Published in The Kansan City Kansan July 9, 1999, my weekly column focused on three showbiz celebrities who had recently died.
By Steve Crum
Life goes on. Life ends. Of course that applies to show biz celebrities as much as anyone. But few of us will have our deaths reported on the front page of the newspaper. When DeForest Kelley died last month, his Star Trek fame as Dr. McCoy made his death national news. The public has a fascination, albeit morbid, about the passing of famous people. Maybe it is because of images that are forever captured on film, tape, or disc. How long will Kelley’s work on Star Trek be viewed and re-viewed on TV alone? His shadow lives on, timelessly.
As fleeting as fame is, one’s celebrity is usually short-lived. That is why this column occasionally enlightens mass media fans about the deaths of the once famous. It is hoped that readers will warmly and nostalgically link with their own pasts while scrolling down this mostly unreported listing of recent celebrity deaths. Remember, reflect, and enjoy.
•SYLVIA SIDNEY (died July 1; 88 years old)—British actress Sidney made her film acting first impressions during the 1930’s, notably in Alfred Hitchcock’s 1935 thriller, Sabotage. A long career followed, later in supporting roles, in movies and TV. Small screen fans might recall her turn as Mama Carlson in the pilot episode of WKRP in Cincinnati.
She is best remembered for her supporting work in two Tim Burton films: 1988’s Beetlejuice (she was the case worker who blows cigarette smoke out of her slit throat); and Mars Attacks! (1996), whose grandma character saves the world with her volume-blasting Slim Whitman record. There is an interesting sidelight to Sidney’s final film work in Mars Attacks! She played her scenes with a recently broken hip, suffered from a car accident that occurred just before filming began. Sylvia Sidney eventually died of throat cancer.
•GUY MITCHELL (July 1; 72)—The 1950s pop singer really took off after Mitch Miller guided his career. Following some singing years with big bander Carmen Cavallaro’s Orchestra in the late 1940s, Mitchell was contracted by Columbia Records. Miller, then head producer-arranger at Columbia, successfully guided Mitchell much as he did Doris Day, Frankie Laine, and Tony Bennett. Guy Mitchell had million-seller hit after hit: “My Heart Cries for You” (1950—after Frank Sinatra turned down recording it); “Singing the Blues” (1956); “The Roving Kind” (1956)—remarkably the “B” side of “Singing the Blues”); and “Heartaches By the Number” (1959). Like me, maybe you remember the songs but had forgotten the name of the singer.
Apart from show business, Guy had cowboy aspirations, making saddles and riding horses. Often headlining in Las Vegas during his heyday, Mitchell died in a Vegas hospital after “complications following surgery.”
•DEFOREST KELLEY (June 11; 79)—Yes, it is old news by now, but maybe there are some career tidbits outside his Star Trek legacy. For one, are you aware that Kelley played Morgan Earp opposite Burt Lancaster’s Wyatt in 1957’s Gunfight at the O.K. Corral? Of course, we all know that Kelley was a support in a multitude of B-westerns and crime dramas throughout his pre-Star Trek days.
But did you know his last known screen performance is as the voice of Viking 1 in the direct-to-video animated feature, The Brave Little Toaster Goes to Mars? Or that he might, just might, appear as Dr. Bones McCoy in Secret of Vulcan Fury, a rumored upcoming Star Trek movie? (Gossip says that the production is currently stalled due to lack of funds.) If I hear anything about that movie, I will let you know. If any readers know anything, please let me know.
Kelley died after a long illness at the Motion Picture-Television Fund Hospital in Los Angeles. Carolyn, his wife of 55 years, was at his bedside. Coincidentally, Mrs. Kelley just happened to be a patient in the same hospital due to her recently broken leg.