| May 13 |
1911-- veteran character actor Robert Middleton was born in Cincinnati, Ohio. This veteran character actor of the first three decades of television was known mostly for his portrayal of villains. Born Samuel Messer, he died of heart failure on June 14, 1977. He was 66 years old. 1943 -- German soldiers in the Netherlands confiscated all radios. 1959 -- the legendary Kraft Music Hall aired for the final time on NBC. The began 26 years earlier on radio. 1967 -- 'prematurely grizzled' character actor Frank McGrath, who played cook Charlie Wooster on 'Wagon Train,' died of a heart attack at the age of 64. Frank had also showed his comic abilities in two recent Don Knotts films, 'The Reluctant Astronaut' and 'The Shakiest Gun in the West.' 1967 -- "Somethin' Stupid" by Nancy & Frank Sinatra topped the charts and stayed there for 4 weeks. 1972 -- tragically, beloved actor Dan Blocker, Hoss Cartwright on the long-running western Bonanza, died following surgery at age 43. Two weeks earlier he had undergone gall bladder surgery. While the surgery reportedly went well, he developed a pulmonary embolism and died unexpectedly. There is a Dan Blocker section of native son Dan in the O'Donnell, Texas, museum. 1992 -- the final episode of "Night Court" aired on NBC-TV. Ironically, seven years earlier to the day, actress Selma Diamond, who played chain-smoking baliff Selma Hacker, died at 64 of lung cancer. Her replacement, actress Florence Halop, also died of lung cancer, also after just one year on the series. 1998 -- two shows of note aired. On CBS, 'The Nanny' finally married her boss. And the show 'Ellen' ended its 5-year run with a unique episode: a 'mockumentary' of star Ellen DeGeneress's 'lengthy' career, most notably her 1950s stint as host of the game show 'Who's a Commie.' |