MOURN!
What’ll it be Norm? One big dose of formaldehyde. If Pope Francis was the biggest death this year newswise, the literal biggest goes to George Wendt. After a few years of bit-part character acting, Wendt became a name everyone knew as Norman Peterson on Cheers. The corpulent barfly was the bar’s most reliable customer, greeted to fanfare each night as he paddled over to his stool to chug down a beer and let out a sardonic quip. The roles never dried up from there, reprising Norm in The Simpsons, Frasier, and St. Elsewhere, and branching out to Saturday Night Live and a Columbo killer. His build meant living to 76 was already defying Norms, and now he’s a cold one.
The kiss of death for Hot Lips… elsewhere in departed US sitcom icons, we depart Bostonian comfort to crash into the hellzone of wartorn Korea. Loretta Swit played Margaret “Hot Lips” Houlihan, the 4077’s head nurse on M*A*S*H. Her short-tempered, Frank Burns-rendezvousing Houlihan was frequent foil to Hawkeye’s prankster shenanigans in the early seasons. Her character softened amidst the series’ maturer turn, with her care for her fellow nurses more apparent and the comic dalliances with Burns traded for a heart-wrenching marriage to Penobscott. She bids Goodbye, Farewell, and Amen aged 87, which slightly underwhelms when you consider her mum lived to 105.
Tough times continue for humble, South American-originating world leaders, with Pepe going PU. Jose Mujica was a Marxist guerrilla imprisoned during much of the Uruguayan military dictatorship of the 70s and 80s. After democracy was restored and Mujica was freed, he became a potent force in Uruguayan politics in the senate and, come 2010, the presidency. No Qatari jets in sight for our José, he instead donated most of his presidential salary to local charities, and his administration legalised abortion, same-sex marriage, and marijuana. An oesophageal cancer diagnosis ensured he’d be picked by a Broad Front of teams.
Alf Clausen composed for 80s fare like Moonlighting and ALF before turning to The Simpsons, responsible for many classic songs across nearly-three decades from chimpan-a to chimpanzee. Greg Cannom did makeup on films like Mrs. Doubtfire and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Joe Don Baker was a regular tough guy actor, such as Bond ally Jack Wade in Goldeneye, and Mara Corday was the oldest living Playboy Playmate and a fixture of 50s B-movies and Westerns.
Football deaths were Shrewsbury forward Chic Bates and journalist Brian Glanville, who could lay claim to being the greatest writer on the sport. Comics writer Peter David helmed a 12-year run in charge of Marvel’s Incredible Hulk storylines that were seen as definitive in rounding out Bruce Banner’s character. Phil Robertson, bearded patriarch of the mallard-mauling Duck Dynasty, was so prominent in the reality TV stakes that even I heard of him outside of deadpooling, which cannot be said for 90 Day Fiance personality Ben Rathbun.
US representative Gerry Connolly had been given a key post on the House Oversight Committee several months ago, with his Democrat colleagues noting he was in excellent health cancer notwithstanding. Given you’re reading about him now, no guessing on how that little asterisk panned out. A congressional dinosaur who did eventually retire was Charles Rangel, part of the Harlem powerhouse “Gang of Four” whose 46 years in the house were marked by civil rights advocacy and corruption scandals. Los Angeles councilman Nate Holden was in the same helicopter as Donald Trump when it nearly crashed in 1990.
Back in the 19th century, US president John Tyler was still shagging into his old age. His son Lyon Gardiner took the like father, like son approach, and his sperm gave the world one Harrison Ruffin Tyler. Known for founding a water treatment company and preserving his grandpa’s home, he was also a complete amateur who was finished babymaking by his mid-30s. German noblewoman Marianne Sayn-Wittgenstein-Sayn took over 300,000 photos of the rich and famous from Warhol to King Charles, Paul van Hoeydonck sculpted the Fallen Astronaut which the Apollo 15 crew placed on the Moon where it remains to this day, and we also lost Holocaust survivor Margot Friedlander, French Resistance spy Marthe Cohn, and Russian ballet dancer and choreographer Yuri Grigorovich.