In Memoriam: Entertainment Industry Celebrity Deaths

[Kromm]

Famous people from our TVs who have passed on.  Talk about them here.

-----------------------------------

Today...

April 6, 2014:  R.I.P. John Pinette - http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/wireStory/comedian-john-pinette-50-dies-pa-hotel-23216157

Aside from being a very successful standup, people may know Pinette from Seinfeld (the last episode), Parker Lewis Can't Lose, and a smattering of movie credits.

[Kromm]

Ouch.  Rule of three (with celeb deaths) could be in effect.  This is only #2 today though, so I guess we'll see if another happens really soon.

Reports: Hollywood legend Mickey Rooney dies

[ChiCricket]

Growing up, I watched all the Andy Hardy films with Mickey Rooney. (reruns,I'm old, but not *that* old) Also, John Pinette was one of my favorite comedians.He cracked me up with his Chinese buffet routine "you go now! You been here FOUR HOURS!!" (I can't believe there's even a forum here for commenting on celebrity deaths,it's so hard to talk about certain things with my kids, who in this case never heard of either of them)

Edited April 7, 2014 by ChiCricket

[merylinkid]

And then Peaches Geldof.   Only 25 with 2 small children.   Yeah, she is famous for being famous, but she is less revolting about it than Paris Hilton or any of the Kardashians.   She was just having fun and enjoyed life.  Kinda a harmless person.  

[Bastet]

Also, John Pinette was one of my favorite comedians.He cracked me up with his Chinese buffet routine "you go now! You been here FOUR HOURS!!"

Oh, man, I'll have to tell my mom he died -- we do that routine any time we so much as pass by a restaurant with a buffet.

[Rick Kitchen]

Matthew Cowles, who played Billie Clyde Tuggle on "All My Children" off and on for years, has died.  Billie Clyde was the villain you had to love.  He was married to Christine Baranski.  RIP, Matthew.  I loved your performance.

[merylinkid]

I remember Billy Clyde.   RIP.   And condolences to Ms. Baranski and all his family and friends.

[Badger]

I remember Billy Clyde and I haven't watched "All My Children" for many years.  RIP Matthew Cowles.

[BizBuzz]

Not an actor, but a celebrity none the less, but Maya Angelou passed.  She was an amazing woman.

[BetterButter]

Ann B. Davis, ‘Brady Bunch's’ Alice, Dead at 88

[BetterButter]

Rik Mayall dies aged 56

[Kromm]

I've just been glad Tracy Morgan hasn't shown up in this topic.  Morgan was badly enough injured that they considered amputating his leg--but Morgan was against it, but well enough that he was conscious and able TO make that decision.

Edited June 9, 2014 by Kromm

[Rick Kitchen]

Rik Mayall in Jesus Christ Superstar, as Herod

[merylinkid]

RIP Ruby Dee.   That lady did it all.   She had work right up until last year.   May I be as active as she was all her life.

[BetterButter]

Casey Kasem dead at 82

[BetterButter]

Eli Wallach Dies at 98

[Inquisitionist]

Wallach loved the theater and did movies to pay the bills; TV, too, I'd imagine, though he was in some classics there:

 

Mr. Wallach’s many television credits included a 1974 production of Odets’s “Paradise Lost” on public television; “Skokie,” a 1981 CBS movie about a march planned by neo-Nazis in a Chicago suburb, in which he played a lawyer representing Holocaust survivors; a 1982 NBC dramatization of Norman Mailer’s “Executioner’s Song,” in which he appeared with Tommy Lee Jones; and frequent roles on “Studio One,” “Playhouse 90,” “General Electric Theater.”

 

Looks like his most recent TV appearance was an episode of Nurse Jackie in 2009.

[Shannon L.]

RIP Meshach Taylor.  The role of Anthony in Designing Women could've been ridiculous considering he was the only regular male character in a show that centered around 4 women, but the writing was great, as was his portrayal of the character.

Edited June 29, 2014 by Shannon L.

[merylinkid]

Oh no.   Meshach was a terrific comedic actor.   If you have not seen him in Mannequin as the gay window dresser who befriends Andrew McCarthy's character you are missing out.   So over the top but so perfect for the role.  

 

RIP.

[AntiBeeSpray]

OMG :(. I remember him in Mannequin and I really liked him in "Designing Women". RIP.

[Badger]

This guy wasn't a big star and probably no one under the age of 50 would even know who he is, but

Jacques Bergerac died on June 15.  He's probably best known for playing Eva Gabor's ice skating teacher in Gigi.  He also made appearances on various American sitcoms and dramas in the 1950's/1960's.

 

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/jacques-bergerac-dead-french-actor-ginger-rogers-715030

[roamyn]

I thought I'd start one, since I couldn't find one. But if I just overlooked it, please feel free to let me know.

Hopefully we won't need this in the near future.

[Inquisitionist]

Writer/director/actor Paul Mazursky has passed away, at age 84.  I think I saw him most recently as Lilly Manning's (Sela Ward's) father in Once and Again.

[King of Birds]

Paul Mazursky, the Oscar-nominated writer-director who excelled at mining the urban middle class for laughs as well as tears in such movies as "Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice," "Blume in Love," "An Unmarried Woman" and "Down and Out in Beverly Hills," died Monday at Cedars Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. He was 84.

[Inquisitionist]

And we learn today that actor Bob Hastings (McHale's Navy, among many other credits) passed away on Monday, June 30, at the age of 89.  He had battled pancreatic cancer for 15 years.

 

"I miss him. He was a great guy," younger brother Don Hastings, who long portrayed Dr. Bob Hughes on the soap As the World Turns, told the Burbank Leader. "He was a good father and husband."

[magicdog]

I was coming in to report on Mazursky's death.  I had posted it in the Monkees thread as well since he co-wrote the pilot and was featured in the opening sequence of it as a "man on the street" reporter.

 

So sorry to hear about Bob Hastings.  I remember him in so many roles:  Kelsey who owned Kelsey's Bar on "All In The Family", his animation voicework in "Superboy" (1966), "Jeannie" (as "Henry" in 1971), and as Commissioner Gordon in BTAS.

[Inquisitionist]

As I just noted in the 30 Rock forum, Elaine Stritch, aka Colleen Donaghy, has passed away.  RIP to a kick-ass woman and entertainer.

[Bastet]

Oh, man; that's a big loss.  Her one-woman show was a true delight. 

[Inquisitionist]

Salon has a nice little tribute to Stritch's performances on 30 Rock.  I'll have to dig up My Whole Life Is Thunder on Netflix tonight.

[Rick Kitchen]

Albino musician Johnny Winter has died.  He was 70.

[AimingforYoko]

Albino musician Johnny Winter has died.

AKA "Chalk-faced goon."

[Kromm]

AKA "Chalk-faced goon."

[Oosala]

Awww, bumming about Johnny Winter.  I remember high school, playing his 3-sided album, listening to Highway 61.  My Dad used to bag on him by calling him Johnny Mental.  Great memories all around, really.

[Wilowy]

The Johns.

 

John Belushi, Jonathan Winters, John Kennedy Jr., John Candy, John Denver... now Johnny Winter. All affected me badly, with JFK Jr. being the worst. I stayed in bed crying and watching the news for 2 days when he passed. John Candy was bad for me too, and I still weep over John Denver when I listen to his music or watch a youtube performance. Written for his wife at the time, Annie's Song is one of the most romantic love songs ever; "Let me drown in your laughter, let me die in your arms..." GAHH. After thousands of times performing this, he never let on that he was tired of it. Here's a gorgeous favorite performance:

 

[AntiBeeSpray]

Oh, man; that's a big loss.  Her one-woman show was a true delight. 

Definitely, Bastet. She was one heck of a good comedian and seemed to be a decent person as well.

[cynicat]

In honor of Johnny Winter, bluesman extraordinaire:

 

[Rick Kitchen]

James Garner has died, at the age of 86.

[VCRTracking]

James Garner in The Americanization of Emily:

 

[bosawks]

Loved James Garner.

I have a huge soft spot for "Support Your Local Gunfighter". He and Suzanne Pleshette had chemistry for days.

RIP King Marchand.

[FormerMod-a1]

^^ I just saw that.  :-(  

 

Article link

[merylinkid]

So sad.   RIP James Garner

 

Remember the polaroid commercials he did with Mariette Hartley?   They were so funny.   

[Cobalt Stargazer]

Aw, man, not Rockford!:-(

[VCRTracking]

I also love him in as Hendley "The Scrounger" in The Great Escape. His relationship with Donald Pleasance is the heart of that movie IMO.

 

 

[Wilowy]

The last thing I saw him in was my beloved The Notebook, and he was awesome as old Noah. 

[ABay]

What I particularly valued about Garner is that he had the ability to be masculine without being obnoxious. His characters are men, not men-children, and he never had to blow shit up to prove himself. His characters were rarely as dismissive toward women as most at the time (exceptions exist, of course).

Edited July 20, 2014 by ABay

[Crs97]

James Garner was wonderful in every movie. I can't believe his only Oscar nomination was for "Murphy's Romance." I especially love "Support Your Local Gunfighter" and his TV movie "Decoration Day." I grew up on reruns of "Maverick." What a loss.

[Sweet Tee]

I've always had a soft spot for James Garner. There was something about his work that just drew me in. There always seemed to be a warmth about him. Very sorry to hear about his passing.

[Inquisitionist]

NY Times obit for James Garner.  He was always a class act.

 

Mr. Garner was a genuine star but as an actor something of a paradox: a lantern-jawed, brawny athlete whose physical appeal was both enhanced and undercut by a disarming wit. He appeared in more than 50 films, many of them dramas, but as he established in one of his notable early performances, as a battle-shy naval officer in “The Americanization of Emily” (1964) — and had shown before that in “Maverick” — he was most at home as an iconoclast, a flawed or unlikely hero.

 

A too-short slide show accompanies the article.  One of my favorite Garner roles was  F. Ross Johnson of RJR/Nabisco in HBO's Barbarians at the Gate.  He made Johnson much more likable than the man had a right to be while still capturing the underbelly edge of the buy-out shenanigans.

[smittykins]

So sad.   RIP James Garner

 

Remember the polaroid commercials he did with Mariette Hartley?   They were so funny.   

I read that so many people thought they were married IRL that Mariette had to start wearing shirts that said "I am *not* James Garner's wife."

[ABay]

Maverick memories. When I was in college, the local UHF station* played Maverick reruns in the afternoons. I would skip class to go home and watch them. When Bret Maverick started, it was on opposite another show I wanted to watch... I think it was QED starring a pre-L&O Sam Waterston. And this is why I bought a VCR. Unfortunately, I couldn't afford one until a few years later.

 

*Before there was TVLand, there was UHF. A lot of local UHF stations became UPN affiliates and then whatever UPN turned into. They generally showed reruns of very old shows during the afternoons.

Edited July 20, 2014 by ABay