron Barr on November 4 th, 1978 in St. Cloud, Minnesota he took his stage name from the character he played in his first big role to keep from being confused with another actor by the same name. Gig studied drama on a scholarship at the Pasadena Playhouse and, along with pal George Reeves, he won a contract at Warner Bros. where he did 14 films before he got noticed as Byron Barr in “The Gay Sisters” (1942). He won Oscar nominations for his portrayal of alcoholic Boyd Copeland in “Come Fill Your Cup” (1951) and as charming but usually tipsy Dr. Hugo Pine in “Teacher’s Pet” (1958).

Gig and Mamie Van Doren on the set of "Teacher's Pet"

With Doris Day and Jayne Meadows in "That Touch  of Mink"

But Gig’s personal life was in shambles. His first marriage ended in divorce and his second wife died just 2 years after they married. Third wife Elizabeth Montgomery was 20 years his junior and the union ended after 7 years amid rumors of domestic violence. He married Elaine Williams a few months later but it lasted less than a year. It was 12 years before he married again. The in 1958 Gig met and married an art museum employee, 31 year old German-born Kim Schmidt.

Three weeks later they were both found dead of gunshot wounds to the head in their New York City apartment. The police ruling was murder-suicide and that Young first shot his wife and then himself. But no notes were ever found. Since then, The Sheffield where they died has been nicknamed “The Deathfield” because several more suicides have occurred since. And it is rumored that it still houses the ghosts of its dead….Gig and Kim among them.

Phil Hartman could be almost any one you wanted him to be. He created impressions of over 70 persons living or dead and entertained us with them for his entire career which, unfortunately was much too short.

He was born Philip Edward Hartmann in Brantford, Ontario, Canada but somewhere along the road, he dropped one of the n’s. He was raised in Connecticut and Southern California and was the class clown in school with his impressions of John Wayne. But when he was out of school, he decided that graphic design was his path to success. He designed album covers for rock bands including the Steely Dan album “Aja”. Phil also joined a comedy troupe in California called “The Groundlings” where he worked with actor Jon Lovitz and comedian Paul Reubens and he helped Paul create his alter-ego “Pee Wee Herman”. It was during this time that Phil and a lot of other people discovered his enormous talent for impressions and improvisation.

In 1986 this talented Canadian was invited to join the cast of the hit NBC show

Phil as a "Groundling"!

“Saturday Night Live” where he did multiple impressions among them Frank Sinatra, Bill Clinton and even Barbara Bush. He also wrote and performed in numerous comedy sketches and helped other writers with their work. Because of his ability to pull things together Phil was nicknamed “The Glue”. He extended his reach into commercials and animated features, doing the voice of “actor Troy McClure and lawyer Lionel Hutz in “The Simpsons”. In 1994 he left SNL and joined the NBC sitcom “NewsRadio”.

At home things weren’t going too well. His 11- year marriage to the former swimming suit model Vicki Omdahl (she had changed her name to Brynn just before they married) was fraying at the seams. They had separated several times because of Brynn’s temper tantrums and addiction to alcohol and drugs. But there

Phil and Brynn

were two little children, Sean (11) and Birgin (6) to consider and so things were in freefall. Then on May 28 th, 1998 while he slept, Brynn Hartman shot her husband to death. The police were called and as they rushed the two children out of the house, Brynn turned the gun on herself.

Police reports later showed that Brynn had a blood-alcohol level of .12 and also traces of both cocaine and the depression drug Zoloft in her body.

The bodies of the Hartmans were cremated and the ashes strewn on Catalina Island as Phil’s will prescribed. The children now live with Brynn’s sister.

The Hartman house in Encino, California

 …that sometimes reality shows came at a tremendous cost back in the golden age!

Orson Welles

The Magnificent Ambersons (1942)

 …..Orson Welles was often obsessive about getting the real stuff! On the set of “The Magnificent Ambersons” he insisted on filming the sleigh-ride scene indoors and chilling the set to sub-freezing temperatures making the light bulbs explode. He wanted real snow even though the 4,000-watt arc bulbs kept melting it so the crew had to keep feeding 2 ½ pound ice cakes into a cruncher. Then he had the furniture and walls of the set mounted on hinges so action shots wouldn’t be interrupted and they could get long, unbroken shots.

Let’s get real!

Cast picture for "The Covered Wagon" (1923)

….. Famous Players wanted to film the first authentic Western. They did it with “The Covered Wagon” (1923) directed by James Cruze. They advertised for extras and families from all over the Midwest arrived in Utah and Nevada with their horses and wagons, many of them the very ones that had been in the trek West. But sometimes realism goes much too far. One of the Arapaho Indians heard that the star Lois Wilson gets shot in the film so he offered to do it himself. “Very good, shoot arrow through lady’s shoulder. Not break any bones”. The director declined and the lady fainted.

Let’s not get that real!