Notable Passings 2012

Maybe it's my age, but it seems a lot of celebrities and actors who were prominent when I was a kid have passed away this year. There are the more recognizable names such as Ernest Borgnine, Phyllis Diller, etc. but there were also people like Dick Turfeld who did the voice of the robot on Lost in Space, Dick Beals who did the voice of Gumby and Speedy Alka-Seltzer, Doris Singleton who had a recurring role on I Love Lucy. Individual tributes and reminiscences will follow in later blogs.

Here is an alphabetical listing of entertainment figures who left us during the year. 

Ian Abercrombie, 77, character actor best known as Elaine’s eccentric boss on “Seinfeld,” other credits included “The Wizards of Waverly Place,” “How I Met Your Mother,” and “Desperate Housewives.”

Richard Adler, 90, Broadway composer-lyricist, with his partner Jerry Ross, he wrote the scores for two of the longest-running hits of the 1950s, "The Pajama Game" and "Damn Yankees," he won a Tony for the score of "Kwamina" in 1961.

Norman Alden, 87, familiar TV and movie character actor whose credits ranged from the voice of Aquaman on “Superfriends” to one of the Joker’s henchmen on “Batman” to recurring roles on “My Three Sons,” and “Mary Hartman Mary Hartman.”

Cris Alexander, 92, musical actor, appeared in the original Broadway productions of "On the Town," "Wonderful Town," "Present Laughter," and "Auntie Mame," later pursued a career as a photographer, working in that capacity for New York City Ballet and Interview Magazine. 

Theo Angelopoulos, 76, award-winning Greek filmmaker, his most acclaimed movies were “The Bee Keeper” and “The Suspended Stride of the Stalk.”

R.G. Armstrong, 95, character actor who specialized in sheriffs and deputies in western films and TV shows such as “Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid,” “The Westerner,” “Ride the High Country,” “Gunsmoke,” and “Have Gun Will Travel,” his numerous additional credits include “The Fugitive Kind,” “The Great White Hope,” “Predator,” “Heaven Can Wait,” and “Reds,” also appeared on Broadway in “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof,” “Orpheus Descending,” and “The Miracle Worker.”

Jean Banks, 77, senior director of jazz and musical theater at BMI.

Billy Barnes, 85, composer-lyricist whose satirical revues “The Billy Barnes Revue” and “Billy Barnes’ People” played Broadway, Emmy nominated for his musical contributions to “Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-In,” “The Danny Kaye Show,” Goldie Hawn’s “Pure Goldie” special, and Cher’s variety series.

Dick Beals, 85, actor whose boyish pipes provided the voice for such characters as Speedy Alka-Seltzer and Gumby.

Zina Bethune, 66, actor and dancer who balanced careers in both fields, starred in the TV series “The Nurses” from 1962-65 and danced with the New York City Ballet as a teenager, appeared on Broadway in “Grand Hotel” and opposite Harvey Keitel in the film “Who’s That Knocking at My Door?”

Etel Billig, 79, Chicago-based actor, co-founder of the Illinois Theatre Center.

Anita Bjork, 89, Swedish actor, for a time hailed as “the new Garbo,” shot to fame for starring in a 1951 film version of August Strindberg’s “Miss Julie,” starred in American films shot in Europe such as “The Long Search” and “Night People,” was directed by Ingmar Bergman in the film “Secrets of Women” and the play “Madame de Sade.”

Ernest Borgnine did the voice for Mermaid Man (left)
and Tim Conway was Barnacle Boy

Ernest Borgnine, 95, "average-joe" star whose imposing physicality could be either menacing or endearing, won an Oscar for his performance as a lonely butcher in "Marty," headlined the sitcom "McHale's Navy" from 1962-66, and had a recurring voice role on "Spongebob Squarepants." Among his over 200 film and TV credits were "From Here to Eternity," "Bad Day at Black Rock,"  "The Catered Affair," "The Dirty Dozen," "The Poseidon Adventure," and "The Single Guy." He won a SAG Lifetime Achievement Award in 2011.

Ray Bradbury, 91, iconic science-fiction author who also wrote for the screen (John Huston's 1956 film version of "Moby Dick"), stage ("The Wonderful Ice Cream Suit," "The World of Ray Bradbury"), and television ("Alfred Hitchcock Presents," "The Twilight Zone," "The Martian Chronicles," "Ray Bradbury Theatre"). He won an Emmy for an animated adaptation of his novel "The Halloween Tree" and a special citation from the Pulitzer board in 2007.

Steve Bridges, 48, comic impressionist, playing President George W. Bush, he toured with Barbra Streisand and appeared on "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno."

Frank Cady, 96, TV character actor best known as general-store owner Sam Drucker on "Green Acres," "Petticoat Junction," and "The Beverly Hillbillies," also had a recurring role on "The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet."

Reflections on Recent Deaths

Judith Crist

Perhaps it's because I'm in my 50s, but it seems a lot of people from my childhood and young adulthood are dying. Actors and famous personalities who were prominent in the 1960s, 70s, and 80s are disappearing. Sherman Hemsley and Chad Everett, popular TV stars on CBS passed away on the same day. I can recall watching The Jeffersons and Medical Center. Just today Marvin Hamlisch and Judith Crist passed away. Hamlisch was a big deal when I was a kid, winning three Oscars in 1973 for The Sting and The Way We Were. Judith Crist was probably the most famous film critic of her day, sort of the common man's Pauline Kael. She wrote for TV Guide which was the most widely circulated magazine of the 60s and 70s. When I was in high school, my English teacher and two other students from our newspaper, the Campus Lantern took a trip to NYC to attend a conference at Columbia University for student journalism. It was so exciting. Crist was one of the speakers and I watched with awe as she spoke about interviewing Marilyn Monroe and writing her opinions about movies and getting paid for it. I actually wrote movie reviews in our schools paper and I talked with her afterwards. I remember Shelley Winters' performance in a movie called Next Stop Greenwich Village came up.Here she was, the most famous movie critic in America and she was talking to me about Shelley Winters. (That weekend, we stayed in a hotel and saw Pacific Overtures at the Winter Garden. It was stunning.)

Celeste Holm is another recent passing. My friend Diane and I met her in New Orleans in the Maison du Bourbon. We were there to embark on a cruise the next day. She was sitting next to us with a much younger man. I had heard her husband was much younger and I said to Diane, "That's Celeste Holm." Diane didn't believe me, but the husband introduced Holm to the band as an actress who had worked with Louis Armstrong (she was in High Society with Satchmo). I leaned over and told her I remembered her as the Fairy Godmother in Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella.She smiled and chirped thank you. Her voice had gone and she could hardly speak, just like my grandmother. A few months later there was a huge article in the NY Times about her battle with her sons over money and how she might have to sell her Oscar for Gentlemen's Agreement.

The world where one movie critic could reach millions of people through the Today Show--as Crist did--is vanishing. I can't think of one journalist as influential as she was or Rex Reed or Pauline Kael. The net has made everyone a critic and as Andy Warhol said, each will be as famous as Brad Pitt or Alexander Woolcott or Dorothy Parker for 15 minutes.

The co-author of Hairspray, the costume designer of Anything Goes, the lady who played Lucy's near-sighted neighbor, the guy who did the voice for Aquaman and the one who did the voice for the robot in Lost in Space. They've all gone and I want to note their passing. They were a part of our lives and deserve notice. Attention must be paid.