Celebrity death that bummed you out the most...

[richlevy]

Originally Posted by lookout123

dammit. i guess that puts the kabosh on any hopes Ralph Machio had for a comeback.

Not really, now he can play the sensei, sort of like what Stallone did in Rocky ??.

BTW, he probably had fun playing himself in Entourage in the episode at the Playboy mansion.

[wolf]

Interviewer: Alright, Mr. Wilson, you've done just fine on the Rorshach.. your papers are in good order.. your file's fine.. no difficulties with your motor skills.. And I think you're probably ready for this job. We've got one more psychological test we always do here. It's just a Word Association. I'll throw you out a few words - anything that comes to your mind, just throw back at me, okay? It's kind of an arbitrary thing. Like, if I say "dog", you'd say..?

Mr. Wilson: "Tree".

Interviewer: "Tree". [ nods head, prepares the test papers ] "Dog".

Mr. Wilson: "Tree".

Interviewer: "Fast".

Mr. Wilson: "Slow".

Interviewer: "Rain".

Mr. Wilson: "Snow".

Interviewer: "White".

Mr. Wilson: "Black".

Interviewer: "Bean".

Mr. Wilson: "Pod".

Interviewer: [ casually ] "Negro".

Mr. Wilson: "Whitey".

Interviewer: "Tarbaby".

Mr. Wilson: [ silent, sure he didn't hear what he thinks he heard ] What'd you say?

Interviewer: [ repeating ] "Tarbaby".

Mr. Wilson: "Ofay".

Interviewer: "Colored".

Mr. Wilson: "Redneck".

Interviewer: "Junglebunny".

Mr. Wilson: [ starting to get angry ] "Peckerwood!"

Interviewer: "Burrhead".

Mr. Wilson: [ defensive ] "Cracker!"

Interviewer: [ aggressive ] "Spearchucker".

Mr. Wilson: "White trash!"

Interviewer: "Jungle Bunny!"

Mr. Wilson: [ upset ] "Honky!"

Interviewer: "Spade!

Mr. Wilson: [ really upset ] "Honky Honky!"

Interviewer: [ relentless ] "Nigger!"

Mr. Wilson: [ immediate ] "Dead honky!" [ face starts to flinch ]

Interviewer: [ quickly wraps the interview up ] Okay, Mr. Wilson, I think you're qualified for this job. How about a starting salary of $5,000?

Mr. Wilson: Your momma!

Interviewer: [ fumbling ] Uh.. $7,500 a year?

Mr. Wilson: Your grandmomma!

Interviewer: [ desperate ] $15,000, Mr. Wilson. You'll be the highest paid janitor in America. Just, don't.. don't hurt me, please..

Mr. Wilson: Okay.

Interviewer: [ relieved ] Okay.

Mr. Wilson: You want me to start now?

Interviewer: Oh, no, no.. that's alright. I'll clean all this up. Take a couple of weeks off, you look tired.

[Elspode]

"When I was 25, I used to be able to pee in the toilet in the morning and not even get out of bed..."

[richlevy]

Al Lewis just passed. As a typecast actor, I didn't get to see him on TV much, but like Bob Denver, the real story of his life is what he did with it after his acting career cooled down.

Looking at his obituary and his acting credits, it seems he had a full, fun life. He sounds like a cool guy to know who was respected by his friends and a pain in the ass to his enemies.

Goodbye, Grandpa.

[Elspode]

How could you not love the guy who drove Dragula?

[godwulf]

I was 14 in 1968, when Robert F. Kennedy was shot and killed. He was very much our man - the Presidential candidate of the young...at least that's how we thought of him. The level of generational division and hostility was exceptionally high then, and many of us were immediately angry at our elders (despite their having had nothing to do with his death) and took it out on them whenever possible.

Somewhat more recently (although it's been over ten years ago now, I think), the death of John Candy hit me pretty hard.

Hunter S. Thompson, certainly. Peter Cook - a genuis without whose influence the whole of British comedy would look entirely different, I think.

[extemporaneous]

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

[monster]

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.

[Granola Goddess]

Originally Posted by monster

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.

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.

[Elspode]

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.

[Kozmique]

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.

[Happy Monkey]

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.

[Beestie]

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

[xoxoxoBruce]

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

[richlevy]

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.