TVSquad

A roundup of TV people from in front of the camera and behind the scenes who have passed away.

• Eddy Arnold: The legendary country singer was best known for classic songs such as "Make The World Go Away." He also hosted his own TV show in the early 50s called The Eddy Arnold Show and guest starred on many shows, including The Milton Berle Show, The Dean Martin Show, The Jackie Gleason Show, The Tonight Show, and many others. His songs have been used on many TV shows and films, including How I Met Your Mother, Bad Santa, Nurse Betty, Private Parts, and Groundhog Day. He died in Nashville at age 89.

There are many, many good actors and actresses in daytime. Some shine brighter than others simply because they are so supremely talented that they raise the level of the drama they are creating. There are two women I'm writing about now. They are both daytime actresses of the highest order. One celebrated her birthday yesterday, May 7th. She's One Life to Live's inimitable Dorian Cramer, actress Robin Strasser. The other, I'm sad to report, passed away last weekend. The incomparable Beverlee McKinsey was famous for two characters: Iris Carrington on Another World and Alexandra Spaulding on Guiding Light. Ms. McKinsey, who'd retired from daytime -- and acting overall -- in 1992 (except for a brief cameo on General Hospital) died on Friday evening from kidney failure after undergoing a transplant.

I remember vividly watching Another World when Beverlee McKinsey was front and center. She was a dynamic actress, a real scene stealer. She commanded your attention as the spoiled, grown daughter of millionaire scion MacKenzie Cory, Iris, on Another World. Her voice saying, "Daddy," is embedded in my memory.

A roundup of TV people from in front of the camera and behind the scenes who have passed away.

• Jim Hager: The comedian/musician was one of the Hager Twins from the TV show Hee Haw. He appeared in other TV shows as well, including The Bionic Woman, and received a TV Land Award last year for his work on Hee Haw. He died after collapsing in a Nashville coffee shop. He was 66.

A roundup of TV people from in front of the camera and behind the scenes who have passed away.

• Don Gillis: He was well-known to New England TV viewers and sports fans as a longtime sports anchor (in fact, the first in Boston) on WCVB and WHDH. He also hosted a long-running bowling show and did play by play for all of the Boston sports teams. He died at age 85.

Sometimes TV writers and producers aren't well known to fans by name. But this one was.

Larry Hertzog was actually one of the more well-known producers and writers on television. Besides creating and producing the cult favorite Nowhere Man, Hertzog also worked on many other shows over the past 30 years, including Stingray, Painkiller Jane, Seaquest DSV, Raven, Hardcastle and McCormick, Mrs. Columbo, 1-800-MISSING, Hunter, Profiler, La Femme Nikita, Hart to Hart, Missing, Walker, Texas Ranger, and many others. He also wrote an episode of 24, and creator Joel Surnow even named a character "Larry Hertzog" in honor of him.

Recently, Hertzog hosted a podcast with a friend called Drinks with Larry and Lauren. You can still listen to the many podcasts in the archive. He also kept a blog at that site but it hasn't been updated since 2007.

Hertzog died of cancer at Cedars Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles last Saturday. He was 56.

[Thank you to Noam for letting us know about Larry.]

A roundup of TV people from in front of the camera and behind the scenes who have passed away.

• Hazel Court: She was the actress known as the "Scream Queen." Besides appearing in such classic horror flicks as The Masque of the Red Death, The Raven, and The Curse of Frankenstein, she also did a lot of TV, including episodes of The Twilight Zone, Mannix, Mission: Impossible, Burke's Law, The Wild, Wild West, Gidget, Thriller, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Rawhide, McMillan & Wife, and many other shows. She died of a heart attack at age 82.

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.

Stanley Kamel, who played Dr. Charles Kroger on the USA hit series Monk, was found dead in his Hollywood house earlier today. No cause of death has been announced yet. He was 65.

Kamel has had an incredibly long career in TV and the movies. He was a regular on such series as Beverly Hills, 90210, Melrose Place, Murder One, L.A. Law, and Cagney and Lacey, and appeared in dozens of TV shows over the years, including The West Wing, MacGyver, The Golden Girls, Hunter, Star Trek: TNG, Murder, She Wrote, Reba, The Guardian, General Hospital, NYPD Blue, 7th Heaven, The Mod Squad, Mannix, The Rookies, Three's Company, Emergency, Kojak, and many more. Besides episodes of Monk, he was also filming a feature film titled For Better Or Worse, and a new movie, The Urn, which will be released later this year.

We'll update this post once we found out what exactly happened. Access Hollywood and the other shows will have more later today.

Update: Kamel died of a heart attack.

A roundup of TV people from in front of the camera and behind the scenes who have passed away.

• Chase Tatum: The young wrestler was also an actor, having appeared on TV shows such as Punk'd and music videos for Outkast (he was once their road manager). He also appeared in the 2007 movie Who's Your Caddy? and appeared as a baby in the 1976 horror flick Creature From Black Lake. Police say the 34 year-old died of an accidental drug overdose.

He was Moses, Michaelangelo, Ben-Hur and a dozen other famous historical figures on the big screen, and on television he was as famous appearing as Charlton Heston the movie star he was for the TV roles he played, but he was born John Charles Carter on October 4th 1924 in Evanston, Illinois. Today, "Chuck" Heston is dead. He was 84 years old; he had Alzheimer's disease.

A roundup of TV people from in front of the camera and behind the scenes who have passed away.

• Richard Widmark: He was best known to TV viewers as the star of the NBC detective series Madigan in the 1970s. It was a spinoff of a movie of the same name. He also appeared in the miniseries Benjamin Franklin and in several TV movies, including Cold Sassy Tree, A Gathering of Old Men, Brock's Last Case, and Vanished, and also made a guest appearance as himself in one of the classic I Love Lucy episodes set in Hollywood. He made his debut on the big screen in the film noir classic Kiss of Death and went on to star in dozens of other films, including Night and the City, No Way Out, Don't Bother To Knock, Warlock, The Alamo, The Bedford Incident, Broken Lance, Murder on the Orient Express, Twilight's Last Gleaming, Coma, Against All Odds, and many more. He got an Oscar nomination for his role in Kiss of Death.He died in Connecticut at age 93 after a long illness.

A roundup of TV people from in front of the camera and behind the scenes who have passed away.

• Gloria Cromwell: She appeared in a number of TV shows over the years, including Kate & Allie (she played Janet, their landlord), Ryan's Hope, Murder, She Wrote, Moonlighting, Hill Street Blues, The Golden Girls, Hunter, Cop Rock, Designing Women, Coach, L.A. Law, and many others. She was also in many films, including Say Anything, The Odd Couple: Together Again, The War of the Roses, and The Parent Trap II. She died on March 3 (age unknown).

A roundup of TV people from in front of the camera and behind the scenes who have passed away.

• Anthony Minghella: He was best known for his movie work, writing and directing the Oscar-winning film The English Patient, as well as Cold Mountain,Truly, Madly, Deeply, and The Talented Mr. Ripley, but he also wrote for a lot of British television in the 80s and 90s, including several episodes of Inspector Morse and Grange Hill, and he later was a writer for Jim Henson's miniseries The Storyteller. He was also a producing partner of Sydney Pollack, co-producing such films as Michael Clayton and The Interpreter. He had just finished writing and directing the film The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency, which will debut on BBC1 on March 23. He died of a hemorrhage in London at age 54 after undergoing surgery to remove a growth on his neck.

A roundup of TV people from in front of the camera and behind the scenes who have passed away.

• Malvin Wald: He is best known for writing the screenplay to The Naked City, which later became a TV series and pretty much spawned later police dramas such as NYPD Blue and Law and Order. He also wrote for The Life and Times of Grizzly Adams, Daktari, Combat, Playhouse 90, and The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis. He died at age 90 in California.

A roundup of TV people from in front of the camera and behind the scenes who have passed away.

• Boyd Coddington: He was a custom car designer and star of TLC's American Hot Rod. A former machinist at Disneyland, he opened up Boyd's Wheels in 1988 and won several awards for his car designs. He died of complications from surgery at age 63 in Whittier, CA.