An odd memory from USENET, long ago—CECILY Adams, no relation to Cecil

Something just got knocked loose in my memories from long ago.

@Seanette and I used to participate in several USENET forums, one of which was alt.fan.cecil-adams. I think you can guess what, at least officially, the main topic of that forum was supposed to be.

Another participant on that forum was a man named Jim Beaver. At some point, he had a question for the group, having to do with a medical issue affecting his wife. The issue had to do with fertility treatments, as they were trying to have a child. He mentioned a desire of some discreteness, because his wife, he said, was someone famous.

Eventually, it came out that his wife’s name was CECILY ADAMS, no relation at all to Cecil Adams, and she was the daughter of the actor Don Adams, best known for playing the lead role in the old TV comedy Get Smart. She’s done a bit of acting herself, but was never really that famous. It turns out that Mr. Beaver himself is much more accomplished and famous as an actor than his wife ever was.

I assume he was drawn to that newsgroup, in the first place, by the similarity to his wife’s name.

Some years later, long after I’d ceased to be active anywhere on USENET, I remembered that, and became curious about where Jim & Cecily’s life had gone. This was before Google trashed what was left of DejaNews to the point that it is no longer easy to search for old USENET posts.

I found that one of Jim Beaver’s primary activities has been to post obituaries about other actors who had passed on. And among his posts, one that he particularly expressed regret at having to make, was to announce the death of his own wife, Cecily, who died of cancer in 2004, at the age of 46. I did learn that they managed to have a child, a daughter, so I guess the fertility treatments about which he was asking, worked.

Interesting memory – thank you for sharing it, even the tragic part.

I know of Jim Beaver, from his work on the TV series Supernatural – I was never a big fan of the show, but my wife was, and so, I wound up watching a lot of it, by osmosis. His character, Bobby Singer, was one of the best parts of the series.

I remember the name, Jim Beaver, from AFC-A. We had a number of regulars who were in show business back then.

I’ve read a bunch of that old stuff.
This adds a bit more to the story. Thank you.

Jim Beaver - that name struck me as oddly familiar, could even sorta put a face to it. So I had to look him up on IMDB, and it turns out he was in “Deadwood”, which I just watched a couple months ago. He played Ellsworth.

It looks like Cecily played a few Ferengi ladies in DS9:

I knew of Jim from Deadwood. I believe that he also posted here on the SDMB while Deadwood was airing. I’ll see if I can find evidence of that.

Found it: @jumblejim

I wonder if that will tag him with an email…