• Claudine Longet, French-born singer, actress and ex-wife of Andy Williams, died at 84.
• Her nephew Bryan Longet confirmed the death on social media Thursday.
• Longet fatally shot Olympic skier Spider Sabich in 1976 and was convicted of misdemeanor negligent homicide.
• The case inspired an SNL sketch, a Rolling Stones song, and made her internationally infamous.
• After the trial, she married her defense attorney and largely disappeared from public life.

Claudine Longet — the French-born chanteuse, actress, and one-time fixture on Andy Williams’ arm who became one of the most notorious figures in 1970s pop culture after fatally shooting her Olympic skier boyfriend — has died. She was 84.

Her nephew Bryan Longet announced her passing Thursday on his Instagram story. “Even though she is no longer physically with us, her light, elegance, talent and kindness will continue to live on through the memories, music, photos and love she leaves behind,” he wrote. “As many of you know, Claudine was not only an icon to me — she was also my aunt, and someone incredibly special in my life. Since I was a little boy, I always told her that I would remain her number one fan, and that will never change.” In a separate post translated from French by the Los Angeles Times, he added: “You have been a true inspiration in my life and you will always be. Another star in the sky. Thank you for everything, my aunt.”

No other details about her death were shared.

From Paris to Las Vegas to the Living Rooms of America

Born in Paris on January 29, 1942, Claudine Georgette Longet was the daughter of a businessman specializing in X-ray technology and a doctor. She showed an early flair for performance — she was in a production of The Turn of the Screw at 10 years old — and went on to appear on French television and in plays in Milan and Venice. By the time she was 18, American nightclub impresario Lou Walters (yes, Barbara Walters’ father) spotted her dancing on French TV and brought her to Las Vegas to star in the Folies Bergère revue at the Tropicana.

It was there, in Sin City, that fate intervened in the most cinematic way. One evening, Longet’s car broke down on the side of a highway, and she and a girlfriend were pushing it when Andy Williams and his manager happened to drive by. “My manager and I were driving down there and we saw this lovely girl and her girlfriend, who was also quite pretty, pushing this car,” Williams later told CBS Sunday Morning. “And so, being gallant — and also because they looked pretty good — we stopped to see if we could help them.” Williams was smitten. He proposed to her in Paris — she’d gone back home, where her parents were concerned she was dating an older man — and the two wed at a church in Bel-Air on December 15, 1961. She was 19. He was 34.

The marriage launched Longet into American living rooms. Williams’ career exploded in 1962 with “Moon River,” and his eponymous NBC variety show became appointment television. Longet was a regular presence on it, and the family’s Christmas specials — featuring the whole clan, including their three children, daughter Noelle and sons Christian and Bobby — were ratings gold. The couple were also close friends with Robert F. Kennedy and his wife Ethel. On June 4, 1968, Longet and Williams were watching Kennedy’s primary victory speech from his suite at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles when shots rang out below. They joined the Kennedy family at Good Samaritan Hospital and were there when he was pronounced dead nearly 26 hours later. Their son Bobby was named in RFK’s honor.

Beyond the TV appearances, Longet built a genuine entertainment career of her own. She co-starred with Peter Sellers in Blake Edwards’ 1968 comedy The Party, singing the Henry Mancini–Don Black number “Nothing to Lose” in a scene that showcased her effortless, breathy charm. Her recording career — spanning seven studio albums from 1967 to 1972, five on A&M Records and two on Williams’ Barnaby imprint — found real success. Her 1967 debut album Claudine, produced by Tommy LiPuma, sold more than a million copies. She covered everyone from the Beatles (“Here, There and Everywhere,” “Good Day Sunshine”) to Randy Newman (“I Think It’s Going to Rain Today”), her girlish, lounge-pop vocals making even familiar songs feel like secrets whispered over candlelight.

By 1970 the marriage was fraying, and the couple separated. They divorced in 1975. “We just sort of grew apart, I was never home,” Williams said years later. “It was all my fault, I just didn’t take care of my marriage.”

The Shooting That Changed Everything

Longet had met Vladimir “Spider” Sabich — the charismatic World Cup ski champion who was the real-life inspiration for Robert Redford’s character in Downhill Racer — at a celebrity skiing exhibition in Bear Valley, California in 1972. There was an immediate attraction. After her divorce from Williams, she moved with her children into Sabich’s Starwood chalet in Aspen, Colorado.

On March 21, 1976, Longet shot Sabich in the abdomen with a .22-caliber German-made pistol that had belonged to his father. She told investigators she had found the gun and asked Sabich how to use it, that she pointed it at him and “jokingly said ‘bang, bang,'” believing the safety was on. A ballistics expert later confirmed the safety did not function. Her daughter Noelle, who was in the house, testified she heard Sabich cry out, “Claudine! Claudine!”

Sabich was 31 years old. He died in the ambulance on the way to the hospital, with Longet by his side.

What followed was a media storm of a kind that feels almost quaint now but was absolutely consuming at the time. Reports surfaced that Sabich had been planning to ask Longet to move out. Her diary — which she had written in — and blood samples taken from her were thrown out as evidence because investigators had failed to obtain a search warrant. That legal misstep significantly hampered the prosecution.

Charged with felony reckless manslaughter and facing up to 10 years in prison, Longet went to trial in January 1977. Andy Williams — her ex-husband, the man whose career she’d shared for over a decade — escorted her to and from the Aspen courthouse every day and testified on her behalf. “I did because I thought it was unfair,” he said later. “I thought she was innocent. I thought it was an accident.”

On the stand, Longet spoke in her signature French accent about the relationship. “There were times over the four years that we would disagree,” she told the court. “There would be times he would be a little bit offended by the attention I got and I would be a little bit offended by the attention he got, but we were the best of friends and we loved each other very much.”

After four days of testimony and three and a half hours of deliberations, the jury acquitted Longet of the felony charge and convicted her of misdemeanor criminally negligent homicide. She was sentenced to two years’ probation, fined $250, and given 30 days in jail — which she was largely able to serve on weekends. Outside the courthouse, she faced reporters. “There is not really much to say,” she told them. “Only that I have too much respect for living things to do that. I’m not guilty.”

Sabich’s family filed a $1.3 million civil suit that was eventually settled out of court. As part of the settlement, Longet agreed never to speak publicly about Sabich or his death, and never to publish a book about the trial. Her entertainment career was effectively over.

The Cultural Aftermath

The case had already become a cultural flashpoint before the verdict was even read. In April 1976 — just weeks after the shooting — Saturday Night Live aired one of its most notorious early sketches: “The Claudine Longet Invitational,” in which Chevy Chase and Jane Curtin played sportscasters offering deadpan play-by-play as skiers were “accidentally shot” by Longet while racing down the slopes. “Uh-oh, he seems to have been accidentally shot by Claudine Longet,” Chase intoned over footage of wipeouts. The show’s producers read an on-air apology the following week after Longet’s lawyers made contact — announcer Don Pardo stating that “the satire was fictitious and its intent only humorous.”

The Rolling Stones went further. They recorded a brutal, ’50s-style rock and roll song called “Claudine” for their 1978 album Some Girls, but it was pulled — reportedly for legal reasons — and didn’t see official release until the album’s 2011 reissue. Mick Jagger sang: “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” and “Don’t get, don’t get trigger happy with me, Claudine.” The song also included the line: “Now only Spider knows for sure / But he ain’t talkin’ about it any more / Is he, Claudine?”

Whether it was a diss track or a dark tribute probably depended on how you felt about the verdict.

Life After the Trial

One of Longet’s defense attorneys, Ronald Austin, left his wife shortly after the trial concluded and moved in with her. The two married in June 1985 and settled in the Aspen area, later dividing their time between Colorado and Hawaii. In 2023, the couple listed their Red Mountain Ranch estate in Aspen for $60 million, according to Robb Report.

Longet’s last known public appearance came in 2003, when she contributed voiceover to an A&E Biography documentary on Andy Williams. “To this day people stop me in the street and say how much they loved the Christmas show,” she said — a quiet, nostalgic note from a woman who had spent decades guarding her silence.

She is survived by her husband Ronald Austin and her son Bobby. Her daughter Noelle reportedly died in 2023, and her son Christian predeceased her as well. Her nephew Bryan’s tribute said it simply: another star in the sky.

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