RIP - David, Ed, Farrah, Michael, Billy, and Fred (June, 2009)
June has been a rough month, if you are into show-biz, via watching TV at all.
First, there was David Carridine, probably best known by the older generation as Cain in the TV series, Kung Fu, and by the current generation as Bill, in the Kill Bill movies. He died, apparently, of accidental sexual asphyxiation, June 3, 2009, at age 73. He also hosted some shows about "Wild West Tech" on the History Channel, as did his brother, Kieth. No matter how he died, he was a very good actor, and I know I'm not the only one who looked forward to new movies or TV shows with him in them.
Then we got a break for a while.
The last week of June, though, was VERY rough.
Ed McMahon, quintessential "second banana" to Johnny Carson, Jerry Lewis, and Dick Clark, died June 24, 2009, at the Ronald Reagan/UCLA Medical Center, at the age of 86. He was with Carson from the beginning, spending 30 years with him, most of those, opening the Tonight Show with the well-known, "Heeeeeeere's Johnny!" He and Carson were a team. When Ed wasn't there, there were times Johnny was "flat". He also co-hosted the Jerry Lewis Labor Day Telethons. After Johnny retired, Ed went on to host Star Search, and "TV's Bloopers and Practical Jokes", with Dick Clark. He famously almost lost his home a couple of years ago, and suffered a number of hospital visits for accidents and illnesses. More recently, he did commercials for Budweiser, Cash4Gold.com, FreeCreditReport.com, and more.
Two days later, Farrah Faucett, long-time suffering from anal cancer finally succumbed to it on the morning of June 25, 2009, at 62. Everyone remembers her from Charlie's Angels, but she was only on it for the first season. While the show aired, Farrah's poster came out, and and she really hit it big as a sex symbol. She believed the reason Charlie's Angels went to #1 was because none of the girls wore bras. I think it was that poster. At some point, she was making more from royalties from the poster than her salary on Angels. Then came critically acclaimed TV movies, like "The Burning Bed" (based on a true story). She was married to Lee Majors (Heath from The Big Valley, The Six Million Dollar Man, and The Stunt Man), then, after their divorce, began a long-time relationship with Ryan O'Neal, with whom she had a son.
As the networks were preparing to pay tribute to Farrah, something else happened, and has been eating up the news, ever since. At around noon, it was reported that Michael Jackson was taken to the hospital by ambulance. Misinformation abounded, and some reported that he was in a coma, some reported him brain-dead, when, in actuality, he had already died, at age 50. Now, I won't spend a lot of time on Michael, as so many others have. Everyone knows his start with the Jackson Five, his going off on his own, and his making one of the best albums ever made, Thriller. Jackson broke into MTV with Billie Jean, proving that the MTV viewers were ready to see a black man, singing and dancing at the same time, and the rest is history. There will be much more about him to come, as there are his children; his obvious dislike of his abusive father; his love for the rest of his family; his love of his fans; his estate; etc. Suffice it to say that Michael Jackson's death was a surprise, and obviously eclipsed the prior deaths of this month as news.
And before anyone says, "Yeah, but he was a child molester"... Nope. Logically, he paid off the first one because it would have cost him even more for lawyers, the time taken away from concerts, and the publicity. Who knows? He may have even cared for the family, even with what they tried. Should he have? Probably not. I think it lead to someone else trying to take advantage of his quirkiness, and, my guess is when he didn't pay up, they took it to the cops, who tried to find anything to validate the claims and charges. He was acquitted, remember? And if he really had been a molester, don't you think more than just those families would have come forward, long before now to say so? And why, in Heaven's name, would all those celebrities believe otherwise, to the point of hanging around with him with their kids? Everyone knows that a single allegation, true or not, about any sexual predilections, especially having to do with kids, can ruin anyone's reputation. With the outpouring of mourning, love, and support MJ has received, I would say that people don't believe it, and his reputation, while not completely clear because of his quirkiness, has been pretty well cleared. No matter which part of his career you liked, no matter which of his many faces we all knew you liked, he was a special entertainer, and many past and current people owe their existence in entertainment and stardom to him.
Then, there was news that Billy Mays, well-known pitchman, had died at 50, on June 28, 2009. Because he'd just been in a "hard landing" that blew out the front tires of the plane he was on, and he'd been hit in the head by some luggage, people assumed he died, probably of the same thing that Natasha Richardson (Liam Neeson's wife) had in March. Turns out he had hypertensive heart disease, and probably a heart attack. Billy is best known for his boisterous, booming baritone on commercials and infomercials for OxyClean, OrangeGlo, and many, many others, starting with "Hi... Billy Mays here...". That voice really bothered a lot of people, but he sold enough products with it that there was no way he was "going away" soon. He and Anthony Sullivan had a show on Discovery called "Pitchmen", where we found out a lot of things about the products they sold, and about the pitchmen themselves. Discovery is going to do a marathon of it tomorrow (Wednesday, July 1st), starting at 11AM, and ending at 10PM, with the season finale. Love him or hate him, there's not a lot of people out there like him. How many pitchmen can say they became stars, simply from doing commercials?
And, I believe on the news on Monday, I heard that Fred Travalena, comedian and one of the best celebrity impressionists, had died on Sunday, June 28, 2009, at the age of 66, of non-Hodgkins Lymphoma. It was a short story, mixed in with the news about Farrah and MJ. While I haven't heard too much about him recently, in the past, he used to be a fairly regular guest on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, and on David Letterman. I remember watching, and when he was on, knew it would be an excellent show. He hosted a number of shows, and even did voices for cartoons. From my understanding, he was so good at doing actors' voices, when they were not available to do over-dubs for films, he might be called in to do the actor.
Looks like the "three celebrities" rule is true, even if it's a bit mixed, here... David, Ed, and Farrah, Michael, Billy, and Fred. All in June, 2009. Eerie, ain't it?
David, Ed, Farrah, Michael, Billy, and Fred. Most of us "older kids" grew up with all of them. Some will say they lived a long, fulfilling life. But, it's always hard when people you grew up with, whether in real-life, on TV, or in the movies, whether you really liked them or not, die. And, Billy and Michael were younger than I am. Heck, they're younger than my younger brother! All of them had families who loved them, some despite their quirks. And all of them had fans (and non-fans) of all ages.
All will be missed. RIP, all of you.
