02-27-2006, 04:21 PM
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#1 (permalink)
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Death Leprechaun
Location: College Station, TX
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Not a good week to be an ~ 80 year old actor
Don Knotts
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Don Knotts, the irrepressible comic actor who won five Emmys as Deputy Barney Fife on The Andy Griffith Show, died Friday night in Los Angeles; he was 81. Knotts died of pulmonary and respiratory complications at Cedars Sinai Medical Center in Beverly Hills, and had recently suffered health problems that kept him from making an appearance at his hometown of Morgantown, West Virginia, last August. Knotts started out in entertainment as a ventriloquist before returning to college and then enlisting in the army at the onset of World War II. After the war and college, he returned to New York and pursued a career in radio and television; he nabbed a part as a psychiatrist in the Broadway play No Time for Sergeants, which starred actor Andy Griffith. He reprised his role in the film version, and after moving to Los Angeles, was cast opposite Griffith in the actor's eponymous sitcom, The Andy Griffith Show. The show ran from 1960-1968, and Knotts won an unprecedented five Best Supporting Actor Emmys in a row as manic deputy Barney Fife, a role for which he would forever be identified. After leaving the show, Knotts embarked on a film career, appearing in family-friendly films such as The Incredible Mr. Limpet, The Reluctant Astronaut and The Ghost and Mr. Chicken, among others. His career in the 70s was marked primarily by Disney films such as The Apple Dumpling Gang and No Deposit, No Return, until he joined the sitcom Three's Company in the middle of the show's run as the bumbling landlord Mr. Furley, forever interfering in his tenant's lives. After Three's Company, Knotts made innumerable appearances in television shows and occasionally films; one of his most notable recent roles was as a mysterious television repairman who sets strange events in motion in the film Pleasantville. Knotts was married twice, to Kay Mets from 1948-1969, with whom he had two children, and to Lara Lee Szuchna from 1974 to 1983
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Dennis Weaver
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Dennis Weaver, the laconic actor who became a TV star first as the sidekick Chester in Gunsmoke and then as the leading man of 70s series McCloud, died of complications from cancer on Friday at his home in Colorado; he was 81. A struggling actor in the early 50s who appeared onstage in A Streetcar Named Desire and Come Back, Little Sheba, Weaver got his big break in the nascent medium of television by auditioning in 1955 for the small part of Chester in the new CBS series Gunsmoke. Giving his character a unique, humorous accent and a limp (neither of which were specified in the original script), Weaver easily won the part, and fame as well as an Emmy award (in 1959) followed during his nine-year run on the show. After leaving Gunsmoke, a number of TV series appearances followed, including the boy-and-his-bear show Gentle Ben (1967-69) and the cult classic Duel (1971), directed by a then little-known filmmaker named Steven Spielberg. The thriller, about a man terrorized by the unseen driver of a large truck, put the fledgling Spielberg on the map and showcased Weaver in one of his best performances (the movie was theatrically released in 1983). Weaver's most notable role in the 70s, however, was as rural country Sheriff Sam McCloud in the detective series McCloud, which ran from 1970-77. Playing a New Mexico detective clashing with the New York police department, Weaver solved crimes weekly with his laid-back style, and received two Emmy nominations during the show's run. After McCloud, Weaver worked continuously on television, with notable roles in the 70s miniseries Centennial and Pearl, the acclaimed TV movie Amber Waves (opposite Kurt Russell and a young Mare Winningham), and Lonesome Dove: The Series, where he played Buffalo Bill Cody; Weaver's most recent appearance was in ABC Family series Wildfire. President of the Screen Actors Guild from 1973-75, Weaver was also a committed environmentalist, and spoke on behalf of the cause to both the United Nations and Congress; he and his wife, Gerry, also built their home in Colorado out of recycled materials. In addition to his wife, Weaver is survived by two sons, actor Robby Weaver and actor-producer Rick Weaver.
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Darren McGavin
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Darren McGavin, the amazingly prolific actor whose best-known roles included reporter Carl Kolchak in the cult TV hit The Night Stalker and the irasicble father in A Christmas Story, died Saturday in Los Angeles of natural causes; he was 83. An actor who received his training at the Neighborhood Playhouse and the Actors Studio in New York, he first came to prominence with a number of supporting parts in the 50s, most notably The Man With the Golden Arm, The Court Martial of Billy Mitchell, and Summertime, all released in 1955. Previously, he had undertaken a number of TV roles, and his familiarity with the medium, along with his tough guy persona, landed him the starring role in the Mike Hammer TV series, based on Mickey Spillane's rough=hewn detective. Though he also appeared in films and onstage throughout his career, McGavin was a constant presence in television, most often as a guest star on shows such as Dr. Kildare, Gunsmoke, Mission: Impossible and a veritable ton of others; the IMDb credits him with parts in over 170 individual films and TV shows. In 1974, McGavin landed the role of investigative reporter Carl Kolchak, who in The Night Stalker went up against a number of strange, supernatural creatures. Though the show lasted only one season, it became an instant cult hit, and a major influence for the "X-Files" school of spookiness and mystery (in fact, McGavin later made a two-episode appearance on The X-Files). In the 80s, McGavin played the profanity-spouting, lamp-obsessed "Old Man" in the modern-day holiday classic A Christmas Story, a gambler/bookie in an uncredited part in The Natural, and the father of Candice Bergen's Murphy Brown, which earned him an Emmy nomination. Those roles are just the tip of the iceberg, as McGavin worked non-stop up through the late 90s. Appropriately, his last credited role is for a part in the updated version of The Night Stalker, which lasted only one season. McGavin is survived by four children -- York, Megan, Bridget and Bogart -- from his first marriage to Melanie York McGavin
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