Rant #3,063: Just a Song Before I Go

We all age.

That is a fact of life, and whether we are just you and me or someone who grabbed the ring of fame during their lives, nobody stays young forever.

And now we have two more ladies who at one time were TV icons, of some sort, who have left us, one seemingly right after the other.

Lisa Loring, who played Wednesday, the daughter of Gomez and Morticia Addams on the original “The Addams Family” TV show, passed away from a massive stroke the other day, at 64 years of age.

And then we had Cindy Williams, who played Shirley on “Laverne and Shirley,” who passed away after a brief illness at age 75.

When somebody who has impacted my youth passes away, I try to give a different angle to their lives when I write about them here at the Blog, and do it from my own perspective—making what I write different from what you get in your standard obituary--so I am going to start with Williams first.

Originally cast as two “floozies” on “Happy Days,” Williams, and Penny Marshall as Laverne, so captivated viewers that their characters were spun off into their own show, which lasted several seasons and actually was the top-rated show during a few of those seasons.

Williams and Marshall were said to not really have gotten along during the run of the show, and Williams actually left the show in its final season when she claimed that the producers of the show would not accommodate her for her pregnancy.

She left to pursue other projects, leaving Marshall to shoulder the entire load.

Williams had a connection to another TV icon of the time, Goldie Hawn, as she was married to Hawn’s ex, Bill Hudson, who had a well-publicized poor relationship with Hawn after their divorce. Suffice it to say, Hawn and Williams were not the best of friends.

Later, Williams and Marshall reconciled, and they worked together again on a “Laverne and Shirley” reunion special.

Now, both Williams and Marshall are gone, so I guess they are singling “Schlimezel Schlimazel, Hofenfeffer Incorporated” together in the sky.

Loring’s story is another one for the books, and it goes well beyond “The Addams Family.”

She was cast in the show after appearing on a few other TV sitcoms of the time, and while her character Wednesday was never the main focus of the show—John Astin and Carolyn Jones as Gomez and Mortician, respetively, were always the main focus—she did make quite an impression on audiences, even in such a small role as the pouty, death-obsessed daughter of the strange duo.

She made such an impression on viewers that subsequent “The Addams Family” projects have pretty much focused on the Wednesday character, making Christina Ricci and most recently, Jenna Ortega, huge stars.

Loring never reached real stardom with that original Wednesday role, but her life was even more interesting than that role ever could be.

As she got older, she moved into other roles, with her looks and acting ability making her a natural for soap operas, and she appeared on several of them in the 1970s, but her own real life was a real soap opera.

She was married several times—the first time at age 15—but most prominently, she was married to porn star Jerry Butler for five years.

During those years, 1987 to 1992, Loring and Butler became ubiquitous on television, but more on the talk shows of the day rather than in acting roles, as they played out their marital difficulties on the air to millions of viewers.

Butler, the bisexual actor who appeared in hundreds of XXX-rated films—and some regular Hollywood films too—had a sex addiction, and even during their tumultuous marriage, he could not control his urges, and all of this was played out on shows like “Donahue,” where Loring tired to reason with her husband about his infidelities, with both men and women, while they were married.

They never reconciled, and when they divorced after five years of marriage, Loring pretty much faded from view, until the announcement of her death.

And when talking about icons who have recently left us, I would be remiss if I didn’t include David Crosby in that discussion.

Personally, unlike the other two I spoke about today, I was never a big fan of Crosby, although I did kind of like the Byrds and Crosby, Stills, Nash (and Young)—the latter to a lesser extent--the two bands he gained fame in.

Too many drugs, too many near-death experiences, too much in a life that featured excess upon excess.

But most people gave Crosby second, third, fourth and fifth chances, and he seemed to always come through.

But there are only so many chances that even this cat could muster, and he finally succumbed the other day at age 81.

Williams, Loring and Crosby all made a name for themselves—positive or otherwise—during their lifetimes, and their past work will stay with us now that they are gone.

R.I.P.