I notice that all the cast whose name appears at the start of the show ie Jack Klugman, Garry Walberg, Robert Ito, John S Ragin etc are all still alive. Pretty remarkable considering the show ended 28 years ago.
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What a load of crap. They came from a generation known for heavy smoking, alcohol use, exposure to asbestos/DDT/PCBs/Industrial Waste, poorer quality health care, draft into multiple wars, extremely unsafe automobiles, and much unsafer food and medicine supplies.
It's called genetics and coincidence, sweetheart.
That being said, it IS a remarkably long lived cast. But it's just chance, nothing else.
Garry Walberg passed away in March.
shareSadly, Jack Klugman passed away earlier this week. But he did have a long life. He lived to the age of 90.
I am trying to think of other classic shows whose cast members enjoyed long lives. Al Molinaro from "Happy Days" is 93 years old. Marion Ross is 84. Tom Bosley passed away a couple years ago, but lived to 83.
You hear a lot about shows that are jinxed. "Diff'rent Strokes" comes to mind. Both Dana Plato and Gary Coleman died very young.
Surprisingly long tenured cast too. It's hard to believe with the heavy turnover in long running series nowadays, most of the cast of Quincy were there from beginning to end :
Quincy
Sam
Asten
Monaghan
Brill
Danny
Ed the photographer
I think only Mark, Quincy's other tech kinda disappeared toward the end .
Ed The Photographer was played by character actor Eddie Garret. He passed away on May 13, 2010 at the age of 82 in Palm Desert, California. Garrett appeared as the coroner's office photographer in more than 100 episodes. His main qualification was being a close friend of Jack Klugman. He also appeared in seven episodes of "The Odd Couple" and one episode of "You Again", a short lived Klugman TV show with John Stamos.
shareI always still get a kick out of seeing Ed the photographer appear briefly in almost every episode. I always like to see how long he stays in a scene with his camera for, usually just a few seconds. He's either just finishing taking his snapshots and then quickly leaves or he appears briefly to deliver his portraits to Quincy and then quickly leaves. He also appears regularly at Danny's and usually says very little.
sharein fact most of the people are still alive. The policeman in the show whose name escapes me died last year. I dont know of any cast that has lived for so long
shareIt's interesting, because I just watched the season 3 opening episode, and was curious to see what became of everyone. As you mentioned, the main cast lived (and are living) to ripe old ages. But in that episode, two of the relatively young actresses, Mary Frann (Newheart) and Ina Balin, both died in their early 50's of heart attacks.
shareJohn S. Ragin passed away on April 14, 2013 at the age of 83.
Garry Walberg passed away from chronic pulmonary disease on March 26, 2012 at age 90 in Northridge, California. In addition to playing Lt. Frank Monahan, Walberg had previously worked with Jack Klugman in "The Odd Couple" as Oscar's poker buddy "Speed".
Val Bisoglio still alive and kicking at the age of 89. Danny can never die.
shareDanny can never die.
That's a brilliant remark about the power of Danny's food. Cheers to you!
As for long-lived casts of TV shows, I suppose the actors in The Mary Tyler Moore Show may also share that title (save for Ted Knight).