# RIP Timmy :( **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 6, 2002, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-timmy/122696 "2002-08-06T23:47:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![LolaCocaCola](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7cd45c/32.png) [@LolaCocaCola](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LolaCocaCola)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2002, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-timmy/122696/1 "2002-08-06T23:47:32Z")
> [@](#): > > **3-Foot-2 Soap Opera Actor Dies** > > (AP) Actor Joshua Ryan Evans, 20, who played Timmy the living doll on the NBC-TV soap “Passions,” shown… > > SAN DIEGO (AP) - Joshua Ryan Evans, the 3-foot-2 actor who played Timmy the living doll on the NBC soap “Passions,” died Tuesday during a medical procedure, the network said. He was 20. > > Evans, who was born with a rare disease that stunted his growth, died at a San Diego hospital, NBC publicist Lauren Townsend said. The cause of death and the nature of the medical procedure were not immediately disclosed. > > On Monday’s episode of “Passions,” taped last month, Evans’ character died. On the show, Timmy was a doll created by a witch and was recently turned into a real boy. > > The Timmy role won Evans two consecutive Soap Opera Digest Awards for outstanding male scene stealer. > > Evans was 12 when he got national exposure in a Dreyer’s Ice Cream commercial titled “The Dancing Baby.” The commercial won a Cleo Award and resulted in a role for Evans in the movie “Baby Geniuses.” > > His TV credits included “Ally McBeal,” which featured him as young lawyer Oren, Ally’s nemesis. He was also featured as Tom Thumb in the A&E miniseries “P.T. Barnum” and was in Showtime’s “Poltergeist: The Legacy.” > > He also played the young grinch in the movie “The Grinch.” > > Funeral arrangements were not immediately disclosed. ---
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2002, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-timmy/122696/2 "2002-08-07T00:10:31Z")
“On the show, Timmy was a doll created by a witch and was recently turned into a real boy.” Are all soaps this wacky? ---
**Author:** ![SolGrundy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bbce88/32.png) [@SolGrundy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SolGrundy)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2002, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-timmy/122696/3 "2002-08-07T00:44:31Z")
I’m pretty sure “Passions” is the supreme ruler of wacky soap operas. I can’t really speak for the others, since I just record “Passions” every day on the Tivo. But from the ads for “Days of Our Lives” it looks like they’re getting into weird alien stuff, but it looked like a low-rent several-years-too-late X-Files rip-off instead of the inspired idiocy of “Passions”. F’rinstance, Timmy’s injuries on the show were sustained in a fight with the zombie lookalike version of Charity. The zombie was summoned by a dark spell from Charity’s scheming cousin Kay (who was jealous of her and wanted her boyfriend Miguel all for herself). The zombie froze the real Charity in a block of ice and then assumed Charity’s form to trick Miguel into sleeping with her, which would kill him and bring even greater evil to the town of Harmony. Meanwhile the zombie was running around and camping it up, talking to the camera, while the witch was desperate to save Timmy and kept consulting her magic scroll and her talking floating head in a box. It’s great stuff, and the best part is that it’s easy to get into the show because they _explain every single thing that’s happening every five minutes._ Anyway, Evans’ death is sad and very creepy. As the article pointed out, yesterday, the day he died, was the day they aired the episode where his character died. For the past couple of weeks, they’ve been doing long retrospectives with cheesy scenes of Timmy from previous episodes. I assumed all of that was just filler, and that he’d be written back in as part of a standard soap opera plot twist. But now I wonder, was this a protracted illness, and he had to be written off the show because of it? That’s really sad, if it’s the case, because it puts all of the scenes of him on his deathbed in a different light. Does anyone on the board know the real story? ---
**Author:** ![LolaCocaCola](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7cd45c/32.png) [@LolaCocaCola](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LolaCocaCola)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2002, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-timmy/122696/4 "2002-08-07T02:11:11Z")
Never watched Passions, but I did catch him on Ally McBeal. ---
**Author:** ![El\_Diablo\_Gringo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/aeb1de/32.png) [@El\_Diablo\_Gringo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Diablo_Gringo)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2002, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-timmy/122696/5 "2002-08-07T02:31:38Z")
Weird timing. Hate to sound callous, but I’ve got this morbid curiosity regarding the old celebrites-dying-in-threes thing. Does anybody know if any other somewhat obscure celebriteis have died recently? Last one I’ve got noted was Rod Steiger on 7/11. ---
**Author:** ![Myrnalene](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c4cdca/32.png) [@Myrnalene](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Myrnalene)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2002, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-timmy/122696/6 "2002-08-07T02:34:08Z")
Rod Steiger…obscure? ☹ ---
**Author:** ![LolaCocaCola](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7cd45c/32.png) [@LolaCocaCola](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LolaCocaCola)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2002, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-timmy/122696/7 "2002-08-07T03:30:58Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by El Diablo Gringo \* > **Hate to sound callous, but I’ve got this morbid curiosity regarding the old celebrites-dying-in-threes thing. Does anybody know if any other somewhat obscure celebriteis have died recently?** Hank the Angry Dwarf ---
**Author:** ![grendel72](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/91b2a8/32.png) [@grendel72](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grendel72)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2002, 5:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-timmy/122696/8 "2002-08-07T05:02:05Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by LolaCocaCola \* > \*\*Hank the Angry Dwarf \*\* Y’know, Mini-Me _really_ needs to watch his back if it’s true these things go in threes. [sub]Sorry.[/sub] ---
**Author:** ![KGS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/90ced4/32.png) [@KGS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KGS)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2002, 5:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-timmy/122696/9 "2002-08-07T05:05:05Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by El Diablo Gringo \* > \*\*Hate to sound callous, but I’ve got this morbid curiosity regarding the old celebrites-dying-in-threes thing. Does anybody know if any other somewhat obscure celebriteis have died recently? Last one I’ve got noted was Rod Steiger on 7/11. \*\* Chick Hearn. Duh. ---
**Author:** ![Tars\_Tarkas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Tars\_Tarkas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tars_Tarkas)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2002, 5:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-timmy/122696/10 "2002-08-07T05:22:01Z")
Gordon from Seasame Street… [http://foxnews.com/story/0,2933,59736,00.html](http://foxnews.com/story/0,2933,59736,00.html) ---
**Author:** ![El\_Diablo\_Gringo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/aeb1de/32.png) [@El\_Diablo\_Gringo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Diablo_Gringo)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2002, 5:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-timmy/122696/11 "2002-08-07T05:51:29Z")
I didn’t mean to suggest that Rod Steiger was obscure, just that there hasn’t been anybody I’ve noticed lately and thought maybe there were other Timmy-caliber celebs that slipped under my radar. Bad phrasing on my part. Chick makes two, so who’s next? And P.S., Hank’s been gone a few months now, hasn’t he? ---
**Author:** ![El\_Diablo\_Gringo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/aeb1de/32.png) [@El\_Diablo\_Gringo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Diablo_Gringo)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2002, 5:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-timmy/122696/12 "2002-08-07T05:57:53Z")
Chick, Timmy and Gordon. Three dead in two days, probably the same 24 hour period. Ranks up there with 3/27 when Milton Berle, Billy Wilder and Dudley Moore died. The Queen’s Mother died three days later. ---
**Author:** ![Rilchiam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2bfe46/32.png) [@Rilchiam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rilchiam)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2002, 10:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-timmy/122696/13 "2002-08-07T10:02:54Z")
Oh my god. First of all, I didn’t know about Gordon until just now. :moment of silence: Amen. Now, as for Joshua Evans, that just sucks. I didn’t watch the show, but I was aware that his career seemed to be on an upswing. People were saying, “He should be in this, he should be in that; he’s another dwarf, but better-looking than Verne Troyer!” How very unfortunate. Did he, in fact, leave **Passions** because of his medical problem? ---
**Author:** ![RexDart](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b77776/32.png) [@RexDart](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RexDart)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2002, 10:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-timmy/122696/14 "2002-08-07T10:59:13Z")
Wow, I missed the character dying, since I only follow that show in a “it comes on after Days” sense. Now that the actor has died, it sort of is quite eerie. Of course, I expect Frances Reid will be appearing off and on until her death, and they’ll probably salute her on the show just like they did for the actor who played Dr. Tom Horton, Sr. when the actor died. Perhaps it’s almost fitting that the show spent a while in tribute to Josh Evans’ character, a nice remembrance for his fans. ---
**Author:** ![Gorgon\_Heap](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/f475e1/32.png) [@Gorgon\_Heap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gorgon_Heap)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2002, 12:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-timmy/122696/15 "2002-08-07T12:01:05Z")
Well you beat me to it. I was going to start a thread called “We Need Another Timmy”. And yes, Passions really is the wackiest. I actually used to watch it a couple years ago, and I always found Timmy to be the most annoying part. ---
**Author:** ![El\_Elvis\_Rojo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/898d66/32.png) [@El\_Elvis\_Rojo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Elvis_Rojo)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2002, 1:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rip-timmy/122696/16 "2002-08-07T13:12:38Z")
Timmy was the reason I watched Passions. I caught one episode about a year and a half ago, and I’ve been hooked because of his character. The rest of the thing is just as shitty as any other soap opera, but the little twist of “the Adventures of a Witch and her Talking Doll” really made it campy fun. I figured his “dying in the hospital” thing would just result in him becomeing a doll again, I never imagined they’d kill the character off…nor that he’d die in real life. It’s a terrible shame, and very creepy.