Yea. No kidding. His Bio is pretty amazing. He was still making movies as of late.

Smith also had memorable (to me anyway) roles in Gunsmoke and in the very first episode of The Rockford Files. He was also in a lot of trashy B movies that I have a soft spot for.


IMDb says his first role was in The Ghost of Frankenstein back in 1942. I had no idea he started acting as a kid.

RIP.

I was 20 at the time....trying to impress the girl I was dating. I wanted nothing to do with watching a mini-series, but she wanted to watch it, so I did. (that paid off for me in so many ways)

I ended up loving it....I actually related to the Nick Nolte character so much because I had an older brother whose life, to some extent, mirrored the Peter Strauss character.

The essence of the story being....who really was the Rich Man and who was the Poor Man.

I actually read the follow up Beggarman, Thief but wasn't as enamored as I was of Rich Man, Poor Man.

A lot of those made for tv movie and mini series from the 70s and 80s really kicked ass. Lonesome Dove, Shogun, Dark Night of the Scarecrow, Don't Be Afraid of the Dark, Murder By Natural Causes and so many more.

I know.....in those days you could get your "man card" taken away for letting people know you watched mini-series.

I actually REALLY liked Lonesome Dove and Shogun....the others were good watching but not on the par with the RMPM, LD or Shogun.

Plus....it got me in good graces with the then-girlfriend.

You're forgetting the best one - North and South.

Patrick Swayze had, what, Outsiders and Red Dawn under his belt at that time.

North and South and Lonesome Dove led me to read everything John Jakes and Larry McMurtry. . . I mean everything. Back in my 'read everything I could get my hands on' phase. Bradbury, Asimov, L'Engle, Tolkien, Herbert, CS Lewis, and eventually Bachman/King [and of course starting with all the Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew/Encyclopedia Brown, etc].

Encyclopedia Brown....man does that bring out some memories.

You forgot The 3 Investigators (Alfred Hitchcock) and the baseball series, Bronc Burnett.

I was recently listening to a podcast with some comedians [forgot which one, probably Threedom with Aukerman/Tompkins/Lapkus] and one of them was trying to remember a 'kid detective' series with a clubhouse in a junkyard. I was yelling '3 Investigators' at my PC.

William Smith had a small part in The Outsiders movie as well. I think he played the store clerk that Dally tries to rob at the end.

Roots, of course, was the father of them all, and it was great. I also remember watching a WWII one called Winds of War.

I wonder how those would age today. I'm surprised that I never see them replayed.

The Thorn Birds and Shogun... Richard Chamberlain was a big deal back then.. I watched Thorn Birds because...Rachel Ward

The wife had never seen North and South, so I picked it up on DVD and rewatched it with her a few years ago. It was a bit cheesier than I remembered, but held up pretty well. It had a great cast and a fantastic score.

For anyone interested in watching North and South, there were three installments. The first one deals with the years leading up to the Civil War, and the second is set during the Civil War. They are both excellent. The third is set after the Civil War, and is as awful as the first two were great; Swayze isn't in it, and the whole production was amateurish and lame. Don't even bother with it.

I was a huge Hardy Boys fan when I was a kid, but I never heard of the Three Investigators series until a few months ago. I was listening to a horror podcast and they played a story called "Footsteps Invisible." I'm a fan of Old Time Radio and I recognized the name of the story's author, Robert A. Arthur as a well-known writer of classic radio programs. Turns out he also edited the Alfred Hitchcock anthology books back in the day and also created the Three Investigators series. Ever since then the Baader–Meinhof phenomenon has kicked in and I'm seeing references to Jupiter Jones and the Three Investigators everywhere I look.


"Footsteps Invisible" can be listened to here:

https://pseudopod.org/2013/12/06/pse...eps-invisible/


"S.O.S." and "Death is the Judge" from the Mysterious Traveller radio program were both written by Arthur and can be listened to for free at the Internet Archive.

Then The Day After scared the bejesus out of everyone and boom the mini-series went poof.

Boy some great nostalgic stuff in here! Us old timers know good shit.....

Lonesome Dove and Shogun are two of the best of all time. Robert Duvall was awesome in Lonesome Dove. Shogun was fantastic as well. Richard Chamberlain, Tishiro Mifune and John Rhys-Davies in it. What a great cast and story. I've got both mini series on DVD. Been awhile since I've watched either but now I've got a hankering to watch Shogun. Any of you youngsters that haven't seen Shogun, do yourselves a favor. You won't be disappointed. :thumb:

Talking about North and South and the various babes brought up in the Salma Hayek thread reminded me of Terri Garber, who played Patrick Swayze's deliciously evil sister Ashton in North and South. Never saw her in anything else, but goddamn she was smoking hot.

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/...3MzA@._V1_.jpg

Is Charlie Robinson, aka the Court Clerk on Night Court, a qualifying entry?

75 yo, cancer and cardiac arrest listed.

He's immortal in meme infamy.

<iframe src="https://giphy.com/embed/xT9IgkgwQDqp0utHFK" width="480" height="270" frameBorder="0" class="giphy-embed" allowFullScreen></iframe><p><a href="https://giphy.com/gifs/xT9IgkgwQDqp0utHFK">via GIPHY</a></p>

That's too bad. Night Court had one of the best ensemble casts in TV history. Probably my favorite show from the 80s.

RIP

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Often words are puny useless things. Maybe they will make sense in time but for now our deepest condolences to his loved ones.——- Charlie Robinson. November 9, 1945 – July 11, 2021 <a href="https://t.co/yHLgXPglMc">pic.twitter.com/yHLgXPglMc</a></p>&mdash; John B. Larroquette (@johnlarroquette) <a href="https://twitter.com/johnlarroquette/status/1414788088438480901?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 13, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

For some reason I never really got into Night Court. The times I did watch it it was pretty funny. I used to watch something else that was on at the same time. But for the life of me I can't remember what. Thinking it was something that was on PBS. :hmmm:

This was in January, but Gregory Sierra died at age 83. He was on so many TV shows as a semi-regular, it's hard to pick one.

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0797268/?ref_=nm_mv_close

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/...14,317_AL_.jpg

I saw he was a regular on Barney Miller the first two seasons '75-'76, which I did watch. The creator of BM started a new show and picked Sierra to be it's star, which he jumped at. I don't remember the show, it was Hudson Street and lasted only one season in '78.

Then I started reading more on the guys on Barney Miller and saw Ron Glass and me had the same birthday, July 10th but he was five years older but died in 2016.

It was said he was gay and had a long term relationship with the actor who played Luke on the daytime soap, Tony Geary. I didn't watch soaps, but about 1980 this photo was on the cover of every tabloid, People magazine and anything else at the checkout counter, you couldn't miss it.

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/73/e8...29b4664910.jpg

https://cdn.images.express.co.uk/img...ASS-736908.jpg

Tony Geary was said to have two year relationship with Liz Taylor back during the Luke and Laura days, but anyone who knows Liz, for some reason she had a thing for gay men, Rock Hudson and Montgomery Cliff come to mind. As far as Ron Glass, I only found that it was a long term relationship with Tony Geary.

https://resizing.flixster.com/ud1YXR...5704_v9_ba.jpg

Ron Glass was probably my favorite on Barney Miller. I was thrilled when he showed up on Firefly and was very sad when he passed.

Another fantastic show and some of the best one-liners in any comedy show in history :clap::clap:

Another North and South connection - Genie Francis, the actress who played Laura played Swayze's other sister (the good one). She's married to Jonathan Frakes of Star Trek fame, another North and South cast member.

I used to run into Ron Glass regularly at the now closed Victor's Deli & Restaurant. Ron was always pleasant and quiet and never seemed interested in drawing any attention to himself. I think the last time I saw him was around 2012ish and he was always alone.

On a side note, Victor's Deli was absolutely amazing and by far the best deli I've ever had, including in New York. It was owned by none other than The Teflon Don's brother, Bill Gotti, who was another great guy to be around.

Barney Miller is one of my favorite shows ever. Dietrich was my favorite character. He cracked me up on a regular basis.

Oddly, I wasn't that fond of most of the characters when taken individually, but as a group they were great.

Dietrich had one of my favorite TV lines ever. At the end of of one episode a bunch of them were watching TV when someone (Barney?) showed up. Dietrich said, "Hey, hang around. Taxi starts in five minutes." Taxi was the show directly after Barney Miller. What were they watching? WHAT WERE THEY WATCHING?

We will never know!:evil:

Speaking of;


Whhhahattt . . . Does . . . A YELLOW . . . Light . . . Meaan!!!!!

RIP Biz Markie…

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">This is so so sad. RIP, Biz. <a href="https://t.co/xZXTVd4WO1">https://t.co/xZXTVd4WO1</a></p>&mdash; Chris Hayes (@chrislhayes) <a href="https://twitter.com/chrislhayes/status/1416193671477800961?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 17, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Big fan of his. Read all his writings. When I went to A & M they had a display of his school work when he went school there in the school library. He flunked out and got horrible grades on his papers. His papers were awesome. **** English teachers, at least the ones he and I had. I took an English class got a D in it. Had to retake it, basically turned the same shit in the 2nd go around and got an A.

When do you become officially old in Chiefs Planet? Is it 50?

This doesn't belong here.

One of my favorites also. Dietrich was the king of dry humor one of Carson and later Letterman's favorites. He cracked them both up.

Simon and Simon?

You might of been reading a book published by Simon and Schuster.

Get Bent, Boyo....

Nah Simon and Simon always came on at 9 after Magnum PI. And that was Thursday. Night Court was on Tuesday. I think I usually watched Frontline on PBS.

Jackie Mason, rabbi-turned-comedian who perfected amused outrage, dies at 93.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/enter...93/8084660002/

RIP

Caddyshack II blew chunks

Life well lived.

Banned from The Ed Sullivan Show, that’s hilarious.
Funny guy. RIP

(For the record I would have know who this was if he had his own thread).

R.I.P. Hugo Millán.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Dusty Hill, ZZ Top’s bassist for more than 50 years, has died. He was 72. <a href="https://t.co/thW9NPQQT2">https://t.co/thW9NPQQT2</a> <a href="https://t.co/UBBKYRtaho">pic.twitter.com/UBBKYRtaho</a></p>&mdash; Variety (@Variety) <a href="https://twitter.com/Variety/status/1420457349819420675?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 28, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

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Wow. RIP.

I’m sure NZoner is devastated.

Wonder if they stop performing now? It’s always been just the Three of them
Hasn’t it?

RIP Dusty. He deserved his own thread.

Damn that sucks. ZZtop is the essence of cool.

For sure this.

One of my favorite bands and Dusty was the glue with the low end that made their unique sound.

They have toured without Dusty while he was trying to get well as the article states. ZZ Topp has been using their longtime guitar tech on bass.

By the way, I started this thread as kind of a joke when we were coincidentally getting a flurry of D-list celebrity deaths. Usually the kind where you had to say, "He was a backup singer for Neil Diamond and played drums for the Trashmen" to know who the **** they were.

I never intended this to be a megathread, and I certainly never intended this to be a posting place to announce the deaths of people like Dusty Hill, who is widely recognized and typically not somebody people have never heard of.

Getting this thread back on track with a hearty 'RIP Ron Popeil.'

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Dealer's choice this fine morning

Markie Post - 70yo

Bobby Bowden - 91yo

Markie Post was hot as hell back in the day. RIP :(

Yes she was , 70 is fairly young wonder what got her?

Cancer got markie post.

Bobbi Bowden dead at 90 something

RIP Bobby.

https://thumbs.gfycat.com/PepperyAct...on-max-1mb.gif

https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood...dies-at-age-41

Trevor Moore from Whitest Kids U Know dead at 41

Jackie Masen was he advark in cartoons right/

If you didn't need another worthless product, Ron would find one. Then he'd sell it to you. Don't forget GLH-9, the original spray on hair by Ronco.

She was hot as shit back in the day


Night Court’ actor Markie Post dies

Markie Post, who played the public defender in the 1980s sitcom “Night Court” and was a regular presence on television for ...
By Jake Coyle - Associated Press - Sunday, August 8, 2021
NEW YORK — Markie Post, who played the public defender in the 1980s sitcom “Night Court” and was a regular presence on television for four decades, has died. She was 70.

Post’s manager, Ellen Lubin Sanitsky, said Post died Saturday in Los Angeles after a years-long battle with cancer.

Ms.Post back in the day

He never got the credit he deserved.

My heated chair is still rocking.

Unknown here, but very popular in GB. Sean Lock 58yo, cancer.

https://www.theguardian.com/stage/20...k-dies-aged-58

https://live-production.wcms.abc-cdn...862&height=485

Standup and talk show dude. Think Norm Macdonald or a younger Martin Short in terms of profile for American audiences.

EDIT - one of his iconic moments

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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">We mourn the passing of Bill Freehan, who spent all 15 years of his career wearing the Olde English ‘D’.<br><br>He was an 11-time All Star, five-time Gold Glove winner, 1968 World Series Champion and impactful community leader. <a href="https://t.co/yFrfknRdBA">pic.twitter.com/yFrfknRdBA</a></p>&mdash; Detroit Tigers (@tigers) <a href="https://twitter.com/tigers/status/1428360006257111052?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 19, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Im old and still never heard of him.

Sonny Chiba, 82

Maker of finest Japanese steel

https://images.bfmtv.com/XiFlGy3KrlJ...ll-1087137.jpg

Yes. RIP Sonny Chiba


<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">The great Sonny Chiba passed away today at age 82, another victim of Covid-19. A martial arts legend with six black belts who started out in tokusatsu TV, Chiba made over 120 movies for Toei and was Japan&#39;s most popular action star for decades. Watch one of his films today. ������ <a href="https://t.co/sIIqS1Gf5A">pic.twitter.com/sIIqS1Gf5A</a></p>&mdash; Ted Geoghegan (@tedgeoghegan) <a href="https://twitter.com/tedgeoghegan/status/1428348087999860742?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 19, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

I do

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xAskPIyaYgs

We got to watch the 68 World Series in grade school I guess because the Cards were playing. KC was a year away from a baseball team and even then I hated the Cards was rooting for Tigers.
Dick McAuliffe
Bill Freehand
Norm Cash
Al Kaline
Willie Horton
Mickey Stanley

Denny McLain
Mickey Lolich

Seriously? 1968 World Series champs. And played until mid 1970's? You can't be that old if you were a sports fan.

Even I know Bill Freehan.

It took a minute for the name to click for me. But when I saw he was with the Tigers in the late 60's I realized, oh, he was the catcher. Not the biggest name on that team by any means but that was a time when I was actually following baseball as my only sport. I was 8 and lived in Chicago with a mother who was a Cubs fan. Talk about hating the Cards!!!

I started watching sports in 1970 at 7.

Chiefs Vikings first thing I watched and well the rest is history. :D

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Thank you for all of the music, Tom T. Hall. <br><br>We’ll miss you ❤️ <a href="https://t.co/dJyVISdJR6">pic.twitter.com/dJyVISdJR6</a></p>&mdash; Grand Ole Opry (@opry) <a href="https://twitter.com/opry/status/1428871287494123523?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 21, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Tom T. Hall's passing hurts.

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America's tallest man, Rochester resident Igor Vovkovinskiy, dies at 38.

I started watching the Chiefs when we moved to KC when I was 8.....it was 1968.

That's not old at all.