Dead and Kind of Famous
The podcast where two friends (one who's a nobody and one who's kinda famous) dive into the life stories of dead folks who enjoyed a touch or two of fame in their time and now reside permanently in Hollywood Forever Cemetery.
Dead and Kind of Famous
Cheekbones and Demons: Christopher Jones Part 1
What if the ghost of James Dean haunted an actor's career? Christopher Jones, a man forever overshadowed by his uncanny resemblance to the rebel icon, lived a life that was as electrifying as it was cursed.
Jones's journey through the swinging '60s is a cocktail of passion and paranoia, particularly in his tumultuous relationship with Susan Strasberg.
Throughout the episode, we navigate Jones's on-screen triumphs and setbacks, from his role in the cult classic "Wild in the Streets" to the challenging production of "Ryan's Daughter," which saw director David Lean both frustrated and fascinated by Jones's enigmatic presence. Despite the controversies that hounded him, Jones’s unique charisma left a lasting impression, one that still echoes in the halls of Hollywood lore. Tune in for an exploration not just of a man, but of a myth in the making, a tale of ambition, love, and the spectral shadow of a legend.
Links from this episode:
Find a Grave: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/124440739/christopher-jones
National Domestic Violence Hotline: https://www.thehotline.org/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=domestic_violence
Wild in the Streets on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fozufGZubYc
NY Times Obituary: https://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/09/movies/christopher-jones-actor-who-quit-field-dies-at-72.html
For a full list of sources for this episode, please visit our Substack at https://substack.com/@deadandkindafamous
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Hello, my fame-adjacent not-yet-dead fam, it's Courtney here and I wanted to enter into the following episode with a bit of a trigger warning. We will be discussing instances of rape and domestic violence and I want you to be aware before you proceed. Thanks so much.
Marissa:Hello and welcome to Dead and Kind of Famous, where we dig into the life stories of dead folks who enjoyed a touch or two of fame in their time.
Courtney:And now reside permanently in the Hollywood Forever Cemetery.
Marissa:Hi, I'm Marissa Rivera and I know that the hike up to Runyon Canyon is not worth it.
Courtney:And other than that and I know how to give a cat an enema and also everything about what we're going to talk about today Ew, I was taking a sip of my beverage while you said that too, so perfect, okay, great, okay great. Yay, Okay.
Marissa:I'm so excited about this episode. So, for those of you who don't know which will be probably all of you, because this is episode two, so I don't know about anything that Courtney, I don't know who she's going to bring to the table. I don't know anything about it. All I know is that this episode is going to be a two, probably three parter.
Courtney:Yeah, we're going to have to see.
Marissa:We're going to see, but I'm excited because it sounds juicy.
Courtney:It's juicy, it's salacious, it's, I would say, angering at times. Okay, okay, controversial. It's controversial.
Courtney:Can you turn this so that I can see your face? I swear, right now Marissa is like in a sound cage and all I can see your face? I swear, right now Marissa is like in a sound cage and all I can see is like the side of her head and her hair. Yeah, we have a funny recording set up, but it's actually it's great, it's great. Okay hold on, let me adjust. Let me adjust, okay. I just know that I'll feel like I'm talking. Okay.
Courtney:All right, so yes, so today, I'm just going to get right into it. Go ahead, dive in. Today we are talking about Christopher Jones. Okay, christopher Jones, very, I don't know, not seeming like a big, weighty name. It's no Baron von Frankenstein, I know I mean how could you?
Marissa:You can't. Not everyone can be a baron.
Courtney:Not everyone can be a baron. However, christopher Jones, his grave is close to the barons, so if you're visiting the baron, you can visit Christopher Jones at the same time. But we are talking about Christopher Jones and I want to take a peek at his grave first, so I'm going to have you take a look at this here First look First, looks All right. So that's the grave.
Marissa:Says Christopher Jones in parentheses, right below William Franklin Jones, 1941 to 2014. And there is a picture of a very attractive man. I must say. He's got great bone structure. It's kind of like it's not a headshot, but it looks like a still from a film. And then the inscription says Always in our hearts. So Christopher Jones.
Courtney:Yeah, let's talk about his obit. Let's talk about the marissa rivera obit of christopher jones christopher jones is was jesus.
Marissa:Sorry, sorry, not strong. Christopher Jones was born in 1941 to two proud parents in Ohio on a farm, a dairy farm that had been in the family for generations. Bucking the standard of working for the family farm, he decided to follow his dreams and run away to Hollywood at the tender age of 16. Where he, for all intents and purposes, made it. I mean, he worked, he was on screen, he worked, he was on screen. He started behind the scenes, you know, trying to be on sets in any way that he could. But he was just so attractive that his star power, his on-screen ability, could not be denied. And a producer spotted him from afar and the rest was history. Not really an A-list star, but working all of his years. All the same. He loved the Hollywood nightlife and was a womanizer. I just couldn't see it in his cheekbones. You don't have cheekbones like that and stay faithful to one woman, no they cut glass and they cut hard, that's right.
Marissa:So, he got married. He did because that was the convention, but never stayed faithful to his wife. So his marriage fell apart. This is all in the obit, by the way, all the T's in this obit. So his marriage fell apart and then he lived the rest of his days as a consummate bachelor and absentee father and he died. I don't know what is the math here 2014 minus 20. 72.
Courtney:He was 72 when he died.
Marissa:Okay, great, let's cut that out, because people are just going to make fun of my math skills. Whatever, I only know that because I've been researching it.
Courtney:Okay, let's cut that out, because people are just going to make fun of my math skills. Whatever, I only know that because I've been researching it. Yeah, like I didn't do the math. Let's be real.
Marissa:So he died at the old age of 72, having lived a long, fulfilling life. His his real name is william franklin jones, but his stage name, as his main name on his gravestone, is christopher jones, don't you forget it.
Courtney:You're not going to after this episode I swear to god um, you know, there's so much you couldn't possibly know, but I do feel like you know. With what you were saying, a couple things stand out as being particularly true. I feel like, yes, his looks were undeniable, undeniable, undeniable, and I do think that they led to his star power, and we'll talk about this that they led to his star power, and we'll talk about this.
Marissa:But he looks on guys. He looks like robert pattinson with interesting I see that he looks like robert pattinson with, like even thicker hair, if you can imagine yeah, he's got a lot of hair. He's got a great head of hair great head of hair and he, his, okay so his. The picture on his gravestone is is almost a profile. It's got a lot of hair, he's got a great head of hair, great head of hair and his OK so his. The picture on his gravestone is is almost a profile.
Marissa:It's like a little bit more than three quarter and his nose is like a perfect, perfect, like Roman nose. It's crazy.
Courtney:He's dreaming.
Marissa:He's dreamy and he looks like he was carved from stone Totally, and so we'll also get into this.
Courtney:But it's interesting you say Robert Pattinson, because the person that Christopher Jones got compared to the most was actually James Dean.
Marissa:Oh, I can see that. Yeah, I can see that all the fucking time.
Courtney:So he was. He got it all the time.
Marissa:He lived in James Dean's shadow, probably a bit, a little bit a bit and it's.
Courtney:It's actually like, yeah, it's a through line, it's a major through line. Oh, so OK, but I will. Yeah, what else did you say? That was OK. You said he was from Ohio. A dairy farm maybe, like none of that. It's not right, but it's also not far off. Ok, give it to me. So let's get into it all, right. Christopher jones actual epitaph reads always in our hearts, but at his funeral, the reverend giving his eulogy mentioned that christopher had wanted it to read. Some things are better left unsaid. Oh yes, oh my gosh. And after hearing about his life, it might make sense why he would say that Dun dun dun.
Marissa:Dun dun dun. Insert really cool sound effect here.
Courtney:Yes, Now, I said before that not, and I said well, I said this in the previous episode. Ok, not all dead people are likable. Right, we had the Baron last time. He was super, super likable.
Marissa:Cheers, let's cheers to the Baron, cheers to the Baron.
Courtney:Yes, not all people are likable. Not all dead people are likable, and Christopher Jones is coming back to haunt us with that truth, back to haunt us with that truth. I could say that I think that today's subject is complicated, because that's how men with unsavory quotes and truths about them are often described, but I think that the most charitable thing I can say is that he was a confused, flawed human, as we all are in some way, and most likely a bit mentally ill.
Marissa:Which is wow, what a recipe for Hollywood.
Courtney:Yeah, and I really do have to like put it out there in the front just to have. I want to have you know these people are dead, that we're talking about. I want to have some empathy for their lives because they were lived already.
Marissa:And also like during that time period. You know we talk about mental health left, right and center.
Courtney:Nowadays, it wasn't a thing. Not a thing, not at all. And if you did go to therapy, it was probably like weird and like it was probably because you like got committed.
Marissa:And yeah, yeah. Honestly, or you like were some Hollywood weirdo who like had someone like I don't know who wasn't like a licensed therapy, Exactly Like a life coach or a cult, Like a guru.
Courtney:Yeah exactly, exactly so. Anyway. In fact, his story and many of its offshoots are steeped in improperly handled mental illness, and I was talking to Jesse, my husband, about it, and he said something that I really think is true. He said that Jones lived his life as a haunted man, and this is because I need someone to talk to about all this research, so I talked to him about it. But many people-.
Marissa:She can't talk to me. I come into this blind. She can't no.
Courtney:Yeah, many people who knew him said as much, as he was frequently described as having demons. And if anyone who loves or admires Christopher Jones is listening, first of all, I'm flattered Also. Just know that Thank you First of all. Thank you, thank you for listening. Just know that I went to a lot of effort to seek out multiple sources about him and that lend different insights, even going so far as to transcribe photographed images of his last interview in his own words, since it was out of print find him hard to like. I find him fascinating and I also have empathy for him, and he is no longer with us after all, in his life is something that is worth discussion for many of us, especially those of us working in hollywood. He is worth learning about, I think. So, that being said, let's start at the top, shall we let's? Christopher jones was born in jackson, tennessee, not ohio, but not that far off mountain ohio right, right, right smoky mountains, ohio smoky mountains, ohio on august 18th 1941, a leo um.
Courtney:like you, yes, like me as william franklin jones to his father jg jones, a grocery store clerk, and mother Robbie, who was a talented visual artist who passed her talents on to her son. Ooh, yes.
Marissa:And being a female artist back then was next to impossible, right?
Courtney:I don't know if she made any money from it, but everybody was like, oh, robbie's got talent and she got it, and he got it from her. Yes, got it. As young Billy's father said we're calling Christopher Billy, by the way, because that was his moniker as a child as young Billy's father said, she'd look at a scene or a face and then, with a pencil or a crayon, she would bring it to life again on a sheet of paper. It was a wonder to watch her, and even as a youngster, billy Frank, billy Frank had the same ability. Billy.
Marissa:Frank. Billy Frank had the same ability. Billy Frank, billy Frank, my goodness. Well, billy Frank got his mama's talent, that's right.
Courtney:And for the first three years of his life Billy lived Billy Frank. Billy Frank lived above Billy Frank. Billy Frank For the first three years of his life Billy lived above the grocery store his father worked at with his parents and older brother Robert. The first thread of mental illness starts here, as Jones's mother suffered from quote mental instability which is vague and the vaguest.
Marissa:Yes.
Courtney:Wow, and was institutionalized in a state hospital. Okay yeah, when Christopher was just four years old, and she died there in 1960. Wow and was institutionalized in a state hospital, okay, yeah, yeah, when Christopher was just four years old and she died there in 1960. Oh, no, okay, yeah so he was only 19 when she died. When she died, Wait, so, wait.
Marissa:So she was in there the entire time, from when he was four until he was 19?.
Courtney:Until she died yeah.
Marissa:Oh my gosh. Yeah, so he did not have an easy childhood at all, no, so his mother was institutionalized until her death and she went in from four years old and died when he was 19. She probably, you know, postpartum, I would think Something it's really hard to say.
Courtney:It's like whatever you had back then, they weren't gonna know what the fuck it was yeah, they weren't gonna know. Fuck. And as chris told his ex-wife susan strasburg, my mother died. Wait, strasburg, yes, we'll get into it. Oh, this person's a bigger deal than you think.
Courtney:Oh, oh, my goodness, oh my gosh, quick thing Do you think that you should have me read any of his quotes? Yeah, yeah, you can read it. Yeah, ok, so you read this then. All right. So, as Chris told his ex-wife, susan Strasberg, my mother died of TB in a sanatorium.
Marissa:They took her away from me when I was three. My daddy put my brother and me in a boy's home in Memphis after that because he couldn't take care of us. Oh my God, so dramatic. I love it. Dramatic reading. Yes.
Courtney:Well, that's fucking horrendous. Yes, when asked later in an interview with groupie journalist pamela debar if he hated his father for putting him in the boys home, he said that no, it was his mother who he hated why. Pamela asked she was dead and Chris replied that was a good reason to hate her.
Marissa:She shouldn't have died. Well, there's a very strong streak of misogyny. Oh yeah, it starts right here. It's not going to stop here either. Victim blaming it's not going to stop here at all. Father remarried and had three more children, and billy and his brother only visited on holidays.
Courtney:So they were really like, oh my god, he had a replacement family, he totally had a replacement family, absolutely, and like they got all of his father's attention and I mean, maybe it's because he just there was trauma for his father of having lost his wife and he just couldn't face that at all you know what I mean and couldn't wrap his head around any reminder of her. I think you know that can happen, especially when people don't go to therapy and don't have any kind of mental awareness themselves, I don't know, still unforgivable, oh it's completely yeah, and he's somehow.
Marissa:He hates his mother and that and not his father, which sucks, that is fucked all of it is yeah.
Courtney:So billy frank made a friend at boystown named robert duke when the older boys forced them to fight each other for their entertainment, like quote dogs or chickens wow, and perhaps giving insight into the man he'd grow to become. Duke said that being a long-term resident of an institution like Boys Town takes its toll when it comes to trusting people and forming relationships.
Marissa:Of course, yes, like even if they were friends and you're forced to fight someone like that, that will irrevocably change your relationship. Of course, even if you're friends to begin, oh God, ok, the manipulation, the torture, it's just torture.
Courtney:Yes, truly, and he said so. Duke said you learn not to form relationships with people, you learn to be a loner. You learn emotionally not to become too vulnerable to relationships because they're transient in most cases. I think Billy Frank was typical of that pattern. Yeah, so the executive director of Boys Town, joe Stockton, took a shine to Billy and even wrote him a recommendation for art school.
Marissa:This boy was no punk. Stockholm is quoted to have said Don't ever believe anything you might read that would make you think that he was bright and he was good. He should be living proof to other underprivileged boys that you can become a fine man and find your own place in life, no matter what has happened. If you, just if you just aim for the heights. Well, damn. I feel like he sounds remarkably like our main character, Billy Frank.
Courtney:Yes.
Marissa:And, by the way, Billy.
Courtney:Frank probably did have an accent when he was younger, so I love this. I think later he did, Because of course everyone has to train out of your accent.
Marissa:I trained out of mine what was your accent. I had a little like Puerto Rican Miami girl accent for a while, not by the time when I moved here. My theater teacher in high school was like you can get more work if you don't have an accent, because Hollywood is racist and, it's true, interesting.
Courtney:Interesting. Yeah Well, I have a Midwestern accent on certain words like bag and museum, which is more just a pronunciation, but anyway, I digress. So Joe Stockton was the first to bring Billy's likeness to James Dean to his attention. From there on out, billy was obsessed with Dean. Stockton took him to see a screening of Rebel Without a Cause, and when Billy learned of Dean's death by car accident he became even more fascinated with him. And I think that's true of a lot of people. James Dean is a pretty mythical figure. Yeah, and like Dean, billy wanted to be a star.
Marissa:I adored movies. Everything was so clean and uncomplicated in the movies. All those important people in their big houses that was my ideal. I wanted to be a movie star. The movies kept me going for a long time. I love those.
Courtney:You're reminding me so much of, like the fake scene that James Marsden does in Jury Duty.
Marissa:Oh, my God.
Courtney:God, where is God? I was dead. I was like this is incredible, it's perfect, it's so perfect, okay. Well, thank you incredible.
Marissa:It's perfect, it's so perfect. Okay, well, thank you for thank you. You're welcome. Wow, what a compliment.
Courtney:Yes, when he was 16, Billy left Boys Town and moved in with his father and his father's new family in Jackson.
Marissa:Babysitting. Oh, I'm glad he let him in.
Courtney:Yeah, I know right Babysitting his dad's new kiddos. Oh, I'm glad he let him in. Yeah, I know right Babysitting his dad's new kiddos.
Marissa:Oh okay, he let him in to babysit. Got it, yep Jesus.
Courtney:He had a job and going to the movies in his free time. Motivated by the dream of leaving town, billy talked his father into signing the papers that would allow him to enlist in the army, and then he joined up for a total of two whole days, wow.
Marissa:Well, when you can't hack it, you can't hack it, nope.
Courtney:Billy, I swear we're right on the edge of referring to him as Christopher. By the way, was never one to enjoy being boxed in or told what to do, and this would be a theme throughout his life.
Marissa:Honestly same Yep.
Courtney:We relate we relate so naturally, the military didn't suit him, and so he bailed and went AWOL according oh he just oh, yeah, he just up and left. He left damn yep according to his ex-wife, susan Strasberg, um. He told her that of his time in the army, I hated it.
Marissa:They even told you when to take a leak. One night I got this overwhelming urge to go to New York, as if something were drawing me there. It was crazy, but I split the next day. Yep, he was out.
Courtney:Jones said in his interview with Pamela DeBar that he stole a car and drove to New Orleans before making his way to New York.
Marissa:Pamela DeBar that he stole a car and drove to New Orleans. Before making his way to New York, he quit the army, snuck out, went AWOL, stole a car, committed grand theft auto and drove to where now? New York. Drove all the way to New York. Yes, from Tennessee. Where was he at this point?
Courtney:He was in. He stole a car and drove to New Orleans and then made his way to New York, but in the interim. So yes, he was in Tennessee and then in the interim he was.
Marissa:So he went south to go north.
Courtney:I think he didn't know where he was going. He just wanted to like bounce, and then he went to Indiana before going to New York. So, you really kind of like took a little road trip yeah, he sure did. I think he was thinking himself he was thinking it out.
Marissa:I don't think he had it all planned well quote unquote new york was just calling to him, so right he had to go visit the rest of the country first, to make sure I mean, I don't know, maybe he was just like.
Courtney:I don't know, I have no idea, I cannot even fathom his logic. But he did go to Fairmont Indiana, because why else? That's where Jimmy Dean's home was. That's right. And I feel like this decision definitely speaks to his obsession with Dean, because if you're driving from New Orleans and heading to New York, indiana is definitely not on the way.
Marissa:Totally, completely out of the way, completely out on the way, totally completely out of the way, completely out of the way. Only an obsession with James Dean will bring you to Indiana. To the sticks, because that's the sticks.
Courtney:Yes, I am from Indiana and I will mention right now that the state motto of Indiana is the crossroads of America because you are meant to drive through it if you have to. Not? There's no other reason for that state. It's just there to be driven through, or actually, I'm sorry. There is another reason If you are living in Chicago and you need to buy fireworks, that's also a great reason to go to indiana. That's it, that's it, that's all oh god um, okay, so we're getting a lot of hate from people in indiana.
Courtney:No, no, they know, they know, oh, they know, you know, you know we all know, know, but anyway he made the trip and surprised the Dean family with his likeness to their son. Whoa, whoa he wait he didn't just go to the town, he went up and knocked on the door. What the? Fuck, yes, and I think that people had done this before, but in particular, him coming up and knocking on their door was them being like? Because let me show you really quick.
Marissa:I need a side by side yeah.
Courtney:OK, so this is. You can see all the different images of Christopher Jones here. And then this is James Dean.
Marissa:I'm not going to lie. I don't see it I don't see it, it's pretty.
Courtney:I mean, I feel like, Like let's just do this, this, this the eyebrows, the eyes alone. Okay.
Marissa:James Dean has light hair, light eyes. That's the same as Christopher Jones. Okay, there I see it they have the same nose and they both have cheekbones. They both have cheekbones.
Courtney:And they both have very like prominent eyebrows and kind of like bedroom eyes.
Marissa:Yeah.
Courtney:So it's pretty.
Marissa:They're sexy white men.
Courtney:They're sexy white men who are like pretty boy white men, yeah, that's like a huge part of this.
Marissa:Pretty boys. Yes.
Courtney:Pretty boy white men. Pretty boy white men.
Marissa:Yes, his family disagrees with me and disagrees with me and thought that he was a good likeness.
Courtney:Oh yeah, A lot of people did A lot of people did Well, if the family says so.
Marissa:I mean they're number one opinions.
Courtney:Yes, they let him inside and showed him Dean's room, which they'd left untouched.
Marissa:His jeans were laid out like he was coming back. Jones said.
Courtney:Yeah. So eventually Jones made it to New York, where a friend advised him to turn himself in for going AWOL, because they'd catch up with him sooner or later. That's true. Yep. So he did and spent six months on Governor's Island after stealing a car.
Marissa:Six months. Yeah, got off easy.
Courtney:Yeah, practically kitty-cornered of the Statue of Liberty. So even though he was jailed, he had made it to New York and it was here in New. York and he had a view.
Courtney:And he had a view I mean, you know, at least in his mind, where it. And he had a view visual artists in the city, before turning his attentions to acting, as we've discussed, he inherited his mother's visual art talent. So he took classes with acting teacher and director frank corsero, who eventually cast him in his 1961 production of the tennessee williams play the night of the iguana with betty davis, and later shelly winters who replaced her.
Marissa:So he like Wow yeah, he worked opposite some heavy hitters.
Courtney:Immediately. Yeah, like it's not, he's just. I think like there's all kinds of things you can say about his acting ability and his performance and all of that, but like he has a presence.
Marissa:Ok, and that's the je ne sais quoi of it all, the undeniability of yes, what some people have on screen. I mean that is a real on screen and on stage. That is a real, real thing, Exactly. As for the role he had to play in the play, Shelley Winters elaborated on it in her memoir and said, the two handsome Mexican cabana boys were played by Christopher Jones and Jimmy Farentino Not Mexicans, but certainly cabana boys.
Courtney:I bought that woman's book just for that quote. Honestly, I could use nothing else in it, but that's what we did, so keeping publishing alive. That's right. That's right, claiming that he always loved older women. Jones said that he tried to quote jiggle Betty Davis but wasn't sophisticated enough to get her attentions. No, you weren't.
Marissa:No, you were not.
Courtney:You were a child, and that was betty davis, and she was I can just, and you imagine, betty davis eyes just reading him for filth in that moment filth, just like the thousand yard stare she must have given him. She probably didn't say anything. She probably just turned on her heel and like flipped her hair you know, like you child, um.
Courtney:So he did, however, claim to have had an affair with winters, um, and said that what does winters say in her memoir? Nothing, she doesn't say shit about it. All right, um. But he said that she was all over him like a cheap suit. And Winters made no such mention of this affair in her 1989 memoir Shelley Roman, numeral II, which is such a good and by good I mean terrible memoir name Shelley II, which, because it's not the first memoir, it's the second.
Marissa:It's the second memoir because you wanted more. I know you did.
Courtney:So Shelley II, the sequel um he's a cheap suit.
Marissa:A cheap suit, yeah, wow, yeah. No wonder she doesn't mention him in either of her.
Courtney:It might just it just might not have happened. Here's the thing. You'll see that he's an unreliable narrator it's not we, really most people. I don't believe. I don't believe him. I don't believe him this whole. I should say that now, like I put this together with a lot of research, that still doesn't mean that all of it is true. Honestly, some of it might not be true because, it's just full.
Courtney:The whole story of him is full of unreliable narrators, full. It's hard to pin down facts. This is all just spilling the tea. It's 100%. It's a gossip that I spent a long time researching as if it was like, I don't know, like journalism.
Marissa:Nothing but hard stories here, courtney, that's right.
Courtney:But she was indeed an older woman for Christopher, as she was cast as his mother in his breakout lead role in the rebellious 1960s musical wild in the streets, which we will get to, I assure you, because it is indeed wild and I watched it oh shit yes, and you can watch it too so he could a timeout christopher?
Marissa:no, he could a timeout, christopher? No. He could. I'm assuming he could draw paint, he could act and he could sing and dance.
Courtney:No, he was dubbed, as was the rest of the band.
Marissa:Okay, okay.
Courtney:So it was during this early chapter of Christopher's New York years that he met his future wife, susan Strasberg, daughter of famed method acting teacher, lee Strasberg, and an actress in her own right. Wow, susan was somewhat akin to theater royalty at the time, and it was actually Shelley Winters who introduced the two when Christopher saw Susan Shelley Winters Shelley Winters who introduced the two.
Marissa:When Christopher saw Susan, Shelly Winters, Shelly Winters was there. When Christopher saw Susan for the first time, Winters claimed that he said I'm gonna marry her, but according to Christopher, what he actually said was I'm gonna fuck her. Oh, so glad he set that record straight.
Courtney:Exactly. It's so good that he clarified that Either way, he did end up marrying her. So that did actually happen, whether he said it or not, right? Susan began to take notice of Christopher when he started observing a few acting studio classes at the actor's studio. But he really caught her attention when he and some fellow students of Frank Corsero, who was his acting teacher, stopped by Susan's family beach home on Fire Island. In Susan's book Bittersweet she writes there was a I can't be doing a Southern accent.
Marissa:She's not Southern.
Courtney:She's not Southern, not at all she's like New York Jewish, which I don't think her parents probably had more of that kind of accent.
Marissa:Right right, she was New York. What's a New York? I wasn't. I wasn't in New York. Well, no, there was a thunderstorm, she's, theater royalty she's.
Courtney:if anyone has a theater voice, it's Susan.
Marissa:Strasberg. In Susan's book titled Bittersweet, she writes there was a thunderstorm that night. It was terrifying, yet beautiful. She writes. Instead, he began to do a rhythmic erotic dance between the flashes of lightning. It was as if in the eye of the storm, he became the storm itself and like it, he appeared both beautiful and dangerous.
Courtney:She wanted to fuck him so much. So, bad, like he was gyrating in a storm, in a summer storm. I don't know why I feel so electric.
Marissa:There's so much the spark, the spark it's literally happening, literal, metaphorical yeah within me, without me.
Courtney:Yeah, so she was like it's on yes, and I have a lot of quotes from her book. So get ready, you're gonna have to read a lot on their first date. They rode the ferry, which lord as someone who originally went to school in staten island and had to ride that godforsaken ferry. That is not a romantic boat ride, it is like a waterlogged bus ride.
Marissa:But I digress. Susan says that on the ferry, christopher brushed against me and I felt as if I had been tattooed. That's hot. Oh, branded, that's really. She like felt that the tingly tingles down yonder.
Courtney:And, honestly, the way that she writes about the start of their relationship is so hot and well-written so we're just going to have Marissa read that, because I had to include it. I just feel like, for all the things we're going to hear about Christopher, you also have to know what draws people to him, especially people who have fallen in love with him. What draws people to him, especially people who have fallen in love with him.
Marissa:So yeah, later that afternoon the two of us walked from the Bowery uptown to my 84th Street apartment. After 20 blocks we were holding hands he temporarily as shy or as cautious as I was. After four miles we were arm in arm and by 81st Street my head was against his shoulder. I looked at Christopher's clear, clean profile. We were arm in arm and by 81st Street my head was against his shoulder. I looked at Christopher's clear, clean profile.
Courtney:He does have a very good profile. It's an excellent as established.
Marissa:Yes, excellent profile. I looked at Christopher's clear, clean profile. The setting sun filtering through the skyscrapers chiseled his high Indian cheekbones and I fucking knew it. Good God, cheekbones. Yes, sorry If Shelley, this isn't Shelley Winters. If Susan, if Susan says it Indian cheekbones.
Courtney:I don't know what that means. I don't?
Marissa:I think that's slightly racist.
Courtney:Probably, unless she thinks like Well, I guess she's probably saying I think what she means is I'm guessing, I'm guessing what she means is Native American Right, and that it's like, because there's definitely some cheekbones, yeah, so that's probably what she means.
Marissa:I looked at Christopher's clear, clean profile. The setting sun filtering through the skyscrapers chiseled his high Indian cheekbones and outlined in light the straight lines of his nose, the sensuous thrust of his lower lip. He's so beautiful, I thought, susan, I admonished myself. You don't want to wake up in the morning with someone who's prettier than you.
Courtney:But that's exactly what she did. That's exactly what she did. She definitely woke up with someone who's prettier than you, but that's exactly what she did. That's exactly what she did. She definitely woke up with someone who's pretty and continued to do so. But maybe it was the fact that he spilled about his AWOL, prison time and traumatic childhood on that fateful walk.
Marissa:Oh he vulnerability bombed her oh 100 percent.
Courtney:Or perhaps it was the way he fatefully walked with such star power. Oh my God, this is. This is so. It's like reading a romance novel.
Marissa:I know, goodness gracious. As he was talking, susan said I noticed the people we were passing on the street were reacting to him almost the same way they would have a movie star. They stared at him or did double takes. He walked with that ambling southern gait, a little defiant pelvis thrust forward, exuding energy, Sexual and sexual Big dick energy when you walk with your pelvis.
Courtney:I mean, that's what that is, that's a cowboy walk. That's right.
Marissa:A cowboy walk with Indian cheekbones, my goodness.
Courtney:Yeah, well, it was what.
Marissa:What a powerful combo. We reached my apartment and when he walked through the door, an unspoken commitment had been made the next two weeks we became inseparable, caught in the glow of our romance, hardly leaving the apartment Hot. Caught in the glow of our romance, hardly leaving the apartment. That, oh, those early days when you just get out of bed to take a shit and eat something.
Courtney:So I went hard on all that introduction stuff, because that's the fun part of the relationship you have to understand what pulled them together.
Marissa:Yeah, sexual magnetism.
Courtney:Yes, but there's a lot. That's not fun. So at first they were hot and heavy, lovey-dovey, love birds and then realities, yeah. But things. Things started to get weird, um, as christopher's paranoia and violent nature came more and more to the surface, or at least when susan began to notice it, because it seems to me like that was there from day one, like when they were having that romantic stroll where she was admiring the thrust of his pelvis.
Marissa:Susan had said to him I suspect you're much more of a rebel than I am, because yeah, go ahead.
Courtney:You read Marissa. Marissa doesn't know anything, but she's reading what I know.
Marissa:Yeah, I suspect you're much more of a rebel than I am, because she had a thing for bad boys and she was flirting. That's right. And instead of being like well funny, you should say that because I do bear a strong resemblance to the greatest rebel of them all, james dean. What christopher said was who told you let me get, wait, hold on, I gotta get back into. Who told you that. Has some bastard been telling you stories about me? Don't believe anything. You've heard. These new york intellectuals try to tear down anyone that can't control. They know I see through all their bullshit.
Courtney:their mothers are out to get me I think it's like these mothers are out to get me. The mothers are out to get me, the mothers, yeah these mothers are the mothers like the the. I think these mothers, I think it's these mothers like these new york intellectual these mothers.
Marissa:Yeah, I think it's like motherfuckers not actual mothers, because he hates his mother, that's what I was thinking.
Courtney:It's like a intellectual or like a freudian slip of some kind, but like he, I think he's trying to say motherfuckers.
Marissa:But like she quotes him as saying the mothers yeah, so OK, so OK. So, she quotes him as saying mothers a lot, a lot.
Courtney:Yeah, and speaking of the mother he hated, I need to mention that Christopher told Susan that after he found out his mother had died, he could barely sleep and would only sleep sitting up watching TV. And one of those sleepless nights the Cherry Orchard came on, in which Susan had starred, and he said she bore as Anya.
Marissa:Do we know? I don't know.
Courtney:I think she was a younger character. Yeah, yeah yeah, yeah, and he said she bore an uncanny resemblance to his mother.
Marissa:I couldn't believe it. Susan quotes him as saying I had this picture of my mother when she was smiling into a camera and, man, it was weird. Her face superimposed itself over yours. It was the same face. You looked just like her. She was small and dark, like you.
Courtney:Edible.
Marissa:It's edible. It's edible and gross. Yeah, so he had a.
Courtney:He had a vision of his mom's face super imposed on his future wife's face before he knew her, um, but before this is all before he knew. But anyways, early in their relationship christopher started taking susan to some wild groovy 60s parties sex parties, yeah, where I don't know if they were sex parties, but they were like drug parties for sure.
Marissa:Um well, where?
Courtney:there's drugs, there's right. Yeah, there's sex. So he introduced her to drugs like marijuana and lsd because susan was like she was a goodie. Yeah, she didn't do any of that. Um, until she met christopher. She was a goodie. Yeah, she didn't do any of that. Until she met Christopher. She was a goodie two-shoes who was attracted to the bad boy. That's right. In Christopher's interview with Pamela DeBar, she asked him about Susan's allegations of them taking a lot of drugs in her book Bittersweet and his response was she's lying like a dog.
Marissa:She just wanted to get in with the scene. She's so square, which is such a dirty hippie thing to say. Yeah, such a dirty hippie thing to say she's so square so square, stupid.
Courtney:What an insult I just want to give his side of the story regardless. After the sheen of new love had worn off a bit, christopher started to get abusive, and there's no other way to say it. The first instance susan mentions is one in which christopher was taking a nap and she had just gotten out of the bathtub and christopher confronted her, saying here I'll just, I'm just gonna rapid fire this um and christopher confronted her, saying who are you talking to on the phone while I was sleeping?
Courtney:and susan told him she wasn't talking. Talking to on the phone while I was sleeping. And Susan told him she wasn't talking to anyone on the phone, she had just been taking a bath. But he didn't believe her because, according to him, the tub looked dry. So he said I think you were talking to a guy. And when Susan tried to walk away, he slapped her so hard that a bruise began to immediately appear on her cheek.
Marissa:Jesus Christ, and then he backpedaled and said, of course, yeah, of course, the immediate backpedal. Let's hear it. Let's hear what you have to fucking say for yourself.
Marissa:You say you, you, you read it, you, you do it all right, all right, let's hear what you have to say for yourself. Christopher, did I hurt you? Let me see, suzy, I wouldn't hurt you. Let me see, susie, I wouldn't hurt you. You know that. And according to Susan, he ministered gently to her face yeah, yeah. So immediately he physically assaulted her and then immediately gaslighted her about it, saying he didn't do that and he would never do that right and she said he overwhelmed her with his tenderness and affection until somehow she wound up feeling sorry for him.
Courtney:Because she says, after all, he had had such a terrible childhood and had been, and I had been, so privileged, I felt as if I had failed him in some way. If I had loved him, he wouldn't have hit me.
Marissa:That's, first of all, classic manipulation tactics from an abuser. Yeah, and that is I mean. It's terrible.
Courtney:It's terrible, yeah it happens all the time.
Marissa:Right, people fall for it all the time. Yeah, exactly, oh God, I feel so awful for her, yeah.
Courtney:So, as you can imagine, their relationship continued in this way. Christopher got violently jealous and took it out on Susan violently, and while his jealousy, according to her, seemed to stem from unfounded concerns about other men, it's also possible that he was jealous of Susan's career at the time, and that's just my own speculation. Okay, honestly, especially when they were living in New York, she was working much more than him and he hadn't really found his success.
Marissa:yet, as to be expected, she was already established.
Courtney:She was a nepo baby pretty much A hundred percent yeah, and grew up with that training. Grew up with those connections. Of course, she grew up.
Marissa:Her father was Lee Strasberg, for Christ's sake, exactly.
Courtney:How can?
Marissa:you not be a great actress if you have training from the cradle Right?
Courtney:But there's definitely instances of him trying to get Lee Strasberg to be a father figure to him. He tries to like engage him in these big intellectual discussions.
Marissa:And Lee Strasberg.
Courtney:He just doesn't take the bait like ever, Because he saw right through him. Yes, and so there's definitely this unrequited love that he has with her father. That probably complicated, it's just yeah.
Marissa:And that's a through line. He probably never felt like he got the respect from her father that he deserved.
Courtney:No, but he didn't Quote unquote deserved and he didn't get respect from his own father.
Marissa:So it was all on poor Susan's shoulders.
Courtney:Yes, it was all on Porce's shoulders. She was working more than he was, of course. Either way, he was a nightmare for her and quite abusive. How long, how long were they together?
Marissa:This is just while they were dating too. They weren't married yet.
Courtney:So the abuse started before the abuse started, pretty early I mean she's talking about like I don't know the exact timeline of the abuse, but it's like she's talking about like I don't know the exact timeline of the abuse, but it's like she's saying like everything was great for two weeks. We went to parties, so I don't know, I'm guessing everything was great for a maximum of two months before all of this started. That's just the way it sounds from the way she's writing it. But again, timeline in general with this is a little tricky until you can pin it down with like specific films and stuff, and even then it gets really crazy. Okay, so, um, but basically the abuse started before.
Marissa:Yeah, the marriage, oh, 100%, it did. Yes, which is that can? Yes, it would only get worse after marriage, I'm sure okay so just buckle up, oh god, all right.
Courtney:So she lists many alarming instances in her book. Okay, saying that he wrecked his motorcycle with her on the back somehow they were both unscathed played russian roulette in front of her, and quote I'm assuming not the vegas russian roulette no, no, he had, like you know, a bullet, one in a cartridge and, yes, and he quote, ignored her protests and took possession of her body. So rape, rape, and I apologize now that I picked such a complicated tombstone. Don't worry, by the way, I will insert a trigger warning.
Marissa:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Courtney:I didn't give you the benefit of a trigger.
Marissa:Thank you. Well, I you know I signed up for this. I did sign up for this knowing full well that this would likely happen.
Courtney:Yeah, yeah yeah, he also, in some sort of fucked up trust exercise, shot a piece of furniture right behind her and let her believe he was shooting her. Following up with you have to learn to trust me, although, according to Christopher, he did not realize the gun was loaded and accidentally shot the piece of furniture next to her.
Marissa:What the fuck yeah.
Courtney:I know that this is her. You know word against his in a lot of ways, but it was brought up in the interview, the one I keep mentioning, with Pamela DeBar. I don't think he denies that much, because she asked him about it. The shooting of the furniture.
Courtney:She asked him about in the shooting of the furniture. She asked him about in general her allegations about you know the abuse, yes, the abuse, and yes, what she says in the book. She asked him about her book and he says, quote, he hit her a few times but he wouldn't hit a woman. Now, oh, that's great to know Wow. And that he did not feel betrayed by her book because he expected it.
Courtney:So that to me is like yeah, it happened, you know, and all of this is awful. Obviously listeners are. If you are with a man like this runaway, you know, and please know that by shining light on his story and tombstone, I am not trying to excuse his behaviors. They are. There are likable dead people and unlikable dead people, as we've said, and Chris ain't no baron.
Marissa:He is no baron and we hate Christopher. Right right now, and you know in the show notes, we will post resources.
Courtney:If you're in trouble or need help. Yeah, after living in New York for a bit, christopher and Susan had moved to Los Angeles, where he had got his big break playing the titular character in the television series the Legend of Jesse James. The show only lasted one season, but it did solidify him as a pretty-faced star who received lots of fan mail from teen girls and proved his bankability. The year was 1965, and Susan and Chris had moved into a house in Laurel Canyon that was rumored to be haunted Let me tell you something about to be haunted.
Marissa:Let me tell you something about Laurel Canyon.
Courtney:Let me tell you something about Laurel Canyon. It's haunted.
Marissa:It is haunted as hell. Laurel Canyon, laurel Canyon.
Courtney:Are the houses cheaper because of this?
Marissa:Not at all. Not one bit there is. You have to be a special soul to live in the canyon, for sure.
Courtney:Yeah, it's like Neil Young territory.
Marissa:It is, yeah, there's it's. It's a very storied place with you know. Artists have always lived in.
Courtney:Laurel.
Marissa:Canyon in one way or another. Visual artists, actors, directors, you know music there's a lot of music stuff going up there too. So yeah, this checks out. This makes sense. Yes, this makes sense.
Courtney:Okay. So it was rumored to be haunted, and Christopher not only really believed that it was haunted, Of course, of course he did. Yeah, he told Susan that he was having a love affair with the ghost Stop it. Telling Susan Stop it. You can read this part, my God, what did he tell Susan?
Marissa:Okay. So he told Susan that he was having a love affair with the ghost, telling Susan she adores me, she can't stand you, she's jealous.
Courtney:She told me to get rid of you the fuck yeah, the paranoia of all of that and the ghost in our house told me to murder you and also just like, hey, I'm hearing voices of a person who's not here, right, and we're having, like it's crazy, it's crazy.
Marissa:Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes yes.
Courtney:Yes, I forgot.
Marissa:they haven't even married yet they were not even married. Yet she legally bound herself to this man, yep, after he told her, after he moved her into the canyon.
Courtney:Gentlemen, a pretty face gets you farther than you think. Not because their relationship was working in any way at all, by the way, but because Susan got pregnant.
Marissa:Oh, baby trapped her. Yeah, baby trapped her.
Courtney:With their daughter, jennifer. Okay, so Jennifer was born with health problems, namely a cleft palate and a severe heart murmur, which Susan had feared were the result of the fact that she had taken a lot of drugs in the years prior to getting pregnant. But this is likely not the case.
Marissa:That's not how that works, yeah.
Courtney:Jennifer did grow into a. Do your drugs before you get pregnant? But this is likely not the case. That's not how that works.
Marissa:Jennifer did grow into a healthy adult. Do your drugs before you get pregnant.
Courtney:That's right.
Marissa:Get it out of your system.
Courtney:Get it out of your system.
Marissa:So it's not in your system. That's right.
Courtney:Yes, Jennifer did grow into a healthy adult and Christopher did seem to show love and concern for her as a father, which I do want to mention. Susan recounts that it was Chris who had noticed that Jennifer was aspirating in the intensive care ward Back then. It was like the typical image you see in movies where all of the babies are in this room with glass you know, between you and the.
Marissa:Yeah, all of the bassinets in a row?
Courtney:Yes, so he's like on the other side of the glass she's not there and he sees her aspirating.
Marissa:Wow, so he saves her.
Courtney:Yeah, and that happened to my daughter at home. The aspiration thing and it's. It is really scary. So I this stood out to me for that reason. And after she was treated, after he called it to somebody's attention hey look, my kid is not able to breathe she was treated and he just like went Susan didn't even know what was happening and he like rushed her and the baby out of the hospital. He just like got him up out of there because he was like they're trying to kill her, which I mean he was extreme with his shit, but I get it yeah, I mean if when you're you don't feel like you're being taken care of in a hospital, it feels more like a prison.
Courtney:But Susan and Christopher's relationship was not one to be salvaged by a baby.
Marissa:Oh yeah, the baby bandaid didn't work. Now, surprise, surprise Now with this mess.
Courtney:Susan had tried to get him to go to therapy but like many men, especially at the time, chris had refused. As Susan recounts in Bittersweet, chris had responded by saying we can work out our problems alone.
Marissa:He said. Doctors are the sickest people around. They live up in their heads. They don't know anything about real life. This is different, christopher. Why don't you come with me and talk to the doctor? If we went together, it would be better. They'd just try to destroy me. We wouldn't have any problems if you'd accept the fact that you're only a woman. And let me be the man of the house. I'm the strong one.
Courtney:And the misogyny we spoke of before does pop its head up again and again, again, again, again again. This is all from Susan's book. So no surprise, they got divorced in 1968.
Marissa:So how long did the marriage last?
Courtney:That was so they got well, they got married in 1965. Okay, I believe so, yeah, 1968.
Marissa:So a few years, god. Not a moment too soon, susan?
Courtney:no a few moments too late, really. Yeah, um, okay. So they got divorced in 1968, but not before co-starring in a film called chubasco that no one remembers.
Marissa:Nobody remembers this movie because um people wanted to actively forget it because it was so bad no, it's just just listen to the premise okay like.
Courtney:It's about a young rebel, obviously played by christopher johns, who secretly marries the daughter of the portuguese tuna boat captain he works for in san diego. That's the whole log line, that's it that's it I'm not. I don't want to see that movie. You know what I mean my goodness no it sounds boring as fuck. I didn't see the movie. Okay, I didn't because that I didn't want to, but this is way to do your research there's too many damn movies.
Courtney:come on, I watched, listen. I watched wildness streets and we're going to talk about it. But like, okay, so this is Chubasco. That's Susan Strasberg, gorgeous Puta. You can go home now, because he's Portuguese but has no accent.
Marissa:But not clearly white. Yeah, and she's a.
Courtney:Jewish girl from New York. This is very rebel without a cause. I see the James Dean thing.
Marissa:Yes, yes, thank you Because, like there's a whole it's like Without a Cause. I see the James Dean thing. Yes, yes, Thank you.
Courtney:Because there's a whole. It's like in a jail. I was wrong I was wrong it literally looks like it actually looks like a scene out of Rebel Without a Cause.
Marissa:Yes, it's like did they use the same costumer, set designer, everything, everything, yes, wow.
Courtney:Right. And he's like fighting with her father, which feels I don't know appropriate wait. I want to hear him talk, does he? He does like, but you know what a lot of he got dubbed. A lot he got. We'll get there we'll get there.
Christopher Jones:He got dubbed a lot okay.
Courtney:Casting susan and chris together in the film was not the original plan but more of a backup plan because, you see, susan had received an urgent call from the director who had said uh, susan christopher is acting a little rambunctious with the girls we've been testing.
Marissa:He bit the last one when he kissed her. What we were thinking was would you like to play the part, instead of recasting the motherfucker who was biting these poor actresses who were just going in to audition for a fucking part? Are you fucking kidding me?
Courtney:warner brothers. There's a lot where I'm like what?
Marissa:the fuck, listen, listen.
Courtney:Your husband is abusing um these actresses could you come in and take the abuse?
Christopher Jones:Yeah, could you come in you know, how he?
Marissa:gets. Can you just come in and let him.
Courtney:You're used to his love bites, right? Okay, so all it took to break them up after that film was one last jealous outburst from Christopher, and Susan was out of there. She had complicated feelings about it until she learned that it was Christopher who had been with with another woman the night before I had never been jealous.
Marissa:She recounts. I always sensed my real competition was his love for his own pain, so now I felt free to go.
Courtney:That's heartbreaking, yeah it's like she is a really smart person and and you can tell honestly just by her level of empathy that she's a good actor like she, yes empathizes so much with him that it it actually hurts herself. But she can see his humanity the class to a fault, right?
Marissa:classic like what is it uh um, lighting yourself on fire to keep others warm. Martyr yes.
Courtney:Yeah, so they divorced and let's yeah Good job, Susan, you got out.
Marissa:Good job Susan, you got out Susan.
Courtney:And while his relationship was kaput, Christopher's career was reaching its highest heights.
Marissa:As I mentioned. Oh, did that movie really just put him over the top, Honestly?
Courtney:everything Chubasco it was. It was, I mean, the legend of Jesse James, I think and this is he always. He very much did have the James Dean thing of playing the rebel. Right.
Courtney:So he was seen as like a counterculture figure. He was seen as this bad boy and he was getting all this fan mail from girls from the very first time he got any kind of Everything was feeding into it. Everything was feeding into it. So it's like he was bankable 100 percent. There's no denying that he actually he was Interest in these films was because of his fucking face, his physicality his pretty, his damn cheekbones.
Courtney:Yes, as I mentioned a little earlier, he starred in a super bizarre musical called Wild in the Streets, which I watched in full, because you can watch it for free on YouTube.
Marissa:You're welcome.
Courtney:You're welcome everyone.
Marissa:Or we're sorry.
Courtney:Yeah, it was no, listen, it's a teen exploitation pic that satirically pits the counterculture who we, as I just said. Christopher is against the man by championing a cool 60s rocker named Max Frost, played by Jones, who wants to lower the voting age to 14.
Marissa:Honestly.
Courtney:Sure, sure, sure, and Max gained so much political momentum from the plentiful young punks in his boomer base, which were the youth at the time.
Marissa:Yeah, I have to clarify Wow, the boomers. The boomers were the youths, the boomers were the youths.
Courtney:It's a weird thing to like wrap your mind around, but that's what was going on. So he gets so much momentum behind this, this base of boomers who were, you know, 52% of the population or whatever that he becomes president of the United States. And and it's good. Just listen to this, oh God, because if Chubasco is a movie I didn't want to watch, this is the movie Obviously I watched. Right, right. So and he makes how could you not? I mean, truly, it's insane. So and he makes retirement at age 30 mandatory. Honestly, not mad about it, that's fine.
Marissa:I would love to have already retired Totally.
Courtney:And puts anyone. This is the part you won't love and puts anyone over 35 in concentration camps with LSD spiked water.
Marissa:Live the rest of my days, just high, just high, but like out of your mind.
Courtney:Hallucinating. Like hallucinating and like seeing monsters. Oh my gosh, this movie is crazy. This movie is crazy. First of all, let me just play a scene where you can see him like moving his hips and doing his thing, All right.
Christopher Jones:The 52 percent. 52 percent of America is under 25 years old. The rest of them babies. They're the minority, we're the majority, we're the majority.
Courtney:Look at that ponytail.
Christopher Jones:Guys, he has a terrible ponytail attachment to his head. It's like a he's like, he's like. Is he dubbed here, apparently?
Courtney:Or is this a show? This is a show. She's like steaming her face. Hearing her son on tv? Yeah, and hot rollers, oh my god, so you can hear from the stupid lyrics of that and whatever that it's like.
Marissa:That's like yeah, we're 52, we can like take over everything and we can take over the world and you did you know later, when you were old and you weren't in a costume Like how could you not, with those tight pants, those cheekbones and that hot ponytail?
Courtney:The pony. Okay, the ponytail is like, he has just a normal. It's not even a mullet, he has a normal haircut with a ponytail, just like just slapped into the middle of his head, just attached to the back of his head. It's crazy, and Shelly Winters is unhinged.
Marissa:I will say it does. It does look like that's him singing.
Courtney:Maybe there's parts where you know, like, ok, the dubbing stuff again. I'm just going to say this truly like the things that I can find as facts, it's very hard to find sources about him where, like, the information is the same in everyone, right, so it's kind of choosing the most reliable of whatever people that were close to him. There's times I know he was dubbed and then there's other times where it's possible it's a rumor.
Marissa:He it definitely because matching they were not that good at matching back then, right, and that it does look like that was him singing and he doesn't have a terrible voice. It is passable.
Courtney:It's passable. This is also a clip I want to play. So he's been asked by this politician who's like, I think, 37, to try to who's like an old, to try to get everybody to get on board with lowering the voting age to 18, because at the time it wasn't. I think it was 21 for a while and then they lowered it to 18. That hadn't happened yet. Wow, that was the whole thing. They wanted to lower it to 18 and he is like, no, it's 14 because it's got to be, because these are my reasons.
Christopher Jones:So okay, they reasons. So Tell me, johnny Fergus.
Courtney:That's the politician.
Christopher Jones:Pretty groovy guy. Tell me he's a swinger. Tell me he's young. Johnny Fergus is 37 years old, Old. If he were in baseball he'd be all fagged out, baby.
Courtney:I don't know.
Christopher Jones:Now let's talk about chicks. You know that I have never met a chick who admitted to being 35. Unless maybe she was 75. Now let's get serious. Johnny Fergus is running on the platform that if you're old enough to die for your country, then you're old enough to vote, and I'm all for that. He wants to change the voting age to 18. 18. That's still playing sneaky Panther games. Sneaky Panther games. So, 60th.
Christopher Jones:The boy who does my income tax and I'm rich babies is 15. Look at the boy who does his income tax, johnny Fergus, you want to level with us? You want to join our club, baby? Then you give us the vote at 14. We're with you. I got a song I've been doing weird things with all day. I don't know if I know all the words or not, but let's see if he's dubbed here I'm going to try to sing it for you.
Courtney:Well, you can play guitar. Yeah, a little bit. I think he's dubbed here 14 or five. Yeah, I think this is dubbed yeah. Then they were like yeah, I feel rebellious.
Courtney:I want to rebel and vote so, um, I want to say that my father remembers seeing this movie and he said that he liked it and, as he recalls, there were some pretty good songs in it. I didn't really feel that way watching it, but my dad may have had a point, because the music in this film was written by songwriting duo Davey Allen and Cynthia Weil, who were responsible for actual hit songs like the Animals we Gotta Get Out of this Place and the. Righteous Brothers, you Lost that Loving Feeling.
Marissa:Wow. So they wrote the music and that's a bop.
Courtney:Yep, that's a bop, that's right. And there was a song called Shape of Things to Come from this movie that made it to number 22 on the Billboard charts. And you know, as we just discussed, even if the music was good, christopher and his band were not actually performing and they were dubbed by a band called David Allen and the Arrows. So Christopher gets no credit for that. He gets no credit for any songs that were good. Sorry, any of the songs, yeah. Also, richard Pryor is in this movie in one of his first performances. What, yeah here I'll show you Again. I'm going to have to cut this out a little bit, but here yeah, but I want to see it.
Courtney:Okay.
Christopher Jones:Fuji Ellie 14. Japanese typewriter heiress. And that's her introduction, and then she just massages him all the time. This Asian woman, you're groovy but you're outnumbered.
Courtney:Who the hell's in the majority man? That's Richard Pryor.
Christopher Jones:You read the papers, don't you? Yeah, I read the papers. This was like one of his very first. I know he's painfully young.
Marissa:He's such a baby. He doesn't have any facial hair. It's weird.
Courtney:You can see his upper lip. Yeah, it's bizarre. And then also this movie uses stock footage of real riots for the riot scenes in it and they're like this is the most crazy thing the youth has gotten together for to like fight for in quite a long time, and this movie was made in 1968. And it's like I'm pretty sure that the youth are fighting a lot more.
Marissa:Pretty sure, pretty sure, there's been a lot of marches.
Courtney:A lot of civil rights stuff happening. This is not the most important. This is crazy. So look it up on YouTube if you want to see this movie. The whole movie's there, no ads, just do it.
Marissa:Oh my God, no ads, just do it. Oh my God, no ads. What's yeah Wild in the streets, that's right Free on YouTube no ads. Check it out, you're welcome.
Courtney:So at this point in his career Christopher is gaining momentum and he goes on to star in a few more films in very quick succession. 1968 and 1969 were really his big years actually, so he did a lot in two years he was on fire.
Courtney:Yes, first there was Three in the Attic A Tale of Infidelity what a stretch, yep. Then there was the Looking Glass War, a spy thriller co-starring Anthony Hopkins. What he was? Kind of a big fucking deal, I telling you, based on a john lecar novel and brief season, a story of star-crossed love. These are all movies he did. My mind is blown right now yeah no, he was like a big deal.
Courtney:And during these years christopher went through his own series of star-crossed loves. He dated swedish actress pia desermark after his divorce from strasburg, who had been in the looking glass war and brief season with him, and he seriously dated actress olivia hussey, who you may know as the actress who played juliet in the 1968 film romeo and juliet, directed by franco zaffarelli. So she's the original juliet in film world. Oh my gosh. Um, but it was his and I'm gonna get back to her. But it was his performance in the looking glass war that caught the attention of director david lean. Now, lean was a pretty huge director at the time and actually is considered to be a huge director now, at least in a classic film kind of way he directed films that, yeah, are considered classics today, like dr zhivago and lawrence of arabia yeah, you can't get any more classic than that, yep
Courtney:david found christopher to be quite convincing as a brooding, hot-headed polish spy in his performance in looking glass war. He was especially convinced by his dark presence and accent work. This led him to cast Jones in his upcoming romantic period piece, ryan's Daughter, in which he needed Christopher to play a British officer. After he'd cast Jones and they were actively filming, he wondered why Christopher was not even attempting to do a British accent. It was then that he discovered that christopher's performance in the looking glass war had been dubbed. Some people don't believe that it was dubbed, but in I have a source that is pretty close to what source spill the tea.
Courtney:The sources, well, the sources. His co-star, sarah miles, and ryan's daughter, who was like just literally hearing what David Lean had to say, right, when Chris walked away. Right, he at least believed he was dubbed. He found this out later and was mad about it, and that at least he believed that.
Marissa:So he didn't have him audition for the role as a straight offer Yep and there is no. This is why you have to have a dialect code. This is why you have to have a dialect code. This is why you have to. First of all.
Christopher Jones:Yeah so.
Marissa:So, many.
Courtney:I mean I right now, ok, hold on a minute. I feel like OK.
Marissa:So I need to see. I need to see the looking glass, the looking glass, all right, ok, so this is Anthony Hopkins oh my God.
Courtney:Dark hahaired Anthony Hopkins.
Christopher Jones:Hey you, why do you head up? What's your name? You can't have my name. It's a breach of security. Look, you know I am risking my life for you, so I want a name. Give me a name, I don't care. Any name John, john, john.
Marissa:I don't know if he's dubbed?
Courtney:I don't think he's dubbed, it's just not a very good accent.
Marissa:No, he just sounds foreign.
Courtney:Yeah.
Christopher Jones:You got the kid.
Courtney:But David Lane believed he was dubbed Boy.
Christopher Jones:What's he good for?
Marissa:Good for walking in the park following dogs collecting junk. See, he's going in and out of the accent.
Courtney:You've got a wife, you've got a kid Right, so like, why would you have it dubbed by something else?
Christopher Jones:Will you tell me what the hell there is for me?
Marissa:Yeah, he's, that's not dubbed. He's, that's not dubbed. Mr Lean was Misinformed and he he just can't do accent work and he can't. Very well, yeah, I mean, I think he did like a semi, that's not.
Courtney:He was impressed by it. He was impressed by it, he was impressed by this bullshit.
Marissa:I'm sorry Like this is bad yeah.
Courtney:This is it's not good. It's not good.
Marissa:It's not good it's not good, it's not dubbed, because if it was dubbed, it would have been done.
Courtney:better it would have been done better and you can tell. Right, and I've read other people who have the same opinion. It's just for some reason with this particular thing, like it's hard to find out.
Courtney:Okay, so the director, because if he was, it was like done in secret.
Marissa:This is what it. The director, mr Lean, had too much of an ego to be like I was wrong about this guy and instead he had to be like this guy. It was a lie the whole time.
Courtney:Yeah, I mean I also think he really was hardly attempting a British accent, Like I can't even find easily scenes of him talking in Ryan's daughter, like in the trailer or anything. It's like they just don't really show him talking that much.
Marissa:Did they dub him in Ryanyan's daughter?
Courtney:yes, yes, they did, that's for sure. They did absolutely so you can tell and well, yeah, like, but okay, so, and they're, and the person's credited, I like know, yeah yeah right.
Courtney:So lean had vented his frustrations to robert mitchum, who was also acting in ryan's daughter. Um, he said I'm. Do you want to read this? I'll just say, yeah, I'm trapped in my own casting nightmare. He complained he's incapable of hitting the mark and smiling simultaneously. In the end, christopher's inability to do the accent. You know, that really is what led him to being dubbed again by Julian Holloway. So that did happen.
Marissa:Yeah.
Courtney:But Lean did have this to say about Christopher. He had this extraordinary quality of screen presence which I always find terribly difficult to describe or even to understand, and watching clips of Christopher, I have to say that I think that this is true. Yeah, and it is the scenes where he's not speaking and he's physical that he's the most captivating.
Marissa:No one said he didn't have a fine body, that he knew how to move right he knows how to move it, though, like he knows how to occupy space.
Courtney:He does have that and a lot of people struggle with that. So I mean he does have that. Uh, so sarah miles was the actress playing christopher's love interest in the film and she had this to say about jones she's brit.
Marissa:Oh, thank you, You're welcome. Christopher Jones was a lawn to himself. I like him a lot, although I think he was having personal problems at the time. Playing a leading part in a David Lean epic, that of an upper class English major, a shell-shocked First World War hero, no less, isn't the ideal thing to combine with being an American who has very little film experience and an identity crisis Oof she's, I mean so she was like, she was like it wasn't easy for him. He was having an identity crisis.
Courtney:Yeah, I think she's being fair. Yeah, that was very diplomatic of him. He was having an identity crisis. Yeah, I think she's being fair. Yeah, that was very diplomatic of her. It was so, according to Miles Jones, had requested to bring his Ferrari over to Ireland. I love that. Like this actually happened. Can you imagine making that request now, like honestly, if anyone did like yeah, you think people do like I have my own ferrari shipped to ireland, not, can you just like? Now it would be like can we just get you one here?
Marissa:I mean, I feel like if you're that much of a star and you can be that pushy yeah, I bet.
Courtney:I just don't think he was doing well enough in this movie for them to you know what I mean but he was regretting casting him and he's like, hey, can I?
Marissa:have my ferrari like he would have got fired yes so they bring it over to ireland, where the film was shot after shooting had began and he wrecked it because he didn't know how to drive it on the other, on the other side of the road.
Courtney:Well, I have theories about why, but yeah so um lean had obliged, and then said, in confidence hopefully he'll kill himself.
Courtney:Oh my god he was really not happy with the fact that he cast him um and christopher did not kill himself in it, but he did total the car, speeding down a dirt road, just as he had done with another car while filming brief season in italy, which was just like months before. He truly seemed to be so enamored with the lore of james dean's death that he wanted to claim it as his own, and I I say that because this is the third crash.
Marissa:He did the motorcycle crash with Susan, the car crash in Italy and now this one.
Courtney:Yeah, you read this. This is like. I think this is relevant here.
Marissa:So this is from Christopher. Sometimes I feel like a James Dean Avenger. Maybe I'm a continuation of the whole thing. He later said A piece of the puzzle's gone because Dean was too wild and had an accident. But he was the real thing. Most people are afraid to die and that's what makes you the real thing to die, and that's what makes you the real thing, whether you're afraid to die. But dean was something divine like no actor before or since. I'm fascinated with death, that kind of death he had a death wish he had a death, a fascination with a car crash, death.
Courtney:Yes, like to the point that he wanted it for himself. Well, I mean so I?
Marissa:just it, weirdly, you know, had he died that way while filming, while being with a famous director. We would have probably known who the fuck he was.
Courtney:Yeah, and this episode would not be as long or as confusing or as difficult to research, because his lost years were hard. Let me tell you.
Christopher Jones:But anyway we'll get yes.
Courtney:Okay, so let's adjourn for now, because there's so much more. There's so much more. I think we're going to pick back up part two in the middle of him filming Ryan's daughter. So we're going to get right back into that set, which honestly kind of makes sense, because I should say this that movie was had all these like weather problems and it was filmed in ireland and it took an entire year, so this is like a good it's of course we're still talking like there's a lot going on.
Courtney:It makes sense to pause in the middle of it because a lot of shit went down while he was filming a year-long film.
Marissa:yeah, yeah, well, ire Ireland's weather. Yeah, it's not famous for cooperating.
Courtney:Exactly so. We're going to come back to Christopher Jones.
Christopher Jones:If you guys are still with us.
Courtney:I hope I will say it's not like it gets more boring. There's a lot of stuff.
Marissa:This is fascinating. It's pretty fascinating, Right Like had he actually killed himself in a car on on this set for this famous movie director. We might have known who he was.
Courtney:Yeah, and I think people would be more sympathetic to some of his performances or whatever Like. I don't know a lot of things, but it's. It's interesting how that can color stuff. But, right, I can't wait for part two. Yeah, so we're going to come back to part two and and you guys are going to. You know you can't Wikipedia this, by the way, if you're trying to be like I don't want to listen to part two. I'm going to just look this up. How the sense?
Marissa:you can't, you can't.
Courtney:It took me forever to find things that I consider to be facts adjacent at the very best. So come back. There's some salacious tidbits. I'll wait for you in episode two, can't wait. All right, until then. You know, stay alive until next week, so that you don't end up on this podcast too soon. That was dark, sorry.
Marissa:Okay, Dead and Kind of Famous is written, researched and produced by Courtney Blomquist. It is co-hosted by Marissa Rivera. We tag team on socials. Jesse Russell and Courtney Blomquist do our editing.
Courtney:If we've piqued your curiosity, please subscribe on Substack at deadandkindoffamoussubstackcom. We list each episode there, along with photos, newsletters, sources and more. You can also find us wherever you get your podcasts. Until next time, you might not be famous, but you got a story to tell and you're not dead yet.
