In Memoriam...
Aug. 28th, 2014 08:30 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
catkoThis one was hard to do, I kept putting it off, I think because of the sadness. In Memoriam--for ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
tv_universe. Picspams and meta for actors we lost, mostly while they were on shows that I was watching at the time.
Peter Duel is the first -- maybe only -- actor I had a crush on who died while I was avidly watching his show. Alias Smith and Jones was developed in the wake of the popularity of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Two rogue anti-heroes, very cute and quippy--well, it was a Roy Huggins Production, he of Maverick and The Rockford Files fame. My friends and I picked which one we liked better, Smith or Jones. I was Peter Duel all the way. So when the news came out that he'd shot himself on New Year's Eve, I was stunned. He seemed to have it all. (1971)
Hill Street Blues was absolutely appointment television. We'd gather weekly at friends' houses to watch. Michael Conrad, as Sgt. Phil Esterhaus, was the center of the maelstrom that was the police precinct, with its amazing mixture of hilarity, violence, tragedy, and human interest. I think maybe we knew Michael Conrad was ill, but you couldn't imagine the show without him. What was cool is that the scuttlebutt was that as a dying wish, he wanted his character to die in bed with the show's floozy, Grace Gardner. Most of the tributes used some variation of his character's famous, and really touching, phrase: "Let's be careful out there." (1983)
This one was a total shocker, and in the news for weeks, of course, given the horror of the tragedy of Phil Hartman, one of the most prolific and beloved comics of the time, being shot to death by his wife. I was not a fan of him in his earlier career, on Saturday Night Live and elsewhere, but I came to love him via the character of Bill McNeal on Newsradio. So despicable but also loveable. It was an amazing performance. I admire that they dealt with his death on the show, and there were times when it was actually funny. I'm not sure I'd seen that before. (1998)
This one is a bit of a cheat, since (1) I didn't watch Angel until years after it aired, by which time Glenn Quinn had already died; and (2) though they dealt with his death, a heroic sacrifice, in the storyline, the actor hadn't died in real life, but was just leaving the show. He did, tragically, die shortly thereafter. So, watching it all years later, knowing of Glenn's death, it made it especially poignant to see Angel and Cordy, mourning, watching Doyle's attempt at a promotional video for their detective business. (2002)
Another shocker. I remember seeing the news crawl that John Spencer had died, and thinking immediately, "Now what are they going to do?" since his character, Leo McGarry, was running for Vice-President on that very season of The West Wing. I remember TV-world and real life criss-crossing when I had to think for a moment whether John Spencer was REALLY running for Vice-President oh no, it's just on the TV show. My memory is that his death was a total surprise, and they decided to deal with it on the show--how could they not. It did result in a compelling storyline and some amazing acting which was no doubt very real emotion by the actors. (2005)
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tv_universe. Picspams and meta for actors we lost, mostly while they were on shows that I was watching at the time.Peter Duel is the first -- maybe only -- actor I had a crush on who died while I was avidly watching his show. Alias Smith and Jones was developed in the wake of the popularity of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Two rogue anti-heroes, very cute and quippy--well, it was a Roy Huggins Production, he of Maverick and The Rockford Files fame. My friends and I picked which one we liked better, Smith or Jones. I was Peter Duel all the way. So when the news came out that he'd shot himself on New Year's Eve, I was stunned. He seemed to have it all. (1971)
Hill Street Blues was absolutely appointment television. We'd gather weekly at friends' houses to watch. Michael Conrad, as Sgt. Phil Esterhaus, was the center of the maelstrom that was the police precinct, with its amazing mixture of hilarity, violence, tragedy, and human interest. I think maybe we knew Michael Conrad was ill, but you couldn't imagine the show without him. What was cool is that the scuttlebutt was that as a dying wish, he wanted his character to die in bed with the show's floozy, Grace Gardner. Most of the tributes used some variation of his character's famous, and really touching, phrase: "Let's be careful out there." (1983)
This one was a total shocker, and in the news for weeks, of course, given the horror of the tragedy of Phil Hartman, one of the most prolific and beloved comics of the time, being shot to death by his wife. I was not a fan of him in his earlier career, on Saturday Night Live and elsewhere, but I came to love him via the character of Bill McNeal on Newsradio. So despicable but also loveable. It was an amazing performance. I admire that they dealt with his death on the show, and there were times when it was actually funny. I'm not sure I'd seen that before. (1998)
This one is a bit of a cheat, since (1) I didn't watch Angel until years after it aired, by which time Glenn Quinn had already died; and (2) though they dealt with his death, a heroic sacrifice, in the storyline, the actor hadn't died in real life, but was just leaving the show. He did, tragically, die shortly thereafter. So, watching it all years later, knowing of Glenn's death, it made it especially poignant to see Angel and Cordy, mourning, watching Doyle's attempt at a promotional video for their detective business. (2002)
Another shocker. I remember seeing the news crawl that John Spencer had died, and thinking immediately, "Now what are they going to do?" since his character, Leo McGarry, was running for Vice-President on that very season of The West Wing. I remember TV-world and real life criss-crossing when I had to think for a moment whether John Spencer was REALLY running for Vice-President oh no, it's just on the TV show. My memory is that his death was a total surprise, and they decided to deal with it on the show--how could they not. It did result in a compelling storyline and some amazing acting which was no doubt very real emotion by the actors. (2005)
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no subject
Date: 2014-08-29 06:28 am (UTC)This is the meanest challenge!!!!
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Date: 2014-08-29 04:06 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-08-29 10:52 am (UTC)Leo was one of my favorite characters on The West Wing, mainly because he was SUCH a good actor. I was so sad when we lost him :(
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Date: 2014-08-29 04:07 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-08-29 04:19 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-08-30 03:04 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-09-28 04:33 pm (UTC)Pete Duel AND Michael Conrad! Wow, that set off some happy and sad memories of both of those two actors, their most famous characters and, of course, their too-early ends. Thanks for the memories of them.
no subject
Date: 2014-09-29 01:24 am (UTC)