Dead Celebrity Alert

Radio host and one-time Johnny Carson talk show rival Les Crane, who found later success as a software developer and publisher, has died at the age of 74.

Crane died Sunday of natural causes at a hospital north of San Francisco, according to his daughter, Caprice.

The New York-born Crane rose to fame in the 1960s as a late-night radio talk show host. For a time, he also hosted a TV talk show that rivaled The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. …

In 1964, he welcomed the Rolling Stones for the band’s first U.S. TV appearance and, the following year, had a rare TV visit from Bob Dylan. However, his guest list also included notable figures of the day such as civil rights leader Malcolm X and pro-segregation former Alabama governor and one-time presidential candidate George Wallace. … Read full obituary

ALLENTOWN, Pennsylvania (AP) — Comedian Kenneth Keith Kallenbach, a long-running member of Howard Stern’s “Wack Pack,” has died after falling ill in jail. He was 39.

Kallenbach contracted pneumonia while in custody on a charge of attempted child abduction. He died Thursday at Riddle Memorial Hospital near Media, his mother, Fay Kallenbach, said Friday. …

Kallenbach, whose goofball antics included attempting to blow smoke from his eyes, made dozens of appearances on Stern’s show beginning in 1990. While Kallenbach appeared on the show less frequently in recent years, his name was well-known to Stern fans. … Read full obituary

Actor, writer and musician Gordon Clyde was known to radio listeners for his satircal and topical piano and song spots on BBC Radio 4’s Start the Week and Woman’s Hour. He also had his own weekly show on the BBC World Service.

Television viewers knew him best as the interviewer on the long running Dick Emery Show and throughout the 1960s he was one of Play School’s most popular childrens presenters. …

He later became involved with corporate presentations and his other television appearances included The Morecambe and Wise Show, No Hiding Place, and Are You Being Served?

During his career he wrote for many comedians such as Ronnie Corbett, Phil Silvers, Harry Secombe and Joan Turner. …

Gordon Clyde, actor, writer and musician, was born on May 22, 1933. He died on January 26, 2008, aged 75 … Read full obituary

LONDON, England (AP) — Actor Barry Morse, who played a detective pursuing the wrongly accused Dr. Richard Kimble in 1960s TV series “The Fugitive,” has died, his son said Tuesday. He was 89. …

Born in London in 1918, Morse trained at London’s Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and appeared in British repertory and West End theaters before emigrating in 1951 to Canada, where he became a regular on radio and television.

The actor’s Web site estimated he played more than 3,000 roles on radio, TV, stage and screen over a seven-decade career. … Read full obituary

PAOLI, Pa. (AP) Veteran Philadelphia broadcaster Hy Lit, whose career as a rock deejay on the city’s airwaves spanned half a century, died Saturday. He was 73. … Read full obituary

Whether as a television beast or a radio shock-jock, Stan Zemanek was a professional stirrer.

The Sydney broadcaster, who died today aged 60 of a brain tumour, wore political incorrectness like a badge of honour and bragged about being radio’s most complained-about personality.

He described some of his talkback callers as “numb nuts”, “half-wits” and “left-wing loonies”, told others to “give yourself an uppercut” and asked those who sounded slow if they were smoking “wacky-tobaccy”. …

Zemanek’s red-neck style was not everyone’s cup of tea, least of all Melburnians and even some of his fellow broadcasters. …

His official website describes him as “the broadcaster people love to hate”. … Read full obituary

March 27, 2007 — Jerry Girard, a sports broadcaster for WPIX-TV in New York from 1974 to 1995, died Sunday in Hawthorne, N.Y. He was 74.

He died of esophageal cancer at Westchester Medical Center, his family said. …

He was a disc jockey in Myrtle Beach, S.C.; Gary, Ind.; and Altoona, Pa., before returning to New York as a record librarian at WNEW radio. He moved to WPIX as a news writer before becoming the station’s sports voice. … Read full obituary

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Screenwriter and author Ted Berkman, whose film credits include “Bedtime for Bonzo” and “Fear Strikes Out,” has died. He was 92.

Berkman died May 12 of cancer in Santa Barbara, said his nephew, Joel Blau.

Berkman worked as a photo assignment editor at the New York Mirror, Middle East chief of the Foreign Broadcast Intelligence Service and as an ABC radio correspondent in the Middle East.

In 1962, he wrote “Cast a Giant Shadow: The Story of Mickey Marcus, Who Died to Save Jerusalem,” a best-selling biography of the West Point graduate who was a military adviser to Israel during the 1948 War of Independence. Kirk Douglas starred in a 1966 film based on the book. … Read full obituary

Al Lewis, the cigar-chomping patriarch of “The Munsters” whose work as a basketball scout, restaurateur and political candidate never eclipsed his role as Grandpa from the television sitcom, died after years of failing health. He was 95.

Lewis, with his wife at his bedside, passed away Friday night, said Bernard White, program director at WBAI-FM, where the actor hosted a weekly radio program. …

Lewis, sporting a somewhat cheesy Dracula outfit, became a pop culture icon playing the irascible father-in-law to Fred Gwynne’s ever-bumbling Herman Munster on the 1964-66 television show. He was also one of the stars of another classic TV comedy, playing Officer Leo Schnauzer on “Car 54, Where Are You?”

But Lewis’ life off the small screen ranged far beyond his acting antics. …

He operated a successful Greenwich Village restaurant, Grandpa’s..

Just two years short of his 90th birthday, a ponytailed Lewis ran as the Green Party candidate against incumbent Gov. George Pataki. Lewis campaigned against draconian drug laws and the death penalty, while going to court in a losing battle to have his name appear on the ballot as “Grandpa Al Lewis.” …

He also popped up in a number of movies…

But in 2003, Lewis was hospitalized for an angioplasty. … A year later, he was back offering his recollections of a seminal punk band on the DVD “Ramones Raw.” … Read full obituary

WASHINGTON — Neil Strawser, who anchored CBS News radio coverage of President Kennedy`s assassination, died Saturday. He was 78.

For 34 years, Strawser worked in Washington as a CBS News radio and television reporter. He anchored CBS Radio for four straight days after Kennedy`s assassination in 1963.

He left journalism in 1986 to serve as a Democratic spokesman for the House Budget Committee. … Read full obituary

Raymond “Cowboy Ray” Hofstatter, a recurring character on “Mancow’s Morning Madhouse” radio show, died Tuesday night as a result of lingering injuries from a hit-and-run auto accident last fall, WGN-Ch. 9 reported.

The 45-year-old Hofstatter had just left the Bohica Bar & Grill, 5518 S. Archer Ave. on Chicago’s Southwest Side, and was crossing the street the early morning of Nov. 20 when he was hit. Three friends with him at the time were not hurt.

The impact threw Hofstatter 20 feet. … Read full obituary

Avril Angers, who has died aged 87, was a comedian, actor, singer and star of radio, theatre — and pantomime. On television she had a career that spanned six decades, beginning in the postwar period with Terry-Thomas, taking in such shows as Coronation Street and Dad’s Army along the way, and ending in the 1990s with Common As Muck and All Creatures Great and Small. A onetime Tiller Girl, Angers had a particular talent for playing beguiling but slightly wacky heroines and she could switch from below-stairs earthiness to instant glamour with ease. … Read full obituary

Avril Angers, who has died aged 87, was a comedian, actor, singer and star of radio, theatre — and pantomime. On television she had a career that spanned six decades, beginning in the postwar period with Terry-Thomas, taking in such shows as Coronation Street and Dad’s Army along the way, and ending in the 1990s with Common As Muck and All Creatures Great and Small. A onetime Tiller Girl, Angers had a particular talent for playing beguiling but slightly wacky heroines and she could switch from below-stairs earthiness to instant glamour with ease.

Born in Liverpool, the daughter of the Liverpool comedian Harry Angers and of Lilian Errol, one of the original Fol de Rols concert party, Angers went to various schools in England and Australia, and first appeared on the boards in 1936 in the chorus of a show on Palace Pier, Brighton. That same year she made her first big impression when she appeared at the Alexandra Theatre, Birmingham, with the tiny comedian Wee Georgie Wood and the great Dame, Clarkson Rose, in the title role of Cinderella. … Read full obituary