Claudine Longet saw mountains of media attention during the 1960s and 1970s - though perhaps
not the kind she would've desired.
Following the murder of her boyfriend and a controversial trial, she disappeared from
the limelight and into the mountains of Colorado.
Here's more about the mysterious former French star.
Longet was born in Paris, France in 1942 to an x-ray manufacturer and a doctor.
Her own career path ended up being a little more flamboyant.
At the age of 17, she began dancing at the Parisian cabaret club Folies Bergère.
Subsequently, a club owner named Lou Walters saw her dancing on French TV, and invited
her to Las Vegas to become a showgirl.
Longet met "Moon River" crooner Andy Williams when she was still a teenage Las Vegas showgirl.
According to GQ, there have been conflicting reports about their first meeting.
One involves Williams coming to Longet's rescue in a limo after her car broke down on the
Las Vegas strip, while another involves Williams claiming to remember seeing Longet roller-skating
near Paris' Louvre Museum a decade prior.
But it has been most widely reported that the pair met while Longet was dancing at the
Tropicana casino in 1960.
Longet and Williams married in December 1961.
Longet's guest appearances on her husband's "The Andy Williams Show" launched both her
acting and singing careers.
During an appearance on the NBC drama "Run for Your Life," Longet was tasked with performing
a bossa nova song called "Meditation."
According to Williams' 2009 memoir "Moon River and Me," her performance led to audiences
flooding the NBC switchboard with calls inquiring about her.
Williams told his friend, Herb Alpert of the very popular brass band Herb Alpert and the
Tijuana Brass, about the reaction.
Williams recalled in his book:
"I called him and told him what had happened after the show aired.
'I'd like to hear that song,' Herb said, so I sent him a tape of the show.
He loved Claudine's sound and immediately signed her to his label."
Through Alpert's A&M Records label, Longet released five albums full of what Williams
described as, quote, "easy-listening songs in that distinctive breath and very sexy accent."
Williams then invited Longet onto his own label, Barnaby, to release two more albums.
Longet's first album, "Claudine," sold over a million copies, and she had four Top-100 hits.
Following their 1961 marriage, Claudine Longet and Andy Williams found themselves running
with a high-profile, showbiz crowd that included the likes of singer Barbra Streisand, astronaut
John Glenn, and Senator Robert F. Kennedy.
Longet and Williams were among Kennedy's staunchest supporters during his 1968 Democratic presidential
campaign - even though Williams was a Republican.
The couple even had plans to meet up with the politician the night he was fatally shot,
on June 5, 1968.
According to The Los Angeles Times, Williams sang "Battle Hymn of the Republic" at Kennedy's
funeral, which he called, quote, "the hardest thing I ever did."
Williams and Longet named their youngest son, Robert, after the late politician the following year.
The couple had three children in the '60s, but their marriage had reportedly fallen apart
by the end of the decade, and they separated shortly thereafter.
Longet moved to Aspen, Colorado, in the early '70s, and her divorce from Williams was finalized
in 1975.
Still, the two remained close friends until his death in 2012.
According to GQ, their son, Bobby, said:
"They had a great relationship.
[As a child] I said, 'Boy, I'm glad my parents aren't divorced.'
And they were."
A year after she moved to Aspen, Colorado, Longet met skiing champion Vladimir "Spider" Sabich.
They fell in love and Longet, along with her three children, soon moved into Sabich's luxury
chalet in Starwood.
What ensued was a reportedly tumultuous, four-year relationship that ended with Longet with a
gun in her hand and Sabich bleeding to death on the bathroom floor.
On March 21, 1976, Longet fatally shot Sabich with a .22 caliber pistol.
The single bullet punctured Sabich's side and severed a major artery.
He bled out by the time help arrived on the scene, after a nearby security guard called the police.
Longet claimed it was an accidental shooting that occurred while Sabich was showing her
how to use the gun, but she was arrested on the scene.
The shooting and arrest led to a trial that local celebrity Hunter S. Thompson, who had
run for mayor of Pitkin County six years prior, likened to Aspen, quote, "fouling its own
nest," according to GQ.
The press flooded to Aspen, which created what The New York Times described as, quote,
"a tiny economic boom [...] in the midst of the worst ski season in 40 years because of a lack of snow."
The Sabich family and the people of Aspen were left outraged after Longet was convicted
of misdemeanor negligent homicide, which required her to serve just 30 days in the county jail
on the dates of her choosing.
"The Savage family, and most of Aspen, is in shock."
In the late 1970s, the Rolling Stones wrote a song about Longet for their 1978 album "Some Girls."
The song, titled "Claudine," focuses on the fatal shooting.
The song begins by referencing how Longet was given the option to carry out her sentence
at a time of her choosing and her choice to do so over the course of several weekends:
"Claudine's back in jail again / She only does it at weekends"
The song did not make it onto the original release of "Some Girls" for legal reasons.
Keith Richards told Spinner:
"I wished, and I think all of us did at the time, that that should have been on the original
album, but there was some legal difficulties and stuff.
But otherwise, she was a perfect 'Some Girl.'"
The song did, however, end up on a bonus disc with the 2011 reissue of "Some Girls."
Mick Jagger sings on the track:
"Now only Spider knows for sure / But he ain't talkin' about it anymore / There's blood in
the chalet / And blood in the snow / Washed her hands of the whole damn show"