Posts Tagged ‘obits’

That creepy guy died last weekend. You know, the guy with the face like a depressed basset hound who starred in one of your favorite movies or TV shows of all time?

I really don't need to get much more specific than that because Vincent Schiavelli, who died of lung cancer, showed up in pretty much everything — although "starred" would be the wrong word. Except for one cooking show, Schiavelli never headlined anything you were likely to see.

Instead he excelled as the oddball, the maniac, the mental patient, the foreign spy. Whenever there was a bit part that required a baleful, hangdog expression and a look that made you nervously check the exits, Schiavelli was there.

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Richard Pryor, one of the greatest stand-up comedians of all time, died today of a heart attack. I do not believe anyone will ever match his groundbreaking, freaking hilarious career.

But my very first thought was that someone will need to change his website, which as of this writing still presents the header graphic it's had for some time now, "I Ain't Dead Yet, Motherf#cker!" I'm kinda hoping they don't.

Pat Morita, star of the "Karate Kid" movies and a zillion other places, has died.

When I was a teenager I searched in vain for a martial arts teacher half as wise or skilled or funny as Mr. Miyagi. And while there have been some out there, none of them would teach me in exchange for household chores, so I had to make do by watching the Karate Kid movies over and over and putting "-san" behind all my friends' names in a gutteral voice, which was almost as good.

I remember him from "Happy Days." I remember him from M*A*S*H. I remember him from all the television guest spots when they needed an Asian guy and couldn't get Mako. I even remember him from "Even Cowgirls get the Blues." I remember him as kind and funny and wise in a common-sense-sounding kind of way, and I'll miss him.

Don Adams, the actor whose bumbling spy Maxwell Smart set the bar for me for all future spy shows and movies, died Sunday. He might be known to most kids nowadays as Inspector Gadget but for me he'll always be the one guy who could kick Bond's ass, although it would probably be an accident.

Science fiction author Andre Norton dies

Science fiction and fantasy author Andre Norton, who wrote the popular "Witch World" series, has died. She was 93.

Her death was announced by friend Jean Rabe, who said Norton died Thursday of congestive heart failure at her home in Murfreesboro, a Nashville suburb. Norton requested before her death that she not have a funeral service, but instead asked to be cremated along with a copy of her first and last novels.

Well, damn.

Just found out that Irish comedian Dave Allen died Thursday. When I was growing up, back in the three-channel, Paleozoic days, I used to stay up late to watch adult humor. In the days before Comedy Central and paid cable, this meant me pulling a chair up in front of the dresser my TV sat on, propping my feet up on it, and turning to PBS to catch "Benny Hill" and "Monty Python" and "Dave Allen at Large." Allen was everyone's favorite uncle, the one that gets tanked and tells funny stories until one or the both of you pass out. His shows had skits, which were apparently mandatory on all British comedy shows on penalty of law, but mostly he sat on his stool, sipped his drink, smoked his cigarettes, and told jokes. Some great, some awful, some telegraphed a mile away, but it didn't matter because he threw himself so fully into the joke, doing all the voices, acting out all the parts, that you laughed anyway. He was also probably the first person I heard really make fun of religion, and it's hard to say how much of an impact that made on me. There was always a confessional joke waiting to happen, and a lot of the kind of humor that you see much anymore: ribald, risque, racy, but never crude. An example: "A newly married husband asked his wife how she wanted to have him approach her. "'Well,' she said, 'We'll play hide-and-seek. I'll hide and you can look for me. When you find me then you may seduce me.' "'But what if I can't find you?' "'I'll be in the downstairs linen closet.'" Good night Mr. Allen, thank you, and may your God go with you.