My weekly Kansas City Kansan newspaper column took a new turn with these celebrity passings…originally published Sept. 9, 2004.
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By Steve Crum
Beginning today, a regular part of this column will be “The Unforgettable Gone,” focusing on showbiz celebrity deaths.
My intention is to report passings that are unreported in the mainstream press, usually because the celebrity is no longer high profile. Look for supporting actors and actresses as well as former stars of movies, TV, radio and stage. And even the less celebrated. It’s pure and simple nostalgia.
The feature will be included at the close of each column, usually following a movie review. Since this is the feature’s premiere, here is the expanded cut. Listed in no particular order…
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•JACKSON BECK (died at 92 on July 28, 2004)—During the golden days of radio, pre-1950, Beck made a good living as an announcer. Among his gigs was narrating the Superman radio series: “Faster than a speeding bullet; more powerful than a locomotive; able to leap tall buildings in a single bound….” In those days, Bud Collyer (later of TV’s To Tell the Truth) voiced Superman/Clark Kent.
Surely you remember Beck’s voice in 300 Popeye cartoons. (He was Bluto.) On TV, he was a very British King Leonardo in Saturday morning cartoons.
•RED ADAIR (89; Aug. 7, 2004)—One of John Wayne’s most colorful film roles is that of Paul Neal “Red” Adair, the legendary oil fighter depicted in 1968’s The Hellfighters. It was natural causes, not flames, that ended the adventurer’s life.
•GYPSY BOOTS (89; Aug. 8, 2004)—If you were a nut about The Steve Allen Show during the 1960s like yours truly, you have to remember the bizarre Gypsy Boots.
Boots was one of a cadre of eccentrics Allen would feature on his late night talk/variety show from Vine Street in Hollywood. The homeless looking guy appeared in only one movie, the forgettable Mondo Hollywood (1967).
Robert “Gypsy Boots” Bootzin was a hippie-looking, beared, short, spindly health freak who shared his dietary strangeness with Allen and the world. Once you saw Gypsy and heard his gospel of fruits and vegetables, you never forgot him.
•HENRI CARTIER-BRESSON (95; Aug. 2, 2004)—One of the world’s great photographers, Cartier-Bresson was also a sometime movie actor. He made a notable appearance in director Jean Renoir’s The Rules of the Game (1939) as Le Cuisinier.
•MARIUS CONSTANT (79; May 15, 2004)—You probably don’t know his name, but you know his sound. He wrote the ever famous theme for TV’s The Twilight Zone. If you can’t get enough of that music watching Rod Serling reruns, check out the theme at your nearest casino.
It’s now a part of Twilight Zone penny slot machine.
•DANNY DARK (65; June 14, 2004)—His was the voice-over in hundreds of TV commercials and cartoons. Remember Charlie the Tuna? Recall the rejection, “Sorry, Charlie,” when Charlie wasn’t good enough to be Starkist quality? That was Dark giving the bad news.
And some animal pals:
•KEIKO (died of pneumonia at 27; Dec. 12, 2003)—The imposing, killer whale star of the Free Willy movies took his final dive in Norway. In Japanese, “Keiko” means “lucky one.”
•MISTER ED (19; in California during 1968)—On his popular TV series, Ed would only speak to Wilbur. The palomino was voice by Allan Lane, the former cowboy star better know as Rocky Lane in dozens of heroic B-westerns. Ed had another name too, his real one: Bamboo Harvester.
Plus a long living chimp:
•J. FRED MUGGS (born March 14, 1952)—At last report, this early TV sensation was still alive and climbing in Tampa, Florida. That makes the celebrity chimpanzee 52 years old! He has outlived his 1953-58 Today Show co-star Dave Garroway by decades. [Recent Update: J. Fred Muggs died on June 21, 2025, at the age of 73.]
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