# Anyone ever discover in an old show, a great talent you wern't aware of, only to find.... **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 5, 2019, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-ever-discover-in-an-old-show-a-great-talent-you-wernt-aware-of-only-to-find/827253 "2019-01-05T17:05:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Dale\_Sams](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/779978/32.png) [@Dale\_Sams](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dale_Sams)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2019, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-ever-discover-in-an-old-show-a-great-talent-you-wernt-aware-of-only-to-find/827253/1 "2019-01-05T17:05:38Z")
…yup. They died prematurely. Though my example is even more twisted. So I’m going through my Twilight Zone watch. I’m watching the season five ep “Ring A Ding Girl”. Who is this Maggie McNamera\*??? She’s gorgeous and the ending of the episode caught me off guard so maybe i was a little emotional. So I look her up. First thing I see is she died before reaching fifty. “F\*\*K.” Then I see she killed herself. “F\*\*\*\*\*\*K” So i read about her and find that after that TZ episode she only worked in TV for one more year before dropping out of show business. She was nominated for an Academy Award just 11 years earlier in her very first movie! For the next 15 years she worked as a typist to help make ends meet. \*The actress who played her sister, Mary Munday, was quite good too. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2019, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-ever-discover-in-an-old-show-a-great-talent-you-wernt-aware-of-only-to-find/827253/2 "2019-01-05T18:31:17Z")
> [@Dale\_Sams](#): > > The actress who played her sister, Mary Munday, was quite good too. I see she was married to writer/producer/director Tom Gries, whom I remember from my two favorite TV shows in 1966, \*\*\*Batman \*\*_and **The Rat Patrol**._ He died at the age of 54, from a heart attack while playing tennis. \*The star of _ **Rat Patro** _l, Christopher George, also died of a heart attack, at the age of 52. It was apparently a result of an accident on the show’s set. ---
**Author:** ![Dale\_Sams](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/779978/32.png) [@Dale\_Sams](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dale_Sams)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2019, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-ever-discover-in-an-old-show-a-great-talent-you-wernt-aware-of-only-to-find/827253/3 "2019-01-05T19:10:32Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > I see she was married to writer/producer/director Tom Gries, whom I remember from my two favorite TV shows in 1966, \*\*\*Batman \*\*_and **The Rat Patrol**._ He died at the age of 54, from a heart attack while playing tennis. > > \*The star of _ **Rat Patro** _l, Christopher George, also died of a heart attack, at the age of 52. It was apparently a result of an accident on the show’s set. We still have Monte Markham. I don’t know why, Christopher George always reminds me of Monte Markham. ---
**Author:** ![SmartAleq](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smartaleq/32/163_2.png) [@SmartAleq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmartAleq)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2019, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-ever-discover-in-an-old-show-a-great-talent-you-wernt-aware-of-only-to-find/827253/4 "2019-01-05T20:48:33Z")
If you can find it, look for “[The Moon Is Blue](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0046094/reference),” one of her first credits. She was absolutely adorable in that and more than held her own against William Holden and David Niven. ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2019, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-ever-discover-in-an-old-show-a-great-talent-you-wernt-aware-of-only-to-find/827253/5 "2019-01-05T21:38:07Z")
Yes, this happens to me. My wife is tired of me saying, “Hey, you know that (girl/guy) playing the lead? She died just after they made this.” And so forth. I often look up guest spots to see if I’ve seen them elsewhere and once in awhile, we learn they died. There is a Buffy episode about a guy who makes a Frankenstein-monster-girllfriend(Some Assembly Required). The main guest actor killed himself. ---
**Author:** ![SmartAleq](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smartaleq/32/163_2.png) [@SmartAleq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmartAleq)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2019, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-ever-discover-in-an-old-show-a-great-talent-you-wernt-aware-of-only-to-find/827253/6 "2019-01-05T22:19:41Z")
My friends and I, when watching movies together, quite often chorus “Hey, you’re DEAD!” when a now-deceased actor comes on screen. We’re not nice people, obviously. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2019, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-ever-discover-in-an-old-show-a-great-talent-you-wernt-aware-of-only-to-find/827253/7 "2019-01-05T22:43:59Z")
Back in the day, I had a pen pal who was a big fan of the early-1970s series “Alias Smith and Jones”, and specifically the actor Peter Deuel, who committed suicide. She told me that she had recently (at the time) watched an MST3K episode where they were lampooning a movie where Deuel had a bit part, and at some point opened a coffin containing an extremely decrepit mummy. At that moment, one of the robots said something like, “So, THAT’S what happened to Pete Deuel!” 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2019, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-ever-discover-in-an-old-show-a-great-talent-you-wernt-aware-of-only-to-find/827253/8 "2019-01-05T22:47:03Z")
[Samantha Smith](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b9DXsHvG-Wk), died in a [plane crash](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bar_Harbor_Airlines_Flight_1808) at the age of 13. ---
**Author:** ![BrickBat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ac91a4/32.png) [@BrickBat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrickBat)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2019, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-ever-discover-in-an-old-show-a-great-talent-you-wernt-aware-of-only-to-find/827253/9 "2019-01-05T22:50:43Z")
From the film ‘Up the Down Staircase’. Came out in 1967 but I saw it for the first time about a year ago. I remember the lovestruck teen girl character Alice, played by Ellen O’Mara. While average looking, there was something about her appearance and demeanor that made her as cute as a button. I felt that “Oh, what a damn shame” feeling when finding out she appeared on screen very little after that movie, and died in her early 50s. ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2019, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-ever-discover-in-an-old-show-a-great-talent-you-wernt-aware-of-only-to-find/827253/10 "2019-01-05T23:29:02Z")
[Valérie Quennessen](https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0703211/) She was in _French Postcards_, _Summer Lovers_, and _Conan the Barbarian_. If you watched late-night HBO in the 1980s, you saw a lot of her (so to speak). Sadly for Hollywood, she dropped out of showbiz to concentrate on her family. Sadly for everybody, she died in a car wreck in 1989. ---
**Author:** ![Odesio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/odesio/32/20003_2.png) [@Odesio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odesio)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2019, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-ever-discover-in-an-old-show-a-great-talent-you-wernt-aware-of-only-to-find/827253/11 "2019-01-06T00:15:40Z")
I didn’t watch The Godfather until 2005 or so and I kept thinking to myself, “John Cazale is nailing is Fredo. How come I never see him in anything else?” Turns out he died of cancer before the the release of what would be his final movie, The Deer Hunter. ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2019, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-ever-discover-in-an-old-show-a-great-talent-you-wernt-aware-of-only-to-find/827253/12 "2019-01-06T00:26:43Z")
Cathy O’Donnel lived only to 46. The few things I saw her in showed me she had a fine talent. Her first role was as the girlfriend/wife of the sailor who had lost his hands, in _The Best Years of Our Lives._ She was also Judah’s younger sister in _Ben-Hur_. Cancer sucks. ---
**Author:** ![Sefton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5daacb/32.png) [@Sefton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sefton)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2019, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-ever-discover-in-an-old-show-a-great-talent-you-wernt-aware-of-only-to-find/827253/13 "2019-01-06T16:00:58Z")
I thought highly of Janet Munro after seeing her in _Darby O’Gill and the Little People_ and _Swiss Family Robinson_. So did Walt Disney. Alas, her tragic, turbulent life ended at 38. ---
**Author:** ![NDP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ndp/32/55_2.png) [@NDP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NDP)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2019, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-ever-discover-in-an-old-show-a-great-talent-you-wernt-aware-of-only-to-find/827253/14 "2019-01-06T23:54:38Z")
I’ve had the almost-opposite thing happen to me. I’ve seen old movies knowing an actor or actress is dead and thinking they died prematurely under tragic circumstances only to find out they lived well into their 80s or 90s. ---
**Author:** ![Guest-starring\_Id](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guest-starring_id/32/21736_2.png) [@Guest-starring\_Id](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guest-starring_Id)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2019, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-ever-discover-in-an-old-show-a-great-talent-you-wernt-aware-of-only-to-find/827253/15 "2019-01-07T02:08:26Z")
> [@Odesio](#): > > I didn’t watch The Godfather until 2005 or so and I kept thinking to myself, “John Cazale is nailing is Fredo. How come I never see him in anything else?” Turns out he died of cancer before the the release of what would be his final movie, The Deer Hunter. Huh. Quite saddening watching a film whose lead you know will have died almost immediately after the movie was made. Apparently, the writer/star of _Il Postino_, Massimo Troisi, postponed heart surgery so that he could complete the film. The day after filming was completed, he suffered a fatal heart attack. ---
**Author:** ![WOOKINPANUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wookinpanub/32/132_2.png) [@WOOKINPANUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WOOKINPANUB)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2019, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-ever-discover-in-an-old-show-a-great-talent-you-wernt-aware-of-only-to-find/827253/16 "2019-01-07T18:03:04Z")
Kinda sorta the same, except with a song . . . I didn’t “discover” The Pogues’ _Fairytale of New York_ until the early 2,000s (I know! what rock had I been living under?!)and was so thrilled by Kirsty MacColl’s voice and performance for the video, only to find out she had tragically died a few years prior. ---
**Author:** ![Lamoral](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lamoral/32/16078_2.png) [@Lamoral](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamoral)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2019, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-ever-discover-in-an-old-show-a-great-talent-you-wernt-aware-of-only-to-find/827253/17 "2019-01-07T19:01:58Z")
It’s not a show, it’s music related, but last year I was reading an old issue of _Bass Player_ magazine from the 1990s that had an interview with Mick Karn, who was the bassist of the band Japan, which I had never heard of at the time. I googled them and this video, [Methods Of Dance](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fuiRBLa7pdA), was the first one I watched - I was absolutely blown away by his amazingly creative and distinctive style. Then I looked him up on Wikipedia and was disappointed to find that he died back in 2011. He was 52, which I would consider premature. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2019, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-ever-discover-in-an-old-show-a-great-talent-you-wernt-aware-of-only-to-find/827253/18 "2019-01-07T19:09:00Z")
Jeff Buckley’s rendition of “Hallelujah”, released in 2008 and responsible for making the Leonard Cohen song such a part of life, was so wonderful that I looked up what else this bright new star was doing. He had died ten years earlier, in a stupid accident. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2019, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-ever-discover-in-an-old-show-a-great-talent-you-wernt-aware-of-only-to-find/827253/19 "2019-01-07T19:32:54Z")
> [@SmartAleq](#): > > My friends and I, when watching movies together, quite often chorus “Hey, you’re DEAD!” when a now-deceased actor comes on screen. We’re not nice people, obviously. 😃 We go, “Dat guy der?” pause “He’s dead.” We’re quoting something but damned if I can remember what it’s from. We were watching an old episode of To Tell The Truth from 1963 and the truth teller was Jay Sebring, Hair Dresser to the Stars. We always like to look up the contestants, in a where are they now way. Turns out he had [very bad day](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tate_murders)six years later, poor guy. ---
**Author:** ![xizor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xizor/32/102_2.png) [@xizor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xizor)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2019, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-ever-discover-in-an-old-show-a-great-talent-you-wernt-aware-of-only-to-find/827253/20 "2019-01-07T19:51:58Z")
A few years ago I was introducing someone to the cheesy delight from the 90s that was _Xena: Warrior Princess_ Which lead me to do a little “where are they now” googling, where I learned that the actor who played Ares, [Kevin Smith](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kevin_Smith_(New_Zealand_actor)#Death) died right before his first Hollywood movie. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-ever-discover-in-an-old-show-a-great-talent-you-wernt-aware-of-only-to-find/827253.md?page=2)