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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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MissAlmond

MissAlmond

On 12/1/2019 at 9:07 PM, MisterGlass said:

Shelley Morrison, who played Rosario on Will & Grace, has passed away.  Rest in peace.

On 12/1/2019 at 9:13 PM, Bastet said:

I didn't watch the show, but during that time she was my friend's landlord; I remember her as a nice woman with good stories.

I didn't watch Will & Grace either but upon seeing photos/clips of Morrison's other roles, I remembered her from watching The Flying Nun reruns and Troop Beverly Hills. R.I.P. Ms. Morrison.  

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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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MissAlmond

MissAlmond

(edited)
13 hours ago, Mindthinkr said:

Robert K. Massie has passed. He wrote a lot of historical books about the Romanovs. Including the book Nicholas and Alexandra on which the movie was based upon. Obit is in the N.Y.Times. Sorry I can’t post links. 

For reasons long forgotten, I chose to read Massie's Nicholas and Alexandra as one of my middle school book reports.  It not only gave me a richer understanding of events leading to WWI but also led me to read an abridged version of War and Peace.  I still follow royal families today and find it interesting how some of Nicholas and Alexandra's kin are clueless about aspects of current times as they were back in the day.  So thank you Mr. Massie and R.I.P.  

Edited by MissAlmond
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GHScorpiosRule

GHScorpiosRule

13 hours ago, Mindthinkr said:

Robert K. Massie has passed. He wrote a lot of historical books about the Romanovs. Including the book Nicholas and Alexandra on which the movie was based upon. Obit is in the N.Y.Times. Sorry I can’t post links. 

I enjoyed his books. I read the one where he wrote about the massacre of the Romanovs, and how DNA exposed the last of the charlatan, who had claimed to be Anastasia. His writing wasn't dry or boring, like other authors I've read (not on this subject, but like, Culloden). And I loved it so much I got the book he wrote about Nicholas and Alexandra.

Time for a re-read I think.

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MissAlmond

MissAlmond

13 hours ago, Mindthinkr said:

Robert K. Massie has passed. He wrote a lot of historical books about the Romanovs. Including the book Nicholas and Alexandra on which the movie was based upon. Obit is in the N.Y.Times.  Sorry I can’t post links. 

Here you go -

https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/books/2019/12/02/robert-massie-author-who-popularized-russian-history-dead-90/2592816001/

https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2019/12/03/writer-and-historian-robert-k-massie-dead-at-90-a68448

https://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/wireStory/robert-massie-popularized-russian-history-dead-90-67451042

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tessaray

tessaray

2 hours ago, MisterGlass said:

Rest in peace.  She wrote the essential original series episode Journey to Babel, which introduced Spock's parents.  Here is another article from Den of Geek.

If you are a Trek fan, you will remember how Harlan Ellison would go on and on about City on the Edge of Forever.  There was an interesting anecdote in "Harlan Ellison's The City on the Edge of Forever: The Original Star Trek Teleplay" where she admitted to being terrified of his reaction to her changing a scene that became the one where Edith Keeler slipped on the stairs and Kirk caught her, with a resulting lecture by Spock on how she had to die. It really was an improvement over what Harlan had originally written, especially in the sense of how well she understood television and how to create real impact in the smallest of scenes.  (ETA: I know she wasn't the only one who worked on it, of course.) 

She deserved a wider canvas but I am selfishly glad she was part of ST.  

1 hour ago, Pallas said:

And her Times obituary.  As Spock once observed, "On that day, I shall mourn." 

Indeed. 

I know the Times has made a big deal about doing better with women's obituaries but she definitely earned it. 

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BW Manilowe

BW Manilowe

(edited)

From Primetimer: TV Mega-Producer Leonard Goldberg Dies at 85, Due to Fall-Related Injuries He, of course, was—with the late Aaron Spelling—Executive Producer of, among other TV shows, numerous 1970’s hit action/police procedural shows which aired on ABC (such as Starsky & Hutch, & the original versions of S.W.A.T. & Charlie’s Angels), as well as ABC’s other shows, The Love Boat & the original Fantasy Island. For the last 10 TV seasons, he was also the Executive Producer of the CBS hit police procedural, Blue Bloods, starring Tom Selleck.

Edited by BW Manilowe
To reword some information included.
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Was-MArsenault

Was-MArsenault

7 hours ago, BW Manilowe said:

From Primetimer: TV Mega-Producer Leonard Goldberg Dies at 85, Due to Complications From a Fall He, of course, was—with the late Aaron Spelling—Executive Producer of, among other TV shows, numerous 1970’s hit action/police procedural shows which aired on ABC (such as Starsky & Hutch, & the original versions of S.W.A.T. & Charlie’s Angels), as well as ABC’s other shows, The Love Boat & the original Fantasy Island. For the last 10 TV seasons, he was also the Executive Producer of the CBS hit police procedural, Blue Bloods, starring Tom Selleck.

He died as a result of injuries sustained in a fall.

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BW Manilowe

BW Manilowe

(edited)
44 minutes ago, MikaelaArsenault said:

He died as a result of injuries sustained in a fall.

And I said “complications from a fall”, which I think is essentially the same thing. But I went ahead & reworded it.

Edited by BW Manilowe
To add a comment.
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bmasters9

bmasters9

10 hours ago, BW Manilowe said:

From Primetimer: TV Mega-Producer Leonard Goldberg Dies at 85, Due to Fall-Related Injuries He, of course, was—with the late Aaron Spelling—Executive Producer of, among other TV shows, numerous 1970’s hit action/police procedural shows which aired on ABC (such as Starsky & Hutch, & the original versions of S.W.A.T. & Charlie’s Angels), as well as ABC’s other shows, The Love Boat & the original Fantasy Island. For the last 10 TV seasons, he was also the Executive Producer of the CBS hit police procedural, Blue Bloods, starring Tom Selleck.

Are you sure he was on The Love Boat? Last I recall, that one was Spelling/Cramer.

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spiderpig

spiderpig

3 hours ago, MikaelaArsenault said:

He died as a result of injuries sustained in a fall.

As someone 16 years younger than Leonard Rosenberg, I can attest to the long-lasting effects of a fall when you age.  Instead of jumping in and out of the shower as you did in your younger years, you have to think about placing your feet.  I'm still suffering from neck and hip injuries from a tub slip three months ago.  It really sucks, and you can't believe it happened to you.

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BW Manilowe

BW Manilowe

3 hours ago, bmasters9 said:

Are you sure he was on The Love Boat? Last I recall, that one was Spelling/Cramer.

Well, the obit included it, so I did too. Checking Google (Wikipedia is begging for money right now), they list 4 Exec Producers for The Love Boat: Aaron Spelling, Leonard Goldberg, Douglas S. Cramer (whom I believe also had a title of Executive in Charge of Production), & Alan Rafkin.

21 minutes ago, MikaelaArsenault said:

Sorry.

You really don’t have to apologize.

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MissAlmond

MissAlmond

(edited)

Damn.  Step away for a minute. . .

On 12/5/2019 at 10:00 PM, BW Manilowe said:

From Primetimer: TV Mega-Producer Leonard Goldberg Dies at 85, Due to Fall-Related Injuries 

I read opening/ending credits so knew Leonard Goldbert was a major player.  R.I.P. Mr. Goldberg.

16 hours ago, MikaelaArsenault said:

https://deadline.com/2019/12/robert-walker-jr-dies-star-trek-actor-and-son-of-hollywood-stars-was-79-1202802504/

R.I.P. Mr. Walker . . .

10 hours ago, opus said:

https://www.cnn.com/2019/12/06/entertainment/actor-ron-leibman-dies-trnd/index.html

. . .  and to you Mr. Leibman. 

Knew both of theirs work.  

Edited by MissAlmond
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Blergh

Blergh

19 hours ago, MikaelaArsenault said:

https://deadline.com/2019/12/robert-walker-jr-dies-star-trek-actor-and-son-of-hollywood-stars-was-79-1202802504/

Mr. Walker was the elder son of the then-prominent star Robert Walker, Sr. and his first wife born Phylis Isley when he was born but within a few years of his birth, the then-Mrs. Walker was picked by studio mogul David Selznick (of GWTW fame) to star in Song of Bernadette and she was given the stage name of Jennifer Jones!  Playing this timid, ailing but determined waif who kept true to herself despite the renown her vision would bring her hometown of Lourdes, France would net the new Miss Jones an Oscar and within a few years the Walker and Selznick unions would be over and Miss Jones would wed her boss  in 1949 while Mr. Walker, Sr. himself would remarry twice but would die under  puzzling circumstances at age 32  in 1951. Miss Jones's 2nd union would bring forth a daughter Mary and would last until Mr. Selznick's death in 1965. Miss Jones would marry Norton Simon in 1971 and stay married to him until his own death in 1993- but her world would be shattered by the suicide of her  daughter Mary at age 21 in 1976.  Despite being a naturally shy person, she would disclose having had her own suicidal moments and  would become an advocate for mental health thereafter.

  Anyway, to bring this back to her son, Robert Walker, Jr. , she would live with him  and his family the last six years of her life until her death at age 90 in 2009. His younger brother Michael had died in 2007 at age 66. Hence,  it seems if he ever had any resentment for his parents' union being torn asunder, he had evidently made his peace with it so he could make her last years comfortable after all that turmoil. RIP, Mr. Walker. 

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willco

willco

On 12/6/2019 at 10:29 PM, opus said:

Actor Ron Leibman

https://www.cnn.com/2019/12/06/entertainment/actor-ron-leibman-dies-trnd/index.html

It took me a minute, but I knew that I had seen the name many times-- reading the obit, now I know. He was Rachael's dad, Dr. Green on Friends ! Geez, he really portrayed a dick pretty much every time he appeared-- if he wasn't yelling at her for something, he was yelling at Ross for something ! I bet he was probably a nice guy in real life, though 🙂  And the obit mentioned him being on The Edge of Night- man, that's going back a few years. I don't remember anything about that soap ( my babysitter used to watch it) except the way the the announcer did the into, "THE EDGE of NIGHT ! " in a very spooky voice. But I was probably 6 or 7, so it must have seemed scarier ! Funny, the things you remember.

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BW Manilowe

BW Manilowe

5 hours ago, willco said:

It took me a minute, but I knew that I had seen the name many times-- reading the obit, now I know. He was Rachael's dad, Dr. Green on Friends ! Geez, he really portrayed a dick pretty much every time he appeared-- if he wasn't yelling at her for something, he was yelling at Ross for something ! I bet he was probably a nice guy in real life, though 🙂  And the obit mentioned him being on The Edge of Night- man, that's going back a few years. I don't remember anything about that soap ( my babysitter used to watch it) except the way the the announcer did the into, "THE EDGE of NIGHT ! " in a very spooky voice. But I was probably 6 or 7, so it must have seemed scarier ! Funny, the things you remember.

Lori Loughlin was on The Edge of Night too, when she was a teenager, maybe early 20’s (her character, Jody Travis, was introduced as a teenager).

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Pallas

Pallas

On 12/6/2019 at 4:03 PM, MikaelaArsenault said:

https://deadline.com/2019/12/robert-walker-jr-dies-star-trek-actor-and-son-of-hollywood-stars-was-79-1202802504/

Robert Walker, Jr., played Charlie X, the title character in the second episode of Star Trek and the first written by D.C. Fontana, who died earlier last week.  

The Deadline obituary features him as Charlie: an intense, committed and authentic performance that immediately established the show's dramatic creds. This obituary features a more recent picture. 

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Blergh

Blergh

56 minutes ago, Popples said:

eb2.jpg

Mr. Spinney worked until just last year doing that character despite the very taxing physical requirements of being wholly encased  in a costume while holding up the head like the Statue of Liberty the entire time- yet did so not just on Sesame Street but many other venues and even such exotic places as The People's Republic of China! 

   Yes, Mr. Spinney definitely gave heart to this naive yet always curious and eager to learn character who could have easily been considered an annoying joke! I can't help but think that despite the hardships of enacting Big Bird, Mr. Spinney considered depicting him a calling (rather than the mere means to earn a living) not just to entertain but to guide generations of young people! 

 I liked that when he was invited to visit MisterRoger's Neighborhood, he refused Mr. Roger's initial plea to divest himself on Big Bird's costume oncamera to explain the process-  saying he promised his late friend and colleague Jim Henson, he'd NEVER do that to shatter the young people's illusions. However; he DID compromise enough to have Big Bird visit the Neighborhood of Make-Believe where Big Bird, a wonderful part of our collective imagination,   fit right in! 

 Of course, it also needs to be mentioned that Mr. Spinney's other main character was Oscar the Grouch who he admitted was based on a NYC colorfully sarcastic cabbie that Mr. Spinney subtracted the f-bombs from the vocabulary for the kids' sake- yet even here, he gave this outwardly unsympathetic character heart to help give voice to those who felt cranky (and even ugly) for a variety of reasons and was NOT without his own redemptive qualities. 

Yes, when I saw him on the 50th Anniversary Special, I thought Mr. Spinney seemed a bit shaky even for the age of 85 but he DID get to participate as an honored guest who'd helped build so much of the show from its earliest days when it seemed possible that it may have wound up being been an experiment that truly went nowhere and filed away as a curious footnote in programming history. 

RIP, Mr. Spinney (and condolences to all your loved ones) and say hello for all of us to Mr. Looper. ... Hooper! 

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ebk57

ebk57

2 hours ago, BetterButter said:

Caroll Spinney, puppeteer behind Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch on ‘Sesame Street,’ dies at 85

I'm a little (okay, a lot) too old for Sesame Street, but it occurred to me that today is the taping of the Kennedy Center Honors.  Sesame Street is an honoree, the first TV show to have that distinction.  I'm sure they will honor Mr. Spinney during the show.

And FYI, the Honors will be on next Sunday, the 15th, instead of the usual day after Christmas. 

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Spartan Girl

Spartan Girl

Started sobbing when Mom showed me the news on Facebook. She immediately got annoyed and pointed out that he was old and also nobody I knew personally.

I don't care. I grew up with Big Bird. Even when the show paid attention to Elmo he was still the number one character to me. 

I know he lived a long life and part of me has dreading this ever since he retired. But why did it have to be NOW? Dammit.

Miss you, Bird. And a loving "scram" to you, dear Oscar.

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Bastet

Bastet

(edited)
23 minutes ago, MikaelaArsenault said:

https://www.sfgate.com/news/us/article/Benson-Star-Trek-actor-Rene-14891365.php

For those who don't like to clink on links that aren't clear as to what the article is about, that's about the death of René Auberjonois, who died today at age 79 of metastatic lung cancer:
 

Quote

René Auberjonois worked constantly as a character actor in several golden ages, from the dynamic theater of the 1960s to the cinema renaissance of the 1970s to the prime period of network television in the 1980s and '90s — and each generation knew him for something different.

For film fans of the 1970s, he was Father John Mulcahy, the military chaplain who played straight man to the doctors’ antics in “M.A.S.H.” It was his first significant film role and the first of several for director Robert Altman.

For sitcom watchers of the 1980s, he was Clayton Runnymede Endicott III, the hopelessly highbrow chief of staff at a governor’s mansion on “Benson,” the ABC series whose title character was a butler played by Robert Guillaume.

And for sci-fi fans of the 1990s and convention-goers ever since, he was Odo, the shape-shifting Changeling and head of space-station security on “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.”

“I am all of those characters, and I love that,” Auberjonois said in a 2011 interview with the “Star Trek” website. “I also run into people, and they think I’m their cousin or their dry cleaner. I love that, too.”

Sounds like he had the perfect attitude for a character actor.  I knew him from the MASH and Benson roles primarily, but had seen him in numerous other things as well -- 228 screen credits to his name!

Edited by Bastet
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Was-MArsenault

Was-MArsenault

(edited)
6 minutes ago, Bastet said:

For those who don't like to clink on links that aren't clear as to what the article is about, that's about the death of René Auberjonois, who died today at age 79 of metastatic lung cancer:
 

Sounds like he had the perfect attitude for a character actor.  I knew him from the MASH and Benson roles primarily, but had seen him in numerous other things as well -- 228 credits to his name!

I can post some more articles.

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/ren-auberjonois-dead-star-trek-benson-actor-dies-at-79-1260677

https://www.seattletimes.com/entertainment/benson-star-trek-actor-rene-auberjonois-has-died-at-79/

Edited by MikaelaArsenault
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Was-MArsenault

Was-MArsenault

5 minutes ago, legaleagle53 said:

DAMMIT, 2019! What are you trying to do, give 2016 a run for its money during your last month?  Lay off already!

2 minutes ago, VCRTracking said:

Damn, what a day.

Especially three deaths all in one day today...

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