Once-Famous Stars Who Have Come To a Sad end

[ralph124c]

I just saw a TV ad for a local ambulance-chaser law firm..the announcer was somebody I dimly recognized..it was Robert Vaughn (of the "MAN FROM UNCLE", and a few other roles). It made me wonder..when you've fallen out of favor in Hollywood (and you aren't yet ready for the boneyard) what do you do?
I know certain stars have rejuvinated their careers rather late in life (Buddy Ebson is an example), but once you've missed a generation, how do you convince your agent to go out and sell you?
Any other stars of the past, that you've noticed shilling on TV?
Vaughn was actually a pretty good actor..I wonder what he did wrong, to be condemned to shilling for Blotnic, Blotnic & Schmuck:

..."have you had an accident lately?"

[RealityChuck]

He got old.

Really. Unless you're a superstar or can switch to character parts, once you get past 50, it's hard to get work in Hollywood.

It's like the old joke about an actor's career:

1. "Who's Joe Smith?"
2. "Get me Joe Smith for the part."
3. "Get me a Joe Smith type."
4. "Get me a young Joe Smith."
5. "Who's Joe Smith?"

[Ukulele Ike]

You forgot the high point of Vaughn's life...he got to zork the young Natalie Wood (http://web.ukonline.co.uk/natalie.wood/scansw/woodn/nat.jpg).

EVERYTHING would have been a comedown after that.

[Ethilrist]

Somebody once posted that making Old Navy commercials doesn't mean your career has hit rock bottom. It means your career has hit rock bottom, face-down and skidding...

[Legomancer]

Originally posted by Ukulele Ike
You forgot the high point of Vaughn's life...he got to zork the young Natalie Wood (http://web.ukonline.co.uk/natalie.wood/scansw/woodn/nat.jpg).

EVERYTHING would have been a comedown after that.

Zork? I hope they kept the lights on during that, otherwise they risk getting eaten by a grue.

[Ukulele Ike]

Would you prefer "boink" ?

[kunilou]

You can thank TV that a lot of these older actors are finding any work anywhere. When you see people like Tom Bosley get a three-line role as a patient on ER, you can take some comfort in knowling he at least kept his SAG membership current and got some points in the pension fund.

On the other hand, take a couple of fine, but underused, character actors like Peter Boyle and Doris Roberts. Give them a shot at a show like Everybody Loves Raymond and suddenly you have two people who will not have to live in the Old Actors' Home.

[astorian]

All kinds of tragic cases come to mind:

The saddest of all had to be poor Jim Backus making a cameo appearance in "The HArlem GLobetrotters on Gilligan's Island." Never mind that the show itself was idiotic- you wouldn't EXPECT it to be good! But Backus was soo weak, so frail, in such poor health, they didn't even use him for most of the show! They had some young comedian (supposedly Thurston Howell's nephew) doing a bad Backus imitation for most of the episode. Only at the end did they bring poor, sick Jim Backus on, to utter a feeble "By George!"

It was truly heartbreaking. Look, I don't know all the facts. Perhaps Backus was desperate for money (maybe medical bills had wiped out his savings), and couldn't afford to say "no." But it struck me as bad taste to wheel out a sick old man, under the circumstances.

Less tragic, more comical examples of "how the mighty have fallen"?

1) Football legend Dick Butkus doing infomercials for that newspaper-burning barbecue grill.

2) Nancy Sinatra doing a graphic Playboy spread, about 35 years AFTER anybody wanted to see such a thing. Of course, that was STILL far more dignified than the low-budget TV commericals Frank Jr. used to do for "Lennie's Clam Bar."

3) Lon Chaney Jr. and J. Carroll Naish, two of the greats in classic horror, reduced to the cheesey "Dracula vs. Frankenstein." (I think that was the last film either man ever made.)

4) How many Oscar winners ever fell as far as Ray Milland, who played a head grafted to Rosey Grier's body?

5) Toward the end of his life, Laurence Olivier seemed to take any bad American movie role he was offered,so long as it paid well (remember him dropping his drawers in "The Betsy"?).

6) The other week, when I was in England, I saw Rick Wakeman, one of my musical heroes when I was a teen, as the "celebrity" on a British game show! You KNOW you're no longer cool when you're a game show celeb! One of my favorite rock stars is now the equivalent of Charles Nelson Reilly or Joanne Worley!

[Bryan Ekers]

I was going to suggest Dana Plato, but I think Robert Vaughn has done okay.

[yojimbo]

5) Toward the end of his life, Laurence Olivier seemed to take any bad American movie role he was offered,so long as it paid well (remember him dropping his drawers in "The Betsy"?). Didn't he take all this crap so he could fund his plays back in the UK.

[Guinastasia]

Or what about singer Mary Wells, ("My Guy")?

Didn't she end up on welfare?

[joshmaker]

Originally posted by ralph124c
...when you've fallen out of favor in Hollywood (and you aren't yet ready for the boneyard) what do you do?

Easy... you go on Celebrity Squares.

[Just Some Guy]

3) Lon Chaney Jr. and J. Carroll Naish, two of the greats in classic horror, reduced to the cheesey "Dracula vs. Frankenstein." (I think that was the last film either man ever made.)

4) How many Oscar winners ever fell as far as Ray Milland, who played a head grafted to Rosey Grier's body?

5) Toward the end of his life, Laurence Olivier seemed to take any bad American movie role he was offered,so long as it paid well (remember him dropping his drawers in "The Betsy"?).


Yes, all those were awful, but you're leaving off perhaps the single most unfortunate one: Orson Wells. In some ways he dug his own grave by being one of the most difficult people in Hollywood to work with but going from Citizen Kane to the voice of Unicron in Transformers the Movie...

[TigoleBitties]

Orson Wells....and peas

Still he was the voice of Omicron...

[plnnr]

You have to remember that Robert Vaughan has made these commercials for firms all over the country, and that he probably gets paid each and every time they are shown. How hard could it have been to go in, say a few lines (chaning the name of the firm) a couple of dozen times, and go home. Sad end? He's probably raking the dollars in hand over fist.

He also has a Ph.D. His disertation was on the Hollywood Ten.

[Eve]

Well, since Astorian has taken us back before the TV days . . .

Florence Lawrence, a huge star of the early silents, wound up as an extra in the 1930s and killed herself by eating rat poison.

Stage and screen star Lou Tellegen stabbed himself with a pair of scissors, surrounded by his old scrapbooks.

Nita Naldi and Ann Pennington wound up living in seedy Times Square hotels.

Actor and director John Bowers walked into the ocean, inspiring A Star is Born's Norman Maine.

Mary MacLaren and Mary Miles Minter ended their days in decaying Sunset Boulevard-style mansions.

[Telemark]

Bela Lugosi

[friedo]

How about MC Hammer? He's currently doing late night commercials for high-interest car loans.

The scene: Two work pals chatting on their lunch break at the Big Manly Construction Site.

Pal 1: Hey, thanks for the ride this morning.
Pal 2: No problem. So when are you going to get a car?
Pal 1: I keep trying, but my divorce and bankruptcy screwed up my credit rating!

All of a sudden, a tiny MC Hammer materializes inside one of the construction worker's toolboxes.

Pals (together) Hammer?!

MC Hammer: I'm Hammer! And here's my shpiel about how you can get a 44% interest short term car loan if you put your firstborn up as collateral!

Pal 1: But what are you doing in my toolbox?
MC Hammer: I'm the Hammer, baby!

[NDP]

It's like the old joke about an actor's career:

1. "Who's Joe Smith?"
2. "Get me Joe Smith for the part."
3. "Get me a Joe Smith type."
4. "Get me a young Joe Smith."
5. "Who's Joe Smith?"
Or this variation:

"Knock, knock."
"Who's there?"
"Vanilla Ice."
"Vanilla Ice who?"
"That's show biz."

[AnnaLivia]

Originally posted by astorian
3) Lon Chaney Jr. and J. Carroll Naish, two of the greats in classic horror, reduced to the cheesey "Dracula vs. Frankenstein." (I think that was the last film either man ever made.)


In the case of the former, it was his own damned fault. He was warned many, many times that acting was much harder than it looked- mostly by his father, who always had the career of paper-hanger and interior designer to fall back on.

Actually, just watching Wolfman and High Noon in the past month or so has made me quite sad.

[Sampiro]

"Stage and screen star Lou Tellegen stabbed himself with a pair of scissors, surrounded by his old scrapbooks. "

Served him right. As a young gigolo he stole a fortune from older actresses, including The Divine Sarah.

Betty Hutton, a star of the 40s and 50s, wound up living in a homeless shelter.

Veronica Lake wound up as a waitress.

Dick York (Darrin I on BEWITCHED) was a wheelchair bound emphysema sufferer living with his mother-in-law in Ohio.

Mabel King- the rotund mother on WHAT'S HAPPENING?- died legless, toothless, skinny and penniless in the Actor's Home. Her co-star, Shirley Hemphill, while not penniless due to good investments, was dead (of natural causes) for several days before she was discovered, while co-star Fred "Rerun" Berry was recently working as a catering waiter in New York.

Willie Aames is of course now clad in tight purple spandex and quoting scripture as Bible Man.

Sister Ann Sourire, "the Singing Nun" (Dominique), committed suicide along with her girlfriend after being reduced to begging. (Largely her own fault; she signed over her royalties to her convent, THEN left the convent and became a radical folk singer, not realizing she was a one-hit wonder.)

Fred Astaire- while not broke, he was so lonely he often called the police to report non-existent prowlers.

Talulah Bankhead is an odd case. She made the "mistake" of letting it be known that she was desperate for money, so she was offered schlock roles in low budget horror movies and bad plays. When she died, it was discovered she was loaded= she started the rumor herself because, ala Norma Desmond, she was so desperate to be in the spotlight again.

Another oddity: John C. "Bunny" Breckinridge IV , who appeared as the Emperor of the Galaxy in PLAN 9 (and who himself was played with deadpan brilliance by Bill Murray in ED WOOD) could easily have bankrolled all of Wood's films with pocket change. He was a multimillionaire (inheritance) and his daughter was a French aristocrat.

I recently saw an interview with Bill Daily (Howard from THE BOB NEWHART SHOW and Roger from I DREAM OF JEANNIE). He now lives in Santa Fe and writes a column for a local weekly. He said that when he found himself getting excited about winning one-day walk-on roles on soap operas, he knew it was time to leave the business. Why don't more of them do that?

Infomercial sitings: Morgan Brittany, Joyce DeWitt, Tom Bosley, Cher (though she's not quite career dead or broke- it was a favor for a friend), Steve Allen, Davy Jones... oy, who all else?

[Sampiro]

Forgot a few silent film stars:

Minta Murfee, a silent film actress and the third Mrs. Fatty Arbuckle, received Rolls-Royces and similar gifts from Fatty even after their divorce and lived in an enormous Tudor mansion. By the 1970s, she was living in a one room apartment in a bad section of town due to lavish spending, the destruction of Fatty's career by the Rappe scandal (one of the cruellest stories in the history of film), the loss of a fortune in the stock market, and the death of her career. (Fatty made a living touring the country and had just had a comeback of sorts when he died of a heart attack.)

Buster Keaton built an enormous mansion in Hollywood, lost his fortune in the stock market crash as it neared completion, had no career due to talkies and changing tastes, and ended up living in the guesthouse, his sole income derived from renting the mansion. (He made a comeback in later years.)

OTOH, some actors and actresses became richer than god even after their careers evaporated. Mary Wickes, best known perhaps as Jo the Plumber, left $2 million just to her church. Wayne "Trapper John" Rogers of the original MASH cast is one of the richest men in LA due to excellent investments, Sterling Holloway (the voice of Winnie the Pooh) was worth several million just for his art collection. I've read that Florence Henderson (of BRADY BUNCH fame) is loaded due to frugal living and smart investing, and Natalie Schafer (Mrs. Howell from GILLIGAN'S ISLAND) left millions of dollars... to her poodle! (No joke.)

I remember seeing Bob Denver from GILLIGAN'S ISLAND & his real life wife Dreama in a particularly cheesy play at a local dinner theater when I was a kid. Even at the time I wondered "didn't he save anything from the series?", cause this wasn't something you do to advance your career.

Contrary to what his appearance on HARLEM GLOBETROTTERS might indicate, however, I don't think that Backus was that desperate for money- E! recently interviewed his widow at her home, and it's a beautiful place in Beverly Hills with pool and sculpted lawn. Skipper's widow seemed to be living quite comfortably as well.

[Sampiro]

Last post, I promise: Does anybody remember a few years ago when the headline "KISS STAR NOW A HOMELESS BUM" appeared in STAR (1991, I believe)? Peter Criss had been discovered begging for change in LA, drunk, on drugs, and literally stinking.
His story hit the papers and several people started a fund for him. Celebrities, including Roseanne Barr and Tom Arnold, gave thousands to help him, and husband-wife KISS fans even took him into their home.
People were stunned that this could happen. Especially stunned was Peter Criss, who learned he was homeless while sitting in his mansion. The man was a total imposter and Criss decided to let it ride and see how far it would go before anybody did their homework. It was several days after the tabloid came out before anybody discovered that the real Criss was alive and affluent and the other guy was a lying bum.
On a talkshow, Criss (who sued STAR) said his greatest irritation was at the people who gave money to the man. "What if he had been me? He'd made millions and squandered them with nothing to show for it... why does he deserve your charity instead of people who have medical bills or lost their job?" The couple who "adopted" the ersatz Criss meanwhile had a hard time getting him out of their house.

Hard falls: Redd Foxx. (Aunt Esther recently died also; I hope she was loaded, because few actresses have ever made me laugh as much- ditto Grady.)

[Number]

I hear Monty (http://us.imdb.com/Bio?Clift,+Montgomery) got a raw deal.

[kevja]

How about Lauren Bacall doing voice overs for a cat food commercial. Not a homeless shelter, but with her attitude it seems low. Maybe the money is just too good to pass up.

[BobT]

I don't think any actor doing voiceovers should be considered down and out. They are getting well paid for that work and it's quite easy.

And I doubt that Lauren Bacall has to work much.

[dantheman]

And IIRC, Terry-Thomas died penniless.. a definite sad end to a most excellent comedian.

[Rilchiam]

Originally posted by astorian
The saddest of all had to be poor Jim Backus making a cameo appearance in "The HArlem GLobetrotters on Gilligan's Island." Never mind that the show itself was idiotic- you wouldn't EXPECT it to be good! But Backus was soo weak, so frail, in such poor health, they didn't even use him for most of the show! They had some young comedian (supposedly Thurston Howell's nephew) doing a bad Backus imitation for most of the episode. Only at the end did they bring poor, sick Jim Backus on, to utter a feeble "By George!"

It was truly heartbreaking. Look, I don't know all the facts. Perhaps Backus was desperate for money (maybe medical bills had wiped out his savings), and couldn't afford to say "no." But it struck me as bad taste to wheel out a sick old man, under the circumstances.



Well, according to Russell "The Professor" Johnson's memoirs, Backus wanted to be there. (And FTR, the young Howell was their son, not nephew.) With the exception of Tina Louise, whatever her problem was, the Gilligan cast was very congenial, during and after the series.

From "Here On Gilligan's Isle", by Johnson and Steve Cox (ghostwriter):

"Jim wasn't scheduled to be in the film, but his wife, Henny, called Sherwood (Schwartz) and said she thought he might be able to do something brief. 'It might be just the thing he needs to lift his spirits,' she said. In one day, Sherwood rewrote the final scene to accomodate Thurston Howell III. And it was just like old times.

"When his scene was completed, Henny led Jim arm in arm to the soundstage doors. They walked very slowly. The whole crew and all of us in the cast applauded Jim because we knew this might be the last time this trouper would be joining us. I looked over at Natalie (Schaefer). She had just given Jim a big kiss and a hug, and tears welled in her eyes as she waved goodbye to her Thurston. Jim turned and blew us a kiss."

[BoBettie]

Pal 1: But what are you doing in my toolbox?
MC Hammer: I'm the Hammer, baby!

Are you serious? Oh man.

[CaptMurdock]

[a slight hijack/oddity]:

Benny Hill, who was an institution on British television for decades before his show was cancelled in the late eighties, passed away in the early nineties with millions in the bank -- yet he was still living in a rented apartment (sorry, flat -- hey, I'm a Yank), with virtually no furniture to speak of. On the occasions that he entertained at home, he would rent furniture -- and then send it all back after the party was over. He was supposedly lavish in taking out huge groups of people out to lunch (especially for birthdays) but not for dinner -- because evenings were always spent at home, watching television.

[/slight hijack/oddity]

[Angel of the Lord]

Originally posted by Number
I hear Monty got a raw deal.

Damn you--I was going to say that! :sad:

[emolson]

Sampiro:

Thanks for some terrific tidbits. I'm a little distressed to hear about Veronica Lake - IIRC, she was quite the babe.

Well, maybe not "the babe", but busty: http://silverscreensirens.com/galleries/lake36.htm

[Sam Stone]

I remember seeing Bob Denver from GILLIGAN'S ISLAND & his real life wife Dreama in a particularly cheesy play at a local dinner theater when I was a kid. Even at the time I wondered "didn't he save anything from the series?", cause this wasn't something you do to advance your career.


I don't think a lot of the actors from sitcoms in the 50's and 60's made all that much money. Dawn Wells says they only made $1000-$2000 per week - certainly a fine salary for the 1960's, but that was only for a few years - certainly not enough money to retire on. Then they were all typecast and none of them got decent work in Hollywood again.

[yosemite]

Growing up in L.A., I'd see a lot of former "big stars" doing ads for local businesses. Sometimes, I didn't know who these people were until my parents told me—"Oh yeah, that's so-and-so, they were really big way back when." Often my first exposure to these stars of yesteryear was their cheezy local L.A. TV ads.

Sad. But then again, it paid the bills.

[Walloon]

Originally posted by Sampiro

Buster Keaton built an enormous mansion in Hollywood, lost his fortune in the stock market crash as it neared completion, had no career due to talkies and changing tastes

A look at Buster Keaton's filmography (http://us.imdb.com/Name?Keaton,+Buster) shows that he worked in talkies through the 1930s, in both shorts and features.

Mary Wickes, best known perhaps as Jo the Plumber, left $2 million just to her church.

Jo the Plumber was Jane Withers (http://us.imdb.com/Name?Withers,+Jane), still alive.

[PhilAlex]

Robert Vaughn got $500 each time the certain ads ran. No points on the Gross.

Redd Foxx signed over his residuals from Sanford and Son to pay for a divorce.

I saw him on a talk show. He passed his hat around for donations.

Sad.

I'm suprised no one has mentioned Morton Downey Jr.

(And can Robert Downey Jr be that far behind?)

Personally, I don't begrudge a star from appearing in something less than Schindler's list after their carreer and life is almost over. Truly, there is no bad work out there, it's what you make of it.

Consider WKRP in Cincinatti (The original)

Only one of the stars has really gone on to a significant amount of other work, other than Tim Reid...

Herb's wife.

The CLueless matron type she always plays. She never gets a starring role, but she's ALWAYS around! Like a Bad penny! She's PERFECT for those roles, and gets tons of work.

[FriarTed]

he's a preacher with a show on TBN

[El Elvis Rojo]

I just saw a recent photograph of Michael Jackson.

HOLY MOTHERFUCKING LORD OF SHIT, what the fuck happened to his FACE?!

[NDP]

Buster Keaton built an enormous mansion in Hollywood, lost his fortune in the stock market crash as it neared completion, had no career due to talkies and changing tastes
...

A look at Buster Keaton's filmography shows that he worked in talkies through the 1930s, in both shorts and features.
Actually (and maybe Eve can back me up on this), what really hurt Keaton's career was not so much the shift to talkies and changing public tastes but rather his alcoholism. His drinking became so much of a problem that MGM let him go in the 1930's.

Another reason for Keaton's decline is that when he signed that aforementioned contract with MGM in the late 1920's, he stopped directing his own movies and turned over creative control to the studio.

[Eve]

NDP pretty much has it . . . There were a number of reasons for Buster's decline. I love his silents, but can barely watch his talkies.

Same with Veronica Lake, Louise Brooks and a few others—they were just as much to blame for their own professional decline as the studios and changing times were.

[Cat Fight]

How can we have a discussion about washed up actors without mentioning...
THE COREYS!!!
Yaaay!

[gallows fodder]

Don't forget Chet Baker. A picture of the man in his later years would be a perfect anti-drug poster. Damned shame.

[etv78]

Tina Louise got a swelled head, and couldn't get out of her trailer to do the movie.

[Sampiro]

Originally posted by Walloon


A look at Buster Keaton's filmography (http://us.imdb.com/Name?Keaton,+Buster) shows that he worked in talkies through the 1930s, in both shorts and features.

True, but for nowhere near the same money; like Lugosi, I believe he became a pay for play actor rather than a contracted one. (Also like Lugosi, divorce and lavish living also cost him plenty.)

B]Jo the Plumber was Jane Withers (http://us.imdb.com/Name?Withers,+Jane), still alive. [/B]

Oops! My bad; I mistakenly cross referenced the wrong name with a career. Mary Wickes was best known as a general character actress and voiceover artist. The part about her leaving $2 million to her church is correct, though.

An infuriating thing about Lugosi was that he was almost 50 years old before he ever had a dime to his name, so you'd think he'd have known to save it. Instead, he earned almost one million dollars in one decade, then became so desperate for work that he took a bus and truck tour of DRACULA through England which went broke after a few performances and stranded him; he had to take schlock work just to pay his way home.
Criswell of ED WOOD fame had a benefactress of sorts in Mae West. Among other gifts she gave him her old limo whenever she traded. His wife owned rental property and his regular TV appearances kept him solvent, so apparently the shots he did in Wood's porn movies (NIGHT OF THE GHOULS being the worst) were just a favor to a friend.
Almost any acting student can tell you that Irene "GRANNY" Ryan (from Beverly Hillbillies) left her entire multimillion dollar estate to acting scholarships. It's still very active, and a great legacy to a woman who so loved her work she ignored doctor's warnings to slow down. (She suffered a fatal stroke while performing on Broadway in PIPPIN.)
A biography of Orson Welles states that his last paid acting gig was a radio commercial for an LA hamburger chain. It must have galled him that his old friend turned enemy John Houseman only gained in fame and fortune as he aged while Orson sank (though I think he was quite comfortable financially when he died; at least, he left enough of an estate that his wife and mistress went to court over it.)
A bad ending was Amanda "Miss Kitty" Blake. A bad marriage, medical bills, poor investments, and a disastrous attempt at opening a private zoo bankrupted her and she lived on her credit cards. Greg Morris of MISSION IMPOSSIBLE also died destitute.
Dana Plato at one point was a callgirl in a gentleman's club. (I never understood why she and other really pathetic struggler never just quit acting and went to nursing school or became teachers or paralegals or taxidermists- there are 900 million careers out there and they all have more dignity that appearing naked in really low budget porn.)
He's not dead, but Stephen Geoffreys, who played best friend Evil Ed in FRIGHT NIGHT and the nerd prototype in lots of "horny frat boys go to the beach" movies is now a hard core gay porn actor.




Does everybody know about the site
http://www.findadeath.com
incidentally? It's devoted to the last days of celebrities and has a very morbid and gay sense of humor. Lots of photos and trivia.

[Sampiro]

Originally posted by FriarTed
he's a preacher with a show on TBN

Lamont (Demon Wilson) from SANFORD & SON and Gavin McLeod (LOVE BOAT, MARY TYLER MOORE) are also ministers now.

Gavin is in a new movie for TBN which also stars Hal Linden (BARNEY MILLER) as a turn-of-the-century college professor. Linden is Jewish and a respected stage and screen actor: I wonder why he's doing schlock for a Fundie movie company? (Of course he's also in the current Broadway production of CABARET [along with a semi-nude John Stamos], so apparently it's not a conversion.)

[Dangerosa]

Louise Brooks - thank you Eve. I've been trying to think of that name for a week!

(I want to grow my hair out into a Louise Brooks bob. Right now its more of an Audrey Hepburn pixie cut).

[pesch]

Marie Prevost: silent film star who couldn't make it in the talkies. Died at 38 in her apartment with only a dauschund for company. Unfortunately, nobody found her for several days and, well, a dog has to eat, you know? Immortalized in a Nick Lowe song, but this site offers (http://www.northernstars.ca/actorspqr/prevostbio.html) a more complete story. Judging by the photo, she was one hot mama.

[pesch]

Blast, I forgot to take that "couldn't make it in the talkies" line out. If you look at the site I linked to, she made several sound movies. Her career decline was due to other causes.

[marinwood]

Originally posted by Sampiro

Stephen Geoffreys, who played best friend Evil Ed in FRIGHT NIGHT and the nerd prototype in lots of "horny frat boys go to the beach" movies is now a hard core gay porn actor.

Oh my God, do you mean the "Awinnn Buhhh" guy? This brings a new (and scary!) meaning to his "Got Milk?" commercial.

[yosemite]

He's not dead, but Stephen Geoffreys, who played best friend Evil Ed in FRIGHT NIGHT and the nerd prototype in lots of "horny frat boys go to the beach" movies is now a hard core gay porn actor.This depresses me. I always liked his work, and wondered what happened to him. But I guess if he's happy.... (But is he?)

[Bomzaway]

A timely thread...

Paul "Pee Wee" Reubens and Jeffery Jones (the Principal in Ferris Beuler's Day Off) have just been busted for child porn.

Guilty or not, it's probably pretty safe to say they're all done. Pee Wee's playhouse was brilliant. A sad end indeed.

[Epistaxis]

Originally posted by pesch
Marie Prevost: silent film star who couldn't make it in the talkies. Died at 38 in her apartment with only a dauschund for company. Unfortunately, nobody found her for several days and, well, a dog has to eat, you know? Immortalized in a Nick Lowe song, but this site offers (http://www.northernstars.ca/actorspqr/prevostbio.html) a more complete story. Judging by the photo, she was one hot mama. Checked her out on IMDb.

Her most recent credit was an appearance in a 1989 movie called.. Death Scenes.. oh dear:eek:

I read the link you gave, very sad story.

[ralph124c]

I'm a big fan of BR-particularly in his role as "Sherlock Holmes". I heard that he lived into his 90's, and he died in poverty as well..does anybody know if he had any roles late in life, ot did his career end in the 1940's?

[Sampiro]

Ramon Novarro had a sad, bloody end (especially sad since his murderers were both free men within a few years of their incarceration).
http://crimemagazine.com/Celebrities/ramonnov.htm

A happier ending of a gay silent film star was that of romantic lead William Haines. He didn't make the transition to talkies (he had a hillbilly accent which didn't translate well to film) and he lost most of his money in the Depression. However, his own home was so stunningly decorated that he and his live-in boyfriend became two of the top decorators in Los Angeles for the next forty years, recouping their fortune many times. (Semi-sad ending- Haines died of natural causes in his 70s; his boyfriend, who'd shared his life for 50 years, committed suicide the next month, ala Charles Boyer's Seconal OD after his wife's death.)

[Sampiro]

"What happened to Basil rathbone?

I'm a big fan of BR-particularly in his role as "Sherlock Holmes". I heard that he lived into his 90's, and he died in poverty as well..does anybody know if he had any roles late in life, ot did his career end in the 1940's?"

I seriously doubt that he died in poverty like Lugosi. I think he had to trade-in the mansion (where he and his wife Ouida were some of the major party hosts [especially for the English colony] in LA during the Golden Age) for lesser digs, but there weren't tenements involved. It is true that he did a lot of low budget horror movies towards the end, but he also wrote a bestselling autobiography (still-in-print) in old age so I doubt he missed any meals. (According to imdb.com, he was 75 when he died, btw, and his last movie was "Hillbillies in a Haunted House".)

[Sampiro]

Originally posted by Bomzaway
A timely thread...

Paul "Pee Wee" Reubens and Jeffery Jones (the Principal in Ferris Beuler's Day Off) have just been busted for child porn.



Is that as in "this week"? I knew there was a raid on Pee-Wee's (play)house a few months ago, but I never heard more about it.
Awful about Jeffery Jones- he's one of my favorite character actors (Amadeus, The Crucible, Devil's Advocate, Ed Wood). I hope he's innocent as it otherwise destroys his contribution to film.

[Sampiro]

I looked up the story on Jones and Pee-Wee. (Evidently they found DNA on some of the stains on Chairy when they raided his playhouse.)

The odd thing: both men are charged with "misdemeanor possession of child pornography". I assumed anything connected to possessing it was felonious. (Jones is charged with a felony for hiring a minor for sexually explicit purposes, but the news story didn't say how old or what gender the minor is.)

I started a thread on General Questions to learn more about child pornography law.

[LonesomePolecat]

Say, wasn't Margot Kidder, who played Lois Lane in the Superman movies, found wandering the streets raving out of her mind? Seems she'd been reduced to semi-poverty due to some crippling mental illness and was living in some cramped little one bedroom apartment somewhere.

[Sampiro]

Yep, Margot Kidder is manic-depressive. She went off her medicine, entered a major depressive cycle when her computer crashed (taking with it the novel she'd worked on for years), and was found delusional and missing teeth several days later. She was broke due to bad business advice and probably in part due to paying for manic sprees, but, to quote John Astin from NIGHT COURT, she's "much better now".

Speaking of John Astin and manic-depression, Patty Duke is also manic-depressive. Now that she's diagnosed it's more or less under control, but before she was unable to keep money because she'd rent Lear jets for any or no reason and fly to D.C. to be with the president who was sending her coded messages on the radio. She also made a guy she met on a bus her business manager and decided to build an ark from Barstow to Bakersfield, CA.
(Interesting sidenote: she'd never known who the biological father of her son, Sean Astin, was, though she narrowed it down to John Astin or Desi Arnaz, Jr.. Since John raised the child as his own, there was never any question of who the "real" father was, but as an adult Sean had DNA testing done and it proved neither man was his biological father. His sperm-father was the man to whom his mother was married for two weeks- Patty Duke has no memory of the marriage ever having been consummated and denies the DNA results.
John Astin is now a professor of drama and tours in a one-man show about Edgar Allan Poe (www.astin-poe.com).

[Soul Brother Number Two]

emolson, puhleeze! Veronica Lake is a major major babe.

http://silverscreensirens.com/galleries/lake28.htm

don't forget my rita died suffering from alzheimer's... sniff.

[Sampiro]

essvee wrote "emolson, puhleeze! Veronica Lake is a major major babe."

True, but a whore who's been cut to look like Lana Turner is still a whore.

[jab1]

Did any celebrity come to a sadder end than John Belushi?

[Rilchiam]

I'd say Chris Farley's death was marginally sadder than Belushi's. And then there's David Strickland (http://us.imdb.com/Name?Strickland,+David), who committed suicide in Vegas. He was on Suddenly Susan for a while. Maybe he got fired from that, but there must have been other contributing factors: I can't see someone giving up that easily. (Andy Dick was with him on the pub crawl, but not in the room where he hung himself.)

Speaking of Belushi, when his death is mentioned, I always remember two things. First is Dan Aykroyd, standing at the gravesite in his motorcycle gear (he rode his bike all the way down from Alberta or wherever he's from, to get to the funeral, and had to be a pallbearer in that getup). His stance communicates such grief and regret :(.

The other is the anecdote Robin Williams once told about how he found out. He'd been hanging out with Belushi for a while, and the night Belushi died, he'd been in his room at the Chateau Marmont for about ten minutes, but left because it was blatantly obvious that Belushi wanted to be alone-with-a-capital-A. The next morning, he's on the Mork and Mindy set, at craft service. Pam Dawber came up to him, all doe-eyed, put her hand on his arm and said, "Oh, I'm so sorry about your friend." Well, he hadn't known, and just about choked on his coffee when she said "Belushi". Being a lady, Dawber silently handed him the LA Times, and tiptoed away.

Shame that Williams didn't take a cue from that, although he did clean up eventually. FWIW, not that I care about Chevy Chase, but he was immediately inspired to stop drinking because of that.

[asterion]

I think Fox should bring back Celebrity Boxing. That's about as sad as I can think of.

[CaptMurdock]

Originally posted by Rilchiam
Shame that Williams didn't take a cue from that, although he did clean up eventually. FWIW, not that I care about Chevy Chase, but he was immediately inspired to stop drinking because of that.

From what I've read, what prompted Chevy to clean up was the drug-related death of his good friend Doug Kenney in 1980. Kenney was a writer and editor for National Lampoon, and in later years was credited as a seminal though little-known architect of 70's humor. Doug, alone with Chris Miller and Harold Ramis, wrote Animal House. Doug played the role of Stork in the film (most memorable line: "Well, what the hell we s'posed to do, ya moh-ron?") He and Chevy were vacationing together in the Hawaiian Islands, doing huge amounts of cocaine. Chevy left after a few days; the next day, Doug fell off a cliff in a drug-induced daze.

[Sam Stone]

Drugs killed Kenney? Those bastards!

[Chastain86]

Originally posted by marinwood


Oh my God, do you mean the "Awinnn Buhhh" guy? This brings a new (and scary!) meaning to his "Got Milk?" commercial.


Actually, NOT the same guy. I'm trying to IMDB the Aaron Buhh guy but that's not him.

And I'm not absolutely sure if Stephen Geoffreys is still doing porn or not, as I'm not a gay-porn-enthusiast; I had actually heard it was a limited-time thing, and he's since moved on to...whatever you move on to from gay porn, I guess. :o

[Rilchiam]

Originally posted by CaptMurdock


From what I've read, what prompted Chevy to clean up was the drug-related death of his good friend Doug Kenney in 1980. Kenney was a writer and editor for National Lampoon, and in later years was credited as a seminal though little-known architect of 70's humor. Doug, alone with Chris Miller and Harold Ramis, wrote Animal House. Doug played the role of Stork in the film (most memorable line: "Well, what the hell we s'posed to do, ya moh-ron?") He and Chevy were vacationing together in the Hawaiian Islands, doing huge amounts of cocaine. Chevy left after a few days; the next day, Doug fell off a cliff in a drug-induced daze.

Thanks for the info.

:::Rilchiam scuttles away, properly humbled:::

[handsomeharry]

a really good site is findadeath.com. it can give us some lowdowns on the mighty falling. most of it pretty good. as you can imagine, it is about the dead ones. as for live ones, what's the status of chevy chase? his stock certainly dropped. that talk show of his was pure-dee-crap!

[betenoir]

Originally posted by Sampiro


Is that as in "this week"? I knew there was a raid on Pee-Wee's (play)house a few months ago, but I never heard more about it.
Awful about Jeffery Jones- he's one of my favorite character actors (Amadeus, The Crucible, Devil's Advocate, Ed Wood). I hope he's innocent as it otherwise destroys his contribution to film.

I think it's worth noting the "child" in question is 17.


Yes, it's still illegal, but- child pornography?

[astro]

Originally posted by Sampiro
John Astin is now a professor of drama and tours in a one-man show about Edgar Allan Poe (www.astin-poe.com).

When I was just out of college 1981 I took his parent's cordless phone in for service as a Radio Shack trainee. I thought I recognized him and asked him "are you in television" He smiled and told me who he was. Very nice man.

[betenoir]

Originally posted by Sampiro


He's not dead, but Stephen Geoffreys, who played best friend Evil Ed in FRIGHT NIGHT and the nerd prototype in lots of "horny frat boys go to the beach" movies is now a hard core gay porn actor.



Hey.

Wait a minute.

I know that guy.

Ya want to hear a story?

When I was in college I used to hang out at this bar in the East Village. One night Stephen Geoffreys wanders in. My friends and I think, cool, we're hanging out with a celebrity. The group, of us drink quite a bit and eventually head back to Phil's to crash in his living room, Stephen included.

It's the middle of the night and Phil wakes me up freaked out and trying to crawl onto the couch with me. Apparently he had just woken up a few minutes ago to find Stephen trying to put Phil's dick in his mouth.

An alarming circumstance for any heterosexual boy, but perhaps even more so when the guy is a vampire :D.

So I reassured Phil of his heterosexuality (by way of a warm comforting hug) and we never saw Stephen again.

Sad end? Kind of sad in general, that.

[yosemite]

Troubled over this whole "Evil Ed is now a Porn Star" business, I looked up Stephen Geoffreys in Google, using his Porn name (Sam Ritter) and his real name. I just wanted to learn a little more about his sad tale, and maybe see what he looks like (just his face—I just wanted to see his face!) I always thought he was a sweet kind of character (I especially liked him in an old episode of "Amazing Stories") and him turning out to be a porn star was the last thing I would have expected.

This article (http://www.papermag.com/magazine/mag_97/mag_mar97/dermody/dermody01.html) appears to be "clean" enough to link to here (no dirty pictures, etc.)

Here are some excerpts:True, Geoffreys may have worn out his cinematic welcome. With his punkish hair, demented grin and high-pitched, constantly cracking voice, it's a little like watching a young Michael J. Pollard on Special K. There was something sweet but annoying about him. In films like Fraternity Vacation (costarring a young Tim Robbins) and 976-EVIL, he pretty much plays the same goofy character. But other actors have managed to parlay an oddball screen persona into a lifelong career. Why, then, would one aspire to porno? Perhaps he feels it is his calling-like Mother Teresa with the lepers or Dr. Kevorkian with the terminally ill.and then:What's even more mysterious is that the X-rated videos he has chosen to do are of such horrible quality, with lousy production values and a repulsive stable of costars. Aside from Geoffreys, who actually has a tough little body, most of the men are far from cute.

The article also comments about how he always wears a hat or cap of some kind. I know the answer to that—I noticed that he was losing his hair, way back from something he did in the mid-late '80s. I guess he figures that a cap or hat is cheaper than hair plugs or a toupee.

betenoir: Whoa—freaky story. Your poor friend Phil! I confess, I am learning way too much about this Geoffreys fellow, who I had always assumed had faded into obscurity after fizzling out in mainstream films. Who would have thought...

During my Google search, I found one particularly disturbing page (I wouldn't link to it now, even if I could remember the URL) where Geoffreys is showing off his *ahem* "assets". I quickly backtracked out of that page, let me tell you, with the thought, "Scarred for life! I'm scarred for life!" Acck!

[Imasquare]

Robert Vaughn is a regular on a fairly successful UK television show called Hustle (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0379632/).

[Otto]

Aaaaghh! Zombie!

[ouryL]

And IIRC, Terry-Thomas died penniless.. a definite sad end to a most excellent comedian.

Due to Parkinson's Disease...

[Don Logan]

Barbara Payton went from bonking Frank Sinatra and Franchot Tone to a bloated alcoholic toothless prostitute who was slashed by a john in about ten years.

[Don Logan]

And how did Amy Locane go from starring roles opposite Tommy Lee Jones, Jessica Lange, Matt Damon & Brendan Fraser to...nothing?

[CalMeacham]

Consider WKRP in Cincinatti (The original)

Only one of the stars has really gone on to a significant amount of other work, other than Tim Reid...




What about Gordon Jump? He got a regular gig as the Maytag Repair Man, like Jesse White before him. He did mostly live theater after WKRP, I believe. He was out in Salt Lake City several times.

[Loopydude]

Tom Sizemore seems like a prime recent example. Went from a steady and successful career of key supporting roles in a number of high-grossing movies to a precipitous decline into meth addiction, Heidi-Fleiss-beating, and amateur porn. Last I heard about him, he was busted using a fake penis to provide a clean urine sample as a condition of his parole, he might wind up in prison someday, and his career is totally in the skids.

[Cardinal]

I remember seeing Bob Denver from GILLIGAN'S ISLAND & his real life wife Dreama in a particularly cheesy play at a local dinner theater when I was a kid. Even at the time I wondered "didn't he save anything from the series?", cause this wasn't something you do to advance your career. I read Jim Backus' book, and he said that the network came to the cast after GI ended:

"Well, there were only three seasons, and the first was in b/w. You can have the payout, or the residuals."

"Hmm... Who's going to watch this goofy show, really? We'll take the payout."

I don't know how venal this was on the part of the network. It wouldn't surprise me to find that someone knew of the demographic appeal and hoodwinked the cast. OTOH, is it possible that the show was popular for reruns because it was offered for low cost, because of no residual payments needed?

[CalMeacham]

ralph124c asked about Basil Rathbone. Even without checking the iMDB, I can recall that he was in Roger Corman flicks in the early 1960s. You might regard that as a severe letdown, but, heck, Boris Karloff and Peter Lorre and, of course, Vincent Price were doing it, too. And those flicks were playing in the big theaters, so it wasn't exactly the slums. The Magic Sword was actually big-budget for Corman, and Rathbone played the villain.

[Cardinal]

I think Fox should bring back Celebrity Boxing. That's about as sad as I can think of.Dustin Diamond (Screech) is having his problems: http://www.getdshirts.com/

[TommyTutone]

A timely thread...

Paul "Pee Wee" Reubens and Jeffery Jones (the Principal in Ferris Beuler's Day Off) have just been busted for child porn.

Guilty or not, it's probably pretty safe to say they're all done. Pee Wee's playhouse was brilliant. A sad end indeed.

The charges were not that recent and although I don't know the status of the case for Jeffery Jones, he is still working, currently on the third (and final) season of HBO's western drama "Deadwood".

[bup]

ralph124c asked about Basil Rathbone.Four years ago.

The Magic Sword was actually big-budget for Corman, and Rathbone played the villain.What a wonderfully terrible movie. It also had Vampira, IIRC.

I saw Alan Young (Wilbur Post) a couple of years ago guesting on a bad sitcom. Who cares though? I love that stuff. Hollywood's a roller coaster. Thank God some people don't take it seriously enough to think honest work as a guest star is beneath them.

[Earthworm Jim]

I can't believe no one's mentioned Phil Hartman (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phil_Hartman) yet.
Hartman was murdered by his wife, Brynn, on May 28, 1998, in his Encino, California home, at the age of 49. As he slept, Hartman was shot twice in the head. A few hours later, Brynn committed suicide with a shot to the head. The reasons for the murder are unknown, though it had been rumoured that Brynn suffered from a neurochemical imbalance and thought Phil was cheating on her.

[Bosda Di'Chi of Tricor]

Bela Lugosi

Trained as a Classical Shakespearean, peaked with cinema magic in Universal's Dracula, finished up with Ed Wood in Plan 9 From Outer Space.

You just can't fall farther than that without Pron being involved.

[Dolores Reborn]

The other day I saw Erik Estrada doing an info-mercial on how to get rich in real estate.

[RealityChuck]

What is very interesting on the revival of this thread after four years is the first post. Robert Vaughn -- the name that started the thread -- is back and successful in the UK TV show Hustle (also on AMC in the US). So even when a actor reaches bottom, it's not always the end.

[Nonsuch]

The other day I saw Erik Estrada doing an info-mercial on how to get rich in real estate.Hey, what's he supposed to do—Sealab 2021 was cancelled!

[ianzin]

I just saw a TV ad for a local ambulance-chaser law firm..the announcer was somebody I dimly recognized..it was Robert Vaughn (of the "MAN FROM UNCLE",
Actually, Robert Vaughn is doing okay. He has a starring role in a hit BBC TV series called Hustle (http://www.bbc.co.uk/drama/hustle/), which has recently completed its third series (mind you, this is the BBC and a 'series' consists of only 6 episodes). It's a high profile series, very successful around the world, and with quite a hefty budget behind it, so I imagine Robert gets rather well paid for his services. Even nicer for him, he barely has to actually do anything in the show. His role is the least demanding of all, and a lot of the time he's there merely as a sort of 'father figure' to the rest of the gang, so he just sits around in a nice suit looking wise.

[kaylasdad99]

<kd99 reads the thread, checks the dates>

BRAAAIIIINNSS!!!

[Kilvert's Pagan]

Bernie Kopell was selling an anti-snoring nasal spray a few years back. Pathetic.

Two musicians come to mind, one expired, one still living.

Jaco Pastorius, one of the greatest jazz bassists in history: Pastorius became overwhelmed by mental problems, exacerbated by drugs and alcohol in the mid-'80s, leading to several embarrassing public incidents (one was a violent crack-up on-stage at the Hollywood Bowl in mid-set at the 1984 Playboy Jazz Festival). Such episodes made him a pariah in the music business and toward the end of his life, he had become a street person, reportedly sighted in drug-infested inner-city hangouts. He died in 1987 from a physical beating sustained while trying to break into the Midnight Club in Fort Lauderdale.The once-brilliant Sly Stone had numerous drug problems and was rumored to also have been a street person at one time.

[Kythereia]

(And can Robert Downey Jr be that far behind?)


I know this thread dates back to 2002, but even around that time Robert Downey Jr. was making something of a comeback with Wonder Boys under his belt and a starring role in The Singing Detective. Currently, he's starred in Good Night and Good Luck, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, and A Scanner Darkly (due out later this summer), and has quite a few leading roles coming up on IMDB. I wouldn't say his career is in the tank by a very, very long shot.

[Sampiro]

Bernie Kopell was selling an anti-snoring nasal spray a few years back. Pathetic.

He's also a fixture at autograph shows (http://www.hollywoodcollectorshow.com/Burbank.htm) which always seemed to me to be really degrading. Of course he has a reason for it- he married a much younger woman in his mid sixties and had two little boys over the next few years, so by his own admission at a recent interview he's trying to rake in all he can to put into their college trust fund (the same reason James Doohan kept doing STAR TREK appearances after he was deaf and on oxygen and beginning to lose his mind a bit- he wanted to leave a nice trust for the daughter born when he was 80).

[Merijeek]

The Magic Sword was actually big-budget for Corman, and Rathbone played the villain.

Which was such a good movie that MST3K did it...

-Joe

[cerberus]

This thread is a compelling argument for the return of a pair of series that performed a public service by "recycling" discarded or otherwise out of circulation actors:

Love Boat

Fantasy Island

If you're talking about the yopunger fallen actors, one could revive

Love, American Style

But "reality" shows and infomercials have taken up some of the slack.

[sabatobello]

Which was such a good movie that MST3K did it...

-Joe


And in the official MST3K book, they state it's probably the best movie they ever did and not nearly up to their usual standard for badness.

[RickJay]

How can we have a discussion about washed up actors without mentioning...
THE COREYS!!!
Yaaay!
Corey Haim's working as a record store clerk in Toronto.

[brianjedi]

And in the official MST3K book, they state it's probably the best movie they ever did and not nearly up to their usual standard for badness.

Hell, it's not even the worst Corman movie they did (I'm looking at you, Gunslinger.)

[Othersider]

I can't believe no one's mentioned Phil Hartman (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phil_Hartman) yet.
As sad as Phil's untimely demise was (and I most certainly agree that it was), it seems less like most of the other entries in this thread, and more like the number of celebrities who died of an overdose or at the hand of a sociopath - the list of which is ridiculously long.

[Bryan Ekers]

I was going to mention Dana Plato then discovered I already had, almost four years ago.

[Sampiro]

Is this thread the record for time in the grave?

I was really disappointed to see Frank Thornton (Captain Peacock from Are You Being Served?) as Maggie Smith's butler in Gosford Park- a non-speaking role that had 10 seconds of screen time.

I read recently that the reason some stars did Love Boats and guest appearances on sitcoms you'd think would be beneath them had less to do with money (though it's still an easy several grand) than for SAG and other professional membership criteria to keep their insurance and memberships current. Made sense.
I also remember an article by Vic Tayback's son that was interesting. People thought his father was penniless because just before he died he was doing dinner theater in a really provincial town (like the ones I live in) and figured he must need the money. His son said (paraphrasing) "Dad was a multimillionaire who never had to work again. He loved the applause, he loved being treated like a superstar when he went to these places, he loved acting- and who was gonna cast my dad as Fagin [or whoever] on Broadway?" Seemed reasonable.

[Annie-Xmas]

Bob Crane went from star of the classic "Hogan's Heroes" to being blugeoned to death in an unsolved murder (probably related to his porn collection).

[Sampiro]

Bob Crane went from star of the classic "Hogan's Heroes" to being blugeoned to death in an unsolved murder (probably related to his porn collection).

Wanna see somethin' really scary?

At the bottom is a very non-work safe link to Bob Crane's son's site which is dedicated to his father and selling "memorabilia" thereof. It's one of those "I really really don't want to think of doing this for my dead dad" sites, but I guess if your birthright was $300 and a warehouse full of dad's porn types then this is making lemonade.

Link (http://bobcrane.com/) (actually the homepage is work-safe enough, it's the "merchandise" and other links).

[Rilchiam]

As sad as Phil's untimely demise was (and I most certainly agree that it was), it seems less like most of the other entries in this thread, and more like the number of celebrities who died of an overdose or at the hand of a sociopath - the list of which is ridiculously long.

Yeah, I wouldn't even classify him with people who OD'd. The "sad ends" in the rest of this thread are mainly the result of peoples' inabilities to manage their careers or personal lives. Hartman may have made a poor choice in spouses (I say 'may' because Brynn could have been a much different person when they met), but we don't know what he might have done to try to help the situation. So his story is simply sad, through no discernable fault of his own.

(They're showing an SNL tribute to him on I think Comedy Central right now. Clinton at McDonald's. That was a classic. "Warlords!")

[StGermain]

Barry Cowsill of the famly musical group The Cowsills became a drug addict and homeless and was living on the streets in New Orleans. He drowned during Katrina. The Cowsills were the group the TV show The Partridge Family was modeled after.

StG

[Diceman]

It doesn't compare to some of these ends, but I was greatly saddened when I saw Pat Morita appear in a couple of really lame Nissan commercials. Adding insult to injury, he was second fiddle to a dog, and all he did was say "Dogs love trucks." :(

Just recently, I've been seeing commercials for a roofing company that have Evel Knievel doing voice-over while stock footage of a failed jump plays on the screen.

[Crafter_Man]

Margaux Hemingway

Captain Beefheart

Hervé Villechaize

Gary Coleman

[Martini Enfield]

Wasn't John Travolta's career pretty much reduced to movies about talking babies until Quentin Tarantino cast him in Pulp Fiction?

Adam West spent years typecast as Batman in the '60s TV series, and even now he's best known as the quasi-insane Mayor Adam West in Family Guy- in effect, playing a demented version of himself...

[Malienation]

Redd Foxx? Hold your horses, everyone...

He might have had very little money when he died, but you can't take it with you. He didn't piss his money away on himself so much as overindulge needy "friends". And the show that he starred on just before he died had both respectable critical aclaim and reasonable ratings (for a new show), if memory serves; his presence was too big a part of the show to do without, so it was cancelled. Imagine: right before he dies, he reads in the paper that the critics think his show is off to a good start, and ratings are good. That's what actors live for. He was not a young man. His life seemed happy. What's the sad part?