'50s hunk Keith Andes dies at 85

[Eve]

Anyone else remember him? Very cleft-chinned. There’s something in the air, the old celebs are dropping like flies lately:

Keith Andes, an actor with classic movie-star looks who considered playing Marilyn Monroe’s leading man in the 1952 film “Clash by Night” a highlight of his 30-year career, has died. He was 85. Andes, who had been fighting bladder cancer and several other ailments, was found dead Nov. 11 in his Santa Clarita home, said Marshall LaPlante, a longtime friend. The Los Angeles County coroner’s office has ruled the death suicide by asphyxiation.

Though Andes was reticent about his career, the walls of his apartment were lined with memorabilia, including an album cover from “Wildcat,” the 1960 Broadway musical he starred in opposite Lucille Ball. A framed handwritten note from Ball alludes to their sharing close quarters on stage: “I ate onions, ha-ha, love, Lucy.” Everyone “always, always, always” asked about Andes’ friendship with Monroe, said Ryan Andes, his grandson. “There was always a murmur about them having a relationship, but he said that wasn’t the case,” he said.

Andes came to Hollywood after studio head Darryl F. Zanuck saw the understudy perform in the Broadway production of “Winged Victory” and offered him a minor part in the 1944 film version. The actor with the soothing baritone went on to appear in about 20 other movies, including playing one of the brothers in “The Farmer’s Daughter” (1947) and Gen. George C. Marshall in “Tora! Tora! Tora!” (1970). On television he starred as an amateur sleuth in “Glynis,” a 1963 CBS sitcom in which Glynis Johns played his wife, and in the syndicated police drama “This Man Dawson” from 1959 to 1960. He also made guest appearances on more than 40 shows, many of them westerns. After retiring in the late 1970s, Andes did voice-over work but spent many of his days riding his motorcycle throughout the West.

[Sir_Rhosis]

RIP.

Despite so many decades in the business, he is another one who is soley going to be remembered for a single appearance (wearing a terribly bad fright wig) in an episode of STAR TREK (“The Apple” from 1967).

Sir Rhosis

[samclem]

@Eve

Anyone else remember him? Very cleft-chinned. There’s something in the air, the old celebs are dropping like flies lately:

You mean that they’re dying out of proportion to the past? Or is this just like thinking that hospital emergency rooms are more populated during a full moon?

[Eve]

Well, just a lot of show-biz celebs I liked, in November alone: Jean Carson, Sheree North, Graham Payn, Constance Cummings, Pat Morita, Keith Andes . . .

[astro]

Keith Andes

[levdrakon]

@samclem

You mean that they’re dying out of proportion to the past? Or is this just like thinking that hospital emergency rooms are more populated during a full moon?

I can’t remember if it was Thanksgiving day, or the day after, but I started my browser and The New York Times had a so-and-so famous person dead headline, then I went here to CS and there were three different so-and-so famous person dead threads on the first page, so it did make me wonder, either Thanksgiving is a good time to kick-off (and I don’t mean football), or the media & Dopers just like reporting on it at Thanksgiving.

[wolf_meister]

I remember Keith Andes and I also remember confusing him with Richard Webb and Skip Homeier. The funny thing is they each did one episode of Start Trek. (Incidentally, Mr Homeier is still alive.)

[lissener]

I watch *Clash by Night *every time it’s on. I mean come on: Fritz Lang directs Barbara Stanwyck and Marilyn Monroe in a Clifford Odets play? Oh and yeah, Keith Andes on the beach. Definitely giving Norma Jean a run for the money in the rack department. Rowrrr.