Sadness

[filkertom]

We lost two today. Actor, comedian, and comedy writer Pat McCormick passed away after a long illness at the age of 78. You probably remember him best as Big Enos in the Smokey and the Bandit films. Among others, he wrote for Johnny Carson, Danny Kaye, and Mel Brooks' series Get Smart! Here's his IMDB listing.

Another farewell, to Robert Wright, at the age of 90. Wright and his collaborator for seventy years, George "Chet" Forest, composed over 2,000 songs and won numerous Tony nominations and awards for scores such as Kismet and Grand Hotel. Here are his IMDB and IBDB pages.

Comments

[drzarron.livejournal.com]

Very sorry to hear about McCormick, he was a stitch. Way back, one of the cable stations did a series "Fairy Tale Theater", some amazing retelling of famous fairy tales with big name stars. He wrote for many of them and acted in at least one.. "The Princess and the Pea" with Beatrice Straight, Liza Minelli and a franantic Tom Conti. He was the VERY odd King who would interject random pronouncements like "From This Day Forth, All men of the kingdom named Richard, will henceforth be known as "Buddy"" Cracked me up.

[faxpaladin.livejournal.com]

I work with a bunch of young 'uns (I'm only 38, dammit, I shouldn't be using that phrase already!) who asked, "Who's Pat McCormick?" Oh, dear... how do you explain him to someone who's too young to know, other than simply, "He was this really, really weird guy, and I liked him"?

[indyellen.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry about McCormick, but I'm REALLY sorry about Wright. I was in a production of Kismet and it remains one of my favorite musicals to this day...and most people haven't even ever heard of it.

Bummer.