that has to be dime bag darrel. (pantera/damage plan) amazing musician

Well it's a ressurected thread, but I wasn't here when it started, so I'll answer now :).

I was most upset by the death of Freddie Mercury.

John Peel was a sad surprise, too.

When I heard that John Entwhistle died (in bed with a prostitute, on coke, natch) the night before the Who kicked off their tour at the Hollywood Bowl (to which I had tickets) I was so upset that I interrupted a painting series I was working on to create an image of him as the Ox, which I then pasted onto some devotional candles and set up at the entrance to the Bowl when the remainder of the Who played their rescheduled show. Also, when I heard on the car radio that Mark Sandman of Morphine had died on stage I had to pull over because I was crying too much to drive. And Jerry Garcia's death was, of course, the death of so much more.

RIP
 

Andreas Katsulas, felled by lung cancer.
IMDB

He was the One Armed Man in The Fugitive, but I knew him best as G'Kar in Babylon 5. His interaction with Peter Jurasik was the absolute best part of a great show. Katsulas infused more power and emotion into a latex creation than anyone I've seen in any show. If there's ever a return to the B5 universe, his absence will be keenly felt.

I was just about to post that too. Freddie Mercury. I was shopping in a department store when it came across the news. I felt like crying right in the middle of the store.

:sniff:

Nipped in the Bud
 

Barney Fife has finally gotten that long-awaited promotion. There'll be a new sheriff in town upon the streets of Glory...even if he'll only be carrying one golden bullet.

Don Knotts parlayed a shtick of high-strung near-franticism into a memorable and hysterical career spanning over 50 years. His best-known character, the bumbling deputy sheriff of Mayberry, North Carolina, made him into one of the most loved comedic characters of all time.

Don Knotts has died at the age of 81, but he's left me with a lot of chuckling memories - The Ghost and Mr. Chicken, The Incredible Mr. Limpet, The Reluctant Astronaut, and a small but memorable part as a psychiatrist in No Time for Sargeants etched his mark indelibly on the pop culture scene. Knotts even managed to make a rare late-in-life "comeback" following his appearance in Pleasantville as a tv repairman with a remote control that tossed two feuding siblings into a Leave It To Beaver-style, black and white sitcom world (curiously, Knotts' voice was overdubbed by a comedian for this film for some reason). That in turn led to many dinner theater appearances (especially here in Kansas City), and a whole new boom in fandom.

Gonna miss ya, Barn.

Looks like Barn finally got the corner room at the Y in the sky.:sniff:

Rumor has it he was hung like a racehorse and kept quite a stable of fillys, well into his senior years. ;)

5 Emmys in 6 years
 

He won 5 Emmys for playing Barney Fife between 1961-67, which shows how innovative he was compared to everyone else at the time.

If Phil Silvers, Sid Caeser, and Milton Berle represented the Golden Age of TV Comedy, Don Knotts ushered in the Silver Age. Barney Fife wasn't a character for a single sketch, but a well thought out whole person.

Don Knotts created a character that people could laugh at and sympathize with at the same time. A guy who everyone could admire and hope that even if he hit his thumb with the hammer the past 99 times, on the 100th try he might get lucky. Barney Fife will remain one of the best comic characters ever brought to television. Don Knotts was a comic genius.

I nominate Rich to deliver the eulogy. I heard that Andy Griffith was one of his final visitors. I took some measure of comfort from that. I think when we lose Andy, I'm not going to handle that very well. If I had to finish out my days on a deserted island with a complete collection of any single TV show, I'd pick the black and white episodes of the Andy Griffith Show. First Gilligan and now Barney. Dangit.

&!*@$!%*!!
 

And, in today's tragic twofer, Darren McGavin has passed at 83. Quirky, distinctive, and absolutely perfect as the father in A Christmas Story, which I had *just* finished labelling ten minutes before I saw the news item come across.

The Night Stalker has joined the denizens of the midnight streets.

Shit. I loved him in 'Kolchak: The Night Stalker'. It was one of the best horror shows ever put on television. It seems that Mr. McGavin held the show together. Unfortunately, the show was ahead of it's time.

I don't remember many leading roles after that, but he was a great character actor who could deliver a pithy line at the right moment.

Goddamn It...Now McCloud is Gone, Too
 

Been a bad couple of days for classic TV stars. Dennis Weaver has crossed through the veil at age 81 from complications of cancer.

Weaver broke in to the big time on Gunsmoke, and he also made a big splash as McCloud, the Western lawman in the big city. I, however, will always remember him as the terrorized Plymouth driver in Spielberg's first effort, "Duel", based on a classic Richard Matheson short story.

Marshall Dillon! Marshall Dillon! Chester is a' limpin' up to see Miss Kitty!

Don, Darren, and Dennis... Dead. Damn.

Damn, that sucks. I was pretty impressed by him. He was a champion of the earthships. He actually had his filmed while it was being built. I'm pretty sad about Don Knotts too.