Hollywood Obituaries

[waltky]

Well go-ol-ly - Gomer Pyle died...

Jim Nabors, the Cheerful Gomer Pyle on Two TV Series, Dies at 87
11/30/2017 - The Alabama native with the rich baritone voice also had his own CBS variety show and recorded several hit albums.

Jim Nabors, who starred as Gomer Pyle on The Andy Griffith Show and on his own sitcom before retiring the wide-eyed, countrified character at the height of his popularity, has died. He was 87. Nabors died at his home in Hawaii on Wednesday night, his longtime partner told Indiana's WTHR-TV. A native of Alabama, Nabors also recorded more than two dozen albums with a rich, operatic baritone voice that surprised those who were used to hearing him exclaim "Gawwwleee!" with a Southern twang on television. For many years, Nabors sang "Back Home Again in Indiana" during the opening ceremonies for the Indianapolis 500.

In the early 1960s, Nabors was a regular performer at The Horn, a cabaret theater on Wilshire Boulevard in Santa Monica that showcased new talent, when he was spotted by Andy Griffith, who thought Nabors would be perfect to play a new character on his CBS sitcom. That would be Gomer, a dim-witted, affable mechanic at Wally's filling station in Mayberry and a cousin of Goober (George Lindsey). Nabors was signed for just one episode, which aired midway through The Andy Griffith Show's third season in December 1962, but Gomer proved popular, and Nabors went on to appear in 23 installments of the series. One of his signature phrases sprang from a discussion in which Gomer extolled the sophistication of Don Knotts' Barney Fife: "Gawwwleee! He's even been out with some nurses."

Nabors' run on The Andy Griffith Show culminated with the fourth-season finale in which Gomer joins the U.S. Marines. (The episode also served as the pilot for the spinoff sitcom.) With Pvt. Pyle being hounded by tough but caring drill sergeant Vince Carter (Frank Sutton), Gomer Pyle, USMC aired for five years (1964-69) on CBS and was a great success in the ratings — always in the top 10 and No. 2 in its final season — before the actor decided to pursue other activities, which included hosting his own variety show. "It got down to what you think you want to be: an actor or an entertainer. I want to entertain," Nabors said in 1969, when he decided to hang up Pyle's fatigues. "I don't think I'm much of an actor. The only part I ever played was Gomer. I'm the most surprised person around that I'm successful anyway."

He then showcased his singing and comedic talents on The Jim Nabors Hour, which lasted two seasons and featured some of his Gomer Pyle co-stars. The big-hearted Nabors never ventured far into movies, though he did perform opposite his pal Burt Reynolds in such fare as The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas (1982), Stroker Ace (1983) and as "Pvt. Homer Lyle" in Cannonball Run II (1984). James Thurston Nabors was born June 12, 1930, in Sylacauga, Ala., the son of a policeman. He sang in high school and acted in fraternity productions at the University of Alabama. After graduating with a degree in business administration, he moved to New York and worked as a typist and answered phones at the United Nations. "With my thick accent, people would try out different languages on me, never suspecting I was speaking English," he joked.

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[Auld Phart]

Yesterday, Rance Howard, father of Ronnie and Clint, died.

 

[Auld Phart]

What did Gomer say when Rock Hudson told him he had aids. "Surprise surprise surprise."

What's brown and lies behind the Marine barracks. Gomers pile.

Did you somehow get the impression this is the Flame Zone?

 

[waltky]

Actress who played Louisa von Trapp in Sound of Music passes away...

Heather Menzies-Urich, The Sound of Music's Louisa von Trapp, dies
25 Dec.`17 - Heather Menzies-Urich, who played Louisa Von Trapp in The Sound of Music, has died aged 68.

Her death was announced by the estate of the musical's creators, Rodgers & Hammerstein, on Monday. She was diagnosed with brain cancer four weeks ago and died on Christmas Eve, news site TMZ quoted her son Ryan as saying. "She was an actress, a ballerina and loved living her life to the fullest," he told TMZ. Born Heather Menzies in Toronto, she was 15 when the musical film was released in 1965. It went on to win 10 Oscars, including best picture.

Twitter post by @SoundofMusic: We Mourn the Loss of Heather Menzies-Urich.​

She played the mischievous third Von Trapp child Louisa, but her later television and film appearances did not hit the same heights. At 23, she posed nude for Playboy magazine under the headline The Tender Trapp, a decision she said horrified her Presbyterian parents, who were originally from Scotland. She married film producer Robert Urich in 1975, but he died in 2002.

From L to R: Heather Menzies-Urich (Louisa von Trapp), Debbie Turner (Marta) and Kym Karath (Gretl) at the 50th anniversary of the film in 2015​

Among those to pay tribute were Kym Karath, who played Gretl in the film. "Heather was part of 'the family'," Ted Chapin, of the Rodgers & Hammerstein estate, said. "Heather was a cheerful and positive member of the group, always hoping for the next gathering. We are all lucky to have known her, and she will happily live on in that beautiful movie. We will miss her." Her death comes 14 months after that of Charmian Carr, who played the eldest Von Trapp daughter Liesl.

Sound of Music's Louisa von Trapp dies

 

[my2¢]

What did Gomer say when Rock Hudson told him he had aids. "Surprise surprise surprise."

What's brown and lies behind the Marine barracks. Gomers pile.

Did you somehow get the impression this is the Flame Zone?

Did you somehow get the impression my post disparaged anyone? If so, how so?

 

[Auld Phart]

What did Gomer say when Rock Hudson told him he had aids. "Surprise surprise surprise."

What's brown and lies behind the Marine barracks. Gomers pile.

Did you somehow get the impression this is the Flame Zone?

Did you somehow get the impression my post disparaged anyone? If so, how so?

your 'post' belongs in Zone 4, or humor.

Not in this thread.

 

[Vandalshandle]

What did Gomer say when Rock Hudson told him he had aids. "Surprise surprise surprise."

What's brown and lies behind the Marine barracks. Gomers pile.

Did you somehow get the impression this is the Flame Zone?

Did you somehow get the impression my post disparaged anyone? If so, how so?

your 'post' belongs in Zone 4, or humor.

Not in this thread.

But does the board have a thread for 3rd grade humor?

 

[Auld Phart]

What did Gomer say when Rock Hudson told him he had aids. "Surprise surprise surprise."

What's brown and lies behind the Marine barracks. Gomers pile.

Did you somehow get the impression this is the Flame Zone?

Did you somehow get the impression my post disparaged anyone? If so, how so?

your 'post' belongs in Zone 4, or humor.

Not in this thread.

But does the board have a thread for 3rd grade humor?

areas of Humor, the Badlands, General Discussion, Flame Zone.

Thread was created to honor those who passed.

not make crude jokes about them

 

[Auld Phart]

What did Gomer say when Rock Hudson told him he had aids. "Surprise surprise surprise."

What's brown and lies behind the Marine barracks. Gomers pile.

Did you somehow get the impression this is the Flame Zone?

Did you somehow get the impression my post disparaged anyone? If so, how so?

What post?

That was to mike

that 'post' belongs in Zone 4, or humor.

Not in this thread.

What post?

That was to mike

that 'post' belongs in Zone 4, or humor.

Not in this thread.

 

[Auld Phart]

Rose Marie, 'Dick Van Dyke Show' star, dies at 94

Baby Rose Marie has passed

 

[Vandalshandle]

Rose Marie, 'Dick Van Dyke Show' star, dies at 94

Baby Rose Marie has passed

 

[Auld Phart]

"Coach" actor Jerry Van Dyke dead at 86 - CBS News

Comically known as a Man for One Season, til he costarred on Coach

 

[skye]

"Coach" actor Jerry Van Dyke dead at 86 - CBS News

Comically known as a Man for One Season, til he costarred on Coach

The brother of Dick Van Dyke.....sad.....RIP

 

[Vandalshandle]

"Coach" actor Jerry Van Dyke dead at 86 - CBS News

Comically known as a Man for One Season, til he costarred on Coach

Who suffered the embarrassment of staring in one of the worst, and most short lived sitcoms in the history of television, "My mother, the car"., based on the premise that his mother died and came back to life as a Model T Ford with her soul and personality.

 

[Auld Phart]

"Coach" actor Jerry Van Dyke dead at 86 - CBS News

Comically known as a Man for One Season, til he costarred on Coach

Who suffered the embarrassment of staring in one of the worst, and most short lived sitcoms in the history of television, "My mother, the car"., based on the premise that his mother died and came back to life as a Model T Ford with her soul and personality.

Starred in several one season sitcoms.

Guess the producers thought he'd be another Dick

 

[Vandalshandle]

As bad as "My Mother, the Car", was, Andy Griffith did even worse. "Sheriff Adams of Eagle Lake" aired only 2 episodes.

 

[waltky]

'Coach' Jerry van Dyke passes away at 86...

'Coach' actor Jerry Van Dyke, younger brother of Dick Van Dyke, dead at 86
Jan. 6, 2018 - Jerry Van Dyke, the actor, comedian and younger brother of Dick Van Dyke, died Friday, according to the Los Angeles Times and The New York Times. He was 86.

Van Dyke's wife, Shirley Ann Jones, told the newspapers his health had deteriorated since a car accident two years ago. He passed away at a ranch in Hot Spring County, Ark., that he and his wife have owned for 35 years. The couple were alone together at the time of his death, the cause of which remains unknown. Born in Danville, Ill., Van Dyke got his start in TV by making appearances on The Dick Van Dyke Show, the American sitcom that starred his real-life older brother. He also made appearances on The Ed Sullivan Show and The Judy Garland Show.

Jerry Van Dyke as a member of the coaching staff of the Minnesota State Screaming Eagles football team in the popular comedy series 'Coach.'​

In 1965, he played Dave Crabtree in NBC series My Mother the Car, which ran for a single season. He was best known for his role as Assistant Coach Luther Horatio Van Dam on the TV series Coach, which earned him four Emmy Award nominations. The series ran from 1989 to 1997. Van Dyke spoke with USA TODAY in 1990 about one of his Emmy nominations, joking about whether it marked a comeback in his career. "Everybody talks about me making a comeback," he said. "I say, 'comeback from what?' This is as good as it's ever been."

He also spoke about his famous brother, who made an appearance on Coach the same year as his long-lost father. "I was always known as Dick Van Dyke's brother and the guy that did My Mother the Car. Now people know me that never knew me before, that don't even know Dick. That's really a thrill," he said. More recently, Van Dyke made several appearances as Tag Spence on the ABC series The Middle.

'Coach' actor Jerry Van Dyke, younger brother of Dick Van Dyke, dead at 86

 

[waltky]

Edgar Ray Killen, convicted in 'Mississippi Burning' killings, dead at 92...

Edgar Ray Killen, convicted in 'Mississippi Burning' killings, dead at 92
January 12, 2018 - Edgar Ray Killen, the preacher and Ku Klux Klansman convicted and sent to prison more than 40 years after he plotted the 1964 slayings of three civil rights activists in the “Mississippi Burning” case, died on Thursday night at the age of 92, Mississippi correction officials said.

Killen, who would have turned 93 on Jan. 17, was pronounced dead at the hospital at Mississippi State Penitentiary, according to a statement on the state Department of Corrections website on Friday. The cause and manner of death were pending an autopsy, the statement said. No foul play was suspected. Killen, whose 2005 manslaughter conviction came on the 41st anniversary of the crime, was serving a 60-year prison sentence - the maximum 20 years for each victim. In a 2015 interview with the Associated Press, Killen refused to discuss his case but said he was still a segregationist, although he had no ill will for blacks. The slayings of James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner in Philadelphia, Mississippi, on June 21, 1964, at the hands of the Klan, local law enforcement officers and others was one of the most shocking and galvanizing moments of the U.S. civil rights movement.

Historians say the outcry over the incident, which was portrayed in the 1988 Oscar-winning film “Mississippi Burning,” helped win support for subsequent civil rights legislation, including the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Chaney was a 21-year-old black man from Meridian, Mississippi, while Schwerner, 24, and Goodman, 20, were white New Yorkers. They were part of a campaign to register black voters in the South during the “Freedom Summer” and caught the attention of law enforcement authorities and Klansmen when they came to Philadelphia. The three men had been taken into custody on a speeding charge and while they were detained, Killen assembled the mob that later would chase them down and kill them, prosecutors said at his 2005 trial. Killen, who operated a sawmill and was known by the nickname Preacher because he presided part time at a Baptist church, told the mob to buy gloves and how to dispose of the bodies but was not accused of being at the murder scene, the prosecution said.

NO STATE CHARGES

Chaney, Schwerner and Goodman were shot on a rural road near Killen’s home and then buried 15 feet deep in an earthen dam. Their disappearance became a national news story and federal agents were sent to search for them. Thanks to an informant, the bodies were discovered 44 days after the killings. The state of Mississippi declined to pursue murder charges in the case but in 1967, 18 men, including Killen, local Klan leader Sam Bowers and the county sheriff, were tried on federal charges of violating the victims’ civil rights. An all-white jury convicted seven of the men, including Bowers and a sheriff’s deputy, and they were given sentences ranging from three to 10 years. The jury was unable to agree on a verdict for Killen with the hold-out juror saying she could never convict a preacher. The others were acquitted. “Those boys were Communists who went to a Communist training school,” Killen said of the victims in a 1998 interview with the New York Times. “I‘m sorry they got themselves killed. But I can’t show remorse for something I didn’t do.”

Killen went quietly about his life after the verdict. But reporter Jerry Mitchell of the Jackson, Mississippi, Clarion-Ledger revived interest in the case in 1998 with stories about taped interviews at the Mississippi Department of Archives and History in which Bowers said he was “quite delighted to be convicted and have the main instigator of the entire affair walk out of the courtroom a free man.” Mitchell’s reporting also eventually led to the convictions for Bowers in the murder of another 1960’s activist, as well as Byron De La Beckwith in the 1963 assassination of NAACP leader Medgar Evers, and Bobby Cherry, who killed four girls by bombing a Birmingham, Alabama, church in 1963 - all decades after the crimes were committed. Forty years after the “Mississippi Burning” killings and at age 80, Killen became the first and only person to be tried for murder in the case. His attorneys conceded Killen was a member of the Klan and the trial featured testimony that he had lauded the KKK as a benevolent Christian group that would keep schools segregated. Prosecutors said he encouraged members of his congregation to join the Klan.

Killen did not testify at the trial, which was attended by Schwerner’s widow and the mothers of Chaney and Goodman, and sat impassively in a wheelchair, breathing from an oxygen tank as the verdict was announced. Much of the testimony had come from transcripts of the 1967 federal trial. With key witnesses dead and memories faded, the jurors, including three black members, said they convicted Killen of the lesser charge of manslaughter because the state’s case was not strong enough to prove murder. In June 2016, the state of Mississippi finally officially closed the case.

Edgar Ray Killen, convicted in 'Mississippi Burning' killings, dead at

 

[Auld Phart]

Edgar Ray Killen, convicted in 'Mississippi Burning' killings, dead at 92...

Edgar Ray Killen, convicted in 'Mississippi Burning' killings, dead at 92
January 12, 2018 - Edgar Ray Killen, the preacher and Ku Klux Klansman convicted and sent to prison more than 40 years after he plotted the 1964 slayings of three civil rights activists in the “Mississippi Burning” case, died on Thursday night at the age of 92, Mississippi correction officials said.

Killen, who would have turned 93 on Jan. 17, was pronounced dead at the hospital at Mississippi State Penitentiary, according to a statement on the state Department of Corrections website on Friday. The cause and manner of death were pending an autopsy, the statement said. No foul play was suspected. Killen, whose 2005 manslaughter conviction came on the 41st anniversary of the crime, was serving a 60-year prison sentence - the maximum 20 years for each victim. In a 2015 interview with the Associated Press, Killen refused to discuss his case but said he was still a segregationist, although he had no ill will for blacks. The slayings of James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner in Philadelphia, Mississippi, on June 21, 1964, at the hands of the Klan, local law enforcement officers and others was one of the most shocking and galvanizing moments of the U.S. civil rights movement.

Historians say the outcry over the incident, which was portrayed in the 1988 Oscar-winning film “Mississippi Burning,” helped win support for subsequent civil rights legislation, including the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Chaney was a 21-year-old black man from Meridian, Mississippi, while Schwerner, 24, and Goodman, 20, were white New Yorkers. They were part of a campaign to register black voters in the South during the “Freedom Summer” and caught the attention of law enforcement authorities and Klansmen when they came to Philadelphia. The three men had been taken into custody on a speeding charge and while they were detained, Killen assembled the mob that later would chase them down and kill them, prosecutors said at his 2005 trial. Killen, who operated a sawmill and was known by the nickname Preacher because he presided part time at a Baptist church, told the mob to buy gloves and how to dispose of the bodies but was not accused of being at the murder scene, the prosecution said.

NO STATE CHARGES

Chaney, Schwerner and Goodman were shot on a rural road near Killen’s home and then buried 15 feet deep in an earthen dam. Their disappearance became a national news story and federal agents were sent to search for them. Thanks to an informant, the bodies were discovered 44 days after the killings. The state of Mississippi declined to pursue murder charges in the case but in 1967, 18 men, including Killen, local Klan leader Sam Bowers and the county sheriff, were tried on federal charges of violating the victims’ civil rights. An all-white jury convicted seven of the men, including Bowers and a sheriff’s deputy, and they were given sentences ranging from three to 10 years. The jury was unable to agree on a verdict for Killen with the hold-out juror saying she could never convict a preacher. The others were acquitted. “Those boys were Communists who went to a Communist training school,” Killen said of the victims in a 1998 interview with the New York Times. “I‘m sorry they got themselves killed. But I can’t show remorse for something I didn’t do.”

Killen went quietly about his life after the verdict. But reporter Jerry Mitchell of the Jackson, Mississippi, Clarion-Ledger revived interest in the case in 1998 with stories about taped interviews at the Mississippi Department of Archives and History in which Bowers said he was “quite delighted to be convicted and have the main instigator of the entire affair walk out of the courtroom a free man.” Mitchell’s reporting also eventually led to the convictions for Bowers in the murder of another 1960’s activist, as well as Byron De La Beckwith in the 1963 assassination of NAACP leader Medgar Evers, and Bobby Cherry, who killed four girls by bombing a Birmingham, Alabama, church in 1963 - all decades after the crimes were committed. Forty years after the “Mississippi Burning” killings and at age 80, Killen became the first and only person to be tried for murder in the case. His attorneys conceded Killen was a member of the Klan and the trial featured testimony that he had lauded the KKK as a benevolent Christian group that would keep schools segregated. Prosecutors said he encouraged members of his congregation to join the Klan.

Killen did not testify at the trial, which was attended by Schwerner’s widow and the mothers of Chaney and Goodman, and sat impassively in a wheelchair, breathing from an oxygen tank as the verdict was announced. Much of the testimony had come from transcripts of the 1967 federal trial. With key witnesses dead and memories faded, the jurors, including three black members, said they convicted Killen of the lesser charge of manslaughter because the state’s case was not strong enough to prove murder. In June 2016, the state of Mississippi finally officially closed the case.

Edgar Ray Killen, convicted in 'Mississippi Burning' killings, dead at

He drew breath far too long

 

[waltky]

Original Disney Mouseketeer Tracey Dies at 74...

Original Disney Mouseketeer Tracey Dies at 74
January 12, 2018 — Doreen Tracey, a former child star who played one of the original cute-as-a-button Mouseketeers on The Mickey Mouse Club in the 1950s, has died, according to Disney publicist Howard Green. She was 74.

Tracey died of pneumonia Wednesday at a hospital in Thousand Oaks, Calif., following a two-year battle with cancer. Tracey maintained ties to Disney and show business throughout her life, appearing in the film Westward Ho the Wagons! and touring with the Mouseketeers. She later served as a publicist to musician Frank Zappa and worked at Warner Bros. It was the pig-tailed Tracey and her talented co-stars — including Annette Funicello — who appeared on television in black hats with ears following the anthem "M-I-C, K-E-Y, M-O-U-S-E ...'' on ABC's The Mickey Mouse Club.

Millions of kids raced home from school to watch in wonder as the bouncy Mouseketeers announced themselves at the top of the show. The Mickey Mouse Club was the brainchild of Walt Disney during the flowering of his company's fortunes in the mid-1950s. To help finance the Disneyland park, he agreed to supply ABC with TV shows. One was designed for children in the pre-dinner hour. The hourlong show proved a sensation with its Oct. 3, 1955, debut. It flourished for two seasons, then was reduced to a half-hour for two more. Tracey stayed for its four-year run.

Former "Mickey Mouse Club" Mouseketeer Doreen Tracey poses near Stage One on The Walt Disney Studios lot after its rededication as the "Annette Funicello Stage" in honor of the late Mouseketeer in Burbank, Calif., June 24, 2013. Stage One was the home of the original "Mickey Mouse Club" TV series.​

The black-and-white series was syndicated in 1962-65. The 1990s version of The Mickey Mouse Club launched the careers of singers Justin Timberlake, Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera, and actors Keri Russell and Ryan Gosling. Born in London on April 3, 1943, to parents who worked in vaudeville, Tracey arrived in the United States when she was 4 and learned to sing and dance. She nabbed a spot on The Mickey Mouse Club when she was 12. Lorraine Santoli, a former executive at Disney who wrote The Official Mickey Mouse Club Book, said Tracey remained close to her Disney roots, maintaining longtime friendships with her fellow Mouseketeers.

Tracey strained her relationship with Disney by posing for a men's magazine in 1976 with nothing on except her mouse ears and later wearing nothing but an open trench coat in front of Disney Studios. Still, she often appeared at Mickey Mouse Club reunion shows at Disneyland and at Disney conventions, last celebrating the show's 60th anniversary in 2015. Tracey is survived by her son, Bradley, and two grandchildren, Gavin, 9, and Autumn, 12.

Original Disney Mouseketeer Tracey Dies at 74