Darren McGavin Dies at 83

[Broadsword]

Another great has died. Link news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060226/ap_en_tv/obit_mcgavin he will all ways be Kolchak(also who can forget A Christmas Carol) to me.

[Donna SadCat Lady]

Oh, that's sad news. I had a bit of a crush on him during his Kolchak days. So talented.

[CBG]

Another icon of my teen years: Carl Kolchack.
God Bless, Mr. McGavin.
Thank You.

[losingmydignity]

Yeah, I love Night Stalker.....and he turned in a fine comic performance in Christmas Story....I can't imagine anyone so perfectly getting out that leg lampshade and being so weird and yet not too weird....if you know what I mean? I guess what I'm saying that scene could have been easily mishandled by another actor.

[Mitchell]

It's Fragee-lay. Must be Italian!

[mightyjack]

He's been very ill of late. Sad to see another favorite of mine pass away. But he lived a long, full and good life. I loved you Darren. You were one of the best.

Edit: One strange thing they got wrong in the link was that he was seperated from Kathie, his second wife.

Kathie Browne died in 2003 and as far as I know they were married at the time.

[Chuck]

Mr. McGavin, you will be missed!

R.I.P.

[Shep]

Wow, this has been a tough weekend for the entertainment industry. We'll never see the likes of Knotts and McGavin again.

Beyond McGavin's acknowledged classics (Night Stalker, Christmas Story, etc.), I really loved the performance he gave in a 70s TV movie called "Tribes." McGavin played a tough-as-nails drill instructor who squares off against a young hippy draftee (Jan Michael Vincent). Gradually the two men come to understand and respect one another.

He will be missed.

[Skyroniter]

Kolchak was a unique show for it's time. Darrin was perfect for the part. R.I.P.

[Shep]

I do "Old Man" lines for my wife and stepson every Christmas. One of my fave film dads ever.

"You used up all the glue...on purpose!"

"Who left the damper up--again!"

"Dadgummit, blow-out!"

"What do you mean silly? That's real news!"

and of course the immortal

"Not a finger!"

[davidbeegah]

RIP Mr Darren McGavin Another actor who's work I always enjoyed. Kolchak was one of my favorite characters as a teenager growing up in the 70's. I was always happy to see his name in various movies because when I did I always knew the performance would be a good one. Usually playing a curmudgeon. Good stuff RIP Darren and Don

[mightyjack]

Here's a transcript of Keith Olberman's show, posted at the Night Stalker newsgroup. The fan who posted this noted that ET only showed a photo and mentioned that he died! So they were surprised and happy that someone did a little better tribute to the man...


OLBERMANN: It is a film that has gradually sneaked up on everybody
and become the "It`s a Wonderful Life" of this generation. For 24
hours every Christmas, a cable network simply plays and replays and
re-replays the 1983 movie "A Christmas Story." Tonight, in our
number one story on the COUNTDOWN, the actor who was the center of
that new classic who provided the gravity without which the wild saga
of a 1940s childhood in Indiana would have seemed a little silly is
gone. Darren McGavin has died. We will reflect on his passing
and "A Christmas Story" in a moment.

First if you believe in that stuff about death coming in threes, it
was a horrible weekend. Don Knotts passed away late Friday night at a
hospital in Los Angeles. Generations have come and gone since his
last appearance on the "Andy Griffith Show," yet his fidgety
character Deputy Barney Fife is among the immortals of
entertainment. He had a huge second hit as the would be swinger
landlord with the late John Ritter in the series "Three`s Company."
It was a departure from his earliest nervous persona which began on
the original "Tonight Show" with Steve Allen in the 50`s. He was
reprised in films like "The Incredible Mr. Limpet" and "The Reluctant
Astronaut." Don Knotts was 81 years old.

Today came news that his TV contemporary Dennis Weaver has also
died. He also came to prominence as a TV deputy, as the limping
sidekick to James Arness on "Gunsmoke." Then came "Gentle Ben" and
his role as a New Mexico lawman on assignment in New York, "McCloud."
And perhaps his finest moment as the innocent driver menaced by a
seemingly living tractor-trailer truck in the TV movie "Duel,"
directed by Steven Spielberg more than 30 years ago. Like Don
Knotts, Dennis Weaver was 81. In fact, they were just 47 days apart.

Darren McGavin was a little older. He was 83. His TV roles ran the
gamut from the routine Mickey Spillane`s "Mike Hammer" in the `50s to
comedic, "Murphy Brown"`s father in the `80s to the cultish and the
bizarre, the "Nightstalker" in the 70`s. That last series has been
cited as the inspiration for everything from the "X Files" to "Buffy
the Vampire Slayer." But when all is said and done, it will probably
be as the old man, little Ralphy`s father, Mr. Parker in the
compilation of the memories of the American satirist, Gene Shepherd
(ph) for which he will be remembered.

Each year, each time it`s shown, "A Christmas Story" gets seemingly a
little funnier and McGavin`s performance seemingly a little better,
whether swearing in indecipherable rage at the forever smoking
furnace or insisting the major award he`s just received must be
Italian because the box is marked fragile, for finally producing his
son`s dream Christmas present, the red rider BB gun, Darren McGavin
seems to represent fatherhood, fatherhood at least as seen by a 9-
year-old boy. We`re joined now by the LA Bureau chief of "TV Guide,"
Craig Thomsaw, thank you for your time tonight sir.

CRAIG THOMSAW, TV GUIDE: I`m glad to be here.

OLBERMANN: Let me start with the context of that picture. Am I
right about this? Much like, "It`s a Wonderful Life" has "A Christmas
Story" kind of sneaked up on people and became a Christmas ritual?

THOMSAW: It`s kind of the perfect Christmas movie for cynics who
don`t want to admit you`re cynics because they have no angels, no
Santa, no talking barn animals. It`s just what Christmas is supposed
to be. You got a family, Darren McGavin, really was the centerpiece
for it because he`s kind of that dad you wish you always had who
would be gruff and mean, but still kind of gets you what you want in
the end and takes you out for Chinese food at the end.

OLBERMANN: After the dogs next door steal the turkey. I suggested
before that for all the work of the kids in this film, Ralphie
himself there and Flick getting his tongue stuck to the frozen pole,
if you don`t have Darren McGavin in there as the representative of
the seemingly, the entire adult world, most of this would have been
just silly and a kid`s flick. Give me a real assessment of his work
in the film.

THOMSAW: He could have done it as—I remember the first time I saw it
thinking all right, it was another story about the mean dad and he
gets his comeuppance in the end. But he played it as a realistic
dad, again the one you wish you could have had who was kind of tough
but actually cared for his kid and also had great taste in art as
evidenced with the lamp. You always wanted to have your dad
appreciate fine art like that. He was the one who really made it
real. He didn`t make it just some crazy fable. He made it real and
made you kind of want to be a part of that family.

OLBERMANN: To your knowledge, did Darren McGavin like that film? Did
he like being identified for that one role? An old friend of mine
before she passed away was Elizabeth Montgomery and I traveled with
her on a couple of occasions and she never got to go more than five
minutes without somebody asking her to switch her nose like she did
on "Bewitched." Did Darren McGavin get that kind of recognition for
this film and could he abide it?

THOMSAW: We could, although it came after "Kolchak: The Night
Stalker" which is probably equally in everybody`s mind I think when
you remember Darren McGavin. That was another role that could have
been nothing, but his sense of humor, his choice of suits because
apparently that he, he chose that Kolchak outfit. He kind of made
that character his own too. You don`t often get to have two roles
like that in a time. You sometimes can just be remembered as the
third guy from the left in a dinner scene somewhere, but he had two
of these great roles. Who wouldn`t want that? That`s kind of great
break if you`re an actor.

OLBERMANN: How can you do that though? As almost everybody gets
that kind of intense identification with an audience based on one
character. You get it with one character. You don`t get multiples.
There is nothing in common. The old man and "Kolchak the Night
Stalker" have nothing in common other than Darren McGavin. What does
that tell us about him as an actor?

THOMSAW: It says what I always liked him in anything that he did, a
guest appearance, whatever it was, he just seemed like a regular
guy. In Kolchak, he seemed like ultimately a funny guy but a regular
guy you could see sitting next to in a bar after he killed the
vampire. He`d tell you he killed a vampire and you would actually
believe it because he just seemed like a regular guy. The dad
in "Christmas Story," same thing, a very realist guy that you could
see sitting with the next day. He tells you the story about the dogs
taking the turkey and you would enjoy it because he just seemed like
a guy you want to know. There`s a continuum there.

OLBERMANN: No matter how absurd, maybe that`s the continuum, no
matter how absurd the situation might have been, he pulled it off
somehow.

THOMSAW: You just wanted to know him. A lot actors, you wanted to
know the characters, but I always felt like I wanted to kind of know
him too. There was just something about him that kind of shown
through everything he did.

OLBERMANN: Darren McGavin who throughout the decades I`m sure to
come will be remembered by TV and movie audiences who never saw him
in anything else and will recall this great film. Helping us
remember Darren McGavin. Craig Thomsaw, of "TV Guide," helping us
remember Darren McGavin tonight, Craig, thanks for your time sir.

THOMSAW: Thank you very much...

[Bix Dugan]

Great find there, MJ. I was a fan of both his roles. And Tribes.

[doctorz]

Wonderful tribute.

"A Christmas Story" is the only Christmas movie my wife and I watch together every Christmas.