Harvey Korman dead at 81
This seems to be a very active week for celebrity deaths, and it’s sad to report that Carol Burnett Show veteran Harvey Korman has died at age 81. He died of a ruptured abdominal aneurysm at his UCLA Medical Center.
Besides The Carol Burnett Show, where Korman teamed for a ton of great sketches with Tim Conway (often cracking each other up), Korman appeared in many other shows since the early 60s, including ER, Ellen, Perry Mason, Route 66, The Red Skelton Show, Dennis the Menace, Hazel, Jack Benny, Gidget, The Lucy Show, The Munsters, The Wild, Wild West, F Troop, and many others. He was a regular on the sitcom Mama’s Family and did the voice of The Great Gazoo on The Flintstones. Movies that Korman appeared in include History of the World, Part 1, High Anxiety, The Pink Panther Strikes Again, Blazing Saddles, Son of Flubber, Gypsy, and others.
Do you ever get the feeling that all of the great classic stars and performers are dying and it’s going to be a very different world in a couple of years? Rather depressing.
I’m worried about Jane Doe
So what did you do yesterday? I spent the entire Sunday watching detective movies on The Hallmark Channel. Of course, when I say “detective movies” it sounds like I was watching old film noir flicks from the 40s and 50s. Actually, I was watching Murder, She Wrote, Perry Mason movies, and Matlock.
Yes, I have the social life of a 70 year-old woman.
I’ve always been a sucker for these shows, going back to the NBC Mystery Movie and Columbo and McMillan and Wife. Those shows were probably better produced and written than the stuff you see on Hallmark Channel, but I think the new shows are quite entertaining and fun, and it’s good to see favorite familiar faces on TV again: the McBride movies with John Larroquette, the Murder 101 movies with Dick Van Dyke, and the TV movie series I’d like to talk about, Jane Doe.
To put it simply, I’m worried about Jane Doe.
Jane (Lea Thompson) is a fortysomething suburban housewife with two kids and a hubby (played by William R. Moses of Melrose Place and Falcon Crest) who supposedly works for a puzzle/toy company. She also happens to be a secret spy who helps out agent Frank Darnell (Joe Penny of Riptide) on baffling cases. Her puzzle background helps in that regard. One problem: she has to keep the assignments secret from her husband and kids. Plots like this have always bothered me. What if Jane is killed on assignment? Not only will the family have to deal with the fact that their wife and mother is dead, but she’s been living a secret life for years. That would be crushing.
Anyway, Jane is always getting phone calls and text messages from Frank saying he needs her (if her husband found these text messages he’d probably think she was having an affair, but I digress…), so she’ll make up an excuse about there being some type of emergency at the puzzle company (not sure what type of emergencies puzzle companies have, but I’ll go along with it) or spilling milk “accidentally” so she has to rush out to the grocery store to get more. Oh, by the way, the secret HQ for the Central Security Agency is in the back of the store.
So we have the set-up for a fun series of movies, sort of a Long Kiss Goodnight meets Banacek. But something troubles me. I’ve noticed (in the two movies I’ve watched anyway) that whenever Jane goes out to do a little snooping around, she often goes alone, with no gun. She’ll go into abandoned houses and spooky staircases and deserted office buildings, following the bad guy, and then the bad guy will come up behind her and try to shoot her, and all she can do is run or hide in a closet. Now, as far as I know, Jane is not Jason Bourne, able to kill any bad guys with a rolled up newspaper, and she constantly has to duck bullets and call for backup on her cell phone. This is probably really good for Verizon’s bottom line, but if she carried a gun she wouldn’t get in trouble like this all of the time.
So Jane, I like your movies and I like the plots and I think you’re a very smart, capable women. I just wish you’d either carry a gun or just be a little more careful out there, OK? Thanks.
TV Obits: Burton, Jacobs, Leach, Pizer
A roundup of TV people from in front of the camera and behind the scenes who have passed away.
- Iris Burton: She was a veteran Hollywood agent (and former Broadway/movie dancer) who represented such child stars as River and Joaquin Phoenix, Kirk and Candace Cameron, and Adam Rich. She died of complications from pneumonia and Alzheimer’s. She was 77.
- Seaman Jacobs: He was a veteran television writer who worked on such shows as The Andy Griffith Show, Petticoat Junction, The Love Boat, My Three Sons, F Troop, Diff’rent Strokes, I Dream of Jeannie, The Lucy Show, Here’s Lucy, The Addams Family, Chico and the Man, and many others. He also wrote several specials for Bob Hope. He died of a heart attack at age 96.
- Robert Warnes Leach: He was also a TV writer, working on such early TV shows as Perry Mason, Ripcord, Men Into Space, and The Adventures of Jim Bowie. He was also a journalism and screenwriting teacher. He died at age 93.
- Larry Pizer: He was a cinematographer who worked on many TV movies and miniseries, including I’ll Take Manhattan, Unnatural Causes, and Intimate Strangers, as well as the big screen movies Mannequin 2, Folks!, Phantom of the Paradise. He died at age 82.
- If you missed it, here is our obituary for Monk star Stanley Kamel.
Kathy Ireland Biography
Kathy Ireland was born March 8th, 1963, in Santa Barbara, California. Her adolescence foreshadowed her future busy career as a wife, mother, businesswoman, humanitarian, actress, and model.
A shy teenager, Kathy kept busy with a slew of after-school jobs, including a newspaper courier (she was named Courier of the Year three years in a row), a waitress, a hostess, and a department store saleswoman. Her good nature was evident early on in her career, with her work at a convalescent home.
At the age of 17, Kathy was discovered by an Elite Modeling scout (the beginning of practically every model’s career). By the time she had finished high school, with original hopes of working in education, marine biology, or journalism, she was jet-setting to Europe for photo shoots.
Her modeling career reached its peak after she snagged the highly coveted 1984 cover of Sports Illustrated’s Swimsuit Edition, which only marked the beginning of her relationship with the popular “swimsuit” magazine.
Kathy could be seen on the cover of Sports Illustrated three more times, and has since appeared in the magazine a record-setting thirteen times, including the magazine’s 25th Anniversary Special. Her incredible physique graced the covers of many more magazines throughout her career, including Glamour, Cosmopolitan, Mademoiselle, Shape, Seventeen, and Harper’s Bazaar.
If men couldn’t get enough of Kathy after all her magazine appearances, they could get a daily dose of Kathy in her own annual Swimsuit Calendar (which is one of the highest selling calendars in the world).
In the midst of her illustrious modeling career, Kathy was appearing on the silver screen, the boob tube and on stage. Among her list of film credits reads Mr. Destiny, Necessary Roughness, Robert Altman’s The Player (as herself), Loaded Weapon 1, Amore!, and Backfire!
As for television roles, she appeared in Danger Island, Perry Mason: The Case of the Wicked Wives, Melrose Place, Miami Hustle, and Suddenly Susan. She also starred in the play Three Tall Women
And her career doesn’t end with modeling and acting either. Kathy is the designer of her own line of clothing, the “Kathy Ireland Brand”, promoting style and quality at reasonable prices. Her line has expanded into a women’s swimwear collection, exercise apparel, maternity line, home collections, and even watches, shoes, and handbags.
In her goal to promote fitness, health and well-being, Kathy became a certified fitness instructor in 1994, and has since released her best-selling fitness videos, which include: Kathy Ireland’s Total Fitness, Kathy Ireland’s Body Specifics, and Great Buns in 12 Minutes. Partly fulfilling her journalistic interests, Kathy is a contributing editor to Fitness Magazine.
Kathy has practically had the career of several women combined, with the long list of non-profit organizations she is involved with. She is the Entertainment Industry Foundation’s Ambassador for the National Women’s Cancer Research Alliance, the Honorary Chairperson for the March of Dimes WalkAmerica program, and the National Chairperson of Family Services and Parenting for Athletes and Entertainers for Kids.
She is also active in the Special Olympics, Feed the Children, Casa Julia de Burgos in Puerto Rico (for battered women and children), the Santa Barbara Rescue Mission, Project Inform in San Francisco (disseminates HIV/AIDS treatment information nationwide), among many other charities and important causes.