Deathwatch: Year End Wrap-up

["Deathwatch Central" <cdw@slick.org>]

Sunday December 31 5:15 PM ET

Year 2000 claims some entertainment industry greats 

By Steve Gorman

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - From the British actor revered as ``the man of a
thousand faces'' to the American comic genius with the ``face of an unmade
bed,'' the year 2000 claimed the lives of some of the world's greatest
entertainers.

Sir Alec Guinness, who played everyone from Adolf Hitler to the mythical
Obi-Wan Kenobi of ``Star Wars,'' and Walter Matthau, whose gift for
playing lovable grumps was embodied in his signature role of the ``Odd
Couple's'' Oscar Madison, were among many performers whose passing dimmed
the turn of the millennium.

The world bid farewell to such greats as Guinness' mentor and fellow
knight, Sir John Gielgud, whose portrayal of Shakespearean characters made
him one of the towering presences of the past century, and to Jason
Robards, the two-time Oscar winner who rose to fame as the consummate
interpreter of the works of playwright Eugene O'Neill.

Several other entertainers acclaimed for their live performances took
their final bows, including ``Mambo King'' bandleader and percussionist
Tito Puente, Danish-born musical humorist Victor Borge and Tony-winning
Broadway dancer Gwen Verdon, the show-stopping star of ``Can Can,'' ``Damn
Yankees'' and ''Sweet Charity.''

The big screen lost such legends as the swashbuckling Douglas Fairbanks
Jr. and sultry Viennese actress Hedy Lamarr, while the small screen said
goodbye to such icons as Steve Allen, credited with inventing the modern
TV talk show, Larry Linville, who played the sniveling Frank Burns on
``M+A+S+H,'' and Werner Klemperer, best known as the bumbling Col. Klink
of ''Hogan's Heroes.''

Another familiar face from TV, actor Rick Jason, the hard-boiled but
compassionate Lt. Gil Hanley on ``Combat!'', took his own life, as did
Oscar-nominated actor and stuntman Richard Farnsworth. Both men had been
diagnosed with terminal cancer.

The year also marked the passing of magician Doug Henning, cartoonist
Charles Schulz, who gave the world ``Peanuts,'' and actress Loretta Young,
best-remembered for her Oscar-winning role in ``The Farmer's Daughter''
and weekly grand entrances in swirling gowns on her own long-running NBC
television series.

The following is a list of some of the entertainment figures who died
during the past 12 months.

-- Walter Matthau, 79. Oscar-winning actor whose hangdog looks and
grouchy, slouchy demeanor transformed him from an early screen tough guy
into a beloved comic film star.

-- Jason Robards, 78. Gravelly voiced actor famed for his portrayal of
disturbed characters. The winner of back-to-back Oscars for his supporting
roles as Washington Post editor Ben Bradlee in ``All the President's Men''
and writer Dashiell Hammett in ``Julia,'' he gained fame interpreting the
works of Eugene O'Neill on stage.

-- Sir John Gielgud, 96. Quintessential British stage actor who delivered
legendary performances as Macbeth, Hamlet and Romeo and later earned an
Oscar for his supporting role as Dudley Moore's foul-mouthed butler in the
film comedy ''Arthur.''

-- Sir Alec Guinness, 86. The versatile actor's career stretched from
Shakespeare to ``Star Wars'' and included memorable performances in such
films as ``The Bridge on the River Kwai,'' which won him an Oscar, and
``Lawrence of Arabia.''

-- Ring Lardner Jr, 85. Two-time Academy Award-winning screenwriter who
was the last surviving member of the ''Hollywood Ten,'' the group of
filmmakers imprisoned and blacklisted during the anti-communist witchhunt
era of the 1940s and '50s.

-- Loretta Young, 87. Glamorous, Oscar-winning actress who broke into
movies as a child extra during the silent era and became one of the first
major Hollywood stars to move into TV. In death, she broke her silence
about one of Hollywood's greatest open secrets, acknowledging in a book
that her ''adopted'' daughter was the product of a 1935 affair with Clark
Gable.

-- Gwen Verdon, 75. The third wife and longtime collaborator with
legendary choreographer/director Bob Fosse, she overcame a a series of
childhood illnesses to become a Broadway sensation and danced her way to
four Tonys.

-- Victor Borge, 91. Pianist, conductor and musical humorist heralded as
the ``unmelancholy Dane'' of show business.

-- Hedy Lamarr, 86. An Austrian banker's daughter billed as ''the world's
most beautiful woman'' when she rose to silver screen stardom in the 1930s
and '40s.

-- Steve Allen, 78. Comedian, composer, author, actor and television
pioneer who started TV talking as the first host of NBC's ``Tonight
Show.''

-- Douglas Fairbanks Jr., 90. Swashbuckling American leading man who
starred in such film classics as ``Gunga Din.''

-- Charles Schulz, 77. Creator of cartoon characters Charlie Brown and
Snoopy as the man behind the ``Peanuts'' comic strip.

-- Richard Farnsworth, 80. Veteran stuntman and actor Oscar nominated for
``Comes a Horseman'' and ``The Straight Story.''

-- Tito Puente, 77. Five-time Grammy-winning Latin jazz bandleader whose
dance numbers delighted fans over six decades.

-- Gwendolyn Brooks, 83. A poet who grew up in Chicago slums to become the
first African American to win the Pulitzer Prize.

-- Doug Henning, 52. Illusionist who helped spark a renewed interest in
magic with TV shows during the 1970s and '80s.

-- Werner Klemperer, 80. German-born Jewish actor who escaped Hitler's
Germany and became best known for his portrayal of the bumbling German
prison camp comandante on ''Hogan's Heroes.''

-- Larry Linville, 60. Played the whining surgeon Maj. Frank Burns, who
carried on an extramarital affair with nurse ''Hot Lips'' Houlihan
(Loretta Swit) on hit TV show ``M+A+S+H.''

-- Jean Peters, 73. Midwestern farm girl who won a Hollywood screen test
as Miss Ohio State in the 1940s and went on to become a movie star and
wife of billionaire Howard Hughes.

-- Claire Trevor, 91. An Oscar winner for 1948's ``Key Largo,'' she was
famous for playing sympathetic women of ill repute.

-- Rose Hobart, 94. Known for playing the ``other woman'' in a two-decade
film career cut short by the Hollywood blacklist.

-- Muriel Evans, 90. Actress who quickened the gallop of such cowboy stars
as Buck Jones, John Wayne and William ''Hopalong Cassidy'' Boyd in a
string of popular Westerns.

-- Julie London, 74. Smoky-voiced actress and singer who had a hit record
with the 1950s ``Cry Me a River'' and was once married to ``Dragnet''
producer Jack Webb.

-- Richard Mulligan, 67. Comic actor who won Emmy awards for his roles in
television sitcoms ``Soap'' and Empty Nest.''

-- Jim Varney, 50. The grinning, hayseed handyman Ernest in TV ads and a
popular series of slapstick films and the voice of Slinky Dog in the ``Toy
Story'' movies.

-- Rick Jason, 74. Starred as the infantry officer commanding a platoon of
battle-weary, mud-spattered GIs in the World War II television drama
``Combat!''

-- Meredith MacRae, 56. TV actress best known as a talk show host and for
her role as Billie Jo in the series ''Petticoat Junction.'' Daughter of
Sheila and Gordon MacRae.

-- Steve Reeves, 74. Actor and bodybuilder who made a career of playing
muscled heroes in low-budget sword-and-sandal films during the 1950s and
early '60s.

-- George Montgomery, 84. Dashingly handsome cowboy actor who made 87
movies and later gained recognition for sculpting Western-themed bronze
pieces.

-- Nancy Marchand, 71. Actress best known for playing a newspaper
publisher on the ``Lou Grant'' show and a Mafia matriarch on ``The
Sopranos.''

-- Durward Kirby, 88. Sidekick/announcer/performer on ``The Garry Moore
Show'' and ``Candid Camera.''

-- Helen Martin, 88. Pioneering black Broadway actress who helped found
the American Negro Theater in Harlem.

-- Thomas Yohe, 63. Co-creator of the Emmy-winning ''Schoolhouse Rock''
rock television cartoons.

-- Hoyt Curtin, 78. Longtime musical director for animation giant
Hanna-Barbera who composed TV theme songs for such classic cartoon series
as ``The Flintstones'' and ``The Jetsons.''

-- Roebuck ``Pops'' Staples, 85. Patriarch of the Staples Singers whose
lyrics on ``Respect Yourself'' and other hits delivered a civil rights
message with a danceable soul beat.

-- Julius Epstein, 91. Screenwriter who won an Academy Award for
``Casablanca'' (with brother Philip Epstein and Howard Koch).

Reuters/Variety REUTERS 



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