Hollywood Obituaries

[waltky]

Veteran character actor Abe Vigoda passes on...

Abe Vigoda, Det. Fish on TV's 'Barney Miller,' Dies at 94
1/26/2016 | The three-time Emmy nominee also starred in his own spinoff series and was memorable as a mob boss in 'The Godfather.'

Abe Vigoda, who earned Emmy Award nominations in three straight years for his portrayal of the world-weary Det. Phil Fish on the 1970s ABC sitcom Barney Miller, has died. He was 94. The actor's daughter, Carol Vigoda Fuchs, confirmed the passing to the Associated Press, saying that Vigoda died on Tuesday morning at home in New Jersey. Vigoda also is remembered for his role as hulking mob boss Sal Tessio in Francis Ford Coppola’s first two Godfather films. In 1982, People magazine noted that “the late” Abe Vigoda did not attend the Barney Miller wrap party, and rumors/reports of his death circulated many times in the ensuing years. A website was created with a sole purpose: to indicate whether the actor was dead or alive.

The good-natured Vigoda capitalized on the bizarre situation to keep his career going in his later years. He made frequent appearances on Late Night With Conan O’Brien and the Today show, starred with Betty White in a wildly popular Snickers commercial that debuted during the 2010 Super Bowl telecast and was revealed to be inside a furry costume onstage at a 2013 Phish concert in Atlantic City, N.J. (He and his spinoff show, Fish, are referenced in their song, “Wombat.”) The New York native was 53 when his agent told him to rush to an audition for Barney Miller in Studio City. He had just jogged five miles and hadn’t showered. “Danny Arnold and Ted Flicker, the producers, look at me, I look at them, they look at me again. ‘You look tired,’ ” he recalled one of them saying in the 2009 book, What Have You Done? The Inside Stories of Auditioning — From the Ridiculous to the Sublime. “Of course I’m tired. I jogged five miles this morning. I’m exhausted.” “Yeah, yeah, tell me, you look like you have hemorrhoids.” “What are you, a doctor or a producer?”

Vigoda got the part of Fish, a man much older than he, and Barney Miller premiered in January 1975. The sitcom starred Hal Linden as the title character, the captain of the fictional 12th Precinct in New York’s Greenwich Village. Featuring a rich mix of ethnic characters, Barney Miller aired for eight seasons through May 1982 and captured the Emmy for outstanding comedy a few months after it was done. As the cranky Fish, the oldest of the detectives and a member of the force for nearly 40 years, Vigoda often complained about his sore feet and yes, his hemorrhoids. He constantly argued with his bothersome wife, Bernice, who was on the other end of the telephone, and his somber, hangdog delivery delighted TV viewers.

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[waltky]

Georgy Girl author Forster dies...

Author Margaret Forster dies from cancer aged 77
Mon, 08 Feb 2016 - The novelist Margaret Forster dies at the age of 77 after suffering from cancer in her back.

The writer Margaret Forster has died at the age of 77, her husband Hunter Davies has announced. She was best known for her novels Georgy Girl and Diary of an Ordinary Woman. The award-winning author had been suffering from cancer in her back. Mr Davies, who is also a writer, said: "She had a double mastectomy 40 years ago so she's had a remarkable life considering she had it for so long." Forster died on Monday morning at the Marie Curie Hospice in north London. Confirming her death, the couple's daughter Caitlin Davies wrote on Twitter: "Our lovely mum Margaret Forster died this morning. Her books will live on."

Margaret Forster with her husband, Hunter Davies, in 1986​

Margaret Forster was born in Carlisle, and was a teacher at a girls' school in Islington before her writing career took off. Her most famous novel Georgy Girl, published in 1965, was turned into a film starring Lynn Redgrave and Charlotte Rampling the following year. The book told the story of a young woman in 1960s London who is pursued by two different men - her father's employer and the young lover of her pregnant flatmate.

'Remarkable woman'

Fellow novelist Elizabeth Day paid tribute to Forster, saying she was "an under-appreciated wonder of a writer who was once very nice to me as a debut novelist". Forster's most recent book was My Life In Houses, published in 2014 - an autobiographical tour of places she had lived including Oxford, Portugal, the Lake District and what she described as the "wrong side" of Hampstead in London. Across her career, the author published more than 25 novels, plus several biographies of figures including Dame Daphne du Maurier and 19th Century novelist William Makepeace Thackeray.

Speaking to the Press Association, Davies described his wife as "the cleverest woman I ever met". "She was emotionally clever, in that she could always understand people and predict their actions and their feelings and their motives, which I can never do. And she was a brilliant critic as well. "Always had an opinion whether asked for it or not, and she was just the most marvellous woman. She was a remarkable woman in every way." Mr Davies said his wife rarely gave interviews as she "was not interested in publicity". But Forster did appear on Radio 4's Desert Island Discs in 1994.

Author Margaret Forster dies from cancer aged 77 - BBC News

 

[waltky]

Tony "Duke" Evers, who trained both Rocky and Apollo Creed passes on...

Rocky actor Tony Burton dies aged 78
Fri, 26 Feb 2016 - Tony Burton, who appeared in six Rocky films with Sylvester Stallone, dies at the age of 78.[/i]

His cause of death is not known but his sister, Loretta Kelly, said he had regularly been in hospital over the past year. She added he had not received a diagnosis in that time but his health was so poor he had not been able to see recent spin-off film Creed. Burton played Tony "Duke" Evers, who trained both Rocky and Apollo Creed. The character supported Creed, Rocky Balboa's opponent, in the first two boxing films before later becoming the trainer to Balboa himself.

Burton's co-star Carl Weathers tweeted: "Sad news. RIP Tony Burton. His intensity and talent helped make the Rocky movies successful." His former classmate Gerald Moore said: ''It's just like someone in my own family passed. Whenever we got together we would reminisce on old times.'' Before becoming an actor, Burton - who was from Flint, Michigan - briefly fought professionally and won Flint Golden Gloves light heavyweight titles in 1955 and again in 1957. Burton is seen briefly in Creed, which was released in the UK last month, but only as part of a flashback which used stock footage from an earlier film.

In addition to appearing in the Rocky Films, Burton also appeared in The Shining and Stir Crazy. His last role was Sheriff Stoker in comedy-horror Hack! released in 2007. According to IMDb, he had signed up to appear in The Truth About the War in Heaven: Declaration of War, but the film has not yet gone into production. Burton's TV work included appearances in The A-Team, NYPD Blue, Kojak and Twin Peaks.

Rocky actor Tony Burton dies aged 78 - BBC News

 

[waltky]

Character actor Joe Santos passes at 84...

'Rockford Files' Actor Joe Santos Dies at 84
18 Mar.`16 - Joe Santos, best known for playing Lt. Dennis Becker, the frustrated L.A. policeman pal of James Garner's private detective on The Rockford Files, died Friday. He was 84.

Santos’ son son Perry told TMZ that his father suffered a heart attack at his Los Angeles home Wednesday and was put on life support. He died in a Santa Monica hospital, he said. The Brooklyn native played Becker, who had a love-hate relationship with Garner's Jim Rockford, on 112 episodes of The Rockford Files, which ran on NBC from 1974-80. He was nominated for an Emmy for outstanding supporting actor in a drama series in 1979 and reprised the role for several telefilms. “He’s the kind of guy who lights up a set just by showing up,” Garner said of Santos in a 1977 story in TV Guide. “And there aren’t too many around like that. He’s so good and so professional, and he’s got so much enthusiasm. He’s one hell of an actor, and he’s one tough little dude. But mostly, Joe is a pussycat.”

His 40-year career was filled with roles as good cops on such series as Police Story, Magnum, P.I. and Hardcastle and McCormick and on the 1973 miniseries The Blue Knight opposite William Holden, though he played a bad guy, Consigliere Angelo Garepe, on The Sopranos. Santos also portrayed a detective in the Al Pacino starrer The Panic in Needle Park (1971) and a reporter in the Frank Sinatra film The Detective (1968). He also was in such films as The Gang That Couldn’t Shoot Straight (1971), Shaft’s Big Score! (1972), The Friends of Eddie Coyle (1973), Blue Thunder (1983), The Last Boy Scout (1991) and Chronic (2015).

Before he turned to acting, Santos, who had played football at Fordham University, had “no idea what to do with my life,” he recalled in the TV Guide story. “I owned a bar, I worked on the railroad and I chopped down trees. Before Castro took over in Cuba, I used to buy $25 cars and drive them down to Key West. From there, I’d get them into Havana and unload them for $500 apiece.” A friend invited him to tag along to his acting class, and that changed everything. Santos quickly landed a role on the soap opera The Doctors even though “there were 20,000 [other] guys who looked like me” [during his audition], he said. He became friends with Pacino while playing softball, and that led to famed casting director Marion Doughtery picking him to play Det. DiBono in Needle Park.

'Rockford Files' Actor Joe Santos Dies at 84 (Report)

 

[waltky]

Awww, Wilbur died...

Alan Young, star of 1960s sitcom 'Mr. Ed,' dies at 96
May 20, 2016 — Actor-comedian Alan Young, who played the amiable straight man to a talking horse in the 1960s sitcom "Mister Ed," has died, a spokeswoman for the Motion Picture and Television Home said Friday. He was 96.

The English-born, Canadian-educated Young died Thursday, according to Jaime Larkin, spokeswoman for the retirement community where Young had lived for four years. His children were with him when he died peacefully of natural causes, she said. Young was already a well-known radio and TV comedian, having starred in his own Emmy-winning variety show, when "Mister Ed" was being readied at comedian George Burns' production company. Burns is said to have told his staff: "Get Alan Young. He looks like the kind of guy a horse would talk to." Mr. Ed was a golden Palomino who spoke only to his owner, Wilbur Post, played by Young. Fans enjoyed the horse's deep, droll voice ("WIL-bur-r-r-r-r") and the goofy theme song lyrics ("A horse is a horse, of course, of course ... "). Cowboy star Allan "Rocky" Lane supplied Mr. Ed's voice.

An eclectic group of celebrities including Clint Eastwood, Mae West and baseball great Sandy Koufax made guest appearances on the show. "Mister Ed" was one of a number of situation comedies during the early to mid-'60s that added elements of fantasy. Others were "My Mother the Car," in which a man's dead mother spoke to him through an old car; "My Favorite Martian" in which a Martian took up residence on Earth disguised as the uncle of an earthling; and "Bewitched" in which a witch married a mortal. A loose variation on the "Francis the Talking Mule" movies of the 1950s, "Mister Ed" was one of the few network series to begin in syndication. After six months, it moved to ABC in October 1961 and lasted four seasons. When the cameras weren't rolling, the human and four-legged co-stars were friends, according to Young. If Ed was reprimanded by his trainer, Young said, "He would come over to me, like, 'Look what he said to me.'"

Like many series of its vintage, "Mister Ed" won new fans in later decades through near-constant cable TV syndication and video releases. Young also appeared in a number of films, including "Gentlemen Marry Brunettes," ''Tom Thumb," ''The Cat from Outer Space" and "The Time Machine," the latter the 1960 classic in which, speaking in a Scottish brogue, he played time traveler Rod Taylor's friend. Young had a small role in the 2002 "Time Machine" remake. In later years, Young found a new career writing for and voicing cartoons. He portrayed Scrooge McDuck in 65 episodes for Disney's TV series "Duck Tales" and did voice-overs for "The Great Mouse Detective."

Young's sly, low-key style first attracted a wide U.S. audience in 1944 with "The Alan Young Show" on ABC radio. He also drew attention from Hollywood, but early films such as "Margie" and "Mr. Belvedere Goes to College" did poorly and in 1950 he turned to the growing new medium of TV and moved "The Alan Young Show" to the small screen, where it offered a contrast to the slapstick and old vaudeville of other variety shows. His gentle comedy caused TV Guide to hail him as "the Charlie Chaplin of television," and the fledgling Academy of Television Arts and Sciences awarded Emmys to Young as best actor and to the show as best variety series.

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[skye]

he is gone too..... ^^^^
long nice life....96 years old.....bless him bless his longevity!

 

[waltky]

Young Chekov dies...

Anton Yelchin, Star Trek's Chekov, killed by his own car
Sun, 19 Jun 2016 - Anton Yelchin, the Russian-born actor who played Chekov in the new Star Trek films, has been killed by his own car at his home in Los Angeles, police say.

It struck him after rolling backwards down the steep drive at his Studio City home, pinning him against a brick postbox pillar and a security fence. He died shortly after 01:00 (08:00 GMT) on Sunday. Yelchin, 27, also appeared in such films as Like Crazy (2011) and Green Room (2015). Yelchin played Pavel Chekov, the role originally made famous by Walter Koenig (now 79), in the films Star Trek (2009) and Star Trek Into Darkness (2013). A third film with him in the role, Star Trek Beyond, is due for release next month.

'This impossible time of grief'

News of his death led Twitter trends in Los Angeles and beyond on Sunday. Zachary Quinto, who plays Spock in the series, wrote on Instagram: "our dear friend. our comrade. our anton. "One of the most open and intellectually curious people i have ever had the pleasure to know. so enormously talented and generous of heart. wise beyond his years. and gone before his time. all love and strength to his family at this impossible time of grief."

Anton Yelchin poses during the photo call for the film Burying the ex at the 71st Venice Film Festival​

Fellow Star Trek actor John Cho, who plays Sulu in the series, tweeted, "I loved Anton Yelchin so much. He was a true artist - curious, beautiful, courageous. He was a great pal and a great son. I'm in ruins." The official @StarTrek Twitter account marked his death with a simple, sombre image.

Found dead by friends

An only child, he was born to professional figure skaters in Leningrad (now St Petersburg), who moved to the US when he was still a baby. Los Angeles police officer Jenny Hosier said Yelchin had just got out of the vehicle when it rolled back. He had been on his way to meet friends for a rehearsal, she added. When he did not arrive, the group came to his home and found him dead, the police spokeswoman said. The actor's publicist, Jennifer Allen, confirmed the actor's death and said his family had requested privacy.

Anton Yelchin, Star Trek's Chekov, killed by his own car - BBC News

 

[Vandalshandle]

Ok, so who is next?

Kirk Douglas
Doris Day
Carol Channing

 

[skye]

Ok, so who is next?

Kirk Douglas
Doris Day
Carol Channing

you?


joke?

ha

 

[Manonthestreet]

Kirk Douglas just sold his house

 

[waltky]

Awww...

Dances with Wolves actor Chief David Bald Eagle dies at 97
Wed, 27 Jul 2016 - Native American Chief David Bald Eagle, who appeared in the Oscar-winning 1990 film Dances With Wolves, has died aged 97.

The grandson of Chief White Bull, who fought in the Battle of the Little Bighorn in 1876, Bald Eagle appeared in more than 40 films. He went on to become the face of South Dakota's Lakota people. He died at his home on the Cheyenne River Indian Reservation on 22 July, according to a local funeral home. Born in a tepee in 1919 on the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe Reservation, his native Lakota name translates as Wounded in Winter Beautiful Bald Eagle. He served in the US Army during World War Two where he fought in the landings at Anzio in Italy and won the silver star.

Chief David Bald Eagle​

After being severely wounded by German fire while parachuting into Normandy during D-Day, Bald Eagle pursued a music career as a drummer for Cliff Keyes Big Band. Following a foray into ballroom dancing, which ended with the tragic death of his dance partner and wife, Penny Rathburn, in a car crash, Bald Eagle established a career in Hollywood. He trained a range of stars including John Wayne in horse and gun handling, and served as Errol Flynn's stunt double. In the late 1950s he joined a rodeo display team and while in Belgium met his second wife, Josee.

'Beautiful man'

He continued to work as an actor and became the face of South Dakota's state tourism promotions for decades. Outside of showbusiness, Bald Eagle's dedication to the Lakota people saw him elected as the first Chief of the United Native Nations in 2001, addressing indigenous people worldwide. His last film role was in Neither Wolf Nor Dog, which premiered at the Edinburgh Film Festival last month.

The film's director, Steven Lewis Simpson, praised Bald Eagle as "truly unique". "His life was more extraordinary than of those that most great biographies are written about; the joys and the tragedies," he said. "He was an astonishingly beautiful man. The sparkle from his eyes when he smiled or was being mischievous was a joy to behold." Rooks Funeral Home in Eagle Butte said Bald Eagle's funeral is scheduled for 29 July at Black Hills National Cemetery in Sturgis, following a traditional four-day wake.

Dances with Wolves actor Chief David Bald Eagle dies at 97 - BBC News

 

[waltky]

'Wyatt Earp, Wyatt Earp, brave courageous and bold...

... Long live his fame and long live his glory...

... and long may his story be told'...

TV's Wyatt Earp, Hugh O'Brian, has died at 91
September 5, 2016 — Hugh O'Brian, who shot to fame as Sheriff Wyatt Earp in what was hailed as television's first adult Western, has died. He was 91.

A representative from HOBY, a philanthropic organization O'Brian founded, says he died at home Monday morning in Beverly Hills. Until "The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp" debuted in September 1955, most TV Westerns — "The Lone Ranger," ''Hopalong Cassidy," the singing cowboys' series — were aimed at adolescent boys. "Wyatt Earp," on the other hand, was based on a real-life Western hero, and some of its stories were authentic. (The real Earp, who lived from 1848 to 1929, is most famous for his participation in the 1881 "Shootout at the O.K. Corral" in Tombstone, Arizona.)

Critics quickly praised it, and it made O'Brian a star. "If we were doing Westerns with the chase and the fights that last endlessly, and the sheriff's daughter in sunbonnet and calico and the Wanted posters ... we wouldn't reach the audience we reach each week," O'Brian once said. "Gunsmoke," which debuted just a few days after "Wyatt Earp," became an even bigger hit, and by 1956-57, both were in the top 20 shows. In the 1958-59 season, Westerns accounted for an incredible seven out of the top 10 U.S. television series, including No. 1 "Gunsmoke" and No. 2 "Wagon Train," with "Wyatt Earp" at No. 10. "Wyatt Earp" remained a Top 20 hit until 1960, but it was canceled the following year after being supplanted by the avalanche of other adult Westerns.

O'Brian, meanwhile, continued to work frequently in movies, television and theater through the 1990s, although he never again achieved the prominence he enjoyed as Wyatt Earp. He starred in the 1970s detective series "Search" and appeared in such films as "In Harm's Way" and "Ten Little Indians," and reprised his role as Earp in 1994's "Wyatt Earp: Return to Tombstone," a film that combined new footage with colorized scenes from the original black-and-white TV show. He also had a small but memorable role as the faro dealer in John Wayne's last film, "The Shootist," and later noted with pride that it gave him the distinction of being the last bad guy killed by Wayne. (Wayne himself is reputed to have met the real Wyatt Earp as a young man in Hollywood in the 1920s.)

Late in his career, O'Brian made frequent guest appearances in television series and variety shows and toured in the national companies of "Cactus Flower," ''1776" and "Guys and Dolls." O'Brian had originally planned to study law at Yale University. But after actress Ida Lupino saw him in a play at a small Los Angeles theater she cast him in "Never Fear," a 1949 film she was directing, and his acting career was launched. He went on to appear in small parts in such films as "The Return of Jesse James," ''Red Ball Express," ''Broken Lance" and "There's No Business Like Show Business." O'Brian was inducted into the Hall of Great Western Performers of the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in 1992. He also made his mark in philanthropy as founder of the Hugh O'Brian Youth Leadership organization.

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[Vandalshandle]

I watched O'brien's show as a kid. I recall that they made a big deal about his gun, which was a "Buntline Special", whatever the hell that was. He also wore a coat with silk lining so his draw would not be slowed down by rubbing against course cotton. Amazing how these little details come back after all these years. His small roll in "The Shootist" was done well.

 

[Vandalshandle]

Buntline Special

Colt Buntline - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[waltky]

Vandalshandle wrote: I watched O'brien's show as a kid. I recall that they made a big deal about his gun, which was a "Buntline Special", whatever the hell that was.

The .22 Buntline Special was the gun used...

... in the Manson murders...

... it had a long barrel for accuracy.

 

[Auld Phart]

Ron Glass

Ron Glass, co-star of TV's 'Barney Miller' dead at 71

 

[miketx]

Fidel Castro. Hated capitalism, dies on black Friday.

 

[Auld Phart]

Alan Thicke

a young 69

NBC: 'Growing Pains' actor Alan Thicke dead at 69

 

[JOSweetHeart]

^^^ This is my favorite rendition of the Growing Pains theme song.



God bless you and Alan's family and TV family always!!!

Holly

P.S. I love how each family member is all dressed up in their final picture.

 

[tinydancer]

I had just heard an interview with Thicke on CBC a few days back. He was promoting his new movie. Sigh. Always a considerate nice guy. Fame never went to his head. Humble. Eternally humble with a fabulous self deprecating kind of humour.

He came from Kirkland Lake. Northern Ontario town where a lot of my family comes from. Big hockey town.

I couldn't help but smile when I heard he was playing hockey with his son when he dropped. A good Canuck to the end.

RIP Alan. Thanks for all the laughs. You've made it to the big rink in the sky.