Death has been busy lately. We're not even halfway through the month, and we've lost quite a few notable folks over the first week of April.
It was on the news this morning that singer-songwriter John Prine, 73, had lost his battle with COVID-19 after two weeks of hospitalization. The music industry was already mourning Fountains of Wayne frontman Adam Schlesinger, 52, who'd passed away last week.
Playwright Terrence McNally, 81, also was a victim of COVID-19. Everyone else of note seems to have departed through natural causes, including the following:
Honor Blackman, 94: The British actress is best remembered for "Goldfinger" and being the first female associate of secret agent John Steed (Patrick Macnee) on The Avengers back in the 60's. They even released a novelty record together, "Kinky Boots". No video, just audio, and I'll have it up soon.
Al Kaline, 85: The baseball Hall of Famer played his entire career in Detroit with the Tigers, and won a World Series with Detroit in 1968.
Tom Dempsey, 73: Dempsey, who held the record for the longest field goal in NFL history, did it with a special shoe for a partially amputated foot.
Forrest Compton, 94: Compton had a recurring role on Gomer Pyle, USMC, but is largely known for a long stint on the daytime soap, The Edge of Night.
Thomas Miller, 79: Miller was a prolific producer at Paramount, and, later, Warner Bros., whose resume includes Happy Days, Laverne & Shirley, Mork & Mindy, Perfect Strangers, & Family Matters.
James Drury, 85: One of TV's Western icons of the 60's, Drury had first played The Virginian in a pilot three years before Revue/Universal acquired the rights to Owen Wister's novel:
Drury's last series was the short-lived Firehouse for ABC in 1974. Drury passed the torch, if you will, with a small part in TNT's remake of The Virginian as a TV-movie in 2000, with Bill Pullman in the title role.
Rest in peace, one and all.
6 comments:
My uncle had a copy of Wister's novel for years. I should ask if he still has it and to send it to me. I could use some new reading material.
I was saddened to hear of Drury's death, but he lived a long life and made an indelible impression in the industry. I never heard of or saw the remake of The Virginian, I'm curious if it's any good.
I saw the silent film which was based on the novel, and is supposed to be closer to the novel rather than the TV series that would follow. Interesting that like Bonanza, The Virginian was also shot in color from the beginning. It's currently running on two networks: INSP and GRIT. Having watched a number of episodes over the past few weeks, it's a rather entertaining show and holds up fairly well.
I'm a little suspicious of the deaths attributed to Corona, as from what I have heard, it seems to be attributed as cause of death in people who may have been sick with something else (heart condition, pneumonia etc.) but [supposedly] had tested positive for the antibodies. That would mean they're padding the death numbers for exploitation. If someone coughed while swimming and then drowned, I suspect that person's death would be blamed on Corona too.
We had GRIT here for a while, but because it's programming was similar to some digital channels already here (i.e. INSP), GRIT was dropped.
It does seem like the media is too quick to invoke COVID-19 in a lot of the passings of seniors, because they can't get COVID-19 off the news. Exploitation, in this case, based on plain stupidity.
I'm enjoying a marathon of "The Virginian" episodes right now - on EWesterns channel! Before each episode, they acknowledge Drury's passing with a memorial slate.
Pretty cool that no less than three different networks are running this series!
EWesterns? Is that an online channel?
Nope. Its on DISH for me.They usually play classic western films and TV shows. It's part of Encore/Starz collection of channels.
Encore Westerns did a Virginian marathon earlier this weekend, according to my brother, since he has that channel on his cable. It's otherwise a premium channel. Now that I think of it, EWesterns is shorthand for Encore Westerns.
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