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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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VCRTracking

VCRTracking

When I first saw the "It's Garry Shandling's Show" when it aired on FOX 30 years ago it blew my mind to see someone break the fourth wall and was aware he was on a TV show. It was my first exposure to meta humor and I loved it.

I can still remember the theme song:

 

This is the theme to Garry's Show,
The theme to Garry's show.
Garry called me up and asked if I would right his theme song.
I'm almost halfway finished,
How do you like it so far,
How do you like the theme to Garry's Show.

This is the theme to Garry's Show,
The opening theme to Garry's show.
This is the music that you hear as you watch the credits.
We're almost to the part of where I start to whistle.
Then we'll watch "It's Garry Shandling's Show".

(whistles)

This was the theme to Garry Shandling's show.

 

 

I also love the 25th Anniversary Special I saw on cable which is a parody of talk show anniversary specials like Johnny Carson's Tonight Show.

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Enigma X

Enigma X

I read about Garry Shandling's passing an hour and a half ago. I was not a fan of his humor but thinks he was too young to die. (Sidenote: It took until five minutes ago to realize it was not Gilbert Gottfried who had died. In their later years, they began to resemble each other and not a fan of Gottfried's humor either.)

cynicat

cynicat

I just heard about Gary Shandling as well--such a loss.  His episode of Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee with Jerry Seinfeld has an amazing amount of foreshadowing. He had a great line about what he wanted at his own funeral (starts at around 15.15).  It also had a brief mention of his having hyperparathyroidism, they discussed the death of Robin Williams and David Brenner, and he was able to make Jerry Seinfeld not seem like such a douchebag.  Now that's real talent.

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zxy556575

zxy556575

(edited)

RIP Gary Shandling.  (No flipping.)

 

Thanks for that reminder, amaranta.

 

Garry always seemed like a super kind and nice guy personally. Neurotic, but sweet. I was entranced by It's Garry Shandling's Show during its original run and caught up on Larry Sanders later on. What a great comic mind. I really hope he didn't suffer.

 

Courtesy of Rolling Stone, Garry's 10 best TV moments.

Edited by lordonia
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BW Manilowe

BW Manilowe

(edited)

The Waltons & Falcon Crest creator, Earl Hamner, Jr., age 92, from Cancer.

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/earl-hamner-jr-creator-waltons-878287?utm_source=twitter

And...

Actor Peter Brown, star of Lawman & Days of Our Lives (among other daytime dramas), dead at age 80.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/peter-brown-dead-lawman-star-877587

Edited by BW Manilowe
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BW Manilowe

BW Manilowe

March 24, 2016: The day that Death worked overtime on the celebrities.

You must be exhausted, Death. Don't you think it's time to take a break from that now, like say, a year or two?

To be fair, Peter Brown died on the 23rd, the same day as Ken Howard. I just didn't get it posted here until the 24th. But yeah, death needs to stop taking so many celebs at this point in the year, or at least to stop taking, like, 3 on the same day.

BW Manilowe

BW Manilowe

Peter Brown, as Dr. Greg Peters on Days of Our Lives, could even make 1970s menswear look good.

And now I read that former NFL player Kevin Turner died of ALS at age 46.

Responding to the bolded. I think I was still pretty young when he was on Days but, as I remember, yes he did make a suit look good. And I remember he played opposite the late Mary Frann on Days, who eventually went on to play Bob Newhart's character's wife, Joanna Loudon, on his second CBS sitcom Newhart (the show where, in the finale, Bob woke up in bed with Suzanne Pleshette--who was his wife in his first sitcom, where he was a Chicago psychologist & she was a schoolteacher, then a principal or vice-principal--& he was supposed to have dreamed the whole Newhart show's existence).

Mary played Peter's Days character's wife; I think her character name was Amanda Peters (at least when she was introduced) & she was an alcoholic or something. She then ended up married to another doctor, Neil Curtis.

BW Manilowe

BW Manilowe

To be honest, I thought Earl Hamner had died years ago.

I was sure I remember reading abt the death of the creator & narrator of The Waltons.

I doublechecked; his Wikipedia page definitely says March 24, 2016 is his date of death. And I'm pretty sure the obit I linked to mentions or links to a Facebook post made (now) yesterday on his death by 1 of his children.

jah1986

jah1986

Wow, what is that like 7 or 8 in 24 hours? I was shocked to hear about Garry Shandling and when I read about him also saw about Earl Hamner, who, honestly I also thought was already dead.  The to come here and see all the others...Peter Brown, it's corny but Summer Magic is just one of my favorite movies (I'm probably the only person here who's ever seen it) and I love him in that.  It's just too much for one day.

Blergh

Blergh

So sad about Earl Hamner.   Fine it got soapy in the later years, but it was a good wholesome show with not many nightmare inducing episodes (looking at you Little House).   

 Oddly enough, even though I never met the man, I somehow considered him to be a member of my own family growing up(and despite liking the show and most of the characters a great deal, I did NOT feel that way about any of the on-camera performers or characters). I guess because the way he spun the stories, they DID sound could have been  familial. Sad about his passing and it seemed he had to endure a bit at the end but reaching 92 is quite an accomplishment -especially since he seems to have lived longer than any of his immediate ancestors. Ever see that episode he wrote for the "Twilight Zone" in which a man's hunting dog somehow made a crucial difference in his fate? RIP, Mr. Hamner.

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UYI

UYI

(edited)

I was just reading about Earl Hamner the other day, marveling at how he was still alive and married to his longtime wife. And now this.

 

RIP, Earl. The Waltons is one of my favorite shows of all time; what a great legacy! (And of course, he was the real life John Boy.) The Walton's Museum is his hometown of Schuyler, VA, outside of Charlottesville. I live in MD and want to make the day trip out there someday. 

 

Also, is it weird that I tend to know when a lot of celebrities are alive or dead when others don't? I've always loved looking up birthdays/death dates of celebrities; I love finding out dates related to movies/TV (I guess that does sound kind of creepy. :P). I guess what I'm saying is that I'm here to help anyone who has a question on whether a celebrity is alive or not. :) 

 

(For the record, I'm 27. Some of us young'uns appreciate classic TV, too.) 

Edited by UYI
Cobb Salad

Cobb Salad

(edited)

The Waltons was a favorite of mine growing up. I've been to Charlottesville several times but haven't made it to the Waltons Museum. It's a nice area with lots of other places to visit. Monticello and Montpelier are 2 examples.

I haven't looked to see if one of the cable channels that have been showing the Waltons are still airing them. I wonder if they will be showing a bunch of episodes for Earl Hamner. I too, was a bit surprised he was still with us until yesterday. Anyone who lives to their 90s has seen quite a lot during their lifetime.

Also, I haven't seen the White Shadow in reruns much but I wonder if it'll pop up somewhere now - that was a much watch show for me when it was on. I enjoyed the rapport Coach Reeves had with the team and how they all interacted with each other.

Edited by Cobb Salad
zxy556575

zxy556575

I'm wondering if any of the streaming services will add either or both of Garry's series. The DVD sets for both are currently out of stock on Amazon, but this is a little odd:

 

The Larry Sanders Show - The Complete Series = $20.49

It's Garry Shandling's Show: The Complete Series = $101.19

 

The first seems like quite the bargain for 6 seasons. I backordered it.

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Blergh

Blergh

I remember when Gilda Radner came on the Garry Shandling show shortly before her own death. Hope he's hanging out with her again now.

2016 sucks turds.

  

 

 Yes, I can't say I was usually a fan of the show itself ( mainly because it kept hammering the 'hey we all KNOW we're on a sitcom but can't hit you dumb viewers over the head with our smugness enough'). However; I really DID like that appearance by Miss Radner. At the time it was produced, her cancer was in remission and it appeared as though she was ready to start diving back into the entertainment scene. Sadly, the cancer returned and took her too soon afterwards and the show proved to be her swansong. But what a sweet swansong it WAS for her and, for that, I will always be grateful for him giving her and the rest of us that opportunity. RIP, Mr. Shandling.

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Cobalt Stargazer

Cobalt Stargazer

I remember when Gilda Radner came on the Garry Shandling show shortly before her own death. Hope he's hanging out with her again now.

2016 sucks turds.

 

Curse you, Spartan Girl, I had to youtube that:

 

 

 

I tried to find a longer clip, because in that episode he told her not to look directly into the camera or acknowledge it was there, and she kept deliberately looking to the side into the lens with this big smile on her face, but I couldn't find it. RIP, Gilda. RIP, Garry. *sniff*

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VCRTracking

VCRTracking

There's also a 2010 GQ article from Garry's perspective of that trip:

 

He’s a boxer, a Buddhist, a hoops junkie, and a kind of Yoda to every funny person born since 1965 (Sandler, Silverman, Apatow, Gervais, Baron Cohen…). Amy Wallace survives a rare sparring session with Garry Shandling, the reclusive master of American comedy.

Toward the end of February, in the first-class cabin of a United flight from Hawaii to Los Angeles, the only man on the planet who has hosted late-night talk shows, appeared on late-night talk shows, and created an iconic TV series that parodied a late-night talk show encountered the man who had just been famously ousted from a late-night talk show.

Garry Shandling was in 1A. Conan O'Brien and his family were three rows back. The two men are close friends, and their unexpected proximity made Shandling happy—so happy, he says, that he asked a flight attendant to deliver O'Brien a present. "Mr. Shandling can't finish his cookie, and he thought you might want to have the rest," the woman told O'Brien, presenting the crumb-littered plate. Minutes later, Shandling looked up—way up—to see the six-foot-four-inch redhead planted in front of him, an exaggerated scowl on his face.

"This is the way you treat me, with the broken cookies?" O'Brien asked Shandling, his voice slightly raised to make sure the comedy could be heard over the jet engines. "When I let you get in line with me and my wife and get your ticket ten minutes earlier? This is what you do?"

"Let me see if I understand this correctly," Shandling responded, almost yelling. "I, out of the generosity of my heart, offer you food. And you have the nerve to walk up to my aisle and harass me and heckle me in front of this passenger"—Shandling nodded to the stranger in 1B—"who I don't know?"

O'Brien turned to Shandling's stunned neighbor, who will surely be dining out on this story for the rest of his life. "I'm sorry you have to sit next to him," O'Brien said. "You know, if you call ahead and you find out Garry's on the plane, they will allow you to switch seats."

It was a coincidence, these two funnymen being on the Big Island at the same time. Shandling, who had recently completed final reshoots on his first acting role in years—a U.S. senator in Iron Man 2—was enjoying one of his frequent retreats to the Waipio Valley, his favorite place to meditate and ponder the universe. (While he stops short of calling himself a Buddhist, he is a serious student of dharma.) O'Brien, who just weeks before had parted ways with NBC and The Tonight Show, was on what is perhaps best described as a forced vacation. The timing was "synchronistic," Garry says, recalling that they hung out so much in Hawaii "that Conan's wife was jealous."

"We were able to spend some time chatting about, uh, the turtles and anything else that might be going on in our lives," Shandling says as we stand in the kitchen of the vast Spanish-style home where he lives, alone, in the hills above the West Los Angeles enclave of Brentwood. You can see the distant ocean out the window, past a grassy oasis and Garry's rock-lined pool. He looks tan and fit, if a little rumpled, in an untucked striped button-down, baggy cargo pants with a tiger emblazoned on one leg, and beige Prada sneakers. When I press, he acknowledges that yes, the topic of O'Brien's future came up. "Conan's completely free now," Garry says with a solemnity more gurulike than you'd expect from someone who got famous making jokes about his hair. "He doesn't have to fit into someone else's mold."

 

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amaranta

amaranta

I'm wondering if any of the streaming services will add either or both of Garry's series.

 

All seven seasons of The Larry Sanders Show are available to stream on Amazon.  However, it's no longer part of prime.  It definitely used to be; that's how I first saw it a few years ago.  Shame; I'd watch it again if it was part of my membership.

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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