Actress Dixie Carter - best known for her role as Southerner Julia Sugarbaker on Designing Women – passed away Saturday morning. She was 70.
Her cause of death was not disclosed.
“This has been a terrible blow to our family,” her rep Steve Rohrsaid said in a statement. “We would appreciate everyone understanding that this is a private family tragedy.”
Carter – who also appeared on Broadway – earned an Emmy nod in 2007 for a guest role on ABC’s Desperate Housewives.
She is survived by husband of 26 years, actor Hal Holbrook, and two daughters from a previous marriage.
Dynasty star John Forsythe, who played patriarch Blake Carrington on the primetime soap and was the voice of Charlie in both the TV and film versions of Charlie’s Angels, lost his nearly four-year-battle with cancer on Thursday.
In a statement Friday, Reuters reported, “The family of John Forsythe sadly announces his passing on April 1, 2010. He was 92 years old and, thankfully, he died as he lived his life … with dignity and grace, after a years-long struggle with cancer.”
Forsythe, who also played Bentley Gregg, the swinging single saddled with an orphaned niece on the 1957-62 sitcom Bachelor Father, received three Emmy nominations for Dynasty, which ran from 1981-89. After making his film debut in 1943, he also appeared in the Alfred Hitchcock movies The Trouble with Harry (1955) and Topaz (1969), as well as 1988′s Bill Murray comedy Scrooged, among many others.
Born John Lincoln Freund in Penn’s Grove, N.J., Forsythe found his first love in the Brooklyn Dodgers. He dropped out of the University of North Carolina to become their stadium announcer.
A two-year marriage at 20 to actress Paula McCormick produced a son, Dall. A second marriage, to Julie Warren, lasted from 1943 until her death in 1994 and produced two daughters: Page and Brooke.
In 2002, he married businesswoman Nicole Carter, who, along with his children, survive him.
After serving as a speech rehabilitation counselor for shell-shocked Air Force pilots during World War II (“maybe the most rewarding moments of my life,” he told People), Forsythe came back to the Actors Studio and theater. Teahouse of the August Moon and Mr. Roberts on Broadway led to TV and his movie career.
In 2006, it was revealed Forsythe had been diagnosed with colon cancer.
He will be remembered for his distinguished voice and courtly presence on screen. Off screen, it was his modesty that separated him from the rest of the crowd.
In 1979, Forsythe told People, “I’m not a soaring talent. I am a good journeyman actor, but nowhere near the league of Brando or Scott. Those people are touched by the hand of God.”
Corey Haim had pulmonary congestion, an enlarged heart and water in his lungs, according to the L.A. County Coroner’s Office, but the Coroner has not determined that any of those conditions caused Haim’s death.
Law enforcement sources tell TMZ someone from the Coroner’s office called Corey’s mom, Judy Haim, today and told her they found these condition during the autopsy but that they could not say if the maladies caused Corey’s death.
TMZ’s sources say the Coroner will not determine a cause of death until the toxicology report is in.
TMZ has also learned the four pill bottles found in the apartment where Corey Haim collapsed yesterday included the generic versions of Vicodin and Valium … and the same doctor prescribed all 4 powerful meds just days before Haim died.
Law enforcement sources tell TMZ the pill bottles retrieved in the apartment of Haim’s mother are hydrocodone (Vicodin), diazepam (Valium), haloperidol (an antipsychotic med) and Soma (a muscle relaxer).
TMZ said all four meds were prescribed by a prominent Los Angeles psychiatrist.
The L.A. County Coroner’s Office would not comment on the specific meds found, nor would officials say how many pills — if any — were missing from the bottles.
Law enforcement sources tell TMZ they believe Haim died from an accidental overdose of meds, though nothing is final until the Coroner’s toxicology reports are in.
There have been reports Haim admitted in the past to taking as many as 85 Valium pills a day.
Haim collapsed in his mother’s apartment early yesterday and was pronounced dead 2 1/2 hours later.
Corey Haim collapsed in the bedroom of his mother’s apartment and four prescription bottles were found nearby … law enforcement sources tell TMZ.
We’ve learned Corey had been sick the last couple of days with flu-like symptoms. The medications recovered, however, were not related to his illness, sources tell TMZ.
We’re told no illicit drugs were found in the apartment.
Sources say Haim got out of bed just before 1 AM and collapsed in front of his mother. She called 911 at 12:53 AM and Corey was taken to the hospital where he was pronounced dead at 2:15 AM.
Corey’s mom told authorities he had been battling prescription drug addiction for years.
Authorities believe — though are not certain — Corey died of an accidental drug overdose.
UPDATE: We’re told the LAPD has wrapped up their preliminary investigation and it’s now in the coroner’s hands.
Corey Haim, the former teen idol who rose to fame in 1980s classics ‘The Lost Boys,’ ‘Lucas’ and ‘License to Drive,’ died Wednesday morning of an apparent drug overdose in Burbank, Calif., the LAPD has confirmed to several media outlets. He was 38. Local news station KTLA is reporting that Haim was found in an Oakwood, Calif., apartment, and that his mother was at the home at the time emergency responders arrived. TMZ is reporting that police were later called to the hospital to investigate.
Coroner Lt. Cheryl MacWillie told reporters that Haim died at 2:15 a.m. at Providence St. Joseph Medical Center in Burbank. An autopsy to determine the cause of death is pending.
Canadian-born Haim rose to fame in the 1980s as a child actor. His breakout role was in the critically-acclaimed 1986 film ‘Lucas,’ where he played a nerdy and skinny student looking to prove himself on a high school football team. He later went on to star in major commercial hits like the vampire movie ‘The Lost Boys,’ ‘License to Drive’ and ‘Dream a Little Dream.’
Like many child actors, Haim’s transition from kid to adult wasn’t easy, and the actor’s career — and self-esteem — faltered over the years.
Most of his films since the 1990s have been direct-to-video and low budget sequels to other well-known films. In 1997, he filed for bankruptcy and spent the next decade in and out of rehab for drug addiction. He reportedly suffered a drug-related stroke in 2001. In a 2004 interview, Haim said he began drinking in 1985 and a year later tried his first joint. From there, things went from bad to worse.
“I lived in Los Angeles in the ’80s, which was not the best place to be,” he said. “I did cocaine for about a year and a half, then it led to crack.”
After that, he claimed to have been hooked on pills, and was at one point taking up to 85 a day. “The doctors could not believe I was taking that much,” he told The Sun. “And that was just the Valium — I’m not talking about the other pills I went through.”
Most recently, Haim’s troubled relationship with fellow ’80s teen star Corey Feldman was documented in the A&E reality show ‘The Two Coreys.’ During the show, Haim’s substance abuse was often a recurring problem between the two actors. After taping the show in 2008, Feldman cut ties with Haim over his personal problems.
“I don’t feel that he’s a safe person to have around my wife and child at the moment, for a multitude of reasons,” Feldman told PEOPLE at the time.
Last year, Haim famously took out a full-page ad in Variety aimed at getting his career back on track. The ad read: “This is not a stunt. I’m back. I’m ready to make amends. I’m ready to work.” He then scored a role in ‘Crank 2′ alongside Jason Statham, and spoke to TV Guide about his new role. “I’m loving it, and … I just want to work, and that’s what I’m doing, thank God, on stuff I want to do,” he said.
Family and friends of Andrew Koenig attended a private memorial service on Saturday at the Inn of the Seventh Ray in Topanga Canyon, Calif. The former Growing Pains star can now rest in peace.
The 41-year-old actor, son of Star Trek’s Walter Koenig, had been missing for a week before his body was found in a wooded area of a Vancouver park after he apparently committed suicide by hanging.
“It was a celebration of life,” David Moss, a rep for Walter, told E! News. “All of the family was there and a lot of his actor friends and filmmakers flew down and joined in. It was not all happiness, I must say. There was a lot of sadness, but there were some very nice high points.”
A 10-minute movie was shown that celebrated Andrew’s life and Andrew’s sister and her husband gave a eulogy.
“They were kind of the highlights of the afternoon to bring some humor and warmth,” Moss explained of the speeches. “A movie was also made and put together of Andrew as a young child all the way up to current time.”
The actor’s parents chose not to speak and Moss explained, “It was tough for them. But there was some closure, and I think that was important.”
Some members of the Growing Pains and Star Trek casts were part of the approximate 100 people who attended the tribute.
“It was peaceful and it was warm,” Moss said. “The weather was reasonably nice, and it’s a lovely spot in the mountains, a nice restaurant. For lack of a better word, a good time was had by all.”
Where or when Andrew’s remains will be interred is still unknown.
“I have no information. I don’t know whether there was or is a cremation,” Moss explained. “If there’s a cremation, I don’t know how that’s going to be handled. If there was a burial, I wasn’t informed.”
Michael Bryan was supposed to spend the evening of Feb. 26 with his close friend Ruthann Clawson, and she texted him during the day about their plans, she tells Entertainment Tonight.
But at 9:23 p.m., Clawson got this reply: “There is a letter for you on my bed.” She asked him who wrote it and tried to call, but got no answer – so she went to his apartment. Bryan’s roommate let her in.
She found and read the letter and then looked over the balcony. She saw her friend lying there, motionless.
“He wanted me to tell his family that he loves them, that he loves each and every one of them, because he was scared to do it himself,” Clawson says.
Bryan told Clawson that he committed suicide because he wanted to be at peace – but he wanted her to live a long and happy life.
“I want people to remember him as the nicest person I’ve ever met,” she says.
A family friend tells People, “Marie knew Michael was troubled, but I don’t think she ever thought he would take his life.”
