What Broadway performers deaths have surprised/saddened?- Page 2

[Patronus]

Posted: 8/31/05 at 10:34am

I was also very saddened by Jerry Orbach's passing. John Ritter and Jason Raize were both shocking to me.

Of course any time we lose someone that has even the most insignificant impact on our lives it's a sad day.

[WickedGeek28]

Posted: 8/31/05 at 10:39am

Jason Raize's death was so unexpected and so sad. I love his voice very much.

Cy Coleman's death was so sudden, it was like woah!

I didn't know that Steve Barton was dead, how did he die?

As for David Carrol, my teacher was besdt friends with him as kids and adults, and she told me about how sad it was.

[gymman]

Posted: 8/31/05 at 10:53am

Larry Kert

[Mo3]

Posted: 8/31/05 at 11:01am

I'm older than most here, so I have to say three: David James Carroll, Kim Milford, both of whom I had met, and Raul Julia.

[RockabyeHamlet]

Posted: 8/31/05 at 11:13am

Jason Raize
Jerry Orbach
Cy Coleman
Wally Harper

[Adam Chris]

Posted: 8/31/05 at 12:38pm

I think Jason Raize's death was the saddest for me. Most everyone else that was mentioned on the board lived full and sucessful lives. Jason, on the other hand, had his whole life before him. I don't understand would have caused him to believe suicide was the best way to go. Had he lived longer, who knows how much more he could have contributed.

[Calvin]

Posted: 8/31/05 at 12:54pm

Madeline Kahn. Like some of the others, she had been sick for a while, but still.

[sanda]

Posted: 8/31/05 at 1:01pm

The Greatest Carl Anderson

In 2002, Jesus Christ Superstar tour played near my place with Carl, but I missed the show. And in 2004 I knew that Carl passed away. One of the most regrets in my theatre life.

[Garland Grrrl]

Posted: 8/31/05 at 1:06pm

my greatest shock, and i blocked it out until this minute, was lynne thigpen. i had a twilight zone moment when i heard. she was one of the liveliest people you would ever meet. her death was an awful blow and i carried it around for a while.

[ashley0139]

Posted: 8/31/05 at 1:08pm

Definetly Jerry Orbach was one. I was really upset when I first heard. It's still hard to believe.

[lildogs]

Posted: 8/31/05 at 1:12pm

I remember screaming when I saw Gwen Verdon's obit...

[Hanna from Hamburg]

Posted: 8/31/05 at 1:20pm

Michael Jeter -- such a comedic genious. It's hard to imagine someone that makes that many people laugh having to die.
Same thing rings true for Madeline Kahn -- such a FUNNY, talented woman who went WAY before her time.

[C is for Company]

Posted: 8/31/05 at 1:26pm

I second Madeleine Kahn, she was a funny performer

[iluvtheatertrash]

Posted: 8/31/05 at 1:29pm

Jerry Orbach, Dorothy Loudon and Gregory Hines.

God, I miss them!

[Unknown User]

Posted: 8/31/05 at 1:50pm

Jason Raize. I knew him...or at least I thought I did. He would have turned 30 this summer....

[Borstalboy]

Posted: 8/31/05 at 1:54pm

Michael Bennett
Danitra Vance

as for non-theater related deaths, nothing blew me away more than the death of River Phoenix.

[Princeton78]

Posted: 8/31/05 at 4:59pm

I'll second Lynne Thigpen.

[Creative Lunatic]

Posted: 8/31/05 at 7:11pm

Anne Bancroft's death really saddened me. I hadn't known that she was ill. In her career she won a Tony for Miracle Worker, an Emmy and an Academy Award. My impression had always been that she and Mel Brooks had an amazing marriage and that he adored her.
I felt as if she was his life force and so felt as if not only did the theater community lose a great talent, but that it might take Mel Brooks a long time to recover his passion

[best12bars]

Posted: 8/31/05 at 7:34pm

The ones we lost in their prime always get me...
I often wonder what theatre would be like now, if they had been around longer.

Michael Bennett

Jerry Ross - together with his partner Richard Adler, Jerry wrote "The Pajama Game" and "Damn Yankees." He died at the youthful age of 29, winning both his Tonys for "Damn Yankees" posthumously.

Jonathan Larson

PERFORMERS:
Ron Richardson (Tony winner for Big River), Timothy Scott (B'way's first Mr. Mistoffelees), Gregg Burge (Sophisticated Ladies)... So many others.

[NBC]

Posted: 8/31/05 at 7:58pm

Gregory Mitchell.

I was just copying my 1999 clip of some of the Chicago cast singing Christmas carols on the Today show for somebody, and it struck me that two of the people in it are no longer with us, Greg Mitchell and Mark Arvin. Both gone way too early.

[chenofan]

Posted: 8/31/05 at 9:11pm

Ms. Kahn
Ms. Loundon
and the lovely Margo Skinner

[BobbyBubby]

Posted: 8/31/05 at 9:13pm

Bob Merrill

[Feathah]

Posted: 8/31/05 at 10:39pm

Many of my personal saddest losses have been mentioned. But the waves of AIDS-related deaths among the theater community were just devastating.

[GirlforTartaglia]

Posted: 8/31/05 at 10:45pm

Jerry Orbach and Jonathan Larson

[hushpuppy]

Posted: 8/31/05 at 11:27pm

Fred Ebb
Ann Miller
and Ted Bales, a marvelous comedic actor, seen off-Broadway in Party.