Advertisement

Was it really a summer of death?

Share

This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.

New York magazine declared it so in August, reflecting on a week when conservative commentator Robert Novak and pioneering TV producer Don Hewitt died. The editors noticed a trend beginning with the death of comedic actor Dom DeLuise in May, followed by the departures of David Carradine, Ed McMahon, Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson in June, then the deaths of Karl Malden and Walter Cronkite in July, with John Hughes, Les Paul and Eunice Kennedy Shriver leaving us in August.

Then, a few weeks later, the New York Times examined the notion after ‘Dirty Dancing’ star Patrick Swayze and Mary Travers of Peter, Paul and Mary died in the same week. And don’t forget Henry Gibson of ‘Laugh-In.’

Advertisement

Now the Associated Press weighs in, with this opening line: ‘We had been told to expect the deaths of the famous to come in threes, not in the dozens.’

To read the rest of reporter Jake Coyle’s story (full disclosure: it includes a quote from me), click here.

-- Claire Noland

Advertisement