Hollywood Obituaries

Space_Time · Nov 9, 2017

https://www.yahoo.com/tv/john-hillerman-higgins-magnum-p-dies-84-230644411.html

John Hillerman, Higgins on 'Magnum, P.I.,' dies at 84
The Hollywood Reporter The Hollywood Reporter 5 hours ago
John Hillerman, the actor who made a career out of playing snooty types, including Tom Selleck’s fastidious estate caretaker Jonathan Quayle Higgins III on Magnum, P.I., died Thursday. He was 84.

Hillerman, who received four Emmy nominations in consecutive years for portraying Higgins and won in 1987, died at his home in Houston, family spokeswoman Lori De Waal told the Associated Press. She said the cause of death had not been determined.

Hillerman also appeared as Higgins on episodes of Murder, She Wrote and Simon & Simon.

His Higgins character was a natural extension of a part he played on the TV detective show Ellery Queen: Simon Brimmer, a radio personality and affected gent who fancied himself a savvy sleuth. Ironically, Hillerman, who often played condescending characters with more than a touch of the Tory Brit — the Mayfair accent — was a Texan from a tiny railroad town, the son of a gas station owner.

He also was recognized for his character on the 1977-78 sitcom The Betty White Show, in which he played the star’s director and former spouse; as Sandy Duncan’s father on Valerie’s Family: The Hogans; and as Bonnie Franklin’s stuffy boss Mr. Connors at a PR firm on One Day at a Time.

Hillerman received his first onscreen credit in 1971 at the relatively advanced age of 39 off a part in the 1971 Western Lawman. Also that year, he had a small role as a teacher in Peter Bogdanovich’s The Last Picture Show.

Later, he appeared for the director in What’s Up, Doc? (1972), Paper Moon (1973) and At Long Last Love (1975).

Hillerman had roles in many top films, including such hits as Mel Brooks’ Blazing Saddles (1974), where he played a chap named Howard Johnson, and Roman Polanski’s noir classic Chinatown(1974), as Russ Yelburton, deputy chief of the water department.

Hillerman also performed in High Plains Drifter (1973), Lucky Lady (1975), Audrey Rose (1977) and another Brooks’ film, History of the World: Part I (1981) and A Very Brady Sequel (1996).

John Benedict Hillerman was born Dec. 20, 1932, in Denison, Texas. He attended the University of Texas at Austin for three years before serving four years in the Air Force. During his tour of duty, he worked with theatrical groups. Upon his discharge, he moved to New York City to study at the American Theatre Wing.

He landed his first professional theatrical role in Middleton, Ohio, and went on to appear in productions at The Cincinnati Playhouse; it was there that he honed his British accent and natty style.
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HereWeGoAgain · Nov 10, 2017

A year and a half late but I just noticed this the other day. Earl Hamner Jr. - the real John-Boy Walton, died of cancer on March 24, 2016, aged 92.

Our family loved The Waltons and it was hugely popular. But what most fascinated me was John-Boy's [Earl Hamner's] presence as a writer in the years to come; not the least of which, significant contributions to The Twilight Zone. In fact, Rod Serling gave him his first writing assignment in Hollywood. He was the creator of Falcon Crest. Also

Novels

Fifty Roads to Town (1953)

Spencer's Mountain (1961)

You Can't Get There From Here (1965)

The Homecoming: A Novel About Spencer's Mountain (1970)

Non-fiction

The Avocado Drive Zoo (a memoir) (1999)

Good Night, John Boy (2002; reminiscences of making The Waltons TV series)

Generous Women (2006; collection of memoirs)

Screenplays

Palm Springs Weekend (1963)[8]

Charlotte's Web (1973)

Teleplays

Highway (1954)

for The Twilight Zone :

"The Hunt" (1962)

"A Piano in the House" (1962)

"Jess-Belle" (1963)

"Ring-a-Ding Girl" (1963)

"You Drive" (1964)

"Black Leather Jackets" (1964)

"Stopover in a Quiet Town" (1964)

"The Bewitchin' Pool" (1964)

Heidi (1969)

Appalachian Autumn (1969)

Aesop's Fables (1971)

The Homecoming (1971; for CBS)

Where the Lilies Bloom (1972)

The Gift of Love: A Christmas Story (1983)

I am almost positive I saw his name listed in the credits for a Star Trek episode but I'm not finding that.

Space_Time · Nov 18, 2017

https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/ann-wedgeworth-three-company-actress-202152502.html

Ann Wedgeworth, ‘Three’s Company’ Actress, Dies at 83
Variety Variety 5 hours ago
Ann Wedgeworth obit
Ann Wedgeworth, known for her role as Lana Shields in ABC’s “Three’s Company,” died Thursday in New York after a long illness. She was 83.

Wedgeworth’s career began in Broadway, with her debut in “Make a Million” in 1958. She continued to perform in off-Broadway and Broadway productions over the next few decades, winning a Tony Award for best performance by a featured actress in a play for her work in “Chapter Two.”

The actress enjoyed a successful career in film, with roles as the leading lady in films like “Scarecrow,” opposite Gene Hackman, and “Bang the Drum Slowly” with Robert De Niro. Throughout the 1980s, she took on supporting roles, such as Patsy Cline’s mother in “Sweet Dreams,” with Jessica Lange and Ed Harris. The role earned her a National Society of Film Critics Award.

Wedgeworth became best known for her role as divorcee Lana Shields in “Three’s Company,” after performing in numerous soap operas like “The Edge of Night” and “Another World.” Shields was written out of “Three’s Company” after only nine episodes with little explanation; Wedgeworth claimed she asked to be released from her contract after Shields’ role began to wind down.

After “Three’s Company,” Wedgeworth went on to star in CBS’s “Evening Shade” starting in 1989, which was her longest role. She played Merleen Eldridge, the wife of small town doctor Harlan Eldrige. The couple was best friends with Burt Reynolds and Marilu Henner’s Wood and Ava Newton, who move back to the small town of Evening Shade, Ark after Wood quits professional football due to an injury.
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MMC · Nov 19, 2017

Ann Wedgeworth, known for 'Three's Company' role, dies at 83....

Actress Ann Wedgeworth, who gained fame on film and Broadway before taking on the role of a flirty divorcee on "Three's Company," has died at age 83.

Wedgeworth died Thursday in the New York area after a long illness, her daughter Dianna Martin said.

Wedgeworth landed her first Broadway role in the 1958 comedy "Make a Million" and continued to take on stage roles for decades. She won the 1978 Tony award for best featured actress in a play for her performance in Neil Simon's "Chapter Two."

She acted in several soap operas and also found success in Hollywood with roles alongside Gene Hackman in the 1973 film "Scarecrow" and Robert De Niro in "Bang the Drum Slowly" the same year.

Wedgeworth continued to tally TV and film credits for decades, including appearing in "Steel Magnolias" in 1989 and starring on the CBS series "Evening Shade" with Burt Reynolds from 1990 to 1994.

She married actor Rip Torn and the couple had a daughter, Danae Torn, before ending their five-year marriage in 1961. Wedgeworth later married acting teacher Ernest Martin and had her second daughter, Dianna Martin.

Wedgeworth is survived by her husband, her two daughters and stepsons Michael Martin and Greg Martin.....snip~

http://start.att.net/news/read/arti...s_company_role_dies-ap/category/entertainment

R.I.P Ann.

Space_Time · Nov 20, 2017

https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/della-reese-touched-angel-star-175132064.html

Della Reese, ‘Touched by an Angel’ Star and R&B Singer, Dies at 86
Variety Chris Morris,Variety 41 minutes ago
Della Reese dead
Della Reese, who segued from pop and jazz singing stardom in the ‘50s and ‘60s to a long career as a popular TV actress on “Touched by an Angel” and other shows, died Sunday night at her home in California. She was 86.

“She was an incredible wife, mother, grandmother, friend, and pastor, as well as an award-winning actress and singer. Through her life and work she touched and inspired the lives of millions of people,” actress Roma Downey, Reese’s co-star on “Touched By an Angel,” said in a statement announcing Reese’s death. “She was a mother to me and I had the privilege of working with her side by side for so many years on ‘Touched by an Angel.’ I know heaven has a brand new angel this day. Della Reese will be forever in our hearts.”

Reared in gospel, Reese became a seductive, big-voiced secular music star with her No. 1 R&B and No. 2 pop hit “Don’t You Know” in 1959. The 45, her first single on RCA Records, was a ballad drawn from an aria from Puccini’s opera “La Boheme.”

She ranged through a series of releases that showed off her mastery of standards, jazz and contemporary pop through the early ‘70s, and over the course of her career she received four Grammy Award nominations.

By 1969 she had launched her TV show “Della” – the first talker hosted by an African-American woman – and had begun a move into an acting career that would take her to even greater national prominence.

Speaking of her TV and film work with the Associated Press’ Bob Thomas in 1997, she said, “I had good training for it. I was always a stylist, a lyricist. I became acquainted with the words in order to convince you I must believe in what I’m singing. That’s what acting is: believing. It was just like one thing flowing into another.”

After a number of guest appearances, Reese broke into TV full-time with a starring role in the hit 1975-78 Jack Albertson-Freddie Prinze comedy series “Chico and the Man.” Roles on “It Takes Two,” “Crazy Like a Fox,” “Charlie & Co.” and (opposite her good friend Redd Foxx) “The Royal Family.”

She also took starring roles in the features “Harlem Nights” and “A Thin Line Between Love and Hate” and appeared in 20 made-for-TV pictures.

Her greatest popularity came as co-star of the inspirational CBS show “Touched by an Angel.” Though the show was axed during its debut 1994-95 season, a letter-writing campaign convinced execs to bring the series back, and Reese prevailed as the heavenly samaritan Tess for a total of nine seasons, winning seven consecutive NAACP Image Awards as best lead actress in a drama and collecting two Emmy nominations and a 1998 Golden Globe nod.

Though she continued to make TV guest appearances and took the occasional film role in the new millennium, she returned to her religious roots as the founding pastor of her own Los Angeles-based church, Understanding Principles for Better Living (or “Up”). In later years, she was frequently billed as Reverend Doctor Della Reese Lett.

She was born Delloreese Patricia Early on July 6, 1931, in Detroit. She began singing in church as a six-year-old; the glamorous black vocalist-actress Lena Horne was one of the film stars she admired as a girl. By her teens, she was working as a singer in gospel luminary Mahalia Jackson’s unit.

After graduating from Detroit’s Cass Technical High School (later attended by Diana Ross), she briefly attended Wayne State University, but soon moved into music professionally, taking Della Reese as her pro handle.

Like homegrown R&B superstar Jackie Wilson, Reese received prominent exposure during an engagement at Detroit’s Flame Show Bar; her style reflected the influence of such jazz precursors as Sarah Vaughan and Ella Fitzgerald.

Signed to Jubilee Records, the indie New York label that launched the doo-wop acts the Orioles and the Cadillacs, Reese scored her first chart success with the 1957 ballad “And That Reminds Me,” which reached No. 12 on the U.S. pop chart.

That song secured her a contract with RCA. She secured the biggest hit of her career out of the box with “Don’t You Know,” and followed it up in 1960 with the similarly styled “Not One Minute More” (No. 16 pop, No. 13 R&B). Her top-charting LP was “Della,” which climbed to No. 35 in ’60.
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Space_Time · Dec 28, 2017

https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/rose-marie-dick-van-dyke-003041517.html

Rose Marie, 'Dick Van Dyke Show' star, dies at 94
Carmel Dagan Carmel Dagan 2 hours 35 minutes ago
Rose Marie The Dick Van Dyke Show - 1961-1966
Rose Marie, best known for her role as Sally Rogers on “The Dick Van Dyke Show,” died Thursday in Van Nuys, Calif. She was 94.

Publicist Harlan Boll confirmed her death.

Rose Marie was Emmy nominated three times for her work on “The Dick Van Dyke Show,” in which she played part of the writing team, led by Van Dyke’s Rob Petrie, for the fictional “Alan Brady Show.” The actress began a five-season stint as Sally Rogers in 1960, but decades earlier, she had been a child singing star under the name Baby Rose Marie. She began her career at 3, starring in her own show on NBC radio by the age of 5, cutting records and appearing in vaudeville, in shorts including 1929’s “Baby Rose Marie the Child Wonder” and in Paramount’s 1933 feature “International House” with W.C. Fields.

Variety founder Sime Silverman himself mentioned Rose Marie in its pages for “The Child Wonder,” writing, “Though but a kidlet, she seemed to have an idea of her own.”

Later, as a teenager, she became a nightclub singer before returning to radio as a comedienne.

In the early 1950s Rose Marie appeared on television variety shows as a singer and dancer, and she returned to the bigscreen in 1954, starring opposite Phil Silvers in “Top Banana,” an adaptation of Silvers’ Broadway show about a TV comedian.

The actress recurred on “The Bob Cummings Show” as Martha in 1958-59, and she was a series regular on a brief TV adaptation of “My Sister Eileen.” After “The Dick Van Dyke Show” she guested on a variety of TV shows, including “The Monkees” and “My Three Sons,” and she recurred on “The Doris Day Show.”

During the 1960s she also appeared onstage in “Bye Bye Birdie” and in a pair of features, starring opposite her “Van Dyke” co-star Morey Amsterdam in “Don’t Worry, We’ll Think of a Title,” and appearing in “Dead Heat on a Merry-Go-Round,” starring James Coburn.
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Space_Time · Jan 6, 2018

And to think he gave up the opportunity to do 'Gilligan's Island' for 'My Mother the Car':

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/06/obituaries/jerry-van-dyke-dead.html

Jerry Van Dyke, ‘Coach’ Actor and Foil for His Brother, Dick, Dies at 86
By DANIEL E. SLOTNIKJAN. 6, 2018

Jerry Van Dyke as a star of “Coach” with his sidekick, Travis. Credit PR Newsfoto
Jerry Van Dyke, who after decades in show business finally emerged from the shadow of his older brother, Dick, with an Emmy-nominated role in the long-running ABC sitcom “Coach,” died on Friday at his ranch in Arkansas. He was 86.

Jerry’s wife, Shirley Ann Jones, who confirmed the death, said his health had deteriorated since a traffic accident in 2015.

From the beginning, Mr. Van Dyke’s television career was intertwined with his brother’s. One of his earliest TV appearances was in 1962 in a two-part episode of “The Dick Van Dyke Show,” as Stacey Petrie, the would-be comedian brother of Dick’s character, Rob Petrie.

A boisterous performer who supported himself with a banjo-and-comedy stage act when television or film roles were scant, Mr. Van Dyke was a ham to his brother’s more dignified persona. But while Dick had runaway success early on, with the Broadway show and film “Bye Bye Birdie,” the Disney musical “Mary Poppins” and “The Dick Van Dyke Show,” his brother’s career was long defined by a string of short-lived projects, like “The Judy Garland Show” and the game show “Picture This.”

Mr. Van Dyke was frank but good-humored about his failures. “If I had it all to do over again, I definitely would have turned things down,” he told The Associated Press in 1994. “Almost everything I did!”

The worst of those projects was the sitcom “My Mother the Car,” which ran for one notorious season on NBC beginning in September 1965.

He played a man who buys a car that contains the spirit of his deceased mother, voiced by Ann Sothern. The plot revolved around Mr. Van Dyke’s attempts to conceal the car’s consciousness from his family and to keep an unscrupulous automobile collector, played by Avery Schreiber, from acquiring it.

My Mother The Car 1x01 - Come Honk Your Horn Video by killerdinamo08
The premise seems far-fetched, if not bizarre, but fantastical sitcoms like “I Dream of Jeannie” and “Bewitched” became popular around the same time. “My Mother the Car” never caught on and was savaged by critics.

“When people talk about bad television, ‘My Mother the Car’ is the show that pops to mind,” Mr. Van Dyke told The A.P. in 1990.
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Space_Time · Jan 6, 2018

Here's the theme song for 'My Mother the Car':

waltky · Jan 7, 2018

'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.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/life...ger-brother-dick-van-dyke-dead-86/1010515001/
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waltky · Jan 12, 2018

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.

https://in.reuters.com/article/peop...ppi-burning-killings-dead-at-92-idINKBN1F12AB
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Space_Time · Feb 5, 2018

https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/frasier-star-john-mahoney-dies-231044208.html

'Frasier' dad John Mahoney dies at 77
Kirsten Chuba Kirsten Chuba 2 hours 9 minutes ago
John Mahoney, best known for playing Martin Crane on 11 seasons of “Frasier,” died in Chicago on Sunday while in hospice care, his manager, Paul Martino, confirmed. He was 77.

Mahoney played the father of Kelsey Grammer and David Hyde Pierce’s characters during the show’s run on NBC from 1993 to 2004. He won a SAG Award and received two Emmy and two Golden Globe nominations for his portrayal. He was also a mainstay of Chicago’s theater community.

From 2011 to 2014, he had a recurring role on “Hot in Cleveland” as Roy, the love interest of Betty White’s character, Elka. He was much praised for his performance as an anguished CEO in psychological counseling on Season 2 of HBO’s “In Treatment” in 2009.

Mahoney worked in film for more than 35 years, appearing in classics like “The American President” and “Say Anything,” along with voicing animated characters in the “Antz” and “Atlantis” films. He also had guest spots in a number of popular TV shows including “Cheers” and “3rd Rock from the Sun.”
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Space_Time · Feb 24, 2018

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/nanette-fabray-dead-at-97_us_5a90967ee4b0ee6416a34d70

NEWS 02/23/2018 07:41 pm ET Updated 5 hours ago
Actress Nanette Fabray, Perennial TV Mom, Dies At Age 97
Fabray, a versatile talent and television pioneer, played the mothers of Mary Tyler Moore, Bonnie Franklin and her own niece, Shelley Fabares.

By David Moye
Actress Nanette Fabray, who was known to modern audiences as the mother of Bonnie Franklin’s character on the CBS sitcom “One Day at a Time,” died Thursday at her home in Rancho Palos Verdes, California. She was 97.

The actress, born Ruby Nanette Bernadette Theresa Fabares in San Diego, was performing in vaudeville by the age of 4, according to The New York Times.

By the age of 19, she was doing bit parts in Hollywood movies and made her Broadway debut in the 1941 musical comedy “Let’s Face It” opposite Danny Kaye.

In 1949, Fabray won a Tony for best actress in a musical for “Love Life,” which was directed by Elia Kazan and choreographed by Michael Kidd, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Her most notable film appearance was with Fred Astaire in “The Band Wagon” (1953), considered to be one of MGM’s best musicals.

Fabray also played a major part in the evolution of television. During the 1940s, NBC hired her to work as a demonstration model for color television because her skin tone showed off the technology just right.
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btthegreat · Feb 24, 2018

There was a time when she was a major draw on Broadway. Here she sings hits from a best performance tony winning musical for her, and a best performance tony nominated one.

waltky · Feb 24, 2018

She could cross one eye while the other stayed normal...

Nanette Fabray passes at 97
23 Feb.`18 - Nanette Fabray, an Emmy and Tony Award-winning actress and humanitarian, died Thursday, Feb. 22, 2018 of natural causes, according to multiple news sources. She was 97.

Born Ruby Bernadette Nanette Fabares Oct. 27, 1920, in San Diego, California, Fabray became involved in showbiz as a child. Fabray learned to tap dance, and she made her professional stage debut at age 3. She spent much of her childhood appearing in vaudeville shows, learning and refining skills that would serve her well in musical comedy. In her 20s, Fabray was diagnosed with hereditary hearing loss. She had four operations throughout her lifetime to restore her hearing. She also began wearing a hearing aid and speaking publicly about her disability in her 30s. "I was the first celebrity to stand up and say, 'I'm not perfect,'" she told The Morning Call in a 1996 interview.

Nanette Fabray

Undeterred by her physical challenges, Fabray became a successful musical theater actress in the 1940s, winning the 1949 Tony Award for best performance by a leading actress in a musical for her performance in "Love Life." She began appearing on TV in the 1950s. She received great acclaim acting opposite Sid Caesar on his sketch comedy show "Caesar's Hour." She won three Emmy awards during her two seasons on the show, from 1954 to 1956. In 1961, she starred on her own series, which lasted 13 episodes. Fabray made frequent appearances on sitcoms, often as the mother of a show's main character. These shows included "The Mary Tyler Moore Show," "One Day at a Time," and "Coach," where she played mother to her real-life niece, actress Shelley Fabares.

Throughout her life, Fabray continued to advocate for people with hearing disabilities. Her efforts contributed to the Americans With Disabilities Act, and she was a founding member of the National Captioning Institute, which was instrumental in passing a law requiring that all TV sets be equipped with captioning in 1994. Fabray was preceded in death by her husband, the screenwriter Ranald MacDougall. She is survived by her son and grandchildren.

http://obituaries.triblive.com/obituaries/triblive/obituary.aspx?n=nanette-fabray&pid=188274472
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waltky · Feb 26, 2018

Bill Cosby's daughter Ensa dies at 44 from kidney failure...

Bill Cosby's daughter Ensa dies at 44 from renal disease
Feb. 26, 2018 | Bill Cosby's daughter Ensa Cosby has died from renal disease, USA TODAY has confirmed. She was 44.

According to TMZ, which broke the news, Ensa had a history of medical problems and was possibly awaiting a kidney transplant. Cosby spokesperson Andrew Wyatt confirmed Ensa's cause of death to USA TODAY. "The Cosby Family thanks many people for their prayers for their beloved and beautiful Ensa, who recently died from renal disease," he said in a statement. Ensa was a strong defender of her father, last year saying that though she had chosen to live her life out of the spotlight, "for my child, my niece, my nephew, and my father, I cannot sit quietly anymore. "The accusations against my father have been one-sided from the beginning. When he tried to defend himself, he was sued in civil court. I’ve seen the accusations become more horrific and extreme with time, and I’ve witnessed my father’s reputation and legendary works be dismissed without any proof.”

Bill Cosby's daughters Ensa, Erika, and Evin in a photo from 1991.

Ensa declared her father had been "publicly lynched in the media." “I strongly believe my father is innocent of the crimes alleged against him, and I believe that racism has played a big role in all aspects of this scandal," she stated. Daughter Evin Cosby, 41, came out in their father's defense at the same time. Bill Cosby and his wife, Camille, married in 1964 and are also parents to Erika, 52 and Erinn, 51, who also issued a statement defending her father. Their son Ennis was murdered at the age of 27 in a failed robbery attempt in Los Angeles in 1997.

To date, five-dozen women have accused Cosby of being a serial sex offender dating back to the mid-1960s. Prosecutors are currently preparing for Cosby's retrial in a Philadelphia suburb on sexual assault charges. The comedian's first trial ended with a hung jury in June. The comedian is charged with drugging and sexually assaulting former Temple University employee Andrea Constand at his suburban Philadelphia home in 2004. Cosby has said the encounter was consensual. Jury selection for the retrial will start March 29.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/people/2018/02/26/bill-cosbys-daughter-ensa-dies-44/374075002/
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Space_Time · Mar 3, 2018

http://www.oregonlive.com/pacific-n...18/03/david_ogden_stiers_mash_actor_dies.html

David Ogden Stiers, 'M*A*S*H*' star and Newport resident, dies at 75
Updated 4:59 PM; Posted 4:05 PM

David Ogden Stiers speaks at the Christmas Window Unveiling Spectacular at Macy's Herald Square on Nov. 19, 2009 in New York City.(Rob Loud/Getty Images)

By Eder Campuzano ecampuzano@oregonian.com
The Oregonian/OregonLive

David Ogden Stiers, the actor best known for playing Major Charles Emerson Winchester III in "M*A*S*H*" and Cogsworth in Disney's "Beauty and the Beast" has died. He was 75.

Stiers died peacefully at his home in Newport. He had been battling bladder cancer, his agent, Mitchell Stubbs, told The Oregonian/OregonLive.

Stiers was born in Peoria, Illinois the son of Margaret and Kenneth Stiers. He moved to Eugene while he was in high school, where he graduated from North Eugene High. He attended the University of Oregon for a time but soon left for San Francisco to pursue acting.

His first television credits include "The Mary Tyler Moore Show," "Charlie's Angels" and "Kojak." His voice can be heard off-screen in George Lucas' first feature film, "THX-1138."

But it wasn't until 1977 that Stiers joined the cast of CBS' military sitcom, "M*A*S*H*," after the departure of Larry Linville — who played Frank Burns — and starred opposite Alan Alda and Mike Farrell. Stiers was nominated for two Emmy awards for his turn as Winchester, in 1981 and 1982.
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waltky · Mar 24, 2018

Is sad, so sad...

Entertainer known for role as Bozo the Clown dies at 89
March 22, 2018 — Longtime Boston television personality and entertainer Frank Avruch, who was the star of the popular children's TV program Bozo the Clown, has died. He was 89.

Avruch died Tuesday at his Boston home from heart disease, his family said in a statement to WCVB-TV. Avruch played Bozo the Clown from 1959 to 1970, a clown character particularly popular in the U.S. in the 1960s because of widespread franchising in television. Avruch became the first nationally-syndicated Bozo the Clown. "He had a heart of gold," manager Stuart Hersh told The Associated Press on Wednesday, "He brought the Bozo the Clown character to life better than anyone else's portrayal of Bozo the Clown." Avruch also was a contributor to WCVB-TV for more than 40 years as a host of Man About Town and The Great Entertainment.

Avruch played Bozo the Clown from 1959 to 1970, a clown character particularly popular in the U.S. in the 1960s because of widespread franchising in television.

Avruch passed away on Tuesday, March 20, 2018, of heart disease at his Boston home.

LOVED Frank. Channel 5's Man about Town, Great entertainment. Best known as Bozo the Clown. By all accounts here @wcvb he was a kind wonderful man. RIP Frank and thanks pic.twitter.com/r8EqhhvSAd
— Maria Stephanos (@mariastephanos) March 21, 2018

He was an active philanthropist and a board member of UNICEF'S New England chapter. He toured the world performing as Bozo the clown for UNICEF. "He touched so many people with his portrayal," Hersh said. Avruch is survived by his wife Betty, two sons Matthew and Steven and several grandchildren. "While it's hard to say goodbye, we celebrate the legacy of joy and laughter he brought to millions of children around the world as Bozo the Clown on TV and as a UNICEF Ambassador and later as host of Channel 5's Great Entertainment and Boston's Man About Town," Avruch's family said in a statement to the station. "Our dad loved the children of all ages who remembered being on his show and was always grateful for their kind words. We will miss him greatly."

http://spectrumlocalnews.com/tx/san...r-known-for-role-as-bozo-the-clown-dies-at-89
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HereWeGoAgain · Mar 24, 2018

waltky said: ↑

Is sad, so sad...

Entertainer known for role as Bozo the Clown dies at 89
March 22, 2018 — Longtime Boston television personality and entertainer Frank Avruch, who was the star of the popular children's TV program Bozo the Clown, has died. He was 89.
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The New York Bozo's career was abruptly ended when he thought they had cut. "That should hold the little bastards!" he declared... on camera.

waltky · Mar 26, 2018

Dat's was before she went an' showed her butt in Vietnam...

WWI Vet Andy Lewis Dies, Wrote Jane Fonda's Oscar-Winning Role in 'Klute'
26 Mar 2018 - Andy Lewis, an Academy Award-nominated screenwriter, died in his New Hampshire home last month. He was 92.

Lewis, best known for co-writing the screenplay for the 1971 thriller "Klute," died of natural causes, his partner, France Menk, told the Hollywood Reporter. The Massachusetts native served in the Army during World War II, then began his writing career on "Omnibus."

Oscar-nominated screenwriter and Oscar-winning actress from the 1971 movie "Klute."

Along with moonlighting as a speechwriter for politicians including then-Massachusetts Sen. John F. Kennedy, Lewis worked on series like "Encounter" and "Dr. Kildare," as well as producing the Off-Broadway play "The Infantry." "Klute," written by him and brother Dave, starred Jane Fonda, Donald Sutherland, Charles Cioffi and Roy Scheider, and followed a prostitute who helped a detective solve a missing person case.

The film was nominated for best original screenplay, losing to Paddy Chayefsky's "The Hospital." Fonda won her first Academy Award, beating Julie Christie ("McCabe & Mrs. Miller"), Glenda Jackson ("Sunday Bloody Sunday"), Vanessa Redgrave ("Mary, Queen of Scots") and Janet Suzman ("Nicholas and Alexandra") for the best actress honor.

Lewis, who retired from writing in 1985, is survived by six children. "To be sure, I feel a little timid about dying. It's something I haven't done before...And you know, as a matter of reason, that you have to let me go," he said in a prewritten statement before his death. "I've had long lucky years. I don't feel many shames or regrets. I've done most of my chores. I'm ready to rest. "But at this goodbye, know these things. You have filled my life. You are my pride. Know my love."

https://www.military.com/off-duty/2...ote-jane-fondas-oscar-winning-role-klute.html
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waltky · Mar 29, 2018

She played the no-nonsense firehouse secretary on Chicago Fire...

'Chicago Fire' Actress DuShon Monique Brown Dead At 49
Mar, 26, 2018 - DuShon Monique Brown, best known for her role on NBC’s hit drama Chicago Fire, has passed away. She was 49.

Brown died at St. James Olympia Field Hospital just outside of Chicago on Friday afternoon. Her representative, Robert Schroeder, called the performer a “kind hearted soul.” “We are devastated by the loss of a very talented and kind hearted soul,” Schroeder told TODAY. “DuShon was a film, television, commercial and voice-over actress who also graced the stages of many Chicago theaters. She brought laughter and joy to many and will be greatly missed.” Schroeder said the actress died of “natural causes” after reportedly complaining about chest pains, but the Cook County Medical Examiner has yet to release an official cause of death.

Actress DuShon Monique Brown

Dick Wolf, producer of Chicago Fire, said the cast and crew were “devastated” by Brown’s death. "The Chicago Fire family is devastated to lose one of its own," Wolf said. "Our thoughts and prayers are with DuShon's family and we will all miss her."

One of my favorite Connie scenes on @NBCChicagoFire. Always sassy, always in charge! Her banter with Mouch was always a source of laughter. You will be truly missed, DuShon.❤️ #ChicagoFire pic.twitter.com/t6Va54j0AA
— Emer O' Sullivan (@msemerosullivan) March 24, 2018

Derek Haas, Chicago Fire co-creator, took to Twitter to share his thoughts about the beloved actress. “Very sad to hear about DuShon's passing yesterday,” Haas wrote. “I'm grateful we got to work with her and so happy she got to make millions of people smile. She will be greatly missed.”

While Brown has appeared on screen in shows like Empire, Prison Break, and Shameless, as well in several theatrical productions, she remained a counselor at a Chicago public school. In addition to her heartbroken friends and coworkers, Brown leaves behind her daughter, 14-year-old Zoe, and a fiancé. A GoFundMe fundraising page has been set up to support her family.

https://www.essence.com/news/actress-dushon-monique-brown-has-died
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Space_Time · Apr 2, 2018

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/n...-street-blues-la-law-nypd-blue-creator-741199

Steven Bochco, Creative Force Behind 'Hill Street Blues,' 'L.A. Law' and 'NYPD Blue,' Dies at 74
4:53 PM PDT 4/1/2018 by Mike Barnes

Steven Bochco

The unwavering TV writer-producer, winner of 10 Emmys, butted heads with networks and almost always won.
Steven Bochco, the strong-willed writer and producer who brought gritty realism and sprawling ensemble casts to the small screen with such iconic series as Hill Street Blues, L.A. Law and NYPD Blue, died Sunday morning, a family spokesman told The Hollywood Reporter. He was 74.

Suffering with leukemia, Bochco received a stem cell transplant from an anonymous 23-year-old in late 2014.

"Steven fought cancer with strength, courage, grace and his unsurpassed sense of humor," spokesman Phillip Arnold said. "He died peacefully in his sleep [at home] with his family close by."

In May 2016, he met the man that prolonged his life.

Bochco, a 10-time Primetime Emmy Award winner, also was behind the Neil Patrick Harris ABC comedy-drama Doogie Howser, M.D. and the TNT drama Murder in the First.

A New York City native who began at Universal Studios in the mid-1960s, Bochco time and time again refused to bend to network chiefs or standards and practices execs, thus earning rare creative control during his five decades of envelope-pushing work.

In a 2002 interview for the Archive of American Television, Bochco explained how he and Michael Kozoll, both working for MTM Enterprises, came to Hill Street Blues, which debuted on last-place NBC in January 1981 and amassed 98 Emmy noms during its remarkable 146-episode run.

“We agreed that we would do it, on one condition, which we assumed would kill the deal right there,” he said. “I said to [NBC entertainment exec] Brandon [Tartikoff], ‘We’ll do this pilot for you on the condition that you leave us completely alone to do whatever we want.’ And he said OK.

“I began to hear words about myself: He’s arrogant, he’s this, he’s that. My attitude was, call me what you will, but I know I have a great project here. I don’t know how many great projects there are going to be in my life, and I’m not going to screw this one up. I’d rather not do it. And they folded. They virtually folded on everything.”

In 1987, CBS legend William S. Paley offered Bochco, then 44, the job of president of the network’s entertainment division. He turned that down to sign an unprecedented six-year, 10-series deal worth in the neighborhood of $10 million at ABC, which had just ended its contract with another legendary producer, Aaron Spelling. The pact gave Bochco ownership of the series he developed.

As Hill Street was winding down without him after he was fired at MTM, Bochco jumped into the legal world with a new deal at 20th Century Fox and created (with Terry Louise Fisher) the stylish NBC smash L.A. Law, which ran from 1986-94.

And with fellow Hill Street scribe David Milch, he came up with ABC’s controversial NYPD Blue, which aimed to compete with the risque kind of shows that were siphoning audiences from broadcast to cable. That series, the longest-running one-hour drama in ABC history until surpassed by Grey's Anatomy, aired from 1993-2005.

David Caruso at the Golden Globes in 1994 with the statuette he won for his one season on NYPD Blue. He left after filming the fourth episode of season two over a money dispute and a desire to start a film career.
READ MORE
Steven Bochco on 'NYPD Blue's' Crazy First Year and David Caruso's Outrageous Demands (Exclusive Book Excerpt)

Bochco, though, was not without his misfires. They included NBC’s Bay City Blues, a 1983 drama about a minor-league baseball team that lasted four episodes; CBS’ Public Morals, a vice squad-set comedy that got canned after one episode in October 1996; and ABC’s infamous Cop Rock, which incongruously combined police drama and show-stopping Broadway-style singing and dancing and lasted a scant 11 episodes in 1990.

The best Bochco series included large ensemble casts and parallel storylines that pushed the hot-button social issues of the day. In an interview with Pamela Douglas for the 2007 book Writing the TV Drama Series: How to Succeed as a Professional Writer in TV, Bochco explained how he pulled it all together:

“When you end up creating a show with seven, eight, nine characters — ask yourself, how can you appropriately dramatize that many characters within the framework of an hour television show? And the answer is that you can’t. So you say, OK, what we have to do is spill over the sides of our form and start telling multi-plot, more serial kinds of stories.
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waltky · Apr 6, 2018

Studio Ghibli co-founder Isao Takahata dies...

Studio Ghibli co-founder Isao Takahata dies at 82
6 Apr.`18 - Japanese anime director Isao Takahata, co-founder of the famed Studio Ghibli, has died at the age of 82.

Mr Takahata was nominated for an Oscar in 2015 for The Tale of the Princess Kaguya but is best known for his film Grave of the Fireflies. He founded Studio Ghibli with iconic director Hayao Miyazaki in 1985. It became a world-renowned animation studio, producing blockbusters such as Castle in the Sky, and Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind. Mr Takahata started his career in animation in 1959 at Japan's Toei studio, where he met Mr Miyazaki, who is usually seen as the face of Studio Ghibli.

Mr Takahata was awarded France's Order of Arts and Letters in 2015

The duo went on to co-found Studio Ghibli, and were described by local media as both friends and rivals. Mr Takahata's film The Tale of the Princess Kaguya earned him an Academy Award nomination in 2015 for best animated feature. But his most loved work was the 1988 film Grave of the Fireflies, a heartbreaking tale of two orphans during World War Two. Filmmakers and animators have been paying tribute to him on social media.

The maestro Isao Takahata, director of such burnished animated gems as Grave of the Fireflies, Only Yesterday, Pom Poko, The Tale of Princess Kaguya and more, has died at the age of 82.
— Little White Lies (@LWLies) April 5, 2018

Grave of the Fireflies told the story of two siblings trying to survive during World War Two

No animated movie has made me cry more than this tender, gorgeous, profound, soulful and landmark film. A giant of our art form has left us. RIP maestro Isao Takahata
— Jorge R. Gutierrez (@mexopolis) April 5, 2018

RIP Isao Takahata... You will live forever in our hearts through your absolutely beautiful work and legacy that you have generously left us. Thank you for all that you've done.
— Marie Lum 林 (@PuccaNoodles) April 5, 2018

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-43664515
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Mr_Truth · Apr 9, 2018

Comedian Chuck McCann, The Voice Of Cocoa Puffs’ Cuckoo, Dead At 83
He also starred in scores of children’s TV programs, such as “Lunch with Soupy Sales” and “The Captain Kangaroo Show” and “Rootie Kazootie.”

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entr...ce-actor-comedian_us_5acb333be4b07a3485e663ab

Very funny guy who genuinely had fun in his tv presentations.

Space_Time · Apr 11, 2018

A couple we missed:

https://www.thewrap.com/delores-taylor-star-billy-jack-movies-1970s-dies-85/

Delores Taylor, Star of ‘Billy Jack’ Movies of the 1970s, Dies at 85
Taylor and husband Tom Laughlin starred in five indies featuring a half-Indian/half-white ex-Green Beret

Thom Geier | March 26, 2018 @ 2:14 PM
Last Updated: March 27, 2018 @ 7:59 PM
delores taylor
Taylor-Laughlin Distribution Co.

Delores Taylor, a Golden Globe-nominated actress who starred with her husband Tom Laughlin in five indie movies featuring counterculture hero Billy Jack, died Friday. She was 85.

“Delores Taylor and Tom Laughlin seemed two impossibly contrasting forces. He, the brilliant, volatile man with immense personality and charm. And she, the serene, almost ethereal woman with of unwavering devotion. Yet somehow, they were interconnected, interdependent, and forever intertwined,” Taylor’s daughter, Teresa Laughlin said in a statement provided to TheWrap. “Together, they were far greater than the sum of their parts, and together, they left their mark on this world.”

News of Taylor’s death was posted by her family on a “Billy Jack” Facebook fan page.
Delores Taylor and Tom Laughlin seemed two impossibly contrasting forces. He,
the brilliant, volatile man with immense personality and charm. And she, the serene,
almost ethereal woman with of unwavering devotion. Yet somehow, they were

interconnected, interdependent, and forever intertwined. Together, they were far greater
than the sum of their parts, and together, they left their mark on this world..

https://www.thewrap.com/susan-anspach-five-easy-pieces-actress-dies-at-75/

Susan Anspach, ‘Five Easy Pieces’ Actress, Dies at 75
Anspach also appeared in the original off-Broadway production of “Hair”

Ross A. Lincoln | April 5, 2018 @ 8:03 PM
Last Updated: April 5, 2018 @ 8:23 PM
Susan Anspach in Five Easy Pieces
Columbia Pictures Corporation

Actress Susan Anspach, best known for roles in landmark 1970s films like “Five Easy Pieces” and “Play It Again, Sam,” has died in Los Angeles. She was 75.

Her son, Caleb Goddard, announced the news on Thursday, telling the New York Times she died from coronary failure Monday.

Born in New York City in 1942, Anspach attended Catholic University and began her acting career in the early 1960s. In 1965, she appeared in the off-Broadway production of Arthur Miller’s “A View From the Bridge” alongside Robert Duvall and Jon Voight. She also appeared on Broadway in Terrence McNally’s “And Things That Go Bump in the Night,” and in 1966 off-Broadway alongside Dustin Hoffman in Turgenev’s “The Journey of the Fifth Horse.”

In 1967, she played the character Sheila in the off-Broadway production of “Hair” immediately prior to the musical’s Broadway production, though Anspach did not continue the role on Broadway.

Anspach rose to prominence in movies in 1970, making her film debut with a small role in Hal Ashby’s “The Landlord.” The same year she had a more significant role opposite Jack Nicholson in “Five Easy Pieces.”
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HereWeGoAgain · Apr 12, 2018

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