Longtime To Tell the Truth contestant Orson Bean has passed away at the age of 91 in Venice. Reports indicate that whilst he was crossing a street, he was clipped by one car and then run over by another.  :\'(

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/orson-bean-longtime-actor-comedian-hit-killed-car-los-angeles/

Bean was a fixture on TV for years, both in game shows as well as slots in fare such as Dr Quinn Medicine Woman, How I Met Your Mother, and Desperate Housewives. He also had a role in Being John Malkovich, and even filmed a movie way back when with the lovely Jayne Mansfield.  :-*

Longtime To Tell the Truth contestant Orson Bean has passed away at the age of 91 in Venice. Reports indicate that whilst he was crossing a street, he was clipped by one car and then run over by another.  :\'(

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/orson-bean-longtime-actor-comedian-hit-killed-car-los-angeles/

Bean was a fixture on TV for years, both in game shows as well as slots in fare such as Dr Quinn Medicine Woman, How I Met Your Mother, and Desperate Housewives. He also had a role in Being John Malkovich, and even filmed a movie way back when with the lovely Jayne Mansfield.  :-*


Orson Bean was a staple of game shows and talk shows in the 60s and 70s. A lot of people were on talk shows in those days just to TALK, and didn't necessarily always have something to plug. It was David Letterman in the early 80s who invented the awful snarky talk show format as we now know it. People come on for 4 or 5 minutes with rehearsed comedic banter, plug their latest movie, and leave. In mid century, talk shows were 90 minutes and people had long, what would now seem languid conversations. Bean would always have unusual, interesting pieces of information. One time on the Johnny Carson show he talked about a set of twins he had heard about who only communicated to each other in what seemed like a fully formed language they came up with themselves. They wouldn't communicate to anybody else at all. In the pre-internet era this type of thing was quite interesting.

ps-it's a shame that a person lives to 91 years old and then gets hit by a car.

Orson Bean was a staple of game shows and talk shows in the 60s and 70s. A lot of people were on talk shows in those days just to TALK, and didn't necessarily always have something to plug. It was David Letterman in the early 80s who invented the awful snarky talk show format as we now know it. People come on for 4 or 5 minutes with rehearsed comedic banter, plug their latest movie, and leave. In mid century, talk shows were 90 minutes and people had long, what would now seem languid conversations. Bean would always have unusual, interesting pieces of information. One time on the Johnny Carson show he talked about a set of twins he had heard about who only communicated to each other in what seemed like a fully formed language they come up with themselves. They wouldn't communicate to anybody else at all. In the pre-internet era this type of thing was quite interesting.

ps-it's a shame that a person lives to 91 years old and then gets hit by a car.


Derwood Kirby and Kitty Carlisle were the same sort of game show celebs back then.

It's a shame he died so tragically at such an advanced age. He looked well enough to live past 100. RIP Orson.

Derwood Kirby and Kitty Carlisle were the same sort of game show celebs back then.


And Peggy Cass!

Derwood Kirby and Kitty Carlisle were the same sort of game show celebs back then.


While I'm thinking of it, there used to be a saying in showbiz in those days that "once you've done game shows you're finished". In other words, that's all you'll do and nobody will take you seriously anymore. One of the few to break out of that rut was Betty White. She was well known for game shows and the like in the 60s and 70s (and 50s!). I also remember her hosting the Thanksgiving and New Year's parades on TV. But once she got the role as "Sue Ann Nivens, the Happy Homemaker" on the Mary Tyler Moore Show circa mid-70s she regained all respect as a legitimate actress as opposed to just a "television personality" which is a whole different ballgame.

I liked him on Dr. Quinn.

He once did a song that my father taught to all of us kids which he learned from his father. (Of course all my nieces & nephews know it, too.) My dad once said, "I can die in peace now that all my kids and grandkids know this song."

Of course Orson Bean sung it differently than we were taught but here it his version:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_dW8qEUL4p8


Cat

It's a shame he died so tragically at such an advanced age. He looked well enough to live past 100. RIP Orson.

I thought so too. :-[

While I'm thinking of it, there used to be a saying in showbiz in those days that "once you've done game shows you're finished".


Paul Lynde did pretty well with the game show gig. He milked that Center Square thing for years and made a fortune on it.  8)

Paul Lynde did pretty well with the game show gig. He milked that Center Square thing for years and made a fortune on it.  8)


It's pretty common knowledge though, that Paul Lynde, whom I thought was terrific by the way, was extremely frustrated with the state of his career and was a serious alcoholic. And apparently he could be very abusive when he was drinking. It's what eventually got him fired from Hollywood Squares.

It's pretty common knowledge though, that Paul Lynde, whom I thought was terrific by the way, was extremely frustrated with the state of his career and was a serious alcoholic. And apparently he could be very abusive when he was drinking. It's what eventually got him fired from Hollywood Squares.


Wasn't he gay too?

Wasn't he gay too?


Yes he was. It was during that time when nobody ever talked about it. People like Lynde, Charles Nelson Reilley and Liberace were extremely obvious, but pretended to the public that they were heterosexual. Some believed it, some didn't. It's the way it was in those days. Many of Lynde's double entendres on Hollywood Squares went right over people's heads. Others, like Richard Deacon who played "Mel Cooley" on the Dick Van Dyke Show were far less "obvious", but were also gay. Deacon was pretty humorous about it in his later years. He said "you see a somber bald man with glasses in a dark business suit and the last thing you think is 'gay'".

Yes he was. It was during that time when nobody ever talked about it. People like Lynde, Charles Nelson Reilley and Liberace were extremely obvious, but pretended to the public that they were heterosexual. Some believed it, some didn't. It's the way it was in those days. Many of Lynde's double entendres on Hollywood Squares went right over people's heads. Others, like Richard Deacon who played "Mel Cooley" on the Dick Van Dyke Show were far less "obvious", but were also gay. Deacon was pretty humorous about it in his later years. He said "you see a somber bald man with glasses in a dark business suit and the last thing you think is 'gay'".



I was totally oblivious to those "obvious" ones-until I was much older.  :-[  Dick Sargent was also less "obvious." I didn't know he was gay until after he died.


Cat

I was totally oblivious to those "obvious" ones-until I was much older.  :-[  Dick Sargent was also less "obvious." I didn't know he was gay until after he died.


Cat


It sounds strange now, but almost everybody was oblivious to it. In those days everybody was basically "assumed" to be heterosexual until it was proven otherwise. Even outrageously flamboyant people like Liberace. He was thought to be flamboyant because he was a "showman". In the 1950s He famously sued a British tabloid that insinuated he was gay and WON.

Wasn't he gay too?


I just thought he was flamboyant.