Dead Celebrity Alert

LOS ANGELES, California (AP) — David Groh, the handsome, hardworking character actor who was best known as the easygoing man Rhoda Morgenstern married and divorced during the run of Valerie Harper’s hit 1970s sitcom “Rhoda,” has died. He was 68.

Groh died Tuesday of kidney cancer in Los Angeles, his sister-in-law Catherine Mullally said Thursday. …

[”Rhoda”] had begun in 1974 as a spinoff from television’s hugely popular “The Mary Tyler Moore Show,” which was set in Minneapolis. …

Groh, who left the series after the divorce episodes, went on to appear in dozens of TV shows and films, as well as on Broadway, over the next 30 years. … 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

Actress Shell Kepler, who for years played the gossipy nurse Amy Vining on the TV soap opera “General Hospital,” died Feb. 1 in Portland, Ore. She was 49. …

In addition to her run on “General Hospital,” she was also in a 1982 Joan Collins film, “Homework,” and a couple of episodes of the situation comedy “Three’s Company.”

On the side, she was a businesswoman, marketing clothing on the former Home Shopping Club. She said in a 1994 Associated Press interview that her “Lacy Afternoon” collection had sales topping $20 million that year alone. … Read full obituary

Dwight Arlington Hemion, a television director and producer best known for his musical specials who won 18 Emmy Awards and was nominated a record 47 times, died Monday at his home in Rectortown, Va. He was 81.

The cause was renal failure, his wife, Kit, said.

In television specials starring Frank Sinatra, Barbra Streisand, Mikhail Baryshnikov and many other world-class performers, Hemion and his partner, producer Gary Smith, captured popular and critical acclaim. …

Starting in the late 1960s, Hemion “defined the music spectacular”…

Other major performers Hemion worked with included Luciano Pavarotti, Neil Diamond and Bette Midler. … Read full obituary

KANSAS CITY, Missouri (AP) — Margaret Truman, the only child of former President Harry S. Truman who became a concert singer, actress, radio and TV personality and mystery writer, died Tuesday. She was 83.

Truman, known as Margaret Truman Daniel in private life, died at a Chicago assisted living facility following a brief illness, according to a statement from the Harry S. Truman Library and Museum in Independence. She had been at the facility for the past several weeks and was on a respirator, the library said.

Her father’s succession to the presidency in 1945 thrust her into the national spotlight while a college junior. …

Her singing career attracted the barbs of music critics — even the embarrassment of having her father threaten one reviewer. …

She published her first book, an autobiography titled “Souvenir,” in 1956. … Read full obituary

TV actor Christopher Allport has been named as the third victim killed by the snowstorms roaring towards Southern California.

Skiing enthusiast Mr Allport, 60, was reported missing after a trio of “freak” avalanches. His body was found near the Mountain High ski resort in Wrightwood.

The veteran character actor had appeared on US shows including ER, Felicity, and Matlock.

He wrote a story that appeared in the Los Angeles Times in 2004 about the pleasures of backcountry skiing. … Read full obituary

Lois Nettleton, an actress whose dramatic and comic dexterity in theater, film and television earned her wide public recognition and deep professional respect for more than a half century, died on Friday in Woodland Hills, Calif. She was 80.

The cause was complications of lung cancer, her friend Dale Olson said.

Ms. Nettleton, who had a soft, almost breathy speaking voice, made an indelible impression in 1973 when she took over the role of Blanche DuBois in a Broadway revival of Tennessee Williams’s “Streetcar Named Desire.” …

Her extensive work in television included the role of Norma in “The Midnight Sun,” a 1961 episode of “The Twilight Zone” about an ever-hotter Earth, which is considered a classic by students of the series. Her many other television roles included appearances on early dramatic shows like “Studio One” and “Armstrong Circle Theater” and more recent ones on popular shows like “Seinfeld” and “Cagney & Lacey.” She also appeared for three years on the daytime drama “General Hospital.”

Her movies began with a bit part on Elia Kazan’s “Face in the Crowd,” and she was one of the last contract players at MGM. …

Ms. Nettleton was divorced from Jean Shepherd, the radio host and author; they met when she called his show. She left no immediate survivors. … Read full obituary

Allan Melvin, a character actor best known for playing Sam the Butcher on “The Brady Bunch,” has died. He was 84.

Melvin died of cancer Thursday at his home in the Brentwood section of Los Angeles, said Amalia Melvin, his wife of 64 years.

The jowly, jovial Melvin spent decades playing a series of sidekicks, second bananas and lovable lugs, including Archie Bunker’s friend Barney Hefner on “All in the Family,” and Sgt. Bilko’s right-hand man Cpl. Henshaw on the “Phil Silvers Show.”

But his place in pop culture will be fixed as butcher and bowler Sam Franklin, the love interest of Brady family maid Alice Nelson, who was played by Ann B. Davis. Melvin played the role from 1970 to 1973. … Read full obituary

Suzanne Pleshette has died.

Her attorney and family friend, Robert Finkelstein, says the husky-voiced actress died of respiratory failure at her home Los Angeles. She was 70.

The star of movies and Broadway found her greatest fame on TV’s long-running “The Bob Newhart Show,” portraying the comic’s witty, sarcastic wife. …

She launched her film career with Jerry Lewis in 1958 in “The Geisha Boy.” She went on to appear in numerous television shows, including “Have Gun, Will Travel,” “Alfred Hitchcock Presents” and “Playhouse 90.” … Read full obituary

Related:
Comedic actor Tom Poston, 85

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Maila Nurmi, whose “Vampira” TV persona pioneered the spooky-yet-sexy Goth aesthetic, has died, coroner’s officials said. She was 85.

Nurmi died Thursday afternoon at her Hollywood home…

Nurmi created her Vampira character — reminiscent of Charles Addams’ spooky New Yorker cartoons — to host horror movie broadcasts on KABC TV in Los Angeles in 1954.

With darkly mascaraed eyes and blood-red lipstick, Nurmi appeared each week in her revealing black dress and slinky fishnets to introduce such films as “Revenge of the Zombies” and “Devil Bat’s Daughter.” …

But Nurmi’s cultural resonance did not translate into long-term wealth. In 1989, she lost a $10 million lawsuit that contended Cassandra Peterson’s late-night horror hostess Elvira pirated her character. …

Among Nurmi’s scattered film appearances following her TV career was a cameo in Ed Wood’s 1959 cult classic, “Plan 9 From Outer Space.” Nurmi was played by Lisa Marie in “Ed Wood,” Tim Burton’s 1994 tribute to the B-movie director. … Read full obituary

LOS ANGELES — Roger M. King, the CBS and King World Productions executive who helped bring stars including Oprah Winfrey, Alex Trebek and Dr. Phil McGraw to television, died Saturday of a stroke, a CBS spokesman said. He was 63.

King was stricken at his home in Boca Raton, Fla., on Friday and died Saturday at a hospital, CBS spokesman Chris Ender told The Associated Press.

At the time of his death King was chief executive officer of CBS Television Distribution. He joined the network in 2000 when his groundbreaking company, King World Productions, merged with CBS. … Read full obituary

Tony Holland, the co-creator of EastEnders and a host of other drama series, has died, aged 67.

Holland, who also devised Eldorado, Angels and District Nurse, passed away in a London hospital after being unwell for some time, the BBC confirmed today.

He devised EastEnders with Julia Smith, his long-term collaborator, who he met on the set of Z Cars in 1971. The soap, set in the fictional London East End borough of Walford, launched on BBC1 screens in February 1985 and remains the network’s biggest-rating weekly show. … Read full obituary

Dick Wilson, the character actor and pitchman who for 21 years played an uptight grocer begging customers “Please, don’t squeeze the Charmin,” died of natural causes Monday in Woodland Hills, Calif. He was 91. …

Wilson made more than 500 commercials as Mr. George Whipple, a man consumed with keeping bubbly housewives from fondling toilet paper. The punch line of most spots was that Whipple himself was a closeted squeezer. … Read full obituary

Delbert Mann, who transformed Paddy Chayefsky’s classic teleplays “Marty” and “The Bachelor Party” into big-screen triumphs and helped bring TV techniques to the film world, died Sunday. He was 87. …

Mann’s 1955 feature version of “Marty” won four Oscars: best picture and director, best actor for Ernest Borgnine and best screenplay for Chayefsky. The low-budget film with mostly little-known actors told the stark, poignant story of Borgnine’s 34-year-old Brooklyn butcher who felt he was too ugly to find love. …

Using techniques he brought from television, Mann took a mere 16 days to shoot the film version of “Marty,” plus an additional three days for retakes. …

He followed “Marty” with 1957’s “The Bachelor Party.” They were some of the first examples of television’s emerging role in Hollywood — not necessarily as a rival medium, but as a synergistic one. …

Mann’s other feature credits include “Desire Under the Elms” (1957), “Separate Tables” (1958), “Middle of the Night” (1959), “The Dark at the Top of the Stairs” (1960), “The Outsider” (1961), “That Touch of Mink” (1962), “A Gathering of Eagles” (1963), “Dear Heart” (1964), “Fitzwilly” (1967), “Kidnapped” (1971), “Night Crossing” (1982) and “Bronte” (1983). … Read full obituary

Joey Bishop, the stone-faced comedian who found success in nightclubs, television and movies but became most famous as a member of Frank Sinatra’s Rat Pack, has died at 89.

He was the group’s last surviving member. Peter Lawford died in 1984, Sammy Davis Jr. in 1990, Dean Martin in 1995, and Sinatra in 1998.

Bishop died Wednesday night of multiple causes at his home in Newport Beach, publicist and longtime friend Warren Cowan said Thursday.

The Rat Pack — originally a social group surrounding Humphrey Bogart — became a show business sensation in the early 1960s, appearing at the Sands Hotel in Las Vegas in shows that combined music and comedy in a seemingly chaotic manner.

Reviewers often claimed that Bishop played a minor role, but Sinatra knew otherwise. He termed the comedian “the Hub of the Big Wheel,” with Bishop coming up with some of the best one-liners and beginning many jokes with his favorite phrase, “Son of a gun!” … Read full obituary