DEATHS ; Notable Passings; The Thread to Pay Last Respects

LizzieMaine said:

One of the stations I worked at carried Larry King's overnight talk show over the Mutual network, and for almost nine years, I heard the tail end of just about every one of his broadcasts. He always closed out with "Duke's Place," which in his context didn't refer to Mr. Ellington, but to Duke Zeibert's Restaurant in Washington, where the elite were wont to meet to eat. I often wondered what Ross Perot would have ordered during one of those after-show parties.

King was a far better interviewer than he ever really got credit for, especially on radio, where the conversation tended to be more free-ranging than on his television shows. There isn't anyone quite like him today.

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Zombie_61 said:

Actor Gregory Sierra, arguably best known for his role as Detective Sergeant Chano Amenguale on Barney Miller, died from cancer on January 4th at the age of 83.

Mr. Sierra was one of my favorite "that guy" character actors from the 70s and 80s, but I must admit I hadn't seen much of him since the mid-80s.

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Zombie_61 said:

Actor Gregory Sierra, arguably best known for his role as Detective Sergeant Chano Amenguale on Barney Miller, died from cancer on January 4th at the age of 83.

Mr. Sierra was one of my favorite "that guy" character actors from the 70s and 80s, but I must admit I hadn't seen much of him since the mid-80s.

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Zombie_61 said:

Actor Gregory Sierra, arguably best known for his role as Detective Sergeant Chano Amenguale on Barney Miller, died from cancer on January 4th at the age of 83.

Mr. Sierra was one of my favorite "that guy" character actors from the 70s and 80s, but I must admit I hadn't seen much of him since the mid-80s.

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MisterCairo said:

Barney Miller was one of my favourite shows growing up, loved all the characters including Chano. Quite few gone now from that show. Inevitable, but still sad...

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Zombie_61 said:

I really liked the way they dealt with the death of Jack Soo in 1979.

For non-fans, Jack Soo played Detective Sgt. Nick Yemana on Barney Miller, and Mr. Soo died from esophageal cancer during the show's fifth season. Instead of doing what most television shows would probably do, the cast of Barney Miller did a special episode dedicated to Mr. Soo in which the actors simply sat on the Barney Miller set and shared their memories and stories of Mr. Soo, integrated with some "best of" clips of his performances. I thought it was very respectful to Mr. Soo to remember in that way how much he meant to them.

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LizzieMaine said:

"Barney Miller" was a brilliant piece of work -- it was as close to the feel and the sensibility of a theatrical one-act play as television could ever get, with Broadway-level writing -- someone ought to publish the scripts in book form, because they'd be a perfect textbook for studying how to create real character-based comedy. And it was also a parade of some of the finest character actors ever to work in the medium. There hasn't been anything like it on television since...

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LizzieMaine said:

...For a while I was catching reruns on MeTV, but they haven't been there recently.

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Zombie_61 said:

Emmy and Oscar winner Cloris Leachman has died at the age of 94. Her longtime manager said she died peacefully in her sleep of natural causes.

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Lean'n'mean said:

Award winning American actress of stage & screen, Cicely Tyson has died aged 96.

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