http://www.looper.com/82302/cheers-actor-jay-thomas-dies/

Cheers actor Jay Thomas has passed away after a battle with cancer, his friend and agent Don Buchwald revealed to The New York*Daily News (http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/gossip/confidential/comic-actor-jay-thomas-dead-69-article-1.3439508). He was 69 years old.*

Thomas got his start acting on*Mork and Mindy, playing Remo DaVinci throughout the show's second and third seasons. After the show ended, he spent a few years guest starring on shows like*Family Ties, A Year in the Life, Almost Grown, and*The Golden Girls before landing the recurring role of Eddie LeBec (http://kenlevine.blogspot.com/2006/07/kiss-of-death-for-eddie-lebec.html), the husband of Rhea Perlman's Carla, on the sitcom*Cheers.

Thomas was a two-time Emmy winner and a nominee for his guest starring role on the late 1980s sitcom*Murphy Brown, on which he played TV talk show host and love interest to Candice Bergen's title character. It was Murphy Brown creator*Diane English who gave Thomas the chance to star in his own sitcom,*Love and War, which ran from 1992 to 1995. The actor also made appearances in*A Smile Like Yours and*Mr. Holland's Opus in the 1990s.

In the 2000s, Thomas made appearances in the*Santa Clause films, as well as held guest roles on shows like*Law and Order:*Special Victims Unit, Dragonfly, Labor Pains, Boston Legal, Joan of Arcadia, Cold Case,*and*American Dad. More recently, he had a recurring role on*Ray Donovan and popped up in*NCIS: New Orleans, Bones,*Snatched, Shake It Up!, Underdogs,*and*The Trials of Cate McCall.

Thomas was also well known for stopping by*Late Show with David Letterman around the holiday season to try to knock a meatball off the top of a Christmas tree with a football. Thomas also told a story that became known as "The Lone Ranger"*every year on the series from 1998 until Letterman's retirement in 2014. The actor was also known for his radio work, which included hosting a show on Sirius XM.

"Jay was one of a kind, never at a loss for words, and filled with so much fun and wonderfully wacky thoughts and behavior," Buchwald said of Thomas. Thomas is survived by his wife, Sally, and his sons, Sam, Max, and J.T.

Read More: http://www.looper.com/82302/cheers-actor-jay-thomas-dies/?utm_campaign=clip

How is Rhea Pearlman taking the news?

https://decider.com/2017/08/24/jay-thomas-cheers-killed-off/

Jay Thomas may not be a name many kids know now, but he was a constant comedic presence for those that came of age in the ’80s and ’90s–especially if you were a sitcom superfan. After kicking off his TV career with a supporting role in Robin Williams’ Mork & Mindy, Thomas became the go-to guy for sitcoms needing a pinch hitter (Family Ties one week, The Golden Girls the next).

But odds are if you know Jay Thomas, who passed away today at the age of 69, you know him from his recurring role on Cheers as Carla Tortelli’s hockey-playing husband Eddie LeBec. Thomas popped up 9 times between 1987 and 1989, starting with the Season Five two-parter “Never Love a Goalie.” Carla (Rhea Perlman) and Eddie, the goalie for the Boston Bruins, hit it off immediately, even if their love affair put a temporary jinx on the Bruins’ wining streak. Carla got pregnant with Eddie’s kid in Season Six, leading to the two getting hitched in the two-parter “Little Carla, Happy at Last.”

Since Cheers was primarily set at a bar, we only saw Carla’s home life when it pulled up a stool. Eddie showed up a few more times in Season Six and Seven, but then something major happened off-camera in between April and November of 1989.

As Cheers scribe Ken Levine–the guy that added Eddie to the show–explained on his blog, Thomas got caught saying something on the radio that didn’t sit right with Rhea or the writer. Thomas, who also worked as a radio host while doing his guest roles on sitcoms, answered a caller’s question about being on Cheers. As Levine recalled, Thomas basically said, “It’s brutal. I have to kiss Rhea Perlman.” Legend has it that Rhea Perlman was listening at the time.
Yikes!

That was it for Eddie LeBec. When Cheers came back for Season Eight, Eddie was nowhere to be seen. The episode “Death Takes a Holiday on Ice” got rid of Eddie for good (as Decider’s Joe Reid recalled in a recent list). Levine and his writing partner David Isaacs killed Eddie off-screen in a freak Zamboni accident, and then revealed at his funeral that he’d been a polygamist all along. His other wife, it turned out, looked just like Carla.

While Thomas lost his Cheers gig, he went on to even bigger success in another recurring role on a top-rated sitcom: Murphy Brown. Thomas debuted as talk show host (and occasional romantic foil) Jerry Gold just days before Eddie LeBec met his icy fate. He appeared on Murphy Brown nine times from 1989 to 1998, earning him two Emmys for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series.

The tale of Thomas’ awkward exit from Cheers has become a bit of sitcom lore, a piece of TV history that’s recounted time and time again. In a way that’s fitting, as Thomas was also known for his annual telling of a Lone Ranger story on The Late Show with David Letterman’s annual Christmas episodes. Jay Thomas the storyteller kept a story alive year after year, and Jay Thomas the actor gave sitcom fans a story to tell year after year.

I'm going to miss him.

FWIW - he was not a fan of Robin Williams (and with decent reasons if you ask me)

Sad news about Jay Thomas' passing - I just heard about this re: this thread. I wasn't familiar with him beyond his role as Eddie LeBec on Cheers.

All due respect to him - I do think it's hilarious that he probably?! got kicked off the show because he insulted Rhea Perlman - ha ha. It's interesting that "Death Takes a Holiday on Ice" is one of the funniest Cheers episodes involving LeBec (Thomas) - and he's not even in the episode ;)

How is Rhea Pearlman taking the news?

Rhea didn't care for Jay. She got him fired from Cheers because Jay jokingly made comments during a radio interview that there was no way a handsome pro hockey player could ever fall in love with Carla. Rhea took it personally.