No More Bad Vibes: Christopher Jones Part 2

Today, we return to the complex story of Christopher Jones and explore his final "lost years" after he turned his back on Hollywood in the height of his fame.  We unwind the tangled web of his life, from his alleged romance with Sharon Tate amidst Italian film sets, to his eerie ties with the infamous Cielo Drive. 

As we reflect on Jones' troubled final years, we ponder the profound impact of personal tragedies, such as the deaths of Sharon Tate and Jim Morrison, on his mental health and eventual withdrawal from public life. The missed chance to play Zed in "Pulp Fiction" adds another layer to his cryptic legacy. By examining his erratic later years through insights from Daryl Haney's "Death Valley Superstars," we uncover the complexities of living like a ghost in Hollywood. Join us as we follow Christopher Jones from the limelight into the shadows of obscurity on this final chapter of his saga.

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Chapters

• 0:00 Christopher Jones and Sharon Tate Affair
• 11:12 Olivia Hussey and Cielo Drive
• 25:22 Christopher Jones' Mysterious Disappearance
• 38:47 Christopher Jones' Shocking Revelations
• 44:28 Christopher Jones' Troubled Final Years
• 58:42 Christopher Jones' Complicated Legacy

Transcript

Christopher Jones and Sharon Tate Affair

Courtney 0:00

Hello, my not-yet-dead-or-famous fam. It's Courtney here again, and I do have to give you a trigger warning again, because we are talking about Christopher Jones again, which means that once again, we will be discussing rape and domestic violence. So I wanted you all to be aware before you continue to listen. And my goodness, don't some dead people really suck.

Marissa 0:45

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 0:54

And now reside permanently in the Hollywood Forever Cemetery.

Marissa 0:57

I'm Marissa Rivera and I know that when you cook rice it's one part rice, two parts water, and other than that I know nothing.

Courtney 1:06

And I'm Courtney Blomquist and I know nothing except about everything that we're going to talk about today. Today, we are talking about Christopher Jones again. Again, we are picking up where we left off.

Marissa 1:21

Part two. Part two baby.

Courtney 1:23

So if you did not listen to part one yet, it would behoove you to go back and listen to it now before listening to this episode. Of course you want the whole story, don't you?

Marissa 1:36

Don't you? Yes? So let's start where we left off. What did we leave off with in part one?

Courtney 1:46

start where we left off. Where. What, what did? What did we leave off with in part one? Uh, we left off with christopher jones crashing his ferrari in ireland while filming ryan's daughter. Uh, and we, we specifically left off with the fact that he has said that he, he, he, has a death wish. Essentially, he didn't say that exactly. Hold on, I you know what. Let's just let's reread this. He said sometimes I feel like james dean's avenger. Maybe I'm a continuation of the whole thing. 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 whether you're afraid to die. I'm fascinated with death, that kind of death.

Marissa 2:29

He had a death he had a james dean death wish.

Courtney 2:32

He wanted to die like james dean died exactly so that's where we left off, um, which is, you know, thrilling. What a great exit point for us. Really. It's such a cliffhanger I mean, maybe it's not. We told you he survived. It's not really a cliffhanger. We're still talking about him. I mean, he didn't survive long enough to not be on this podcast because he is dead now, Just not from that.

Marissa 2:58

So well, let's, let's continue on and see how he died for real. Let's continue on and see how he died.

Courtney 3:03

For real. So we were talking about his co-star, sarah Miles, british woman, who was like he's not that bad, she was just diplomatic.

Marissa 3:14

She was very diplomatic.

Courtney 3:15

I think she's like, and you know again, we talked about like his first wife being like this. But actors, I think are you, you know, especially female actors are very empathetic people who are maybe sometimes too forgiving. That's a little bit of a I. I would say it's a fatal flaw. I think of of many people, maybe not all, but right okay, I I agree with that. I'm not going to speak about everyone in that, in those terms, but I don't think it's that I mean at least for the.

Marissa 3:42

the women, the actresses in his life close to him had a lot of empathy and forgiveness for him, and it was like the 60s and 70s.

Courtney 3:53

Like just people well you know women were too understanding in general, so a lot of women were anyway, not Gloria Steinem, she wasn't. She said fuck that, that was her time too.

Courtney 4:09

But anyway.

Courtney 4:10

I digress, I digress, okay. So it's hard to parse out the exact timeline of Christopher's personal troubles with all the filming debacles of Ryan's daughter, but it was during the making of this film that Christopher learned of the death of Sharon Tate in the Manson family. Murders, okay, along with the rest of the world, yes, okay. So this hit Christopher especially hard because, according to him, why?

Marissa 4:39

Oh God, why.

Courtney 4:40

According to him, they'd had an affair when he was filming in Italy. He's filming Brief Season, which we've briefly discussed, and Sharon Tate was there filming the 13 Chairs, the last movie she filmed, which was released posthumously after her death. So now there wasn't really any other people who spoke about Sharon's relationship with Christopher. So it's is, yes, it is. He had lengthy shooting engagements in Ireland and Italy. I mean, that's what we're talking about right now. He did Like that was his arc, was pretty much in Europe, like his big peak movies were all filmed in Europe. So it must be nice, I know.

Marissa 5:39

Wow, to have a job. Take me to Europe for a year.

Courtney 5:44

He was in Ireland for a year and bring your Ferrari for you to freely crash in the style of James Dean.

Marissa 5:50

So, according to Christopher, he had an affair with Sharon Tate. Now, was this like a full on relationship or did they sleep together like once?

Courtney 6:00

First of all, I don't know if any of that above, I don't know if any of that happened. You know, he's, as we should now know. He is an unreliable narrator. So it's. This is all. Like I said, I'm trying to put facts in this, but it's very difficult sometimes. This is definitely one of those things, so I'm trying to get it from all sides.

Marissa 6:19

I feel like he like met her and he had a whole fantasy about sleeping with her and never actually did.

Courtney 6:25

That is very possible.

Marissa 6:26

And mourned the loss of the potential of the fantasy that he had.

Courtney 6:32

Yes, yeah, I mean it could be anything because okay, so he did meet her at the Chateau Marmont. A lot of people, that's something that somebody was, that happened all the time.

Marissa 6:43

Yeah, it happened all the time. Actors met each't all the time, met each other all the time. There's different at the Chateau.

Courtney 6:47

Yeah, Some people said they met in Italy, but like they didn't, they met at the Chateau Marmont, so that's one thing that is a fact. Other occasional neighbors at the Chateau Marmont while he was there included Jim Morrison and his longtime girlfriend Pamela Corson, and Corson had actually once propositioned Jones for sex in the hotel's parking garage in retaliation for one of Jim Morrison's flings, and a lot of people that track.

Marissa 7:15

Yeah, who corroborated this? She did.

Courtney 7:19

She didn't, but it basically like if it didn't happen, she did stuff like that all the time because there's a bunch of stories like her about that whenever.

Marissa 7:31

Jim Morrison would step out of line.

Courtney 7:33

She'd be like, well, if you're doing that, then I'm going to pick someone up in the parking lot if I want exactly so yeah, and it was the swinging, 60 swinging, alright, so yeah so. Exactly, so yeah, and it was the swinging 60s Swinging, swinging. All right, so yeah. So, fun fact, nothing ever happened at the Chateau between Jones and Tate, but once they were both in Rome, san's husband, which for her was Roman Polanski Jones, claims that she invited him up to her room, offered him a joint either marijuana or opium, depending on the source that you read.

Marissa 8:14

I'm not going to lie. I didn't even know you could make opium joints. I didn't know that was a thing.

Courtney 8:20

Maybe it's not Again.

Marissa 8:24

I'm going to Google it. I'm going to Google it. I'm going to Google it. Are opium, hey Siri.

Courtney 8:28

You can smoke opium.

Marissa 8:30

Are opium joints a thing?

Courtney 8:35

I found this on the web.

Courtney 8:39

Oh, she's not going to say it, she's just going to. Siri, read you lazy bitch siri oh my gosh, either way he's.

Courtney 8:51

What I mean to say is they either smoked opium or marijuana, depending on the source, depending on, honestly, the interview that jones gave uh, with different people saying different things. So, yes, jones claims that she invited him up to her room, offered him a joint either marijuana or opium, depending on the interview he was giving at the time and what he decided to say and an affair between them began. But this is not necessarily true, as I've said. For one thing, sharon hadn't made it known to anyone, even her sister, to whom she typically confided everything. Also, she was pregnant at the time, and Polanski and others have said that as soon as she learned a baby was on the way, she wouldn't touch a glass of wine, let alone casual drugs. There is apparently one account by an unnamed source in the trashy book, the Roman Polanski Story, that says and I've heard that it's trashy, I didn't read it, I've heard that it's just a lot of it's gossipy.

Courtney 9:50

It's. You know, it was written after.

Marissa 9:52

A lot of hearsay.

Courtney 9:52

Yeah, and it was written after his statutory rape situation. So it just was feeding off of a lot of buzz Right and stuff and it's, yes, yes, described as being trashy. So anyway, in that book it says that sharon had a retaliatory affair in italy, but no names are mentioned and it's a unnamed source who says that. Um, but of his alleged time with her, christopher said I loved being with her other women I've been with.

Marissa 10:22

I couldn't remember if my life depended on it, but she stuck in my mind.

Courtney 10:28

Oh okay, memorable, memorable lady I just also want to say I love that you're sticking with a southern accent and he does not have one he does not have one. He's like a, a burnt out hippie.

Marissa 10:41

That's like the mothers are out to get me, man, and you're like I'm a suave, sexy, southern gentleman, I love it it's our Christopher Jones yeah, it's who I want him to be he's like sitting here as a ghost being like that's not my fucking voice.

Courtney 10:57

I got rid of my southern accent so I could book more jobs. Yeah, because I hated my mother laughing, laughing laughing, laughing, laughing, laughing, laughing, laughing, laughing.

Olivia Hussey and Cielo Drive

Courtney 11:08

So, I could book more jobs. Yeah, because I hated my mother. All right, oh my God, all right. In any case, there is one for sure connection between Christopher and Sharon Jones. Manager Rudy Altabelli owned the infamous property on Cielo Drive where Tate was murdered. In fact, he'd been with Jones when he was filming Ryan's daughter and had to fly back to Los Angeles as soon as he learned of the murders because it was his property. Oh shit, yeah, so that's a real connection. Now, it was also during Ryan's daughter that Christopher had been dating Olivia Hussey, and she was also represented what a last name.

Courtney 11:46

Yep, what a last name, and she was also represented by Rudy Altabelli. Maybe that's how she and Christopher met, but I'm not entirely sure.

Marissa 11:57

Um but, anyway, he was the connective tissue, he was the connective tissue.

Courtney 12:01

So, reminder, olivia Hussey was the original Juliet, so she was, and that movie had like just come out. She was getting nominated for awards for it, so she's kind of a big deal.

Marissa 12:11

On the rise.

Courtney 12:12

Yes, and so he was very young. She was 18 at the time, so he's dating her and he was older than that, I think, like almost 30.

Courtney 12:20

So whatever yeah.

Courtney 12:23

But anyway. So he was dating her. She had wanted to get married but christopher said they should wait. It seems that they split up and she left ireland for los angeles and moved into the house on cielo drive after the murders had happened what I know it's crazy, it's.

Courtney 12:45

It's just crazy to me that anyone would be willing to live there after that. But according to her, the property was, quote the safest house in Hollywood, because there was a button that buzzed directly to the police and there were no bad vibes anywhere. What? How is that fucking possible?

Marissa 13:05

no, bad that listen. That has 18 year old all over it.

Courtney 13:11

She's like let me just walk inside with some sage and see if there's any bad vibes here. I feel some feelings and also is this free great?

Marissa 13:21

no bad bad vibes I don't know why she cared.

Courtney 13:24

I'm sure she was doing quite well. It does not make any sense. That's wild.

Marissa 13:29

It makes no sense. That's almost the craziest thing we've heard so far.

Courtney 13:32

I know it is this whole section is like what the fuck? What the fuck? So like, okay, also there was I don't think I even included this because it's so confusing to me. It like makes no sense. She was going to go live before Sharon Tate was murdered. She was planning on moving there anyway to help her with the baby, when she didn't know her at all and they had only spoken on the phone. Just because of the Rudy Altabelli connection, which I'm just like. It's not like she's an au pair, you know what I mean? She's a famous actress. Like like, why the fuck would she help a random person with her?

Marissa 14:06

it does again. 18 year old behavior. That is some 18 year old behavior if I ever saw it yeah, but but then okay.

Courtney 14:15

So she didn't know sharon tate, but she had spoken to her on the phone. She said she was very sweet, whatever, and then it's like you're going and living in the house where it's not like she didn't know her at all at all. You know what I mean? It just makes it it's. Maybe they had one of those like instinct connections and they were like you and me, yes, but even if they did, I wouldn't want to stay in the house you were murdered in well, this was before she was murdered, courtney well when she said she was gonna go, but then she did actually go live there.

Courtney 14:44

No, yeah, that's crazy. Yes, you know what I mean. It's crazy what the she said there weren't any bad vibes after the murder. Doubtful, yeah.

Marissa 14:54

How long did she live there?

Courtney 14:56

I don't know it's. There's not an answer for that. She taught hers is the one memoir I didn't read. It came out more recently, um, but yeah, so that's from her memoir though. Um, she said that she felt all she felt was sweetness for sharon and she never felt afraid.

Marissa 15:16

Yeah, but contrary, a big dis, a bit big deep breath on that one.

Courtney 15:21

I, I know, yeah, I. I just don't know why everyone in this time period was like, hey, that sounds fucked up, let's do it. But I know what's going on, sign me up yeah, and and all everyone her also just bad vibes detectors. We're all talking about people who were in christopher's life and he had a lot of I. I'm not even trying to completely throw him under the bus, but dude had some bad vibes. So anyone who's like I didn't feel it. You don't have a good bad vibes detector.

Marissa 15:52

Your detector is broken, sweetie.

Courtney 15:54

Yeah, yeah Again 18.

Marissa 15:55

Yes, not she hasn't developed her intuition.

Courtney 15:57

No no, her brains. What Till 25. Yeah, she's not done so. Ok, she's not done cooking. Nope, nope, nope. So, contrary to the fact that she said she didn't feel any bad vibes, she was never afraid she claims in her memoir, which is called the Girl on the Balcony, that Cielo Drive yes, of course she was Juliet. Because she was Juliet, the titles of these memoirs, oh my God, I don't know if I like, I don't know if that one or Shelley Roman, numeral 2 is better, because I do love that so much, wow, okay. So in her memoir, she says that Cielo Drive was also the location that Christopher get ready raped her after their relationship had come to an end, adding one more tale of horror to an already horrific place. Wow, she also says that the rape resulted in a pregnancy that she aborted. I'm sorry, I know this. This is a lot. We're like, just it's a lot oh god, god, that's awful I know, I know and again it's okay.

Courtney 17:09

So her book I don't know what's happened.

Marissa 17:10

Has this house been torn down? Is it? Does it still exist?

Courtney 17:14

do we know? I I feel like it probably has been torn down I wonder if she felt bad vibes after that. My goodness I'm looking it up. Okay, they wanted to rid the property of the stigma once and for all. So, yes, it was torn down I'm sure it was okay.

Courtney 17:30

Read the read the whole thing okay 150 cielo drive was torn down in 1994 and replaced by an 18 000 square foot mediterranean style spec villa bella, the. I hate that anyway. The 913 bathroom mega mansion was weintraub's attempt to rid the property of stigma once and for all. He even changed the address to 166 yellow drive for good measure, so I'm guessing weintraub was the new builder owner um wow yeah, so it's torn down, rebuilt as something completely different and given a completely different address.

Courtney 18:10

Yeah, but why would you also change it to one like 166, like everyone knows? Like, just get rid of double sixes if you're trying to like yeah, triple six is I guess the worst number, but still I would stay away from the number six. I would have chosen sevens, because that is a luckier number and feels more holy, because it rhymes with heaven, and that's just the way my brain works this yellow is spanish for sky.

Marissa 18:36

That's right, exactly it fits. It fits, you know what? If only, if only we were multi-million dollar developers.

Courtney 18:44

If only, if only we were multimillion dollar developers. If only, if only. I will say that Olivia Hussey's book came out after Chris's death and he is not here to defend himself, but after what happened with Susan Strasberg and what she had to say in her book, it isn't all that far it fits a pattern. It fits a pattern and it's not all that far fetched that something like this could have happened. Yeah, because, especially since he really didn't deny- what she said in her book At all.

Courtney 19:11

Yeah, except that he actually weirdly did deny that they did a lot of drugs, which I feel like is like the weirdest thing to deny, because it's like, of course you did a lot of drugs. Why are you lying about?

Marissa 19:19

this Right, it was the 60s.

Courtney 19:28

Maybe he doesn't remember. Maybe he did so many drugs he doesn't remember, maybe. But like that, people are like I saw you high out of your mind all the time. You know what I mean. Like what are you talking about? Anyway, in any case, back to Ryan's daughter. Christopher was in Ireland when he learned of the Manson murders and he was devastated by the news of Sharon's death. It caused him to check out in a major way during the filming of Ryan's Daughter, sarah Miles who we have discussed, wrote His co-star.

Courtney 19:48

Yes, his British co-star wrote extensively about her time working on Ryan's Daughter and she says that her love scene with Jones was meant to be the climax of the movie.

Marissa 19:58

Yeah, it was yeah, yeah.

Courtney 20:02

But according to her, it was its biggest disaster. As I mentioned, the film was shot in ireland and there were weather issues that led to a drawn-out production schedule and a need to transport the bluebells and moss of the wooded location of their love scene to the inside of a barn due to rain. Um and I have watched the clip of this movie which I can find for you to watch.

Marissa 20:27

Yeah, queue it up.

Courtney 20:28

So the scene from Ryan's Daughter that we're watching right now, they're, you know, on horseback Riding through beautiful bluebells and fields and Christopher looks very dashing on horseback, I must say he does and he's very. His hair is like kind of combed and well kept and he's supposed to be a British officer, he looks like a gentleman? Yes, he does, and he's wearing like a. How looks can be deceiving. Yes, yes, yes, oh, what an actor. He's just playing the part that isn't his real self Sure is Okay.

Courtney 21:16

so they put all of these beautiful flowers and all this stuff because they were supposed to have this love scene outside. They had to, like, put all of it in the barn.

Marissa 21:24

Right, they had to relocate all the foliage. Yes To film indoors because of the weather constraints Right.

Courtney 21:29

So it's like which is kind of like a precarious situation If you don't move quickly, everything's going to die. And that looked great, you know, Right.

Marissa 21:38

So so let's fast forward to the sex scene.

Courtney 21:41

Yes, so, christopher, I think it's just the very end of this. This is so long.

Marissa 21:46

They're literally riding around with silent sexual tension.

Courtney 21:51

Yeah that's the whole thing. And then now the horse is drinking. It's very picturesque and very beautiful, and now he's going to rip her shirt open. He's taking off her scarf Her red scarf and she's breathing heavily. Taking off her scarf, her red scarf, and she's breathing heavily.

Marissa 22:05

Oh, he just flung it away. He just flung away her scarf.

Courtney 22:08

Yep.

Marissa 22:09

Took off her jacket, button, button, button, and then she's like wait. Yeah, no, keep going he goes for her neck and then.

Courtney 22:20

Oh, titty, a titty, yep, titty out. So they're making out, they're making out they're making out they're you know, it's actually not.

Marissa 22:28

This is inside, yeah, wow.

Courtney 22:31

I know it's actually very seamless. They did a really good job. I think this is outside.

Courtney 22:36

Right, like they're cutting between things a little bit, but it's very seamless, and then they end up on the ground. So now they're going to the ground and here they're definitely inside here, so, but it just it cuts away at this point, but like. So this part, though, is actually important to note Like he looks I don't know if you wanted to judge his performance he's kind of like oh, I'm not, I'm unsure of myself, or like can I move forward with this? Or whatever?

Courtney 23:04

He's like a little bit hesitant tentative yeah tentative, but according to Sarah, that's because he was well. Well, let me just let's go through all of it.

Courtney 23:18

Basically, like this took many days to do this part, just the part where they're on their like, move to their knees, move to the ground. That was what was filmed in the barn, and it took multiple days, because that's when christopher decided to get difficult. He had just found out about sharon's death. He was completely impossible to work with at this point, so he totally checked out which is the perfect time to check out is during an intimacy scene. My goodness, an intimacy scene with fragile foliage that could easily die. That's been like, like all of this time.

Courtney 23:52

Oh, my God.

Courtney 23:54

And so he checked out and would not cooperate at all. He just stood there on set staring into space pretty much, and when Davidid lean, the director, frustrated, asked him why he was being so difficult, he, in christopher's own words, suddenly quote got religious and said he didn't work on sundays. While they were all already there everyone already showed up, everything was like oh my god, this is days of film too, so like film is really, oh my gosh, if you work in the industry at all, you know this was like a nightmare set.

Marissa 24:27

Yeah, like nightmare set. Nightmare scenario.

Courtney 24:29

Yeah, it's like too late for him to fire him.

Marissa 24:31

Yeah, way too late. They'd have to reshoot the entire movie. They're a year in at this point really, really bad.

Courtney 24:44

Um, and he continued to be difficult and uncooperative until sarah colluded with lean to drug him. What? Yes, that's a twist. Yep, I told you this is gonna get crazy, it's just really crazy what the fuck? They drugged him. Yes, this is why I just want to explain. It took me forever to work on this episode, because I was like, oh, he's mentioned in like these three different memoirs, that's probably like half a page. No, all of these crazy stories were in all of them.

Marissa 25:09

And I was like, oh well, okay, we're imagine, quote unquote, having to drug your co-worker so that they do their fucking job. I it's crazy.

Christopher Jones' Mysterious Disappearance

Courtney 25:20

Okay. So this is in her book. She talks about it. She never mentions what drug she gave him. I think she just refers to it as a tranquilizer of some kind Like a Xanax or something.

Marissa 25:28

Yeah, she doesn't say what it is Like calm the fuck down.

Courtney 25:31

I don't think she knew what it was. It was given to her. She was like this is all it was given to her to do it because she's like the nice one you know.

Marissa 25:40

Oh my gosh, and she was probably like here darling have a cuppa, yeah, and like it was laced with some Xanax.

Courtney 25:47

Well, he let her into his trailer because she knew, you know, like I said, she was nice, he was nice back to her, he was just being difficult, he wasn't like directly shitty to her, I think she just felt kind of she did talk about feeling like kind of unwanted and not sexually attractive and whatever just because it felt like they're showing up for this sex scene and he's like no, I don't want to do it, I can't get in the mood, even though he didn't say that it felt like that to her, which I can totally understand.

Marissa 26:14

Um a weird form of rejection it's so weird.

Courtney 26:17

It's like you're getting paid to be here.

Marissa 26:19

You're getting paid to be romantic with me and suddenly you can't work on Sundays and you don't want to touch me.

Courtney 26:27

Yeah it feels a lot like I can't. I can't with this woman, and she even asks him at some point, like like, is it me? And he's like no, like you know, like all, like I'm an angry, angsty teenager. No, it's not you. Angry, angsty teenager. No, it's not you. The one thing that she knew, though, was that Christopher was actually religious about was eating his goddamn cornflakes in the morning, so she gently knocked on his trailer door, acted as the devoted listener to his woes, and was able to sneak an unidentified barbiturator, tranquilizer of some kind into his sad soggy breakfast and the result was well, they got him to do the scene where they slept together, but unfortunately, the result was that christopher actually slept during it.

Courtney 27:15

We didn't get to that part they cut away during this clip that I found of this scene. But um, apparently, according to her, that's what happened, and on top of her and she had to squirm around underneath his lifeless, knocked out body to create the appearance of a satisfying sex scene and at one point. My god, yeah, at one point, like david lean was like can you try to do?

Courtney 27:44

and she's like I'm doing the best I can she literally has like a you know 200 pound man on top she's dead of dead weight she's got bernie from weekend of bernie's on top of her and she's like oh, you're such a good lover.

Marissa 28:00

Wow, what a great lay in this beautiful forest. Yeah so Well. Bravo to her for.

Courtney 28:09

Yeah, doing the most, yeah, and some people like this movie was generally did not do well at the time, but some people since think it's a beautiful movie. I mean it's beautifully shot.

Marissa 28:19

I'll say that it's very beautifully shot.

Courtney 28:26

So it's, and he's a very famous director, it can't be all bad, but I just think, yes, it was a nightmare set. It was a nightmare filming situation, not just because of him, but also because of the weather. I just think it was.

Marissa 28:32

Everyone was like done after this, yeah, everything was difficult yes I can't oh my god, I can't get over the fact that she had to act out a sex scene with a half asleep, no, a fully asleep.

Courtney 28:46

meat popsicle Like what the fuck to it too, like being like in his interview with pamela debar he talks about like this situation of him saying he got religious and whatever. So this isn't just her saying this, like he. He didn't say that they drugged him. I don't know if he even knows that that is in her book only, but I mean she said she did it, she admitted. Anyway, this was the last film christopher did until he reappeared once in a random 1996 film called Mad Dog Time, which was direct Yep, which no one remembers.

Marissa 29:28

I mean definitely not 1996, mad Dog Time.

Courtney 29:32

Yeah, and the reason he did it was because it was directed by his Wild in the Streets castmate, larry Bishop, who had played a member.

Marissa 29:39

So what did he do between what? If, what has he been doing?

Courtney 29:43

these are the last years the last years seriously yeah, so that's, that's it when was ryan's daughter filmed? 1969 yeah and then he didn't work again until 1996 yep, yep, so we know that he did not pass away until 2014. So what the hell was he doing from 1969 to 2014?

Marissa 30:08

Besides, Mad Dog Time. Okay, what is Mad Dog Time about?

Courtney 30:13

It's like a spy movie, like a heist spy movie.

Marissa 30:17

Did he play like a major part or was it like just a bit?

Courtney 30:21

I think it was was. No, I don't think he was. He was not the lead character no okay, um okay. Well, there are no small parts there. There are no small parts, um. So the one thing I can say well, I can say a lot actually, but, like generally, there seems to be a combination during these years of sculpting, painting a revolving door of women, children, drugs and undiagnosed mental illness that colored his final three and a half decades of life.

Marissa 30:48

So, just as a little just an exhausting 30 years to the end.

Courtney 30:53

Yeah, like, or just a muddy, confusing one Truly.

Marissa 30:58

So he has children.

Courtney 31:00

Yep, he does Multiple children. Yep, yep, he sure does. So we're gonna have fun with this, um, because we're gonna actually read part of this interview. I keep referencing, but, um, I keep, you know, I keep mentioning this this interview with ex groupie turns journalist pamela. She has a book that I haven't read but I would like like to. It's called I'm with a band and it's all like kind of how she started down this road, this like other version of herself, after being essentially like Penny Lane.

Courtney 31:30

Uh-huh Groupie.

Courtney 31:31

Yes, so now I need to clarify that the interview was one of, if not the only interview Christopher did after 1969. And it happened in 1996, 26 years later. So, truly like, everything about him up until this point was absolutely a rumor, absolutely like I think I saw him in the street, I think whatever, like he was just a rumor because, people are like I don't know what's going on.

Marissa 31:55

A ghost, a specter, yes truly Even alive.

Courtney 31:57

he was a ghost.

Marissa 31:58

My goodness.

Courtney 31:59

So the best part about this interview is that Pamela is adamant that she saw Christopher with her own eyes, barefoot, high and quote looking like he hadn't bathed in a month outside the psychedelic conspiracy in 1973.

Marissa 32:15

What is the psychedelic conspiracy?

Courtney 32:18

It was a head shop.

Marissa 32:21

So like a shop.

Courtney 32:22

Yeah, Like, yeah exactly.

Marissa 32:24

Sold.

Courtney 32:24

So OK, bongs and shit. So was he. Was he homeless at this point? Probably, at least partially like anyway, yeah, like a little bit, little bit like transient is what I would say. So she interrogates him about this in the interview at length, because she knows what she saw.

Marissa 32:48

Read this back and forth with me OK, you be Pamela, I be Chris, obviously.

Courtney 32:52

Yeah, so I'm Q You're A.

Marissa 32:54

OK.

Courtney 32:56

After you disappeared from sight, there were rumors you'd suffered a breakdown, were broke, homeless, living on the street, even working the streets.

Marissa 33:04

Fuck them. I don't care. You really don't care. I don't. All I want is a Lotus, a Ferrari or a Lamborghini.

Courtney 33:12

Don't you want to set the record straight?

Marissa 33:14

Yeah, right, set the record straight For who, for who?

Courtney 33:19

Chris, are you going to be candid with me about all these rumors If you tell me what you heard? Yeah, it's not just what I heard. I saw you in 1973 in front of the psychedelic conspiracy on the Sunset Strip and you were homeless. You had no shoes. You were talking to yourself.

Marissa 33:37

I had no shoes. That wasn't me.

Courtney 33:40

I saw you.

Marissa 33:41

This isn't a rumor, understand, give me a break I may have fucked around at times, but I was never on the street with no shoes, never. That was not me, that was john gott it was you we had met. Remember I don't know. I might have been going through a late hippie stage. It was very brief.

Courtney 34:02

It looked like you'd been doing it for quite a while. Were you living out of your car? I didn't even have a car. When you decided to drop out, was it a conscious decision?

Marissa 34:14

All I knew was I was alive and I made myself unavailable. I admit.

Courtney 34:21

I was living like.

Marissa 34:22

Tarzan a bit why David Lean had tried so hard to turn me into an English officer, which is the epitome of trained. So I went the opposite direction. I had to go to the total opposite extreme. Reverting back to Tarzan become totally primitive. Otherwise I'd have been like the guy I played in the movie If you had been under David Lean's iron fist for a year. He drove me crazy, man Trying to turn me into aristocracy. Trying to turn me into aristocracy. Trying to turn me into aristocracy, aristocracy I like, I like that.

Courtney 35:05

I like this pronunciation with this accent we're keeping it, we're keeping it.

Marissa 35:10

We're moving on he shall shock me for that part, but I don't know that.

Courtney 35:15

Later back in la I was mumbling and incoherent though you were, and it looked like you hadn't eaten, slept or bathed in a long time. I probably hadn't, and you were on something. It may have been acid speed.

Marissa 35:29

I wasn't high. I was flipped out on the agony and the ecstasy. Let me tell you, if you have two managers trying to rob you, an ex-wife driving you crazy and everybody's after your fucking money, I went through a Howard Hughes kind of thing.

Courtney 35:45

You're really telling me you did it on purpose.

Marissa 35:48

I did do it on purpose. I wanted to do nothing. The 1971 death of Jim Morrison really fucked me up more than anything else. What the fuck.

Courtney 35:57

I know.

Marissa 35:59

All these different deaths. He's like all these people's deaths really threw me for a loop, Okay.

Courtney 36:04

You and Jim Morrison had similar looks, you'd been friends. And then it says, pointing to his head, we were similar here and we kept going with the same chicks. How close were you with him?

Marissa 36:16

I felt empathy for him and I identified with what he was saying. The fact that he died that young really fucked me up. Anyway, pamela, you must have seen me on an off day I know it's so crazy okay, anyway, pam, you must see me on an off day.

Courtney 36:44

An off day. You hadn't had a bath for a month.

Marissa 36:47

Okay Well okay, maybe I was bumming. I look like the Curse of Cain, right? How do you know? Okay, well, jesus Christ, okay, okay. Okay, maybe I was bumming. I looked like the curse of Cain, right? How do you know? I'm not the curse of Cain. I went through my Cain phase, a vagabond on earth.

Courtney 37:23

How long did that period on the street last?

Marissa 37:26

Not that long A year maybe. Who knows why we go through that shit. Look at John Drew Barrymore. He's looking for a place to live right now. I had never gone through any of that. I was fascinated by going to the other side. I had to. I didn't mean to do it. It was something higher than me that made me do it. I had nothing to do with it. You think I wanted to do that like?

Courtney 37:53

he's not well no he's not well during this interview and we're talking about a time period.

Courtney 37:59

This we're talking about like three years after he filmed ryan's daughter or whatever, that she saw him and she's talking about that and he sounds very unwell then. But this interview he sounds really unwell too. He sounds absolute, like he's going back and forth with everything it sounds like. To be honest, I bet he was. My impression of this, anyway, is that it's somebody recounting a time period in their life when they were so fucked up on everything that it's like, well, this happened, but actually it was like this and whatever, and they don't even know they don't know, because they were out of their mind, because they were out of their mind.

Courtney 38:28

That's that's what's going on with him, in my opinion.

Marissa 38:31

That's what I'm hearing yeah, um, that's what I'm hearing, that's what, that's what I'm saying. Yeah, that's what right.

Christopher Jones' Shocking Revelations

Courtney 38:36

Christopher right that's why that's what christopher's saying that's why I wanted us to read that, because it's just like I can't summarize that at all. That's just fucking wild um. So he clearly like doesn't really want to talk about the stage in his life. I mean he's never talked about it before. This is the first interview he's done um in like 26 years. So pamela didn't let him off the hook, which I love. I loved that. She's like nope, I saw you. And then it's like yes, like you said, sharon Tate's death really messed him up. But then actually it was really Jim Morrison, who he didn't even really know but he had a lot of empathy for them for him because they fucked all the same women.

Courtney 39:13

Yeah, what the fuck the mental illness of it is just it's there it's clearly clear as day yes, so there were other revelations worth mentioning in this crazy interview as well. For one, christopher had fathered several other children after Jennifer, his daughter with Susan Strasberg, with various women, literally. In the interview, pamela asks how many children do you have? Seven or eight? How can you not know which it is?

Marissa 39:46

Well, one woman was pregnant and left town. I never saw her again.

Courtney 39:50

You fathered seven or eight children. By how many different women? Four or five.

Marissa 40:00

Like what Ay-yi-yi-yi-yi?

Courtney 40:02

First of all, first of all, first of all birth control number one number one birth control but also if you I mean if you don't know how many children you have like it then probably stop having them yeah okay. So I will say I thought that was so crazy and it is crazy, but I actually might understand his confusion. A little bit earlier in the interview he mentions his son, timothy cabot, who had murdered his mother a b-movie actress named susan Cabot with a barbell in 1986. And that's a whole fucked up tangent.

Courtney 40:48

Because I guess Susan wasn't mentally well and she had been giving Timothy, who had dwarfism, growth injections derived from cadavers that would make him grow, which is like Frankenenstein level.

Marissa 41:03

yeah, what the fuck? That very one could argue that that was self-defense it, and they did I yes.

Courtney 41:10

So he was ultimately charged with involuntary manslaughter due to cabot's compromised mental state and timothy's allegation that it was self-defense yeah, absolutely, um, originally I'm with timmy.

Marissa 41:21

I'm with timmy on this one.

Courtney 41:23

Yeah, I'm with timmy, yeah so originally he claimed that it was an intruder in a ninja mask who had killed his mother, because he didn't want to say he did. Obviously, um, and the reason christopher thought timothy was his son was because, basically, like susan had had told him that it was, he was an English officer and that he died. And he's like, see man, english officer that died Like that's me, because Ryan's daughter that's what he thought oh, my God so it's not even confirmed that Timothy's his actual son it's.

Courtney 41:56

he's not his son, because this is even crazier.

Marissa 41:59

Oh, my God.

Courtney 42:02

So, all that aside, it's believed that Timothy's father was King Hussein of Jordan and not Christopher Jones, Like, apparently, a DNA test proved that.

Marissa 42:17

Not an English gentleman at all, then Nope.

Courtney 42:22

And also like how did he Not an English gentleman at all then? No, oh my God.

Marissa 42:25

And also like how did he with the B-movie actors. This is why he didn't know how many kids he had.

Courtney 42:28

Yep, it is Timothy. Is the confusion, which is you know, fair actually?

Marissa 42:34

Well, okay.

Courtney 42:36

Jesus, so he had.

Marissa 42:39

Does he have any kind of relationship with any of his kids?

Courtney 42:42

Yeah, he did, OK so, that being said, he had seven children, that being confirmed. Let's say he had seven children total four boys Segan Tower, jeremy and Christopher, and three daughters, kalen, dellen and Jennifer.

Marissa 42:59

His first.

Courtney 43:01

Yes, jennifer was the first. So after strasburg he was with partnered with two other women during the lost years um which, yeah, lovingly referred to as the last years so there was carrie abernathy and paula mckenna and he had children with them. So those are the women. So he had children with, he said, four or five women, but it seems to be three three okay yeah, unless there's something I don't know which is very, very, very possible um so the debar interview speaking, we're back to just the crazy facts that got revealed in this um.

Courtney 43:41

The DeBar interview also featured Christopher alleging that his managers were trying to steal from him and sent him to a cult-like therapy group where he was treated like a sex slave. It also mentioned that Montgomery Clift wanted to sleep with him at one point and he turned him down, and that he was being considered for al pacino's part in the godfather. Oh yes, of course, right. So these are all things christopher said, and it's not possible to back any of them up um, if you can't the fact that christopher said them it.

Christopher Jones' Troubled Final Years

Courtney 44:18

Christopher said them. He said them in this interview. It is in print like yeah, that's, that's about all I can really say. So if if you're listening and you can tell me more, please by the way, with any of this, please tell me. I tried to find everything I could, and there's. You know, there's a lot, but there's also very limited things, so one wild little bit of trivia. That is true, however, is that Quentin Tarantino had been a fan of the Looking Glass War and had tried to get Christopher to play the part of Zed in Pulp Fiction. And if you don't remember who Zed is, he is the guy who rapes Ving Rhames and then gets his comeuppance when Rhames shoots him in the dick so that he'll slowly bleed out. Yeah, and Christopher did not take the part, but Tarantino remained zed's dead.

Courtney 45:06

I love that imagine if he had taken that part I know it's kind of like and instead he took this like just nothing part at the same year. That like didn't it was the same time, I feel like. Honestly I thought that the pamela debar interview was all I was going to find about the lost years of christopher jones because it was his final interview. But then I found this interesting book called death valley superstars, occasionally fatal, in Film Land, and it had an entire chapter about Jones. That started with the author, daryl Haney, attending Jones's funeral as someone who did not personally know him but who had been interested in writing about him when he learned of his death. So he was like I want to write about this guy. Oh, he just died. I'm going to go to his funeral because I can.

Courtney 45:51

Right, which was at Hollywood Forever Cemetery, of course, because that's where he's buried. So this was in 2014. Haney had already been researching Jones by the time he attended the funeral, and he knew enough to notice that the attending reverend delivered a eulogy that seemed to have been quilted together with facts culled from the Internet.

Marissa 46:10

That's what he said specifically which.

Courtney 46:13

I don't blame him, because it's hard to find information about this guy.

Marissa 46:15

that's real Right.

Courtney 46:17

And that there were holes in the accuracy of his words. But soon Haney was able to piece together Christopher's final years with a little more clarity. He had connected with a woman named Sherry Dodd who had also been at the funeral. He'd heard rumors that she was Jones's manager in his final years, but that's kind of a loose term because really she was a longtime friend, slash ex-girlfriend, and a very forgiving one at that. By her own account, Dodd had met Jones on July 4th 1973. Jones on July 4th 1973.

Courtney 46:50

He was in his self-described Tarzan phase, at this time wearing worn out shoes, with long scraggly hair. But she still recognized him because this 1973, it's not that many years since he was like big and then get this. He walked up to her when she was getting something out of her car in a dark Hollywood parking lot and asked for a hairbrush, because that's not weird at all. He also told her that his name was James and asked her to follow him into an alley, which she did oh my God, that's not smart, sherry.

Marissa 47:28

Sherry, come on. My God, that's not smart, sherry. Sherry, come on, sherry.

Courtney 47:31

And then he grabbed her and she pulled away, saying she needed to meet with friends. She's just casually like, oh, you just grabbed me in a dark alley. You know what I need? To meet with some friends Like this story. He asked where she lived and she actually told him that information, which is entirely insane, sherry, sherry.

Courtney 47:50

And then he said maybe I'll see you, because that's what you say after assaulting a stranger. What the fuck? So weeks later, no, a metal toy came flying through sherry's window and when she looked out the window she saw christopher jones looking up at her. He still was saying his name was james, and sherry thinks that the constant comparisons and his own obsession with james dean had become part of his quote madness and I would agree with that she's still like coming to my house. I can't um sherry where?

Marissa 48:27

where are your survival instincts, sherry?

Courtney 48:29

she does not have them.

Marissa 48:30

You're not an 18-year-old.

Courtney 48:32

No, this is like a woman. She's a grown-ass woman. This is a fully formed woman.

Marissa 48:37

Oh my God.

Courtney 48:38

But eventually he did admit his real identity, but not until he'd been living with Sherry for a few weeks, I don't know how, what.

Marissa 48:45

She just let him live, yeah.

Courtney 48:47

Yeah, yeah.

Marissa 48:48

She just took him in, took him in and I think I think like they don't.

Courtney 48:54

She didn't say she's. They had a relationship. Yeah, they did.

Marissa 49:00

You know he was a homosexual, that's good, I liked that.

Courtney 49:06

Thank you.

Marissa 49:14

By her own account, he was lucid some days and other days he'd awaken her by grabbing her face and threatening to tie her up. Oh my God, Sherry.

Courtney 49:18

He also would do naked swims in the koi pool of a local Japanese restaurant after hours. And walk home naked. Ever forgiving and naive sherry did kick him out when things got especially bad. The catalyst was when he broke her tv after watching the looking glass war on it and saying that he, quote, didn't like the way it was cut, so he broke a tv that wasn't.

Courtney 49:52

Oh my oh, sherry threw a tantrum, yep he's like didn't make me look good, my jawline looks better from the other side. Yeah, so sherry made him leave and subletted the apartment for a couple months. She was like I'm out of here, you're out of here, you can't you know yep, this space has bad vibes.

Marissa 50:10

I gotta go.

Courtney 50:11

Yep, yep, you are bad vibes, sir. I will say it because nobody else will. But when she was living there again after that couple months had passed, he snuck up on her from behind, covered her mouth, dragged her inside and pushed her onto the bed.

Marissa 50:32

She broke free and ran outside where a neighbor intervened and scared chris off.

Courtney 50:33

Oh my gosh, she was estranged from him for years, uh, namely the years in which he fathered six other children besides jennifer and went through at least two serious relationships with carrie abernathy and paula mckenna, which we've just discussed. So, so she was estranged from him until she caught up with him after learning of his whereabouts in a tabloid called the hollywood star okay you see, jones lived in an apartment building run by bill dakota, the publisher of the hollywood star.

Courtney 51:06

Dakota was infatuated with with Jones and regularly featured tidbits about him during the time he was his tenant in the Hollywood star, and apparently he featured such large tidbits that people knew exactly where he lived, because that's how Sherry found Wow.

Marissa 51:22

Yep.

Courtney 51:24

And at the time Sherry reconnected with Jones, she said that he was doing much better. But Dakota eventually had to evict Jones for not paying his rent, you know sure, and also filling with like what was he? What was he doing to make any money? What was he doing? How was he?

Marissa 51:42

surviving. Like what was he working?

Courtney 51:44

All I'm hearing is like sculpting and painting and wandering the streets and like I just feel like he was, like you said, a hobosexual. I just I think that's accurate he was like shacking up with different women and like he was kind of using he used women a lot right, so that he was just like a leech a little bit during, a lot, a lot bit during this time professional homosexual.

Courtney 52:06

Yes, so, um, so yeah, dakota had to evict him for not paying his rent, which makes sense. But also another reason he, you know, evicted him was because he had filled the apartment with wild snakes and birds that he had captured and, quote, freed in his living space, apparently there was bird shit all over the walls and a snake had slithered down Jones bath drain and wound up in another apartment. And like he even mentions the guy that wrote this, daryl Haney. Like he even mentions that, like this guy is tabloid, you know, dude, like should I even find him credible, but he was like, nevertheless I did find him credible, like, so I don't know if he questions that as him, as a source, you know, but like I don't know the guy, really he liked, he liked him a lot. I think even if he wasn't paying his rent he probably would have found a way to let him stay.

Marissa 52:58

But it's like you're if only for the story he was paying. He was paying him in stories. It's true. Tabloid Right.

Courtney 53:04

And, but then it's like a snake is crawling up from your drain.

Marissa 53:07

You know you gotta go. It's affecting the other tenants. Yeah, that was crossing the line.

Courtney 53:13

Yeah, and again the mental illness of it all the mental yeah.

Courtney 53:17

So sometime after this, christopher suffered an abdominal hemorrhage for unknown causes, though many suspect drugs and that nearly killed him. In fact, he was declared dead in the ambulance on the way to cedar sinai. He recovered in a hollywood rehabilitation facility called briar oak, which was on sunset, and at this point sherry reconnected with him once again and she said that he was doing much better and that all the bad vibes were gone. We got to call this episode bad vibes Bad vibes Part two bad vibes Yep, yep, yep, but they're gone.

Courtney 53:56

The hemorrhage had left him.

Marissa 53:57

Finally, the bad vibes are finally gone.

Courtney 54:00

Yep, that's what it took a near-death experience. But they're gone and rehab, yep. The hemorrhage left him with a permanent feeding tube for the rest of his days and Sherry stepped in to help him find doctors for corrective surgeries and deal with E True Hollywood's story, who were badgering him about doing interviews for an episode about him that he did not want to be a part of. I tried to find this episode. I couldn't. I know that it was made, but I couldn't find it.

Marissa 54:28

Hmm, but it was made, but I couldn't find it, hmm. So, but it was made without his cooperation.

Courtney 54:34

He just didn't want to be interviewed for it you know.

Marissa 54:37

So he didn't cooperate for it, right?

Courtney 54:39

But I think he did ask her to kind of like speak a little bit on his behalf, and I think that's like where she said she was his manager and whatever, just so that she could like, so she could speak for him yes, yeah, so she even let christopher live with her again some 17 or 18 sherry. This is some 17 or 18 years after the first time she made that mistake, and I mean compassion is one thing, but truly prioritize your safety.

Courtney 55:03

Woman like literally my goodness, during time, his kids were coming by regularly and things got a bit crowded, so he eventually lived with his ex, paula McKenna, in Seal Beach. However, he and Sherry remained friends and continued to stay in touch on the phone for years. One day he said he wasn't feeling well, and he soon found out he had gallbladder cancer, and it wasn't long until it claimed his life in 2014 at the age of 72.

Marissa 55:34

Now, that's a pretty dang long life.

Courtney 55:38

Yeah, it is for having gone through such a long Tarzan. That's yeah, that's a long life for having had such a long ass tarzan phase, for sure. Yeah, now I want to lay chris jones to rest by circling back to his funeral. Yes, according to daryl haney, the reverend was wrong about some things, but his eulogy also mentioned chris's softer side. For instance, christopher was fascinated by historical mysteries and the unknown he collected ancient much like you, courtney.

Marissa 56:18

Yes, we share something in common.

Courtney 56:21

What kindred spirits he collected ancient coins and statues of ancient deities. Those are not things that I do, but good for you. He read philosophy and poetry, enjoyed watching the History Channel, hiked in Griffith Park and loved his children.

Marissa 56:38

Hiked in Griffith Park. He probably lived there for a little bit.

Courtney 56:42

Right, yeah, probably saw some shit go down that night and he loved his children all seven or eight of them, I suppose at night, and he loved his children all seven or eight of them, I suppose. But he had wanted to be a good family man at this point in his life and have largely devoted his attentions to painting and sculpting, as well as his kids, and I think that's how his family would like to remember him. Many of his children and ex-wives or girlfriends were in attendance, and losing a father carries unique heaviness for anyone, and though I don't have personal accounts of their relationships with Chris, I'm sure the event of his death was significant for them in some way. Right, so yeah, so maybe Chris was right. That some things are better left unsaid, but his story was a hell of a ride regardless.

Marissa 57:26

A Ferrari ride.

Courtney 57:27

Hell yeah and so, oh, I struggled with this. If you want to pay your respects to Christopher, what offering do you give to this man? It's tough. Um what? What would you say?

Marissa 57:40

I have my. I would do uh a little Hot Wheels, ferrari.

Courtney 57:45

That's what I said, hell yeah, I said a Lamborghini, a Lotus or a Ferrari. Yeah, like Like a little one, because he said in his interview that that's all he ever wanted at one point. Yeah, and I would also say maybe, like I don't know, you could also maybe burn some sage, make sure there's no bad vibes.

Christopher Jones' Complicated Legacy

Courtney 58:01

No bad vibes, no bad vibes and also, just you know, in general, get rid of all those demons that followed him and many of those closest to him throughout his life. He's located in the holly cathedral mausoleum extension outside it's the outside mausoleum, like by the water, and he's very close to the baron. So if you're you're visiting the baron, you can say hi to christopher jones as well. We'll link to his find a grave in our show notes so you can find that out and, yeah, I guess that's where we'll leave it. Thank you, christopher Jones, for at the very least being interesting. Wow, that's, that's everything. That's everything I could find. I would love to know your takeaways from this, like what you expected going in and where you're at now. Like what are your feelings? It's a lot, it's a lot.

Marissa 58:57

Well, I had zero expectations going in, as I always do, right Honestly, I was expecting him to get into legal trouble. I was expecting him to get into legal trouble, but I didn't. I most definitely did not expect him to just like disappear, you know, at basically the height of his career, just completely like.

Courtney 59:23

And then blame, like Sharon Tate and Jim Morrison's deaths, like as the thing that messed him up the catalyst for I mean, but it's like something clearly messed him up, like that's the part to me that's the most credible part of him having had a relationship with Sharon Tate if he had one is like something was significant enough to rattle him.

Marissa 59:45

You know, and I mean obviously the Manson murders rattled a lot of people in LA or not Like a lot of times a death can bring on an episode. So that, whether the death is like he, perceived it as something very personal.

Courtney 1:00:26

Yeah, and it was, he had at least a connection to her too. Yeah, like it was very real. His manager was like I've got to go deal with this. Yeah, and it was, he had at least a connection to her too. Yeah, like it was very real. His manager was like I've got to go deal with this.

Marissa 1:00:33

Right Honestly surprised that he lived for as long as he did.

Courtney 1:00:38

That's what I think, too, yeah.

Marissa 1:00:39

Yeah, I'm very surprised that he lived until he was 72. I was not expecting that at all. I was expecting, I mean, perhaps he just couldn't afford a ferrari, so he couldn't go out that way at that point, yeah, at that point.

Courtney 1:00:57

So I, but I was fully expecting him to go out in a blaze of glory, I know I actually, and I really do think that he probably would have preferred that actually, you know, to cancer well, not even just to cancer, but to like to anything, to all of those years of just such, like, like, such. They're truly lost years they're just like so confusing he hardly remembers them well like they're. It's he was. He was already like. Like jesse said, from the beginning he was living like a ghost.

Courtney 1:01:31

Yeah, he was living like a ghost.

Courtney 1:01:33

So he was. He was a ghost long before he died, I think. And it, yeah, like I just I don't know it's I feel, I feel for him on that level. It's because I feel for him on the mental illness level and on the just you know that I just don't think that's any way to live. I mean, yes, like you said, cancer is a terrible way to go, but at the same time so is just like slowly disappearing. It's actually like more painful.

Marissa 1:02:01

That's like terrifying. Yeah, yeah, that's a terrifying life.

Courtney 1:02:07

So it's like but a lot of people I I don't know. I mean, I think he, he clearly made his mark. He's like he had a moment quentin tarantino wanted to cast him.

Marissa 1:02:19

Yeah, offered him yeah, as like honestly and and and.

Courtney 1:02:25

like I said, I have some empathy for him obviously, but like also he kind of deserved to be shot in the dick, so it would have been kind of cathartic to see him in that role.

Marissa 1:02:34

I kind of wish I would have been able to see that.

Courtney 1:02:37

Yeah, and rewatched it now after doing this whole thing.

Marissa 1:02:42

But imagine him having. He would have been so insufferable.

Courtney 1:02:45

Mm-hmm.

Marissa 1:02:46

I feel like he would have been so insufferable if he had done that role. Yeah, I mean it's what a and you know what I think about. I think I'm thinking of his life, and all I can think of is what a shame.

Courtney 1:03:00

Yeah.

Marissa 1:03:01

What a, what a goddamn shame.

Courtney 1:03:03

Yeah.

Courtney 1:03:04

Like it for a lot of different reasons.

Courtney 1:03:07

Yeah.

Courtney 1:03:07

But it's like I picture, you know, it's like it's that thing where you're walking down the street and you see, you see somebody who's schizophrenic or something. I think he was. But, you know what I mean. I'm just thinking about that, like where you're like, oh God, I wonder like how you know? It's like how do I help this person?

Courtney 1:03:24

How does how it's your story. How did you get here? How did?

Courtney 1:03:27

you get here Exactly and I feel like he was that person in some way for a lot of people for a long time who probably never even knew he was famous. I mean, you got to think by the time the 80s happened, at least. It's like, if he's wandering around like that, like there's plenty of people who are like that's just a crazy guy yeah.

Courtney 1:03:50

They don't know tarzan of griffith park, exactly like. So it's just, it's bizarre and it makes me wonder about some of the people that you see, you know on a daily basis here and what's what's really, what the real story is, you know if they too turned down a role from tarantino and decided to turn their back in the height of fame on their you know entire career.

Courtney 1:04:13

I don't know it's, it's wild, so wild. Thank you all for hanging in with this one. Um, again, I can't remind you enough there are good dead people and there are not so good dead people, and and we're gonna, we're not gonna just do good dead people, because no, we get to do complicated stories too that's right. That's right.

Marissa 1:04:34

Dead people are complicated too people are complicated, uh, so yes, thank you so much for for listening and hanging with us, and visit the show notes for any more information on where to find Christopher.

Courtney 1:04:49

Great.

Courtney 1:04:49

May you rest in peace. That's right. May you rest in peace and may all the bad vibes drift away. If we've piqued your curiosity, please subscribe on Substack at deadandkindoffamoussubstackcom. We list each episode there, along with photos, newsletters, sources and more.

Marissa 1:05:09

You can also find us wherever you get your podcasts 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 until next time.

Courtney 1:05:23

You might not be famous, but you got a story to tell and you're not dead yet.