Gavin MacLeod had to know both The Mary Tyler Moore Show and The Love Boat would be referenced in the first line of all his obituaries. The New York State native — who passed away May 29 at 90 — was Murray Slaughter or Captain Stubing through 16 straight seasons of network TV glory. Yet
Paul Soles — one of the last surviving members of the annual holiday special Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer voice cast — passed away Wednesday in Toronto. He was 90. Soles, of course, was known for so much more than that. His career in Canadian television spanned seven decades, from an early appearance on London, Ontario’s
One of the great late night talk show guests of all time was Charles Grodin. Who else was cocky enough to slump down next to Johnny Carson and ask if he cared at all about any of his guests? (As he does in the above clip from 1990.) The studio audience and viewers at home
Canadian filmmaker and IMAX co-inventor Graeme Ferguson passed away May 8 at 91 at his home in the heart of Ontario’s cottage country. He made a film that had a great impact on this writer as a young teenager — “North of Superior.” Mr. Ferguson career in television reached back into the ’50s and included
Johnny Crawford was a kid on a real cowboy set back when millions of other youngsters across North America were faking it at home. Difference was, Crawford was getting paid big bucks to live out his fantasy as a child star on the late ’50s, early ’60s TV western The Rifleman. I met him in
On Sunday, CNN premieres The Story of Late Night, a six-part docuseries examining the nearly 70-year history of television’s post-primetime talk shows. The series was produced by Toronto-based Cream Productions. To set it all up, listen to my conversation with Bill Carter (above), the long-time New York Times columnist and bestselling “Late Shift” author who
Felix Silla was one of those actors you likely saw many times on TV or in blockbuster films but you’d never recognize him out of costume. The Italian born actor, for example, was unrecognizable under a body suit of hair as Cousin Itt on The Addams Family (1964-66). Later, he played an Ewok in the
Much of my world view of international politics in the late ’60s, early ’70s was gleaned from the work of the great Toronto Star editorial cartoonist Duncan Macpherson. One example, above, shows HRH Prince Philip, returning home from a royal visit to Canada with multiple cowboy hats. His wife, The Queen, waits with a rolling