Fade To Black: Remembering Those Who Died

Pat Harrington, the actor best known for his role as seedy super Dwayne Schneider on the CBS sitcom One Day at a Time, died Jan. 6. He was 86.

J. Stewart Bryan, the longtime chairman of Media General died Jan. 23. Bryan took the reins of Media General in 1990 and grew the publicly traded company that his father had created in 1969 into a multimillion-dollar corporation that owned 71 television stations at the time of his death. He was 77.

Abe Vigoda, the veteran actor who was a multiple Emmy nominee for his role as Barney Miller‘s Det. Phil Fish, died Jan. 24 at 94.

William Mayher III, chairman of the board of Gray Television since 1993, died Jan. 31. He was 77. For more than 20 years, Gray said, “he provided stability and reliable leadership as Gray transformed itself from a small newspaper publisher and broadcaster into one of the largest pure-play television groups in the country.” Mayher had a long career as a neurosurgeon.

Bob Elliott, who with partner Ray Goulding made audiences laugh for more than four decades on the radio and on television, died Feb. 2 at 92. He also worked with his son Chris Elliott on Fox’s Get a Life.

William Tankersley, CBS’s top censor from the mid-1950s to 1972 — a time of envelope-pushing, though he saw his job as guarding the network’s reputation, died Feb. 5 at 98.

Acel Moore, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist who co-founded the National Association of Black Journalists, died Feb. 17. He was 75.

Bud Collins, long-time tennis TV analyst whose career spanned CBS, NBC and ESPN, died March 4 at 86.

Ben Bagdikian, who helped publish the Pentagon Papers and wrote the groundbreaking book The Media Monopoly, died March 11. He also won a Peabody Award for broadcast commentary. He was 96.

Ken Howard, a TV actor whose career spanned four decades and was best known as the star of CBS’s 1970s drama The White Shadow, died on March 23. At the time of his death he was president of the SAG-AFTRA union. He was 71.

Garry Shandling, comedian, writer and producer, was known as an innovator who broke new ground in television with his series It’s Garry Shandling’s Show and The Larry Sanders Show, one of HBO’s earliest original programs. Larry Sanders proved to be an act of courage, a brave effort led by someone portraying a character dangerously close to himself. As Larry, Garry dug deep to confront his own demons, and did it brilliantly as the series teetered between dual realities: public and private; make-believe and painfully true. He died March 24 at 66.

Joe Garagiola was a journeyman baseball player the St. Louis Cardinals, New York Giants, Pittsburgh Pirates and Chicago Cubs. After his career on the diamond ended, he became a broadcaster and fixture on the Today show, leading to a nearly 30-year association with NBC. Garagiola won baseball’s Ford C. Frick Award for excellence in broadcasting in 1991. He died at 90 on March 23.

Mother Angelica, born Rita Rizzo, but known to millions of viewers simply as “Mother Angelica,” the founder of the Eternal Word Television Network died March 27 at 92. With only $200, the nun began broadcasting a religious talk show from a TV studio put together in the monastery garage in suburban Birmingham, Ala., in 1981. That show grew into Eternal Word Television Network, which now operates 11 TV networks that broadcast Catholic programming to more than 258 million households in more than 145 counties and territories. It also operates more than 300 Catholic radio affiliates in the United States. Its print services include The National Catholic Register newspaper, the Catholic News Agency and EWTN Publishing Inc.

Eric Engberg, a former political and investigative reporter for CBS News who also covered overseas conflicts and won electronic journalism’s top honor for a report identifying a Vietnam veteran buried in the Tomb of the Unknowns, died March 27. He was 74.

Patty Duke, the actress who rose to fame as the star of the 1960s ABC sitcom The Patty Duke Show, diedMarch 28. She received an Oscar for her performance as Helen Keller in The Miracle Worker as well as three Emmys. She was 69.

Philip Scheffler joined CBS News in 1951 and worked as a reporter and producer on various broadcasts. He became senior producer at 60 Minutes in 1980, essentially serving as right-hand man to founding executive producer Don Hewitt. He had the day-to-day responsibility of guiding producers and reporters and was eventually named executive editor. He died April 7 at 85.

Arthur Anderson, a radio and theater actor who also was the voice of Lucky the Leprechaun who sold Lucky Charms cereal in TV commercials from 1963 to 1992, died April 8 at 93.

John von Soosten, a former programming executive at Katz Television who was president of NATPE in the mid-1980s, died April 13. He was 71.

Doris Roberts, the spunky actress who played the sharp-tongued, endlessly meddling mother on CBS’s Everybody Loves Raymond, died April 17 at 90.

Philip Kives, an infomercial pioneer who introduced viewers to a plethora of products sold by his K-tel direct marketing operation, died April 27. Among his many products were the Veg-O-Matic and the Miracle Brush. He was 87.

Conrad Burns, a former broadcaster and later a Senator from Montana who was a member of the Senate Appropriations and Commerce committees, died April 28 at 81. NAB CEO Gordon Smith said of Burns: “Broadcasters have lost a great champion and I have lost a good Senate friend with the passing of Conrad Burns. Conrad’s deep appreciation for local broadcasting — based on his many years of service as a farm broadcaster in Montana — was evident on the Senate Commerce Committee.”

Alan Young, the actor who starred with a talking Palomino in the CBS comedy Mister Ed, which ran from 1961 to 1966, died May 18. He was 96.

Morley Safer, longtime CBS News veteran, died May 19, just days after he announced his retirement from 60 Minutes and the newsmagazine honored him with an hour-long tribute. He was 84.

Mike Dann, the powerful CBS programming executive in the 1950s ’60s and who brought The Defenders, The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, The Mary Tyler Moore Show and The Beverly Hillbillies to the screen, along with recitals by Vladimir Horowitz, died May 27 at 94.

Jan Crouch, who along with her husband, Paul, started what would become the religious Trinity Broadcasting Network in 1973 by renting airtime on an independent California station, died May 31 at 78.

Janet Waldo, a voice actress best known for playing the far-out daughter Judy on The Jetsons from 1962 to 1987, died June 12. She was 96.

Michu Meszaros, the diminutive actor who found fame as Alf, the “Alien Life Form” in the NBC sitcom of the same name, died in June at 76.

Noel Neill, the first actress to play Superman’s gal pal Lois Lane onscreen, died July 3. She was 95.

Garry Marshall, who created some of television’s most memorable sitcoms — including The Odd Couple, Mork & Mindy, Laverne & Shirley and Happy Days — died July 19 of complications from pneumonia following a stroke. He was 81.

Don Dahlman, who turned Dayton, Ohio, radio talk host Phil Donahue into a TV phenomenon, died July 21, just two days short of his 98^th birthday. Dahlman revolutionized TV when he lured WHIO-AM interviewer Donahue over to Dayton’s WLWD-TV (now WDTN) for the Phil Donahue Show premiere on Nov. 6, 1967. For the first time, viewers watching at home could call in and question a TV show guest. 

Jim Carnegie, founder of the broadcasting trade publications Radio Business Report and Television Business Report, died July 26 at 66.

Robert Rosencrans, a cable television industry pioneer who was instrumental in creating C-SPAN, died Aug. 2 at 89. After Brian Lamb pitched the concept for the cable channel, Rosencrans wrote a $25,000 check on the spot and persuaded other industry executives to pony up $450,000 in seed money to start the network. He became C-SPAN’s founding chairman.

Blake Krikorian, longtime Silicon Valley entrepreneur who founded Sling Media with his brother and ran it as CEO, died Aug. 3. He was 48.

John McLaughlin, longtime host of TV’s The McLaughlin Group, died Aug. 16 at 89. Since its debut in April 1982, the syndicated The McLaughlin Group upended the soft-spoken and non-confrontational style of shows such as Firing Line, ‘Washington Week in Review and Agronsky & Company with a raucous format that largely dispensed with politicians.

Jack Riley, who played a counseling client on The Bob Newhart Show and also voiced a character on Nickelodeon’s animated Rugrats, died Aug. 19 at 80.

Peter Kizer, a longtime TV executive who made his mark after becoming general manager of WDIV Detroit (then owned by the Evening News Association Broadcast Group) in 1971. In addition, he was NAB TV Board chair while running the Evening News group. When Evening News was sold to Gannett in 1986, he founded Federal Broadcasting which eventually acquired seven TV stations that were sold to Raycom in 1997. He died Aug. 24 at 86.

Hugh O’Brian, who shot to fame as Sheriff Wyatt Earp in what was hailed as television’s first adult Western, died Sept. 5. He was 91. Until The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp debuted on ABC in September 1955, most TV Westerns were aimed at adolescent boys. Wyatt Earp, on the other hand, was based on a real-life Western hero, and some of its stories were authentic.

Arnold Palmer, a golfing legend, ranked among the most important figures in golf history, and it went well beyond his seven major championships and 62 PGA Tour wins. His good looks, devilish grin and hard-charging style of play made the elite sport appealing to one and all. And it helped that he arrived about the same time as television moved into most households, a perfect fit that sent golf to unprecedented popularity. He died Sept. 25 at 87.

Agnes Nixon created, wrote and produced the long-running ABC daytime serials One Life to Live and All My Children, which were canceled in 2011 as the network bowed to the reality that soaps had faded as a daytime TV force. All My Children aired for nearly 41 years, while One Life to Live made it to 44 years. She died Sept. 28 at 93.

Gary Glasberg, the longtime showrunner of CBS’s NCIS and creator of spinoff NCIS: New Orleans, died Sept. 28 at 50.

Karen Adams, who spent 36 years of her 40-year television career at WGHP Greensboro-High Point-Winston Salem, N.C., rising from camera operator to VP-general manager, died Nov. 4 at 62.

Robert Vaughn, whose Napoleon Solo on NBC’s spy yarn The Man From U.N.C.L.E. set TV’s 1960s standard for suavity and crimebusting cool, died Nov. 11. He was 83.

Gwen Ifill, a former reporter for The New York Times and The Washington Post, switched to television in the 1990s and covered politics and Congress for NBC News. She moved to PBS in 1999 as host of Washington Week and also worked for the nightly PBS NewsHour. She and Judy Woodruff were named NewsHour co-anchors in 2013. She died Nov. 14 at 61.

Florence Henderson, the actor best known for starring in ABC’s The Brady Bunch as its ever-cheerful matriarch Carol Brady, died Nov. 24 at 82. Well after the show ended initial run in 1974, it resonated with audiences and returned to television in various forms again and again, including The Brady Bunch Hour in 1977, The Brady Brides in 1981 and The Bradys in 1990. It was also seen endlessly in reruns.

Al Brodax, a television producer who delivered an enduring psychedelic classic when he turned the Beatles song Yellow Submarine into an animated film in 1968, died on Nov. 24. He was 90. Brodax was hired by King Features Syndicate in 1960 to run its new motion picture and television division. After producing 220 Popeye cartoons, he collaborated with Bob Kane, the creator of Batman, on the animated spy spoof Cool McCool and produced television versions of the comic strips Krazy Kat, Beetle Bailey, Snuffy Smith and Barney Google.

Ron Glass, 71, was an actor best known for his role as Detective Ron Harris in ABC’s Barney Miller sitcom (1975-82). His career included dozens of other TV shows and films. He died on Nov. 25.

Grant Tinker, TV programming legend, died Nov. 28 at 90. Though he had three tours of duty with NBC, the last as its chairman, Tinker was perhaps best-known as the nurturing hand at MTM Enterprises, the production company he founded in 1970 and ran for a decade. Nothing less than a creative salon, MTM scored with some TV’s most respected and best-loved programs, including Lou Grant, Rhoda, The Bob Newhart Show and, of course, the series that starred his business partner and then-wife, Mary Tyler Moore.

Van Williams, known for his starring role as The Green Hornet (aka Britt Reid), in the 1960s ABC show, died Nov. 28. He was 82.

Robert “Bob” Bennett, a long-time television executive, was the principal architect, builder, manager and owner of WCVB Boston, putting the it on the air in 1972. Under his leadership, WCVB received a Peabody Award as America’s finest television station and was recognized by The New York Times as “probably America’s best television station.” He died Nov. 29 at 89.

Alan Thicke, the actor best known for his role on ABC’s Growing Pains, died Dec. 13. He was 69.

Jeff McGrath, an influential Chicago television executive for more than 30 years and a mentor to generations of producers and programmers working around the country, died there Dec. 18. He was 73.

Barbara Tarbuck, a stage and screen actress who played Jane Jacks on General Hospital and Mother Superior Claudia on American Horror Story: Asylum, died Dec. 26. She was 74.

Carrie Fisher, best remembered as Princess Leia in the original Star Wars in 1977, was also a writer as well has having a prolific career as a television guest star, recently in the Amazon show Catastrophe as the mother of Rob Delaney’s lead, and perhaps most memorably as a has-been comedy legend on 30 Rock. She died Dec. 27 at 60.

Debbie Reynolds, film, TV actress, singer and the mother of Carrie Fisher, died Dec. 28, one day after Fisher. She was 84. In her screen career, Reynolds was a superstar early in life. After two minor roles at Warner Bros. and three supporting roles at MGM, studio boss Louis B. Mayer cast her in Singin’ in the Rain when she was 19, despite Kelly’s objections. In her later years, Reynolds appeared regularly on television, appearing as John Goodman’s mother on Roseanne and as mom on Wings and then Will & Grace, winning an Emmy nomination for the last role. She also appeared in a number of TV movies and did voice work for Kim Possible and Family Guy.

William Christopher, the actor best known for his role as Father Mulcahy on CBS’s M*A*S*H, died Dec. 31. He was 84.