The award was bequeathed to Young’s daughter Jennifer by agent Marty Baum after years of fighting between the two over the ownership of the statue, which Young won for his part in They Shoot Horses Don’t They?
Jennifer Young asked Baum to give up the award in 1996, insisting the Oscar should rightly be in her possession – as she was Gig Young’s only child.
Baum, who obtained possession of the gong after his client’s 1978 suicide, claimed he has had a right to possess and display the Oscar in his office.
Young took legal action against her father’s agent and the matter was settled in 1997 when Baum agreed to bequeath the Oscar to Jennifer Young upon his death.
Baum died on 5 November (10).
Young tells WENN, “This Oscar is something I have been waiting for for nearly two decades… It also feels like it was my daddy’s wish for me to have his Oscar at this time. Marty said to me in our second meeting that I was at my father’s exact age when he walked through his doors and signed him on the spot! Marty and I got along very well. I was able to see him several times before he passed away.”
Jennifer Young is now working on a documentary and book about her famous father.
