• Get involved.
    We want your input!
    Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.

    After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
    If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.

    After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
    https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/

    Thanks in advance and have fun!
    RadioDiscussions Administrators

Series Regulars Who Died When Show Was Still On The Air

Ray Collins, Lt. Tragg on "Perry Mason," died during the show's next- to-last season. In the final year, Richard Anderson was cast as Lt. Steve Drumm.
 
Collins last appeared on 'Perry Mason' midway through season 7,about 18 months before his death, although he was still credited as a regular throughout season 8.
 
Carolyn Jones while playing on the daytime soap "Capitol."

A number of soap actors have died while the show was still on the air:

Charita Bauer ("Guiding Light")
Macdonald Carey and Frances Reid ("Days Of Our Lives")
David Lewis, Anna Lee, John Beradino ("General Hospital")
Phil Carey and Clint Ritchie ("One Life To Live")
Ruth Warrick ("All My Children")
Mary Stuart (best known as Jo on "Search For Tomorrow" but was
playing Meta Bauer on "Guiding Light" at the time of her death)
Jeanne Cooper ("The Young And The Restless")

And another "former regular" from the game-show world: Jay Stewart,
announcer on "Sale Of The Century" from 1983-88, committed suicide
in September 1989. The shows airing on GSN have Don Morrow as
announcer; he took Stewart's place when the latter retired.
 
rnigma said:
Ray Collins, Lt. Tragg on "Perry Mason," died during the show's next- to-last season. In the final year, Richard Anderson was cast as Lt. Steve Drumm.

Drumm kept saying to Burger: "We can beat Mason. We have the technology."
 
bpatrick said:
A number of soap actors have died while the show was still on the air:

Although she was no longer a "regular" at the time, Helen Wagner....portrayer of "Nancy"....Matriarch of the Hughes family for 54 years on "As The World Turns"....died in 2010.....only months before the show left the air.
 
Smittian said:
Jerry Orbach---Law and Order
Phil Hartman---NewsRadio
Jim Davis---Dallas

I think Orbach had already left L&O and was scheduled to begin his new show when he died.
 
landtuna said:
Smittian said:
Jerry Orbach---Law and Order
Phil Hartman---NewsRadio
Jim Davis---Dallas

I think Orbach had already left L&O and was scheduled to begin his new show when he died.

Correct. He had just left, and was working on the failed L&O spinoff, Trial by Jury, when his failing health stopped him after just two episodes.
 
Dighton Rockhead said:
Smittian said:
Jim Davis---Dallas

That reminds me....Larry Hagman, who passed in November of 2012.....during the 2nd. season of the "Dallas" sequel series on TNT.

Tying in with Larry Hagman's other famous series, Barton MacLane, who played the general on 'I Dream of Jeannie', passed away in 1969, before season 5.
 
I suppose you could add Walt Disney, who introduced the Wonderful World of Disney program each week. The first show after he died, Dick Van Dyke did a tribute to him.

In that same category, Dick Powell hosted his own anthology show. In 1962, he was diagnosed with cancer and died on January 2, 1963. Due to his popularity in Hollywood, a number of MAJOR stars filled in to do the introductions during the final stages of his illness and after his death.
 
Corky Marlowe said:
From game shows:
Johnny Olson and Rod Roddy ('The Price is Right')
Some would include Allen Ludden ('Password Plus'), but he died a year after his stroke forced him off the show, so he was technically a 'former' regular.

Fred Allen & Dorothy Kilgallen on "What's My Line?"

Two "Wheel Of Fortune" announcers: Jack Clark and Charlie O'Donnell.
 
Never mind...someone else beat me to the punch.
 
On Petticoat Junction one of the Cannonball conductors died.
Smiley Burnett


I thought his partner on the show, Rufe Davis must had died while the show was still in production. I checked and he died in 1974, after production had stopped. He disappeared from the series shortly after Burnett died. I thought he had died too. I guess he was just written out.
 
I believe that Rufe Davis just left the series, around the time that Bea Benederet passed away. He was replaced by Bryon Foulger playing "Wendell Gibbs". Then, during production for the last season, Mr. Foulger got sick and Rufe Davis returned as "Floyd Smoot" in a few episodes near the end of the final season, including "Steve's Uncle George" (played by Don Ameche). Mr. Foulger died on the date that the final episode of "Petticoat Junction" first ran so he fits into this topic as well.
 
Status
This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.


Back
Top Bottom