| The Classic Hollywood Squares Site Squares in Memoriam: 2010 At the end of the year, I usually erase most of the obits I posted within the last year. But in 2006 I had so many I chose to keep them. 2010 turned out to be another sad, banner year for Squares we lost along the way, so I've created this page to remember the some two and a half dozen Squares we lost during the year. Marcia Lewis 1938-2010 Marcia Lewis, actress who reached her heights in two Broadway revivals in the 1990s, died December 21, 2010 of cancer in Nashville. She was 72. Born in Melrose, Massachussetts, and raised in Cincinnati, Lewis actually started out as a registered nurse. She eventually made her Broadway debut in "Hello Dolly!" alongside Ethel Merman. Legend has it Merman told Lewis, "You and I will never have to worry about reaching the balcony!" in reference to the loud, brassy voices of both. Lewis also appeared in "The Time of Your Life" in the 1960s. On television, she guested on numerous shows such as The Bob Newhart Show, The Bionic Woman, Happy Days and Kate & Allie, and was actually a regular on two short-lived series, NBC's Who's Watching the Kids (1978-79) and ABC's Goodtime Girls (1980). But her first love was Broadway and she netted Tony nominations for her roles in the revivals of "Grease" and "Chicago." Marcia Lewis (who actually added Bryan to her stage name in later years) appeared once in the NBC daytime version of The Hollywood Squares, apparently to plug Who's Watching the Kids? She mentioned The Hollywood Squares on her own resume. Steve Landesberg 1936?-2010 Peter Marshall: Why should you brush your zipper with an eraser? Steve Landesberg: Because it feels so good! Steve Landesberg, standup comedian who often specialized in accents but who was best remembered as the soft-spoken, intellectual Lt. Dietrich on Barney Miller, died December 20th after a long bout with cancer. Varying sources list his age as being 74 to 65, but the LA Times bases its 1936 estimate on public records. Born in New York City, Landesberg was a standup comedian who worked a number of clubs before making his TV debut in what he himself termed a "disastrous" appearance with an improv troupe on The Ed Sullivan Show. "We bombed, we just died," he recalled years later on one of his many more successful appearances on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. His appearances there, and on The Dean Martin Show, led to his first regular role in a series, the short-lived CBS sitcom Paul Sand in Friends in Lovers (1974-75), then guest appearances on shows like The Rockford Files before he landed his role of a lifetime: Lt. Arthur Dietrich on the ABC sitcom Barney Miller. He started off as a semi-regular before becoming a full time regular in 1978. Barney Miller was unusual in that it was videotaped on a soundstage and took place almost entirely in the detective room of the NYPD's fictional 12th precinct. Many real life cops said this actually made the show more realistic. The officers dealt with various residents who came in and out of the squad room either as complainants or suspects, and Dietrich was the know-it-all who seemed to know a little about everything. In one surprisingly dramatic episode, however, Dietrich has to use his firearm in the line of duty and threatens to quit, taking it as a personal failure. As Capt. Miller berates him for his attitude, we find out Dietrich had a long string of other jobs before he became a cop. After Barney Miller ended voluntarily in 1982, Landesberg made a number of appearances in movies and on TV. His intellectual image got him cast as doctors often--in three episodes of The Golden Girls, on the Starz cable series Head Case (2007-09), and in the 2009 movie "Forgetting Sarah Marshall." Landesberg also did a lot of TV commercial and voiceover work (most recently on American Dad), and guested on series such as Law & Order, Everybody Hates Chris, That 70s Show, and The Ghost Whisperer and appeared as an accountant in the movie "Wild Hogs." Landesberg appeared on the Marshall Hollywood Squares a number of times in the 1978-79 time frame. When the Barney Miller cast took over most of the grid one week on NBC, Landesberg shared a square with fellow cast member Ron Carey. Leslie Neilsen 1926-2010 The curtain has fallen on a show biz career that included one of the greatest--and funniest--second acts in history. Leslie Neilsen died November 28 at a hospital in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, of pneumonia while trying to recover from a staph infection. He was 84. Born in February 1926 in Regina, Saskatchewan, Neilsen was raised in the Northwest Terroritories by a strict set of parents that included his father, a Mountie. Neilsen studied acting at the Academy of Radio Arts in Toronto before moving to New York to the Neighborhood Playhouse. Neilsen made his television debut on Studio One and appeared in numerous other live TV shows like The Philco-Goodyear Playhouse, Lights Out and Suspense. In 1956 he was cast in his breakthrough film role, in the sci-fi classic "Forbidden Planet," and appeared in such films as "Tammy and the Bachelor" and as the captain in "The Poseidon Adventure." But mostly he took character actor work in shows like Rawhide, The Untouchables, The Man From U.N.C.L.E., and M*A*S*H, was a semi-regular on Peyton Place and "The Swamp Fox" segments of The Wonderful World of Disney, and often played the heavy but always played the serious guy. At a time when his work was declining, that suddenly all changed. The Zuckers-Abrams-Zucker team hired him, along with such other reputedly "serious" actors as Peter Graves, for the 1980 comedy classic "Airplane." The disaster movie spoof found Neilsen as a bumbling doctor uttering such now-classic lines as "Stop calling me Shirley" as if they were the most serious things he ever said, and it reinvented him as a comic genius. Neilsen starred in the six episode 1982 ABC series Police Squad! from the same producers, again getting such now-classic lines as "We would've been here earlier but your husband wasn't dead then." His character, Lieutenant Frank Drebin, was later brought back in the series of "Naked Gun" movies that did very well at the box office. (Ironically, "Naked Gun 2 1/2: The Smell of Fear" was playing on cable TV the weekend of his death.) Neilsen appeared on the Marshall Hollywood Squares during its one Vegas season...just one stop on a highly underrated game show resume. The Game Shows of Leslie Neilsen All Star Secrets Beat the Clock Celebrity Bowling Celebrity Jeopardy! Celebrity Sweepstakes Crosswits Don Adams' Screen Test Game Show Marathon The Hollywood Squares (Marshall & Davidson) The Joke's on Us Make Me Laugh Match Game The Movie Game The Object Is Password All Stars Showoffs Tattletales Wordplay Your First Impression James MacArthur 1937-2010 James MacAthur, a member of an acting family who is best remembered as the second-in-command of the elite Hawaii state investigators, died October 28 in Jacksonville, Florida, at the Mayo Clinic. He was 72. Born in Los Angeles, California, MacArthur was adopted by playwright Charles Macarthur and actress Helen Hayes. The phrase "First Lady of the American Theatre" was actually coined for Miss Hayes, so MacArthur had adopted into arts royalty. His acting debut came as a child in a 1948 production of radio's Theatre Guild of the Air, co-starring his mother. MacArthur did a lot of stage work, both as an actor and even a stage electrician before getting his big break in Broadway's "Life With Father." MacArthur appeared in the television play "Deal a Blow," (on Climax!) and in the movie version "The Young Stranger," and that led to a number of supporting roles in the movies ("Kidnapped," "Smith Family Robinson," "Hang 'Em High") and guest roles on TV (Wagon Train, Twelve O'Clock High, Gunsmoke, The Alfred Hitchcock Hour). His role in "Hang 'Em High" led him in 1968 to be cast as Dan Williams, the subject of Jack Lord's catch phrase "Book 'em, Dan-O!" in the long running CBS crime drama Hawaii Five-0. The legendary series was television's longest running crime drama (until Law & Order) and MacArthur stayed with his signature role until he departed at the end of the series' eleventh (and next to last) season in 1979. He would later appear in an unsold pilot for a 1997 remake, and at the time of his death was in negotiations to appear on the 2010 remake. After leaving Five-0, MacArthur continued to tour in theatrical productions and guest starred on series like The Love Boat and Murder, She Wrote. He also appeared on the Marshall Hollywood Squares in the late 1970s, and his other game show appearances included It Takes Two, The Movie Game, All Star Secrets and the ABC version of Password. In fact, the first of MacArthur's three wives was another game show mainstay, Joyce Bulifant. Tom Bosley 1927-2010 Tom Bosley, whose long resume took him from Broadway to telvision but is best remembered for being Mr. C, the Milwaukee hardware store owner, died Tuesday, October 19, at age 83. Bosley died from heart failure and had been fighting lung cancer. Born in Chicago in 1927, Bosley served in the Navy and attended DePaul University. His fondness for acting led him to Chicago area radio dramas, a genre he'd revisit even in the 1970s as host of the General Mills Radio Adventure Theater. Bosley next made his mark on Broadway. He won a Tony award for the title role in the musical "Fiorello!" which depicted colorful 1930s-40s New York Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia. But further Broadway success eluded him for the time being, so Bosley moved to Hollywood in 1968. He scored regular or semi-regular roles on TV series like The Dean Martin Show and The Debbie Reynolds Show, guest starred on classic TV series like Bonanza, Bewitched, Car 54 Where Are You, and Get Smart, and appeared in a handful of movies like "Divorce American Style." He even voiced the dad in the Hanna-Barbera cartoon Wait 'Til Your Father Gets Home. But Bosley almost turned down the role that immortalized him, that of Howard Cunningham, the father of Richie, Joanie in Chuck in the long running hit sitcom Happy Days. The show premiered on ABC in January 1974 and became the first ABC sitcom to ever finish as #1 for the season in the Neilsen ratings. Bosley's character ran a hardware store in 1950s Milwaukee and was also landlord to "cool" leather-jacketed Fonzie, who lived in his upstairs garage apartment and who affectionately called him "Mr. C." Years later, when TV Guide magazine listed its greatest TV fathers of all time, the understanding Howard Cunningham placed at number nine on the list. After Happy Days ended in 1984, Bosley's career did anything but that. He had a recurring role as the sheriff on Murder, She Wrote and played the title role in Father Dowling Mysteries for two years. In the 1990s Bosley even made a triumphant return to Broadway in an adaption of the Disney film "Beauty and the Beast," and played Captain Andy in a road version of "Show Boat." He also played Mimi's father on The Drew Carey Show; his former Happy Days wife, Marion Ross, played Drew's mother. Like a large percentage of the Happy Days cast, Tom Bosley appeared on the Marshall Hollywood Squares while both series were still in production. He appeared in 1977 and 1979. Kevin McCarthy 1914-2010 Kevin McCarthy, well known character actor and one of the few Squares your webmaster actually met, has died of unknown causes at age 96. McCarthy died September 11 at a hospital in Cape Cod, Massachusetts. Born in Seattle the day after Valentine's Day 1914, McCarthy found imself orphaned at age 5, when a flu epidemic took both of his parents. His early life found him living with his grandparents and other relatives and in various foster homes. A friend talked him into trying out for the play "Henry IV, Part 1," and that's when he said the acting bug bit him. McCarthy's film debut came in 1951 when he re-created his Broadway role as Biff Loman (Willy's son) in the movie version of "Death of a Salesman." He received a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination for that film. But he's best known as the star of one of the greatest science fiction films ever: "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" (1956). The story of the behavior-changing alien pods did poorly at the box office on initial release, but critics often felt the movie had a dark political message under the surface and that may have helped make it a cult favorite. It was McCarthy who uttered the famous cry, "They're already here! You're next!" and that reportedly was supposed to be the final shot of the movie until a film executive intervened. "Body Snatchers" would be remade multiple times, including a 1978 Donald Sutherland version in which McCarthy made a cameo, and a 1997 version with Nicole Kidman. McCarthy also appeared in numerous other films and TV shows: movies like "The Howling," "Innerspace," "Twilight Zone: the Movie" and as Marilyn Monroe's estranged husband in her last film, "The Misfits," and classic TV shows like the original Twilight Zone, Ben Casey, The Rifleman, The Love Boat, Fantasy Island, Dynasty, Matlock and Murder She Wrote. He also appeared as a regular in two TV series: 1969's The Survivors, and the 1980s prime time soap Flamingo Road. He even did radio, more than two dozen appearances on The CBS Radio Mystery Theater, and acted and appeared at nostalgia shows right up to the very end. I wish I had more to tell you about my one time meeting him, but he was signing autographs assembly line style at a Baltimore nostalgia convention in 1998 and I paid to get his autograph. It wasn't lost on me that his line was one of the longest of the celebrities who were on hand. McCarthy appeared on the Marshall Hollywood Squares in 1969, apparently to promote The Survivors. Other game show credits include What's My Line? and Tattletales. Jimmy Dean 1928-2010 Jimmy Dean, singer, TV entertainer and sausage king. has died at age 81. Dean was found dead by his wife, as he sat in front of his television set June 13th in Virginia. Dean was born (in 1928) and raised in Plainview, Texas, in poverty. Dean served in the Air Force in the 1940s before breaking into music with his band, the Texas Wildcats. Future star Roy Clark was its lead guitarist. Dean saw his music and television career take off at the same time: on Washington, D.C. area local TV he hosted Town and Country Time, which led to the daytime Jimmy Dean Show on CBS in 1957. Dean was informed before one broadcast that the network was cancelling the show, resulting in Dean giving an on-air rant and demanding his viewers send in soap wrappers to the network in protest. (Shokus Video actually offers that broadcast on DVD from its archives.) That didn't stop the show from going off the air two months later, but it didn't end Dean's television career, either. In 1961 Dean hit the bigtime musically with "Big Bad John," a classic that top Billboard's country and Top 40 charts. Other hits included "P.T. 109," "The First Thing Ev'ry Morning and the Last Thing Ev'ry Night" (another #1), and "I.O.U." He also guested on a number of variety shows, including The Ed Sullivan Show, The Hollywood Palace and The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson (in fact he was Johnny's first-ever guest host). He also got his own prime time show on ABC, The Jimmy Dean Show, whose regulars included pioneering Muppet Rowlf the Dog. Movie roles included a supporting role as a Howard Hughes type millionaire in the 1971 James Bond film "Diamonds are Forever." Dean appeared on the Marshall Hollywood Squares for a week in August 1971. Other game show appearances include I've Got a Secret, Missing Links and Letters to Laugh-In. Rue McClanahan 1934-2010 Years ago, I was watching a Blue's Clues video with my children ("Blue's Big Treasure Hunt," according to the IMDB) when the host, Steve Burns, made a big deal out of the fact his Grandma was coming to visit. When she finally appeared, I smiled, recognizing the woman my children would know as Steve's Grandma as Blanche/Vivian herself, Rue McClanahan. The actress known and loved as one of The Golden Girls has died at age 76. She died of a stroke in New York City June 3, while she was trying to recover from bypass surgery. Born in Oklahoma in 1934, McClanahan went to the University of Oklahoma, where she graduated with honors with a drama degree. She took a four week scholarship at a playhouse in Pasedena, California, where she played Blanche in "A Streetcar Named Desire." (Years later, Blanche DuBois and Scarlett O'Hara would be the inspirations for her Golden Girls character.) McClanahan appeared on and off Broadway in plays like "MacBird!","Jimmy Shine" and "Who's Happy Now?", the latter winning her an Obie. Along the way she guest starred on TV's Burke's Law and appeared in the daytime soaps Another World and Love of Life. She also appeared in B-movies like her favorite, "They Might Be Giants." It was groundbreaking television producer Norman Lear who provided her big break, offering her a guest shot in a now-classic 1972 episode of All in the Family. McClanahan played one half of a swinging couple who show up at the Bunkers expecting to swap partners with Archie and Edith (a plot device that had never, ever been remotely considered for a U.S. sitcom up to that time). Her performance in that episode led to an appearance on another Lear sitcom on CBS, Maude, where what was intended as another guest appearance turned into a regular role as Maude's best friend, the naive, old-fashioned Vivian Blaine. In one episode she goes on a date with her future husband, only to flee to Maude's house when he aggressively tore her clothing. After Maude, McClanahan made guest appearances on shows like The Love Boat, Here's Boomer, Lou Grant and (as George the Handyman's romantic interest) Newhart, and appeared as a regular in the short-lived series Apple Pie and played Aunt Fran on Mama's Family before it left NBC to go into first run syndication. From there she went to what would be her role of a lifetime: Blanche Devereaux, the fading, promiscuous Southern belle on the classic NBC series The Golden Girls. In one episode she made a date at her husband's funeral. She once joked that there was a "big difference" between herself and her character: “Well, Blanche was an oversexed, self-involved, man-crazy, vain Southern belle from Atlanta — and I’m not from Atlanta.” The Golden Girls drew heavy critical acclaim and was a runaway hit for NBC, standing out amid a lineup full of critically acclaimed runaway hits like The Cosby Show and Hill Street Blues. One of the reasons the show is still heavily loved even now in reruns is the chemistry of its stellar cast and Rue McClanahan could very well have been the key to it: she had previously worked alongside Bea Arthur in Maude and Betty White in Mama's Family, so the chemistry was there from day one. All three actresses plus Estelle Getty each won Emmys for the show, giving it a rare distinction of having the entire cast each win an Emmy. After The Golden Girls ended its seven year run in 1992, McClanahan did the one year spinoff, The Golden Palace (minus Arthur), appeared in movies like "Out to Sea" and Broadway productions like "Wicked." Off camera she campaigned for animal rights and breast cancer awareness, having survived that disease herself. As recently as 2009 she guest starred on Law & Order and Tyler Perry's Meet the Browns. While she was still playing Vivian on Maude, Rue McClanahan appeared a couple of times on the Marshall Hollywood Squares, both daytime and nighttime versions, in the 1976-77 time frame. The Game Shows of Rue McClanahan All-Star Secrets Break the Bank (ABC daytime) Cross-Wits ('70s) The Hollywood Squares (Marshall) Liars Club Password All-Stars The $20/25,000 Pyramid Rhyme & Reason Tattletales 3rd Degree Win, Lose or Draw Art Linkletter 1912-2010 One of the busiest men in radio and television history, Art Linkletter, died May 26th at his home in Bel-Air, California. He was 97. Family members chalked his death up to old age, noting he'd been ill for a few weeks and hadn't been eating much. Born Arthur Gordon in Saskatchewan, Canada in 1912, Linkletter was given up for adoption when he was seven. His new family settled in San Diego, California. Linkletter took odd jobs to help the family and even led the life of a hobo at one point, but attended college in San Diego and graduated in 1934. However, he had worked part time in radio during his college years, beginning one of the longest broadcast careers in history. Linkletter married his wife Lois in 1935, and they stayed married until his death. It's said to be the longest marriage in the history of Hollywood. Linkletter held various radio jobs. A historical marker at the corner of Hollywood and Vine in Los Angeles, suggests Linkletter did "man on the street" interviews on that site and made the street corner popular, but old time radio enthusiasts can't independently confirm that. Linkletter did, however, star in the radio series People are Funny and House Party. Both later switched to television: House Party coming to CBS-TV in 1952, the stunt-oriented People arriving at NBC-TV in 1954. At various times he also hosted talk shows and Hollywood Talent Scouts, and at one point starred in five TV series at once, a record still standing to this day. Linkletter even acted, in movies like 1950's "Champagne for Caesar" and on TV series including General Electric Theater, Zane Grey Theater and Wagon Train. He appeared as himself in The Bob Cummings Show, The Red Skelton Show, Batman, Here's Lucy and The Dean Martin Show. He hosted numerous other specials as well, largely for CBS, including the inaugural ceremonies opening CBS Television City in 1952. Fifty years later he introduced a clip of himself from that special when Television City celebrated its golden anniversary in yet another special. Children were Linkletter's best remembered claim to fame. A segment on House Party called "Kids Say the Darndest Things," was a smash hit, with children candidly discussing their home lives in often hilarious detail. Clips of the funny children became a successful comedy album, and their quotes became one of the best selling non-fiction books in history, both bearing the name "Kids Say the Darndest Things." Bill Cosby turned the idea into a free standing series in the 1990s with moderate success; Linkletter actually had a regular spot on the Cosby version, introducing House Party clips of the original baby boomer era children. How sad and ironic the man who brought so much laughter to us through children, lived to bury three of his own. His daughter, Diane, lept to her death out of an apartment window in 1969, the time Linkletter left his House Party series for good. Linkletter blamed drugs for his daughter's death, specifically LSD, and became a fierce anti-drug advocate, even being appointed by President Nixon to a special committee. (This is despite the fact her death was not believed to be drug-related by investigators.) Linkletter lost two other children, including Robert to a 1981 car accident, and Jack, himself a TV personality, in 2007 to cancer, age 70. Still, Linkletter continued doing charity work, writing numerous books and making personal appearances, even being interviewed on Larry King Live as recently as 2005. Linkletter, who appeared on numerous game shows (no stranger to them, obviously), appeared multiple times on The Hollywood Squares between 1967 and 1974. The Game Shows of Art Linkletter Host: People are Funny Guest/Panelist: About Faces The Celebrity Game The Hollywood Squares It Takes Two I've Got a Secret Stump the Stars What's My Line? You Bet Your Life Lynn Redgrave 1943-2010 Actress Lynn Redgrave, a distinguished member of an acting family who was nominated for two Oscars and won two Golden Globes, died Sunday, May 2 at age 67. She died with her family at her side, following a seven year battle with breast cancer. Her death followed that of her brother Corin a month earlier and of her niece, actress Natasha Richardson. Born in London in 1943, she would later describe a difficult relationship with her father, actor Michael Redgrave, years later in a one woman show entitled "Shakespeare for My Father." She recalled her older siblings were already immersed in acting, courtesy her father. She made her theatrical debut in a production of "A Midsummer Night's Dream" in 1962, and was invited by Sir Lawrence Olivier to join Britain's National Theatre. Her film debut came in 1963's Best Picture winner, "Tom Jones," then went on to get her own Oscar nomination as the title character in the 1966 film "Georgy Girl." She went on to appear in films like "Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex (But Were Afraid to Ask)" and "The Happy Hooker," and received a Tony nomination for the play "Mrs. Warren's Profession." Redgrave landed a CBS sitcom, House Calls, in 1979, a medical show opposite Wayne Rogers. (It was adapted from a movie in which Glenda Jackson played her original role.) She left the show in 1981 amid a lot of acrimony that led to a lawsuit. She alleged she had been fired for wanting to breast feed her baby on the set. The suit was settled in 1987. Redgrave said the fallout from leaving House Calls hurt her efforts to get work so she found herself guest starring on shows like The Love Boat and Hotel and was the spokesperson for Weight Watchers for several years. Her big comeback began in 1996 when she played opposite Geoffrey Rush in the Oscar nominated "Shine," and she eventually earned a great deal of acclaim for other movies like "Gods and Monsters." She kept active in the stage until the very end and co-authored a book about her struggle with breast cancer, with her daughter. Lynn Redgrave appeared on the Marshall Hollywood Squares several times between 1974 and '76, then one more time in 1979 when she landed the role on House Calls. The Game Shows of Lynn Redgrave: All-Star Secrets Battlestars Celebrity Sweepstakes Family Feud Go! The Hollywood Squares (Marshall & Davidson) I've Got a Secret Match Game '7x/PM Password Password Plus Personality Pyramid ($10K, $20K, $25K, $50K, Davidson $100K) Shoot for the Stars Showoffs Tattletales ('70s and '80s) Triple Threat 3rd Degree To Tell the Truth (Moore and Ward) What's My Line? Win, Lose or Draw Peter & Laurie Marshall...Newlyweds Even though they've been married for 20 years, Peter Marshall and his wife Laurie will soon be contestants on The Newlywed Game. Bob Eubanks will return for a one shot appearance on the current day GSN version of the show (usually hosted by Carnie Wilson), this time featuring three former game show hosts. Joining the Marshalls will be Wink and Sandy Martindale (married 34 years), and Monty and Marilyn Hall (married 63 years). The show will air May 18th at 6 p.m. EST/PST with encore showing at 9 p.m. EST/PST. Peter Haskell 1934-2010 Journeyman actor Peter Haskell, best remembered for numerous guest appearances on TV shows and two daytime dramas, died April 12 at age 75. His daughter made the death public but a cause of death was not given. The son of scientist Normal Haskell, Peter Haskell was born in Boston in 1934. He served for two years in the Army in the mid 1950s, then got a bachelor of arts degree from Harvard. His appearance in a short-lived play, "The Love Nest," led to his first TV appearance, a guest shot on Death Valley Days. That started a long career of TV guest shots from the original 1960s version of The Outer Limits to the final episode of ER in 2009. Other guest shots included The Man from U.N.C.L.E., The Fugitive, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Mannix, Hawaii Five-O, MacGyver, Hunter, Jake and the Fatman, JAG, Cold Case and Frasier. He had recurring roles on shows like The Big Valley, Barnaby Jones and Vega$. He had a few regular roles: the prime time drama Bracken's World in 1969-70 and the daytime dramas Ryan's Hope and Search for Tomorrow. He also appeared in several TV movies. He even hosted a game show at one point, 50 Grand Slam in 1975. Peter Haskell occupied a square on The Hollywood Squares in 1970, while he was appearing in Bracken's World. Other game show appearances included Stump the Stars, It's Your Bet and the 1970s remake of You Don't Say. John Forsythe 1918-2010 John Forsythe, an actor with a very long career and a most distinctive voice, died Thursday, April 1, after a lengthy bout with cancer. He was 92. Born in New Jersey, his father, a Wall Street businessman, didn't want Forsythe to go into acting, but he did anyway. After graduating from Abrahama Lincoln High School in Brooklyn, New York, Forsythe worked in radio, especially soap operas. He appeared on Broadway in plays like "Yankee Point" "Winged Victory" and "Yellow Jack," and in movies going back to 1943's "Destination Tokyo" and including the 1956 Alfred Hitchcock dark comedy, "The Trouble With Harry." He guest starred on shows like Playhouse 90, Studio One, and Zane Grey Theatre before he landed his first major TV role: Dr. Bentley Gregg on the classic sitcom Bachelor Father. In one episode a young Linda Evans plays a teen with a crush on the doctor. Forsythe continued to appear on TV shows and movies, including such classics as "In Cold Blood" and "...And Justice For All." He lent only his voice--but by now a very distinctive one--in a title role of the 1976-81 ABC series Charlie's Angels, as the detective agency owner giving the "Angels" their assignments each week. He did this for five years then landed the role of his lifetime: Blake Carrington on Dynasty. His TV wife: Krystal, played by the former teen who once had a black and white crush on him, Linda Evans. His distinctive voice also narrated the Michelob radio and TV commercials. All along he even kept up his old radio career, appearing on "The CBS Radio Mystery Theatre." Later roles included the TV series The Powers That Be and reprising his Charlie Townsend role in the two full screen movie versions of "Charlie's Angels." John Forsythe appeared on the Marshall Hollywood Squares several times between 1968 and 1974. Robert Culp 1930-2010 Robert Culp, a prolific actor whose hundreds of roles included a spy, the president, a wife-swapper and an in-law to a dysfunctional family, has died at age 79. Culp's publicist says the actor collapsed while out on a walk outside his Hollywood home, and struck his head. He was later pronounced dead at the UCLA Medical Center. He's survived by four children and by his fifth wife. Born in Oakland, California in 1930, Culp attended college several times before landing in the drama department at the University of Washington. He dropped out just one semester shy of his degree, at age 21, and struck out for New York. He landed a coveted part in the play "He Who Gets Slapped," earning rave reviews, an Obie award and plenty more offers. Culp appeared in live TV roles on shows like Kraft Television Theatre and The U.S. Steel Hour, before landing his first regular TV role in the series Trackdown, from 1957 to 1959. More (in fact, numerous) guest roles followed on shows like Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Bonanza, The Outer Limits and a prophetic role on the spy series The Man From U.N.C.L.E., and in movies like "PT 109," in which he played a member of John F. Kennedy's wartime Navy crew. In 1965 he landed his signature role, that of Kelly Robinson in the classic, landmark series I Spy. It was remembered partly for its humor, as Culp traded wisecracks with his co-star, and for its groundbreaking co-star. Bill Cosby broke ground for African-Americans as the star of a major dramatic series, and he and Culp had a lot of chemistry during the three years the show appeared on NBC. Culp and Cosby would later work together again in the unsuccessful movie "Hickey and Boggs," on episodes of The Cosby Show and Cosby, and in the 1994 reunion TV movie, "I Spy Returns." Culp continued to find plenty of work in movies and TV, most notably as part of a wife swapping couple in the 1969 film "Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice." He and wife Natalie Wood were introduced to wife swapping by a swinging couple played by Elliott Gould and Dyan Cannon. Culp went on to appear in movies like "Turk 182!", "The Castaway Cowboy" and as the President of the United States in the Julia Roberts film "The Pelican Brief." On television, amid numerous guest appearances, he was also remembered for a regular role in The Greatest American Hero, and a recurring role as Debra's father on Everybody Loves Raymond, appearing opposite Katherine Helmond in a number of hilarious holiday-inspired episodes of that series. In one memorable episode they agree to stay with the Barones even though they're separated, but then Raymond finds them making love. Culp, who had written several episodes of I Spy including the pilot, was said to be working on movie screenplays at the time of his death. Culp appeared at least five times on the Marshall Hollywood Squares during the 1960s. He also appeared on the Bergeron version in 2004, and on other game shows like Pantomine Quiz, I'll Bet, Personality, Match Game '73 and Celebrity Bowling. Peter Graves 1926-2010 Peter Graves--commander of the Impossible Missions Force, captain of an ill-fated airplane and host of Biography, died March 14 at his home in Pacific Palisades, California. He was just four days shy of his 84th birthday. It is with great irony and sadness that I'm now writing, however small, a biography of the man who narrated so many others. The Minnesota-born younger brother of TV legend James Arness (Gunsmoke) was born to the same family name--Aurness, in fact--and played the saxophone. By 16 he was already getting paid as a radio announcer. After two years in the Air Force Arness studied drama and headed to Hollywood. He made his film debut in 1951's "Rogue River" but it was the classic film "Stalag 17" that put him on the map two years later. Later films included some forgettable ("Killers from Space") and such classics as "Fort Yuma," "The Court Martial of Billy Mitchell" and "The Night of the Hunter." Graves also carved a name for himself in television, appearing in series like Fury (where he played a horse rancher who takes in a troubled young person) and the shortlived Whiplash. He also made guest appearances on anthology shows like Studio One and Dupont Show of the Week, and on such series as The Millionaire. Ironically, your webmaster happened to catch him in a 1962 Route 66 episode the very weekend of Graves' death. Graves achieved his best remembered television acting work when he took over the starring role in Mission: Impossible, during the CBS series' sophomore season in 1967. Your webmaster will always remember him as Jim Phelps, the man who got his dossier via a folder and a tape recording, just before the now-famous warning that "this tape will self destruct in five seconds"...which it then did, smoke and all. (I was even known to repeat that line myself at age four.) After the last Mission in 1974 (he would also appear in a 1988-90 revival), Graves appeared in a number of TV movies including "SST: Death Flight," a 1977 disaster movie. That prepared him for the unlikely movie role of his lifetime: Captain Oveur, the pilot of the ill-fated Trans America Airlines flight in the 1980 theatrical spoof "Airplane!" Graves initially got offended and rejected the script but friends talked him taking this first ever slapstick comic role. Sure enough, the film was a hit (and later a classic) with the serious sounding Graves, the man who played a father figure in Fury, now uttering such lines as "Tell me Tommy, have you ever seen a grown man naked?" Graves repeated his role for the 1982 sequel "Airplane II: the Sequel." Graves kept working up to the very end. For years and years he hosted A & E's Biography series, a documentary that profiled everyone from kings and presidents to Don Knotts, Tim Conway...and Paul Lynde. It was so popular it inspired its own cable channel, the Biography Channel. Graves appeared in commercials during the 2000's, for products like Geico Insurance (still honing the comic skills he picked up in "Airplane!"), and even has a 2010 credit with his familiar voice narrating a video game. Guest appearances included 7th Heaven, House, and American Dad. Although the voice on the Mission: Impossible tape recorder warned him that a failed mission would mean the agency would disavow all knowledge of his existence, those of us who saw his work won't soon forget Peter Graves. Peter Graves appeared on the Marshall Hollywood Squares, as one of the rotating stars during the hour long week of November 1975. Merlin Olsen 1940-2010 Merlin Olsen, a seemingly fearsome defensive tackle in the NFL who also held a master's degree, did sports commentary and played in several family oriented TV series, died March 11 about suffering from mesothelioma for a year. He was 69, and until his hospitalization in California, had lived in his home state of Utah. The 6'5" 270 pound lineman played college football for Utah State, where he won the Outland Trophy before graduating in 1962. (He earned a masters in business.) That year (when he also married his wife Susan) he got drafted in the first round by the Los Angeles Rams, and played all of his professional football for that team during his 15 year gridiron career. During that time he, Rosey Grier, Lamar Lundy and Deacon Jones made up the "Fearsome Foursome" defense. This was despite the fact, however, that the Rams only had one winning season between 1963 and '66. In fact, the Rams only won one game during his rookie year, but he still took rookie of the year. Olsen began his show business career when the "Fearless Foursome" appeared on ABC's Hollywood Palace and even sang. He then appeared in movies like "The Undefeated" and "Something Big," and guest starred on TV shows like Petticoat Junction and Kung Fu. When he retired, NBC Sports hired him as a color commentator, while the entertainment division snagged him as a regular on Little House on the Prairie beginning in 1977. He left for his own series, Father Murphy, in 1981. For two seasons he played a western frontiersman who pretended to be a priest so he could raise a group of orphans. Olsen later appeared in two other family series, Fathers and Sons (1986) and Aaron's Way (1988). He was eventually inducted into the College Football and Pro Football Halls of Fame, and even did commercials for FTD Florists on radio and TV. Merlin Olsen appeared on the syndicated version of the Marshall Hollywood Squares. Jean Simmons 1929-2010 Legendary Oscar-nominated screen beauty Jean Simmons died January 22 of lung cancer in Santa Monica, California. She was just nine days short of her 81st birthday. The British beauty was born in Crouch End, London, and at age 14, picked out of a dance line to co-star in the British film "Give Us the Moon" in 1944. That put her in a film career that included "Caesar and Cleopatra," "Great Expectations," "The Blue Lagoon" and her Oscar nominated role of Ophelia opposite Lawrence Olivier in "Hamlet." She was one of Great Britain's top box office draws when she came to America in 1950. She appeared opposite Marlon Brando in the musical "Guys and Dolls," with both doing their own singing. In 1960 she divorced actor Stewart Granger and married director Richard Brooks, who directed her to an Oscar nomination in "Elmer Gantry." She also appeared in the classic "Spartacus," with Kirk Douglas. Simmons appeared in such 1960s movies as "All the Way Home" (1963) and "The Happy Ending" (1969). She continued making movies, and in the 1980s appeared in the TV miniseries The Thorn Birds and North and South, and made a movie comeback in 1995 in "How to Make an American Quilt." Her credits continued right up to 2009. Jean Simmons appeared on the Marshall Hollywood Squares in August 1977. Classic Squares Home | 2010 Obits | 2006 Obits |