The ones I miss the most

One of the tiny handful of stand-up comedians who can make me laugh out loud several times in one sitting...and a tremendous acting and writing talent as well. Had more of us known the desperate misery behind that manic façade, we might have saved him. A loss to make the angels weep.

A genius of a storyteller and performer, taken from us far too soon.

The eyes had it!

Beauty, brains, talent and a wicked sense of humor - all lost to cancer far too soon.

Karl Urban had some mighty big scrubs to fill. But De played so many other roles long before he became "Bones," chiefly in movie and TV Westerns. And he was far and away the warmest, most polite, friendly, patient and accessible of STAR TREK's ever-growing family of stars.

Mr. Roarke (the original), Khan Singh and a world of other fine characters...and a legacy of groundbreaking and activism for Hispanic actors in the US. These are what he left us.

Rumpole, Number Two, Father Imperius and many others had life breathed into them by this singular man.

I can still hear that plummy English-sounding voice (he was actually born in Romania!) saying, "Mr. Hart, your brain is STILL mush!" or "They make money the old-fashioned way: they EARRNNN it!"

Auteur, actor and pitchman - whatever he did, he gave it his best.

Another beautiful and funny lady taken from us by cancer before her time.

Just as she was really beginning to hit it big, we lost her.

The single best thing about NBC's LAW & ORDER, and a great Broadway song-and-dance man to boot. He kept doing what he loved almost right up to the end.

Probably the best-loved companion in DOCTOR WHO history, and a classy lady in real life. Only her old friend and castmate Tom Baker knew how sick she was in her last days.

The Brigadier, AKA Sir Alastair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart, OBE. The best friend any Doctor ever had...and many of them did!

From THE TWILIGHT ZONE to BATMAN to SEARCH, from the original CLASH OF THE TITANS to the ROCKY series, he made every character he played one you couldn't take your eyes off. And then there was that voice that graced so many cartoons and TV commercials (Sargento cheese, anyone?).

The man who gave most of the Warner Bros. stable of cartoon characters their original voices...and many others as well.

The funniest lady TV ever saw, bar absolutely none...and another ground-breaker in the industry, the first truly powerful woman in television.

He was so much more than just Oscar Madison and Dr. Quincy...and kept at it even after throat cancer robbed him of most of his voice. His episodes of the classic TWILIGHT ZONE series rank with the best of any series ever produced.

One of the finest character actors ever to grace either the big or the small screen...and an actual war hero, who stormed the beaches at Normandy on D-Day.

Probably the first female stand-up comic to actually be successful in what until then had been overwhelmingly a man's field. Every female comic since, from Tomlin and Boosler to Silverman and Cho, owes her an un-repayable debt for blazing the trail.

North Carolina's favorite son and Mayberry's leading citizen..as well as crack lawyer Ben Matlock, space salvager Harry Broderick and many other characters only he could have brought to life.

From HIGH NOON to INHERIT THE WIND, from DRAGNET to M*A*S*H, this lovely old gent entertained me and mine for many years. He classed up anything he appeared in, always.

Straight man for decades to Carol Burnett, Tim Conway and Mel Brooks, who could hold his own opposite every one of them in both TV and films.

If all he'd ever done was breathe world-weary life into ROGER RABBIT's hard-bitten L.A. gumshoe Eddie Valiant, he'd be worth remembering...but he played so many other roles, including some I hadn't even known about until his death. (Would you believe Nikita Khrushchev? Yep, in ENEMY AT THE GATES.) He made the most of even minor roles, gleefully committing shameless grand larceny on every scene he was in. And he was a kind and generous mentor to his younger co-stars as well. I miss him dreadfully.

From a vaudeville debut at 18 months to his death at 93 (!!), Mickey left a career spanning nine decades and a life almost as eventful and tumultuous...and a genius for reinventing himself over and over. You could spend days watching all his performances before turning up a single lemon--and I'd bet real money you wouldn't find one. When no less than Cary Grant, Anthony Quinn and Sir Laurence freakin' Olivier ALL name you as the best actor they know in Hollywood, you must have had something going for you besides longevity and perseverance -- though God knows the Mick had both and to spare.

Actress and AIDS/HIV activist before it was fashionable...or safe.

A vastly underrated talent in both comedic acting and writing, one of the many distinguished alumni of the comedy-star factory that is Chicago's Second City troupe, Toronto branch. One of the greatest gifts Canada ever gave us...and one of the most missed. Without him, Chris Farley, John Goodman, Horatio Sanz and a lot of other plus-sized funny guys would have had a way tougher time breaking big.

Probably the greatest gift the radio, advertising and recording industries wish to hell they'd never gotten. A truly gifted satirist, songwriter and ad man, Stan spent decades gleefully biting the corporate hands that fed him every chance he got...and often paying for it big-time. If you can find a copy of his autobiography, "It Only Hurts When I Laugh," read it and learn more about his amazing career. And if you're a fan of Weird Al Yankovic, you have Stan to thank in part as one of Al's early influences.

One of the greatest among those actors who are so very, very good at being bad.

He was Spock...and so very much more. Actor, director, photographer, philanthropist, author and raconteur.

The first (and forever the best) James Bond...but he grew to become so very much more in a variety of other roles, both leading and supporting. The greatest gift Scotland has given the world since whiskey.

"You got spunk...I *hate* spunk!" Voice artist and actor par excellence, he not only brought crusty, principled newsie Lou Grant to life (in not one but TWO shows!), but a slave-ship captain in the original ROOTS, the feckless police chief in FREAKAZOID! and stock-market guru Warren Buffett among many others. On screens both small and big, he was a force to be reckoned with.

TV's first and best Barbara Gordon AKA Batgirl, Marta in STAR TREK's classic episode "Whom Gods Destroy," and a whole lot more.

Campy and silly though his BATMAN series was, he nevertheless became an icon for generations of viewers. Rest well, Bright Knight.

From the gleefully-carnivorous chef Louis in the original animated Disney film THE LITTLE MERMAID to the alien shape-shifter Constable Odo in STAR TREK: DEEP SPACE NINE, and from BENSON's unctuous Clayton Endicott III to BOSTON LEGAL's imperious lawyer Paul Lewiston, Rene was a sui generis treasure. (He was also the original Father Mulcahy in the film version of M*A*S*H!)

The first actor to play multiple leading characters and alien races in STAR TREK TV shows and films (Spock's Vulcan dad Ambassador Sarek, a Romulan ship commander and a Klingon captain). Also HERE COME THE BRIDES' shady tycoon Aaron Stemple and a narrator for many projects including QB VII.

Whatever he was in, be it TV or movies, sci-fi or war drama, he gave it his all...and his all was plenty.

Ben Cartwright in BONANZA! and BATTLESTAR: GALACTICA's original Commander Adama. Dog-food pitchman, underrated singer and yeoman supporting actor in films such as EARTHQUAKE and AUTUMN LEAVES. His avuncular, commanding presence is greatly missed.

He deliberately affected a plummy British accent to get better work than his natural Bronx one would have allowed him...and we never even suspected. From THE TWILIGHT ZONE to LOST IN SPACE, from SPACE ACADEMY to BUZZ LIGHTYEAR, he was so very good at being bad!

Major Anthony Nelson, USAF was his big break...but John Ross "J.R." Ewing Jr. was his legacy. The man who made DALLAS the phenomenon it was...and really was from there (well, close to there--Fort Worth).

One of England's greatest gifts to the world of entertainment. Film, TV, Broadway, music, cartoon voices--he could do it all, and did.

The only man who could get away with singing "He's the Wop" (to the tune of Cole Porter's "You're the Top") to Frank Sinatra on his birthday without sustaining injury. His boozehound persona was entirely affected (his glass usually held tea or apple juice, not liquor), but in music and acting, he was the suave, handsome real deal.

He may have been terribly miscast as Genghis Khan, but that was about the only misstep he ever made in a legendary film and TV career. The Duke lives on in filmic legend.

The Great One. What more really need be said?