Goodbye to Jim Lehrer at the age of 85.
The long-time anchor of The NewsHour on PBS, Lehrer was also known for the several Presidental debates that he moderated through the years.
Lehrer co-hosted the NewsHour (then known as the MacNeill-Lehrer NewsHour) with Robert MacNeill from 1975 to 1995 and then anchored the program on his own from 1995 to 2011.
Lehrer would serve as a moderator for discussions on the program from 2011 to 2019 and be involved with the show's production company after leaving as the anchor.
Lehrer would moderate twelve Presidental debates and he was known as a moderator that would run a looser debate and allow candidates to speak more and engage than one that would strictly enforce the time limits and rules.
Lehrer also wrote twenty novels, three memoirs, as well as stage plays and screenplays.
I met Jim Lehrer once as I was watching a Suns game, Lehrer came into the grandstand with his grandchild (I suppose) and sat near enough to me that I knew who it was, but far enough away that I wasn't next to him.
I looked over and mouthed his name and he smiled and waved, but I didn't go over to him.
It seemed like no one else knew he was there and I didn't want to break his cover ...
Goodbye to Buck Henry at the age of 89.
The versatile Henry has one of the most eclectic resumes' of his time having written the screenplay for "The Graduate", directed "Heaven Can Wait" earning Academy Award nominations for both and winning for Best Screenplay, acting as a regular on the "Steve Allen Show", hosting Saturday Night Live ten times, and as a creator as he co-created "Get Smart" with Mel Brooks.
The bespectacled Henry often made cameo appearances in roles that required a dry, droll delivery and was the traditional guest host of SNL for the final episode of the season during the first run of the show.
Henry was injured in a famous incident on SNL when John Belushi's "Samurai" character nicked Henry with a sword during a sketch and Henry would complete the episode with a bandage on his head.
Goodbye to Egil "Bud" Krogh at the age of 80.
Krogh served as the head of the "Special Investigations Unit" in the Nixon White House, which would be better known to the public during the Watergate scandal as the "Plumbers", the unit created to stop leaks from the White House.
It was Krogh that signed off on the plan that would see the break-in to the psychiatrist of Daniel Ellsberg, who was the person behind the Pentagon papers.
Krogh would also have two small nuggets in pop culture.
The first was managing and planning the famous visit of Elvis Presley to meet Richard Nixon in the White House in 1970.
Krogh would later write a book about the Presley/Nixon meeting entitled "When Elvis met Nixon", which I believe the 1997 Showtime movie was based on as Krogh appeared in the film briefly.
The other?
Krogh was the inspiration behind the name of the Calvert DeForest portrayed character on the NBC version of Late Night with David Letterman- Larry "Bud" Melman.
Letterman has been quoted as stating that the Melman character was named after Krogh as during the Watergate scandal on TV, Krogh was consistently referred to as Egil "Bud" Krogh and Letterman found this amusing.
Goodbye to Jack Burns at the age of 86.
Burns was a long-time comedian and writer with several interesting notations.
It was Burns, who started the career of George Carlin as the pair partnered as a comedy team with both of them working for the same radio station in Fort Worth, Texas.
Burns would eventually split with Carlson and team with Avery Schreiber as a duo that would eventually star in their own series on ABC "The Burns and Schreiber Comedy Hour".
Burns would be most famous for three roles- the voicing over as one of the test dummies "Vince and Larry" in public service announcements for seat belts from 1985-1998 and as a cast member on the ABC answer to Saturday Night Live "Fridays", where Burns was on stage with Michael Richards for the live television incident with Andy Kaufman that saw Kaufman break character and cause ABC to cut their live feed.
The other role that is remembered for Burns?
His portrayal of "Warren Ferguson" in the final year of the Andy Griffith Show as the new deputy to Griffith's "Andy Taylor".
The character was the show's only attempt to replace Don Knotts and it wasn't a successful one as the character was disliked and dropped in mid-season after eleven appearances.
Goodbye to Bob Shane at the age of 85.
Shane was one of the founding members of the folk group "The Kingston Trio" in the late 1950s and was with the group throughout its run from the charts until its breakup in 1967.
Shane would attempt to keep the band together with a different lineup on two occasions, but his smartest move would come in 1976 when Shane would purchase the name "Kingston Trio" and would be able to use the name for marketing purposes just at the time that the 60s nostalgia boom would begin.
Shane would tour with the new group with the old name until a heart attack in 2004 that caused him to retire from performing.
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