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The women of California Split

posted 13 years ago by Scorpio_65
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After watching films from the '70s, I'm always intrigued to find out what ever happened to the lesser-known stars of each film. I was surprised to notice the fates of a few of the women in California Split:

Barbara Ruick (Reno barmaid), long married to composer John Williams, died in Reno on March 3, 1974, which would've had to have been not too long after her scenes were shot for this film. It then clued into me who "Barbara" was in the "For Barbara" title prior to the film credits.

There's also Barbara Colby (Bill's receptionist) who died from a homicide one year after this film was released.

In addition to all of this, there's also Ann Prentiss (who, interestingly enough, plays a character named Barbara) who died in 2010 after serving a jail sentence for threatening to kill her brother-in-law, actor/director Richard Benjamin.

It appears that most of the women in this film seemed cursed which sort of adds an eeriness to watching it now after discovering all of this information.

[–] johnnylightning76 12 years ago

Another seemingly cursed woman from California Split was Gwen Welles, who died from cancer at age 42 in the early 90's. There was a documentary about it.

Ann Prentiss had a very tragic life. So sad.

Didn't know about the Barbara deaths though. "For Barbara" makes sense now.

[–] CalvinJarrett (469) 8 months ago

Yes, Barbara Ruick died in her hotel room while the film was being shot. I thought she was excellent in her role as the bartender. It was such a natural performance, and she really had an understated beauty about her. It was though when you first see her, she's this middle-aged (or approaching middle age) Reno bartender in glasses. But then she smiles - and keeps smiling - clearly enjoying all of Gould and Segal's schtick. Chiming in every now and then (likely ad-libbing). And I felt 'this is a beautiful scene, and she is a beautiful actress.' If she had to die at such a young age, it was at least a decent swan song to the talent she possessed.