deaths

George Carlin

Dammit. We’ve lost another dark humorist. George Carlin died at 71 from heart failure. He’d had heart troubles for a long time, and they finally caught up with him.

Here’s a link to a YouTube video obituary, highlighting just a few of Carlin’s bits.

Rest in peace, George.

A Southern California McDonald’s restaurants official says Egg McMuffin inventor Herb Peterson has died in Santa Barbara at age 89.

 
Egg McMuffin creator Herb Peterson with his breakfast idea in 1997.

From CNNMoney:

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Herb Peterson, who invented the ubiquitous Egg McMuffin as a way to introduce breakfast to McDonald’s restaurants, has died, a Southern California McDonald’s official said Wednesday. He was 89.

Peterson died peacefully Tuesday at his Santa Barbara home, said Monte Fraker, vice president of operations for McDonald’s restaurants in that city.

He began his career with McDonald’s Corp (MCD, Fortune 500). as vice president of the company’s advertising firm, D’Arcy Advertising, in Chicago. He wrote McDonald’s first national advertising slogan, “Where Quality Starts Fresh Every Day.”

Peterson eventually became a franchisee and was currently co-owner and operator of six McDonald’s restaurants in Santa Barbara and Goleta, Fraker said.

Peterson came up with idea for the signature McDonald’s breakfast item in 1972. He “was very partial to eggs Benedict,” Fraker said, and worked on creating something similar.

The egg sandwich consisted of an egg that had been formed in a Teflon circle with the yolk broken, topped with a slice of cheese and grilled Canadian bacon. It was served open-faced on a toasted and buttered English muffin.

The Egg McMuffin made its debut at a restaurant in Santa Barbara that Peterson co-owned with his son, David Peterson.

Fraker said that, although semiretired, Peterson still visited all six of his stores in the Santa Barbara area until last year when his health began to deteriorate.

“He would talk to the customers, visit with the employees. He loved McDonald’s,” Fraker said.

Fraker, who said he worked with Peterson for 30 years, said “he was amazing as far as giving back to the community.”

“He embraced the community and the community embraced him,” Fraker said. “We loved the man.”

Peterson is survived by his wife, son and three daughters.

A public memorial service will be held April 23 at All Saints by the Sea church in Montecito.

Maureen Stapleton, the Oscar-winning actress who was revered for her roles on the stage and screen, passed away today in Lenox, Massachusetts, from chronic pulmonary disease. She was 80. Stapleton’s matronly appearance belied a fiery emotional core, one she used to devastating effect in her most recognized dramatic roles. She began her career in the theater, attending the Herbert Berghof Acting School, then the Actor’s Studio which she parlayed into her Broadway debut in nothing less than Burgess Meredith’s 1946 production of “The Playboy of the Western World.” She appeared in numerous stage productions including Lillian Hellman’s “Toys in the Attic,” and several Tennessee Williams efforts, including “The Rose Tattoo,” for which she won her first Tony in 1951 for her role as Serafina Delle Rose.

Her first film role was no less auspicious and presaged a storied career on film. She received a Best Supporting Actress Oscar nomination in 1958 for her part in Lonelyhearts, opposite another Broadway lion, Montgomery Clift.

She was nominated again for Best Supporting Actress in 1971 for her role as the unsuspecting wife of the despondent bomber in Airport and again in 1978 for her role as Pearl in Woody Allen’s first “serious” film, the dour Interiors.

She finally won the Oscar for her role as the brusque, radical anarchist Emma Goldman in Warren Beatty’s Reds.

Her second Tony was awarded to her for her part in Neil Simon’s “The Gingerbread Lady” in 1971. She also won notice for her television roles, including winning the Emmy for Outstanding Actress in a Lead for Among the Paths to Eden and nominations for All the King’s Men, Queen of the Stardust Ballroom, The Gathering, B.L. Styker, Miss Rose White and Road to Avonlea. Stapleton was also notable in Bye, Bye, Birdie, Plaza Suite (with another long-time collaborator, Neil Simon), Johnny Dangerously, and Cocoon.

She is survived by her son, Daniel Allentuck, a daughter, Katharine Bambery, and a brother, Jack Stapleton.

Bob Denver was attending college at Loyola-Marymount University, in Los Angeles, when he got into acting. At first, Denver wasn’t sure he wanted to be an actor, but gradually gave in, deciding that’s what he was going to do for a career. Before he became established, he worked as a mailman and teacher. He then got a screen test for the part of Maynard G. Krebs and to his surprise won the part. After four years on “The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis” (1959), Denver got his most famous part of Gilligan, in “Gilligan’s Island” (1964). After Gilligan’s three-year run ended he did a few other television shows (including the Gilligan wannabe “Dusty’s Trail” (1973)) and Broadway plays. He lives in West Virgina with his wife Dreama, and still does an occasional television role as well as countless fan fests dressed as Gilligan.

Denver died in September 2005.

Marilyn Monroe’s first and last surviving husband, James Dougherty, has died in California. He was 84. Dougherty, a retired Los Angeles detective and former local politician in Maine, died on Monday in San Rafael, according to his stepdaughter Annie Woods. Dougherty married 16-year-old Monroe, real name Norma Jean Baker, in 1942 and their union lasted four years. His mother was a close friend Monroe’s foster parents. Dougherty enjoyed a 25 year career at the Los Angeles Police Department and moved to Arizona after his retirement in 1974. He later settled in Maine, where he was a county commissioner and taught at the Maine Criminal Justice Academy. In 1997, he co-wrote To Norma Jean With Love, Jimmie. He was also the subject of a documentary last year called Marilyn’s Man. Dougherty had three children with his second wife. His third wife died in 2003 after 32 years of marriage. Monroe, who died in 1962, later went on to marry baseball legend Joe DiMaggio, who died in 1999, and playwright Arthur Miller, who passed away earlier this year.

Thanks to IMDB.

Goodbye, Peter Jennings. You were a good news reader.

You read the news from the teleprompter like almost no one else could.

Your skill at reading from a monitor and not moving your eyes will be missed.