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In Memoriam: Entertainment Industry Celebrity Deaths

Kromm

By Kromm
in Everything Else TV

Mr. Sparkle
Message added by Mr. Sparkle,

Reminder:

This thread is for deaths of celebrities in the entertainment business only. No notices about politicians, please. 

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Bastet
Bastet

Piss up a rope, Val Kilmer.  If your physical illness got so bad that your life utterly sucked and no end to that suffering was in sight, so that suicide was or seemed to be the best of the available

wilsie
wilsie
BetterButter
BetterButter

Olivia Newton-John Has Died At 73

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Chaos Theory

Chaos Theory

9 hours ago, AgentRXS said:

Damn, 2016 needs to stop messing w/ my childhood. Too many icons  taken this year.

Growing Pains was the 1st sitcom I really remember watching, when I was still too young to really understand the plots.  Alan Thicke has always popped up randomly as a guest star in various shows I've watched over the years, and I've always enjoyed  seeing him. My love for him waned a little when Robin turned out to be an epic douche, but I still enjoyed his acting. Just saw him on Fuller House and would have never pegged him for 69. 

RIP Mr. Thicke aka Dr Seaver.

2016 has been a brutal year.  Alan Thicke has been Mr. Random hasn't he though?  I didn't know he was a guest on Fuller House season 2.  Not surprising considering his connection to the Camerons.  Season 1 was fine no interest in season 2.  Now I might have to check it out.

Damn you 2016!!!!!

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Cobalt Stargazer

Cobalt Stargazer

12 hours ago, random chance said:

Yes! I couldn't put my finger on it until I read your post - that is exactly why it's so shocking. I just saw him in a couple of things, and he was looking great. Well damn.

I just saw him too, in some Hallmark Christmas movie, and he looked good. :-/

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Angeltoes

Angeltoes

(edited)
Quote

even Neil Armstrong wasn't as popular or revered in Ohio

This surprises me.  Do you think it's because he chose to stay out of the limelight?  I live near the Space Center in Florida and worked there for over 20 years.  Glenn's passing was huge here.  A bunch of us were together the other night and someone said that Glenn had died.  I was thinking they had confused Glenn with Buzz Aldrin who had been in the news lately.  Frankly, I was thinking that Glenn was already dead.  My heart goes out to his beloved Annie.  I bet she follows him soon.

Quote

I'll always remember the Growing Pains theme song "Show me that smile again...."

I have a thumb drive of music that I keep in my car which has a lot of theme songs on it.  That's one of them and I head-bob to it whenever it plays.

I am floored about Alan Thicke.  From all accounts, including one of his ex-wives, he was a great guy.  Sleep well, sir.

Edited by Angeltoes
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BizBuzz

BizBuzz

It's been said too many times ... but 2016 can bite me.  

RIP Alan Thicke.  Another of my icons, gone.  Too young.  And yes, 69 is way too young.  I am my Mom's caregiver and she is 94.  She says he was too young.  So I do too.

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roamyn

roamyn

3 hours ago, Angeltoes said:

This surprises me.  Do you think it's because he chose to stay out of the limelight?  I live near the Space Center in Florida and worked there for over 20 years.  Glenn's passing was huge here.  A bunch of us were together the other night and someone said that Glenn had died.  I was thinking they had confused Glenn with Buzz Aldrin who had been in the news lately.  Frankly, I was thinking that Glenn was already dead.  My heart goes out to his beloved Annie.  I bet she follows him soon.

I think partially.  But mostly becayse Glenn was always in the news, due to being the longest running Senator.

Plus, he was a big advocate for the space program, so anytime something happened/came up, the media would interview him.

While Neil stayed strictly to business or teaching, and kept mum on politics/space program.

I almost hope Annie joins him soon, so neither is w/o the other for too long.  I believe she & Betty Grissom are the only two original wives left.

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BW Manilowe

BW Manilowe

17 hours ago, Bastet said:

I really liked Alan Thicke's voice.  And some of the TV theme songs he and Gloria Loring wrote -- Diff'rent Strokes and The Facts of Life were far from my favorite shows, but I liked the songs.

She was also his first wife & the mother of his eldest sons, singer Robin Thicke & Brennan Thicke (Brennan was diagnosed with diabetes as a child & Alan & Gloria became active in fundraising for diabetes research/a diabetes cure soon thereafter). 

I also did a March of Dimes telethon fundraiser with her, in Knoxville, TN, in the mid-'70's when she was still married to Alan; but I didn't get to meet him because he didn't come with her (they still asked me to make appearances for them after I was their National Poster Child, through about when I was a senior in high school & met President & Mrs. Reagan at the White House, with my fellow former poster children & the then-current 1, the Monday before John Hinckley shot the President & members of his entourage & security detail).

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BW Manilowe

BW Manilowe

18 hours ago, VCRTracking said:

I'll always remember the Growing Pains theme song "Show me that smile again...."

As I get older the more I realize what a shitty kid Mike Seaver was and that his parents Jason and Maggie had the patience of saints.

Oddly enough, As Long As We've Got Each Other was a TV theme song Alan Thicke didn't write. It was written by John Bettis (lyrics) & Steve Dorff (music), who are known for having written/produced for, or otherwise worked with, some of the biggest music stars, of many genres but mostly pop music, of the 1970's, 1980's, & beyond.

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VCRTracking

VCRTracking

(edited)

I also remember Bernard Fox from an episode of M*A*S*H I like, "Tea and Empathy". He played the commanding officer of a British unit that was being treated at the 4077. Hawkeye and the other doctors thinks he's an asshole because he seems to ignoring the injuries of his soldiers and yelling at them as they lie in their sick beds to get back into battle. Later we find out he does care about his men, listening to them and laughing with them as they read letters from home. He explains to Hawkeye he was only acting tough with them earlier so they'd know they were going to be okay.

Edited by VCRTracking
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UYI

UYI

(edited)

The Bewitched cast is infamous for having a rather high death rate in a short amount of time--Dick York, Dick Sargent, and Elizabeth Montgomery all died within a three year period in the early 90's (York in 1992 from emphysema, Sargent in 1994 from prostate cancer, and Montgomery in 1995 from colon cancer).

That makes sense, however, when you remember that the majority of the supporting cast skewed older in terms of age, despite the fact that the former three stars were all in their early 60s when they passed (York: 63, Sargent: 64, Montgomery: 62). But the last Bewitched cast member to die until now was Alice Ghostley (Esmeralda), in 2007. Bernard Fox, who played Dr. Bombay, was one of two adult cast members from the show still living up to this point (the other being Nancy Kovack, who played Darrin's ex-fiancée, Sheila, in a few first season episodes).

Now, she is the only adult cast member still living, with the only other ones remaining being the various sets of twins who played Tabitha and Adam.

Can you tell I'm a huge fan of this show? ;) 

Anyway, I hate how many celebrities have died this year, but a lot of people would consider themselves lucky to make it to 89.

RIP, good sir, and thanks for the memories.

Edited by UYI
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Lady Calypso

Lady Calypso

Man! First, we lose Carol Brady, then we lose Jason Seaver, and now Dr. Bombay?! All of my childhood is dying! I don't even want to say who I don't want to lose this year, because I'm so afraid of it happening now. I may be a young adult, but I grew up on the classics because of my mother.

3 minutes ago, UYI said:

The Bewitched cast is infamous for having a rather high death rate in a short amount of time--Dick York, Dick Sargent, and Elizabeth Montgomery all died within a three year period in the early 90's (York in 1992 from emphysema, Sargent in 1994 from prostate cancer, and Montgomery in 1995 from colon cancer).

I just looked up the cast of Bewitched myself to see who else was alive and I just wanted to add a name: David White, who played Larry Tate, died in late 1990 from a heart attack, less than a year and a half before York's death. So the four main cast members within five years. 

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UYI

UYI

(edited)

That's true, I was mainly thinking of the the two principal characters,  I guess. He was 74, though, so not MUCH older than the other three, but older. The others were in their early 60s.

I'm thinking of Erin Murphy a lot right now. Her twin sister Diane only played Tabitha for the first year or so--as they got older, it became more obvious that they were fraternal twins, so Erin eventually played Tabitha alone (she resembled EM MUCH more)--but Erin spent more time with everyone else overall. They were her other family, and she's basically all that's left of the show. 

Edited by UYI
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riley702

riley702

(edited)
1 hour ago, Lady Calypso said:

Man! First, we lose Carol Brady, then we lose Jason Seaver, and now Dr. Bombay?! All of my childhood is dying! I don't even want to say who I don't want to lose this year, because I'm so afraid of it happening now.

Tell me about it! I was on Facebook earlier and those news links up at the top right, which used to have a little blurb, now just have a name or place and you have to hover over the link to see the blurb. Tonight, I saw Bob Barker listed and let out an "Eep!" until I saw the blurb, which is that he's celebrating his 93rd birthday. 2016 has made me very nervous to see a random name in the news.

Edited by riley702
a link is not a blurb
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WendyCR72

WendyCR72

2 hours ago, Lady Calypso said:

I just looked up the cast of Bewitched myself to see who else was alive and I just wanted to add a name: David White, who played Larry Tate, died in late 1990 from a heart attack, less than a year and a half before York's death. So the four main cast members within five years. 

Not to be morbid [but kind of hard considering the thread], but I think grief took poor David White more than anything. I recall reading his son was on the doomed Pan Am 103 flight that exploded over Scotland just before Christmas in 1988.  :-(

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legaleagle53

legaleagle53

(edited)
On 12/14/2016 at 8:47 PM, Lady Calypso said:

Man! First, we lose Carol Brady, then we lose Jason Seaver, and now Dr. Bombay?! All of my childhood is dying! I don't even want to say who I don't want to lose this year, because I'm so afraid of it happening now. I may be a young adult, but I grew up on the classics because of my mother.

I just looked up the cast of Bewitched myself to see who else was alive and I just wanted to add a name: David White, who played Larry Tate, died in late 1990 from a heart attack, less than a year and a half before York's death. So the four main cast members within five years. 

And Casey Rogers, who played Larry's wife Louise (the second actress to do so, and the more memorable one, if you ask me) and left us in 2006.  She loved the show, and she always billed herself as "the First Lady of Advertising" and saw herself as the keeper of the flame, if you will.  She also pushed for a sequel to be made featuring Tabitha.  And there was also Sandra Gould (that's Gladys Kravitz to you), but I don't remember what year she passed.

Oddly enough, I was just thinking the other day about Bernard Fox, and I had a feeling he might be mentioned in this thread in the near future.  I'm only too sorry to see that I was right.  Rest in peace, Mr. Fox, and thank you for giving us so many memorable characters over the years in addition to Dr. Bombay.

As for 2016, I'm resigned to the fact that it wants to go out in a blaze of glory.  Somebody needs to keep an eye on Betty White, Dick Van Dyke, and Christopher Plummer.

Edited by legaleagle53
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UYI

UYI

9 hours ago, riley702 said:

Tell me about it! I was on Facebook earlier and those news links up at the top right, which used to have a little blurb, now just have a name or place and you have to hover over the link to see the blurb. Tonight, I saw Bob Barker listed and let out an "Eep!" until I saw the blurb, which is that he's celebrating his 93rd birthday. 2016 has made me very nervous to see a random name in the news.

I'm not one to wish death on people, but given Bob Barker's history of being sued for sexual harassment/other bad charges placed on him by women who worked for him on TPIR, both on and off camera? Yeah...

 

Given how many higher profile celebrities died this year, some prematurely, I would like to see as many of them make it to 2017 as possible. I certainly was hoping for the same in regards to Bernard Fox (and George Gaynes from Punky Brewster, for that matter--he died earlier this year at 98!), given the overall death record of the Bewitched cast, but sometimes when you get to a certain age like 89, when it's your time, it's your time. You can only get so upset once the age isn't a premature one anymore.

I know, I need to be more bitchy and less understanding toward this year. I'm sorry, I'll fix that. ;) 

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St. Claire

St. Claire

And yet, we have Norman Lloyd, Olivia de Havilland, and Kirk Douglas. I suppose when they go, most folks will be saying "Wait, (s)he was still alive?!" (Mr. Lloyd and Ms. de Havilland are in my dead pool list, which had no hits at all this year. For all of the celebrity losses we had, none of them were ones I had predicted.)

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Blergh

Blergh

I wonder if Mr. Fox (born Lawson) may have known Richard Burton (born Jenkins) during their early years in Wales? No doubt they likely bumped into each other a time or so in Hollywood.

 

 Oh, in addition to playing the hilariously pompous quack on Bewitched, I always like Mr. Fox's more lowkey almost straight man role of  the always proper but easily befuddled English  Malcolm Merriweather on Andy Griffith (best ep was when he got on the wrong side of Ernest T. Bass). Hmm, who else besides Jim Nabors is left of the adult cast of THAT show?

   RIP, Mr. Fox (born Lawson).

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UYI

UYI

34 minutes ago, Blergh said:

I wonder if Mr. Fox (born Lawson) may have known Richard Burton (born Jenkins) during their early years in Wales? No doubt they likely bumped into each other a time or so in Hollywood.

 

 Oh, in addition to playing the hilariously pompous quack on Bewitched, I always like Mr. Fox's more lowkey almost straight man role of  the always proper but easily befuddled English  Malcolm Merriweather on Andy Griffith (best ep was when he got on the wrong side of Ernest T. Bass). Hmm, who else besides Jim Nabors is left of the adult cast of THAT show?

   RIP, Mr. Fox (born Lawson).

Betty Lynn (Thelma Lou)--She lives in Andy's hometown of Mount Airy, NC now!

Elinor Donahue (Ellie)

Maggie Peterson (Charlene Darling)

Ken Berry (the character he played during the final TAGS episodes, before it became Mayberry RFD).

I'm not missing much more, but I may be missing a few. 

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MissAlmond

MissAlmond

(edited)
2 hours ago, St. Claire said:

And yet, we have Norman Lloyd

Norman Lloyd says "Sssssssh," don't mention his name.  He's locked the door and refuses to answer, especially if it's Robert Redford. 

Edited by MissAlmond
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VCRTracking

VCRTracking

Late on commenting on John Glenn's death. I only really know him from Ed Harris' portrayal in The Right Stuff. The love story between him and his wife Annie was so touching. One of my favorite moments is when the astronauts and their wives stand together to protect Annie, who stutters and is very shy from meeting Vice President Lyndon Johnson on television.

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ennui

ennui

(edited)
17 hours ago, UYI said:

a lot of people would consider themselves lucky to make it to 89

Or cursed. It depends on your health and circumstances.

I'll mention Connie Kunkle; not quite a celebrity, but she was a tv shopping channel host who died of frontal lobe dementia at age 58. I liked her, she was bright and funny.

I knew Bernard Fox from Hogan's Heroes. Col. Crittendon.

Edited by ennui
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Popples

Popples

I don't really like basketball, but the TNT crew are so entertaining I watch them from time to time and I really liked Craig Sager and his jackets. His speech at the ESPY's was absolutely wonderful and tear-inducing.

Rest in Paradise, Mr. Sager.

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maraleia

maraleia

8 hours ago, legaleagle53 said:

And Casey Rogers, who played Larry's wife Louise (the second actress to do so, and the more memorable one, if you ask me) and left us in 2006.  She loved the show, and she always billed herself as "the First Lady of advertising" and saw herself as the keeper of the flame, if you will.  She also pushed for a sequel to be made featuring Tabitha.  And there was also Sandra Gould (that's Gladys Kravitz to you), but I don't remember what year she passed.

Oddly enough, I was just thinking the other day about Bernard Fox, and I had a feeling he might be mentioned in this thread in the near future.  I'm only too sorry to see that I was right.  Rest in peace, Mr. Fox, and thank you for giving us so many memorable characters over the years in addition to Dr. Bombay.

As for 2016, I'm resigned to the fact that it wants to go out in a blaze of glory.  Somebody needs to keep an eye on Betty White, Dick Van Dyke, and Christopher Plummer.

And Carl Reiner, Norman Lear, Cloris Leachman, Sidney Poitier, Rita Moreno, Cicely Tyson, Harry Belafonte

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Bastet

Bastet

10 hours ago, MissAlmond said:

TCM needs to either hold off and do their (excellent) TCM Remembers later than usual or leave musical space just in case they have to insert additional names before the year is out.  2016 is a beast.

They always leave space to add in late-breaking deaths; the still photos and movie clips are intercut with footage of whatever their theme is for the year (e.g. last year it was a woman sitting in a theatre, so there were shots of her, shots of the projector, etc.) and those can be replaced as needed.

It will be interesting to see how long TCM Remembers is this year, to help get a sense of whether there really have been more celebrity deaths this year or if it just seems that way.  Last year's was pretty short, at about 3-1/2 minutes, but the several years prior to that had all clocked in at anywhere from 4-1/2 to nearly six minutes long.

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Chaos Theory

Chaos Theory

Because it is the end of the year and everyone is composing lists:   Notable deaths of 2016 

Pat Harrington

David Bowie

Alan Rickman

Anton Yelchin (This one was beyond tragic because he was young and his death was preventable)

Noel Neill

Gary Marshall

Gene Wilder

Hugh O'Brian

Robert Vaughn

Florence Henderson

Ron Glass

John Glenn

Alan Thicke

Bernard Fox

Merle Haggard

Patty Duke

Garry Shandling

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Constantinople

Constantinople

On 12/14/2016 at 7:02 PM, BW Manilowe said:

According to his obituary in The Hollywood Reporter, Bernard Fox was 89 & died of heart failure.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/bernard-fox-dead-bewitched-actor-who-played-dr-bombay-was-89-956294

I didn't know he was in both A Night To Remember and Titanic until after I read his obituary.

Given his age, I'm not sure why his passing saddens me, but I always enjoyed his performances.  As an actor, he was a professional without being a snob.

It's been too long since I've seen Dr. Bombay.

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BW Manilowe

BW Manilowe

1 hour ago, Constantinople said:

I didn't know he was in both A Night To Remember and Titanic until after I read his obituary.

Given his age, I'm not sure why his passing saddens me, but I always enjoyed his performances.  As an actor, he was a professional without being a snob.

It's been too long since I've seen Dr. Bombay.

If you have AntennaTV on your cable/satellite TV channels, Bewitched is currently airing there. I think it may be on really late at night though.

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Dee

Dee

1 hour ago, Cobalt Stargazer said:

Leon Russell and Leonard Cohen.

Kashif, Sharon Jones, Bernie Worrell, Billy Paul, Gwen Ifill, Muhammad Ali, Phife Dawg & Maurice White.

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