Goodbye to Phyllis George at the age of 70.
The 1971 winner of the Miss America pageant, George was best remembered as the first female co-host of a network sports show in the NFL Today, was unique for her time as she managed to be loved by her audience despite two points that would have hindered most sportscasters.
By being the first female in the network field, George could have been less than accepted by the audience and the players that she wanted to interview, but instead, George was popular with both fans and players, despite not always having the level of knowledge that you would expect from someone in that position today.
George was also loved by fans even with her unabashed partisanship towards the Dallas Cowboys, as her appearances on the road in home cities of Cowboys rivals.
George would later host a few shows including a brief stint with the CBS Morning News and a show of the then-syndicated network PAX, and write several books.
George would also serve as Kentucky's first lady as the wife of John Y. Brown during his term.
Brown was at one time the owner of Kentucky Fried Chicken, the Boston Celtics, and before his marriage to George, the ABA Kentucky Colonels and made the decision to take buyout money from the NBA and keep the Colonels and Louisville out of the merger in 1976.
George is also the mother of CNN political reporter Pamela Brown.
Goodbye to Fred Willard at the age of 86.
Willard, who never had a starring vehicle of his own over six-plus decades of acting, might be the comedy version of Kevin Bacon if you desired to play that famous game.
I would wager in some way or another if you were on television or made comedy movies- you will be able to trace that person to Fred Willard somehow.
Cherie's Fred Willard role was in a recurring role of "Everyone Loves Raymond", but since I DESPISE that show and its star, I'll have to take her word for Willard's performance.
As for me, I loved Willard as "Jerry Hubbard" as the Ed McMahon to Martin Mull's Garth/Barth Gimble on "Fernwood/America 2-Night" and his various roles in the Christopher Guest mockumentaries, with my favorite "A Mighty Wind" as washed-up comedian/manager Mike LaFontaine.
Willard also made many guest appearances on the original David Letterman show on NBC and a personal favorite was his SCTV stop-by as SCTV station owner "Guy Caballero" played by Joe Flaherty is desperate for dollars to keep the failing station afloat, decides to pick a celebrity to forge a check from that "wouldn't miss it" and he chooses Fred Willard as the person to steal from.
I was surprised that Willard was 86 at his passing, I would have guessed him perhaps a decade younger than that age.
Goodbye to Ken Osmond at the age of 76.
Few people are lucky enough to make money for over sixty years from a profession and it's even fewer from making money from one position, Ken Osmond made money from his teenage years until his recent passing from one role- the insincere "Eddie Haskell", the best friend of "Wally Cleaver" on "Leave it to Beaver".
Osmond nailed the role of the snide and two-faced bully among his peers that was over the top in his faux flattery of adults and he did so to the point that "Eddie Haskell" became the name brand for that type of person.
"Eddie" became such a part of pop culture that people born multiple generations after "Leave it to Beaver" was off the air still knew what that reference meant.
Osmond had trouble finding acting after the end of "Leave it to Beaver" due to typecasting, but Osmond found a career in law enforcement as he worked as a Los Angeles police officer from 1970 to 1988 before filing for disability.
Osmond often appeared at nostalgia shows and comic cons, and revived "Eddie" in the "New Leave it to Beaver" in the eighties when the surviving cast returned for four seasons split between The Disney Channel and WTBS.
Osmond's real-life sons Eric and Christian played his sons on the show- "Freddie and Eddie Jr.", but Osmond remains famous in the wrestling world for one appearance.
On the first Clash of the Champions in March 1988, the new LITB was coming to WTBS, and Osmond was promoting the show and showed up in Greensboro, North Carolina to sit at ringside for the classic Ric Flair-Sting match that made Sting a star.
Osmond also slipped into character as "Eddie" for a memorable promo with Jim Cornette during the broadcast.
Goodbye to Kurt Thomas at the age of 64.
Thomas was a gold medal favorite in gymnastics for the 1980 Olympics in Moscow but did not compete due to the Jimmy Carter boycott.
However, what I know about gymnastics begins with Olga Korbut, moves to Nadia Comaneci and ends with my seventh-grade vault attempt that saw me launch off the "box" and never get off the pad as I slammed face-first as in a line drive into the waiting and stationary horse, so Kurt Thomas isn't here for his gymnastic talents.
Thomas is here for one reason-Gymkata.
This 1985 "action" film stars Thomas as "an American gymnastics champion that combines the skill of gymnastics with the kill of Karate in a deadly competition in a foreign country".
Uh, Yeah and it gets worse with the acting, the "action scenes", the script and other than being in focus (sometimes) as Bob Uecker mentioned in Major League II, I can't think of one thing nice to say about Gymkata other than this- It's unintentionally hilarious for all the reasons that it's an awful action film.
Gymkata is easily the worst film of its genre' and is a solid top ten worst film of all-time.
It's that bad and therefore that funny.
Kurt Thomas may not have won Olympic Gold, but in Gymkata, he left us the gift of unintentional comedy gold...
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