Who's Next To Croak?

[Reinhold]

underage angels suddenly prohibited from visiting the sexier parts of Heaven?

dig it.


the salute was to Sparrow, though.

*edit.

[cron]

he had a great name.

[Ravi]

Film lobbyist Jack Valenti dies at 85

I'm sure its no coincidence that IFC is showing This Film is Not Yet Rated right now.

[Ravi]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070501/ap_en_tv/obit_poston

'Newhart' sidekick Tom Poston dies at 85
By BOB THOMAS, Associated Press Writer Tue May 1, 7:27 PM ET

LOS ANGELES - Tom Poston, the tall, pasty-faced comic who found fame and fortune playing a clueless everyman on such hit television shows as "Newhart" and "Mork and Mindy," has died. He was 85.

Poston, who was married to Suzanne Pleshette of "The Bob Newhart Show," died Monday night at home after a brief illness, a family representative, Tanner Gibson, said Tuesday. The nature of his illness was not disclosed.

Bob Newhart remembered Poston as a "versatile and veteran performer and a kindhearted individual."

"Tom was always the `go-to guy' on `Newhart' in addition to being a good and longtime friend," Newhart said in a statement Tuesday.

Billy Crystal, who starred in the 1978 film "Rabbit Test" in which Poston also appeared, was another admirer.

"How rare that a gentle, sweet person could be so incredibly funny," Crystal said in a statement. "I grew up watching Tom on 'The Steve Allen Show' as a kid. What an incredible gift to become friends with him and to learn about comedy from a true professional. He was a combination of Stan Laurel and Jack Benny. We will all miss him."

Poston's run as a comic bumbler began in the mid-1950s with "The Steve Allen Show" after Allen plucked the character actor from the Broadway stage to join an ensemble of eccentrics he would conduct "man in the street" interviews with.

Don Knotts was the shaky Mr. Morrison, Louis Nye was the suave, overconfident Gordon Hathaway and Poston's character was so unnerved by the television cameras that he couldn't remember who he was. He won an Emmy playing "The Man Who Can't Remember His Name."

But when Allen moved the show from New York to Los Angeles in 1959, Poston stayed behind.

"Hollywood's not for me right now; I'm a Broadway cat," he told a reporter at the time.

When he did finally move west, he quickly began appearing in variety shows, sitcoms and films.

His movie credits included "Cold Turkey," "The Happy Hooker," "Rabbit Test" and, more recently, "Christmas With the Kranks," "Beethoven's 5th" and "The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement."

On "Mork and Mindy," which starred Robin Williams as a space alien, Poston was Franklin Delano Bickley, the mindless boozer with the annoying dog. On "Newhart," he was George Utley, the handyman who couldn't fix anything at the New England inn run by Newhart's character. And on Newhart's show "Bob," he was the star's dim-bulb former college roommate.

"These guys are about a half-step behind life's parade," Poston commented in a 1983 interview. "The ink on their instruction sheets is beginning to fade. But they can function and cope and don't realize they are driving people up the walls.

"In ways I don't like to admit, I'm a goof-up myself," Poston continued. "It's an essential part of my character. When these guys screw up it reminds me of my own incompetence with the small frustrations of life."

Goof-up or not, Poston was a versatile actor who made his Broadway debut in 1947 playing five roles in Jose Ferrer's "Cyrano de Bergerac."

One role called for him to engage in a duel, fall 10 feet, roll across the stage and vanish into the orchestra pit. Other actors had auditioned and failed but Poston, who in his youth had been an acrobat with the Flying Zepleys, did the stunt perfectly.

He went on to play secondary roles in Broadway comedies and starred at regional theaters in such shows as "Romanoff and Juliet" and "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum." For 10 years he was also a panelist on the popular TV quiz show "To Tell the Truth."

He made guest appearances on scores of television shows, including "Studio One," "The Phil Silvers Show," "The Defenders," "Get Smart," "The Bob Newhart Show," "The Love Boat," "St. Elsewhere," "The Simpsons," "Coach," "Murphy Brown," "Home Improvement," "Touched by an Angel," "Will & Grace," "Dream On," "Just Shoot Me!" and "That '70s Show."

Poston and his first wife, Jean Sullivan, had a daughter, Francesca, before their marriage ended in divorce. He married his second wife, Kay Hudson, after they met while appearing in the St. Louis Light Opera, and they had a son, Jason, and daughter, Hudson.

Poston and Pleshette, who had appeared together in the 1959 Broadway play "The Golden Fleecing," had had a brief fling before marrying other people. Both now widowed, they reunited in 2000 and married the following year.

Their paths had crossed on "The Bob Newhart Show" in the 1970s. Poston made several guest appearances on the sitcom in which Pleshette played Newhart's wife.

In 2006, Pleshette underwent chemotherapy for lung cancer that her agent said was caught at an early stage.

Born in Columbus, Ohio, on Oct. 17, 1921, Thomas Poston moved from city to city as a child as his father hunted for work during the Depression. As a teenager, he made money as a boxer.

Following two years at Bethany College he enlisted in the Army Air Corps and flew troops to the European war zone during World War II.

Hunting for a postwar occupation, Poston read an interview with Charles Jehlinger, creative head of the American Academy of Dramatic Arts and was inspired to sign up for a two-year course at the Academy.

Besides Pleshette, 70, Poston is survived by his children, Francesca Poston of Nashville, Tenn., Jason Poston of Los Angeles and Hudson Poston of Portland, Ore.

A private service was planned for immediate family. Details of a public memorial service were to be announced later.

[Pubrick]

he had a great name.

i'll save my tears for Rip Torn.

[Pozer]

http://www.knbc.com/news/13323326/detail.html

Rev. Jerry Falwell Dies At 73

LYNCHBURG, Va. -- A Liberty University executive said the Rev. Jerry Falwell has died.

Falwell, 73, had been hospitalized earlier Tuesday in "gravely serious" condition after being found unconscious in his office Tuesday.

Ron Godwin, the executive vice president of Falwell's Liberty University, said Falwell was found unresponsive around 10:45 a.m. and taken to Lynchburg General Hospital. Godwin said he was not sure what caused the collapse, but "he has a history of heart challenges."

"I had breakfast with him, and he was fine at breakfast," Godwin said. "He went to his office, I went to mine and they found him unresponsive."

Falwell, a television evangelist who founded the Moral Majority, became the face of the religious right in the 1980s. He later founded the conservative Liberty University and served as its president.

Falwell survived two serious health scares in early 2005. He was hospitalized for two weeks with what was described as a viral infection, then hospitalized again a few weeks later after going into respiratory arrest.

Liberty University

Falwell founded Liberty University in Lynchburg, Va., in 1971. The school offers 38 undergraduate and 15 graduate programs. The 4,400-acre campus serves more than 20,000 resident and external students. Individuals from all 50 states and more than 70 nations make up the student body.

Liberty University is nestled in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains and located on the south bank of the historic James River.

[hedwig]

i feel like watching The People vs Larry Flynt.

[Ravi]

Rev. Jerry Falwell Dies At 73

[polkablues]

England seems to have the market cornered on witty, outspoken atheists.  Really, I can only think of the two (Hitchens and Richard Dawkins) offhand, but sadly, that seems to be the whole market.  Politically active atheists in America tend to be unbearable for some reason, like the mom and daughter behind the Freedom From Religion Foundation, or those obnoxious Rational Response Team kids.  Really, the best we've got is James Randi (not that there's anything wrong with James Randi).

But anyway, back on topic, Jerry Falwell's pinching his chubby little flanks in Heaven now, and I couldn't possibly be sadder about it.   

[Ravi]

Daniel Robert Epstein died.  A lot of his interviews have been posted here.

[Pubrick]

yeah but how many ppl actually read them?

i did. and that post.

damn that's young.

[JG]

he is the one interviewer i always made sure to read.  he was great.  thats really terrible. 

[Gold Trumpet]

R.I.P. Dan Robert Epstein

by Garth Franklin

The world got a little smaller today as 31-year-old Daniel Robert Epstein suddenly passed away. Dan's great work remains posted in the archives at SuicideGirls, Newsarama, UGO and FilmStew. I urge you to check them out when you get a chance.

Despite protests to the contrary, there's more of a community in the field of online entertainment journalism than many other professions. Like any industry though there are plenty of hangers on just filling in time, opportunists solely in it for the money or credit, blowhards stroking their own egos, and recluses who wrap themselves comfortably in anonymity to keep their social and work lives as separate as possible.

Every now and then though you'll find a real person - someone with a real passion for it and the drive to push themselves further, but someone who also can sit back at the end of a day and have a good laugh and drink about it with you. Dan was one of those, an increasingly rare lot these days which makes it so much harder to grasp that he's gone.

Here was a man who embraced life with both arms. A man several years older than I am, but without the years of cynicism that all of us who've been in it for the long-haul become saddled with. He went after interviews with such vigor and landed some of the most fascinating articles you'll ever read. He didn't pursue celebrities or sensationalism, he talked to people whose work had a cultural impact and whom he admired. The result were candid, honest and conversational interviews filled with real intelligence and wit.

I've gotten to know Dan over the years over the course of about a dozen film set visits, and always considered him one of our group's equivalent of the old guard. He was one of a dozen or so online journalists or publicists that, if they were on a set visit, would turn it from being the dull chore they can often be into a grand experience.

On a few occasions these visits become real cathartic experiences and gave rise to friendships that last for years. Dan was often present when they did, a real catalyst that helped get the ball rolling. Consequently the two of us and various others have had assorted adventures together in locales across the U.S. and Europe, the scenery may have changed frequently but Dan did not. He was someone whom everyone adored.

Memories are what I'll keep - like a great night out at some college dive bar in Louisiana, getting lost in a taxi somewhere in a New Mexico housing project with a gorgeous publicist and a near passed out JoBlo correspondent, or simultaneously checking out what was behind Superman's cape on a back lot in Sydney. Most of all I'll miss the laughter, the man had one of the best senses of humor of anyone I know and the banter one could share with him was gold.

To his friends and family, of which there are many, my deepest thoughts and condolences to you all, especially to his wife Andrea. I never have gotten the chance to meet Dan's special lady, but he has regaled me with stories over time and one day I hope to do just that. To her and all his family, you have the sympathies of all of us in this somewhat odd little community. To Dan mate, wherever you are, I hope the energy which you brought to your life will continue long on and inspire others as it has me.

Farewell my friend.

[modage]

for all those that read Suicide Girls for the articles, he will be missed.

[polkablues]

There are articles?