RIP: Doctor Johnny Fever, Howard Hessman, 81

[thewayne]

[Updated to add Rolling Stone and HuffPo links and some other info and refreshed the posting date]

Possibly his best known performance was as the amazing disc jockey on WKRP In Cincinnati on CBS from 1978 to 1982, Hessman appeared on a wide variety of shows and a few movies. He was also a stage performer before making his break on TV.

One show he appeared on that this People obit does not mention is Soap, a delightful comedy spoofing soap operas. In it he played a defense attorney brought in to defend the Tates against murder charges. It was a wonderful role. WKRP, like Soap, had some truly great writers.

I had forgotten about his role in Spinal Tap. Apparently the actor playing the rocker couldn't improvise, so they brought in Hessman. Good call.

He was taken from complications from colon surgery, I only hope it wasn't peritonitis. Hessmqn actually had colon cancer, and surgery from that.


https://www.rollingstone.com/tv/tv-news/howard-hesseman-wkrp-in-cincinnati-head-of-the-class-dead-obit-1292607/

https://people.com/tv/howard-hesseman-dies-81-wkrp-in-cincinnati-actor-colon-surgery/

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/howard-hesseman-star-of-wkrp-in-cincinnati-dies-at-81_n_61f6ee87e4b094ce54ac1e30

Comments

[thewayne]

You've had quite a live: Aerospace, on the air, and quite a few stops inbetween!

[acelightning73]

I was in the Civil Air Patrol as a teenager. I have been hugged by Isaac Asimov. I may have been one of the first women radio engineers in New York City, but I can't prove it. I am a Mayflower descendant, and I'm thoroughly ashamed of the ways my ancestors treated the people they met when they arrived (they got thrown out of both England and the Netherlands for being too Puritanical) I am a Wiccan Priestess. I have been to Australia, Canada, Iceland, and Bermuda. I turned 74 years old this past December, and I'm still planning to have a big party when I turn 100(you're invited, of course). And once, when I'd been working on a big web design project, I found myself dreaming in HTML.

[thewayne]

Nice!  I do wish my wife had completed her pilot's license when she was a teen. I can't say I dream in code, but I think in relational database table design.  I was once in a meeting to discuss me creating a system for reporting vote results, and I designed the database during the meeting!  Spring fully formed into my mind.  Recently, I've been creating Lord of the Rings lyrics for the Lord of the Rings Online game, rewriting songs like Sound of Silence and Sting's Fields of Gold, and recently have been on a Hobbit food theme binge.  Sound of Silence leaped into my mind as I was waking up this morning: Oh my dark red glowing friend I’ll soon be back with you again for a banked stone oven.  I think I can do a lot with that opening.  I have lots of fun with lyrics, I was hanging out online with two friends who were practicing music, and they were noodling with Here Comes The Sun, and I sprang out with "Here Comes The Buns!", and immediately followed with "Damn, now I have to write it!" and have started doing so."