The death of Richard Long’s first wife brought an end to his first marriage, and his own passing brought an end to his second marriage. His second marriage was the one that lasted the longest, since it lasted for more than ten years.
Richard Long met his future wife, Suzan Ball, on television before they ever met in person. She was the first of Richard Long’s three wives. Because she died away just 16 months after their wedding, Long and Ball were only married for a short period of time.
Mara Corday, herself an actress, became Long’s second wife when the actor rediscovered love and remarried. Despite the difficulty of their relationship, the couple managed to stay married until the actor’s death.
Santa Barbara, California served as the setting for the 1954 wedding of Long and Ball. One of the most heartwarming love tales ever told in Hollywood was about their wedding. Suzan, who had only one leg due to illness, kept stealing looks at herself in the mirror to admire how beautiful she looked in her white gown.
Because everyone had imagined Ball to come down the aisle needing crutches, the guests were taken aback by the unexpected sight. Despite this, she surprised expectations by walking down the aisle while utilizing a prosthetic limb. During that moment, she remarked:
“I always knew that I would get married without the assistance of crutches, although no one else did.”
Ball, who was heading down the aisle with her father by her side, had spent the previous week and a half practicing walking with her prosthetic limb before the wedding. Long, who appeared with Linda Evans and Barbara Stanwyck in the television series “The Big Valley,” first saw Ball in a film when he was stationed in Japan as part of his military service.
After moving back to the United States, he continued his acting career, and it was around this time that he finally had the chance to talk to Ball in person. After he gave a brief introduction of himself, the two of them immediately clicked.
The marriage between Long and Ball did not last very long; the couple was married for about 16 months. She lost her fight against lung cancer in 1955, when she was only 21 years old, and went away. A little over an hour after her passing, Long’s brother-in-law broke the devastating news to him. At the time of her passing, Long was engaged in the production of a film.
The Story of Richard Long’s Second Marriage to Actress Mara Corday Richard Long once again found love with actress Mara Corday, and in January of 1957, the two of them sealed the wedding. Corey, Valerie, and Gregory were the couple’s three children that they welcomed into the world. Long and Corday became parents to their four children while residing in San Fernando Valley in California.
Despite having three children together, the couple’s marriage was fraught with difficulties. After 16 separate stints of living apart, Corday filed for divorce from the actor in the year 1960. Reportedly, Corday had filed a case of a similar kind in 1959, but she eventually withdrew it when the pair was able to work out their problems and get back together.
During an interview, Corday spoke about her tumultuous marriage to Long and said that whenever she tried to end the relationship with him, he would go down on his knees and beg for forgiveness, at which point she would forgive him and give him another opportunity. Corday made this revelation while recalling the difficult times in their marriage.
Corday’s acting career came to a halt once she tied the knot with her husband. She divulged the fact that Long couldn’t bear it when she worked in the entertainment industry, and that at one point, when she obtained a guest part alongside Long, he refused to take it.
Long and Corday stayed married until his death in 1974, despite the turbulent nature of their relationship throughout their marriage. After Long’s passing, Corday looked for a way to communicate with him via a medium in order to get some kind of closure.