On This Date in TV History: Ted Knight Passed Away

[Brian Damage]

August 26th, 1986 - Ted Knight, [Tadeus Konopka], actor, dies at 62

[catlover79]

Ted, you are still missed.

[Marvo301]

Ted Knight. You left us too soon and we miss you!

[TMC]

https://groups.google.com/forum/#!to...es/CslxcIAksmU

Cancer Claims Life Of Actor Ted Knight
Photo: http://www.meredy.com/cosmiccow/ted.jpg

FROM: The Associated Press (August 27th 1986) ~
By Sue Manning, Press Writer

Comic actor Ted Knight, who recalled "all the prima donnas" he'd met
in broadcasting for his Emmy-winning role as the bombastic, nincompoop
newscaster on "The Mary Tyler Show," has died of cancer at 62.

But the role that brought him fame was a mixed blessing and Knight,
who went on to star in two of his own comedy series, was dismayed that
some people expected him to be a loud-mouthed buffoon in real life.

Knight, who starred in the short-lived "Ted Knight Show" and "Too
Close for Comfort," died at his Pacific Palisades home Tuesday with
his wife of 38 years, Dorothy, and their three children at his side.

Spokeswoman Vanita Cillo said private funeral services will be held
Friday at Forest Lawn Cemetery.

"He had been ill a relatively short period of time," but he knew he
had cancer last year, said Knight's agent, Sol Leon.

Knight was hospitalized last fall for removal of a cancerous growth
from his urinary tract. Earlier this year, he returned to the hospital
for treatment of complications from that surgery.

Knight won Emmys in 1973 and 1976 for outstanding performance by an
actor in a supporting role in comedy for his role in "The Mary Tyler
Moore Show," which ran from 1970-77.

Knight patterned the arrogant, childish but stylish Ted Baxter after
"all the prima donnas around the radio and TV stations where I'd
worked."Larry Bloustein, vice president for publicity at Mary Tyler
Moore Enterprises, said there would be no comment from Miss Moore. "We
are terribly private about this sort of thing," said Bloustein.

Ed Asner, who co-starred in "Mary Tyler Moore" as news director Lou
Grant, said in Las Vegas, Nev., "We regarded ourselves as brothers.
Sometimes you hate your brother, but the vast amount of time, you love
your brother. I had great love for Ted. "Cloris Leachman, another
co-star, said, "I think people liked to look at him and say, 'Ted,
you're our guy,' and, 'You're our kind of guy." Grant Tinker, head of
MTM Enterprises when it produced "The Mary Tyler Moore Show," said: "I
really loved Ted Baxter and Ted Knight all together. I loved them
both. They gave so many of us so many great laughs." But it was an
image Knight wanted to shed.

"I've really wanted to shake Ted Baxter," he said in 1981. "People
want to see that character. Ted Baxter gave the whole world a
superiority complex."Nobody had ever heard of Knight before "The Mary
Tyler Moore Show." It had taken him a long time to achieve stardom.

Knight accepted the "Too Close for Comfort" role of a middle-aged
illustrator specifically to get away from the Baxter persona.

"He was limited in that he could never display any intelligence,"
Knight said. "He was always the butt of the jokes. One of his charms
was that he was never a threat to anybody." Knight followed "Mary
Tyler
Moore" with CBS' "The Ted Knight Show," which lasted a month in 1978.
"Too Close," on ABC went into syndication after running from 1980-83,
and was set for shooting this month as a new "The Ted Knight Show."
Shooting was delayed by his illness, officials said.

Knight also starred with Rodney Dangerfield and Chevy Chase in the
1980 movie "Caddyshack," a farce about golf, and performed on Broadway
in the play "Some of My Best Friends." He was born Dec. 7, 1923, in
Terryville, Conn., Tadewurz Wladzui Konopka.

He served with the First Army Group's combat engineers as a radio
reconnaissance operator during World War II, and was with the first
American troops to enter Berlin. He was awarded five Bronze Stars
during his duty.

His acting career started in the late 1940s at the Randall School of
Dramatic Arts in Hartford, Conn., where he performed in productions
such as "Liliom," "Grand Hotel," "Antigone" and "Time of Your
Life." Jobs as a disc jockey, announcer, singer, master of ceremonies,
ventriloquist, puppeteer and pantomimist in North Carolina, Rhode
Island and New York followed before he moved to New York City for more
training at The American Theater Wing.

In 1957, Knight moved to Los Angeles and appeared in hundreds of
commercials and television shows, including "Gunsmoke," "The F.B.I."
and "Get Smart." In 1985, he received a star on the Hollywood Walk of
Fame.

Ironically, Knight was a health addict. "Stay with fresh fruit, fresh
vegetables, fish and lean meat. I don't smoke and I drink very
lightly," he said in 1980.

Mrs. Knight is director and treasurer of the Price-Pattenger Nutrition
Foundation. Knight's family has asked that in lieu of flowers,
mourners send donations to the foundation for the Ted Knight Memorial
Fund, which will be used to finance a series of films for children on
nutrition and natural lifestyles, Ms. Cillo said.
---
Photo: http://www.obituariestoday.com/Image...uary/28616.jpg
---
'Mary Tyler Moore Show' Newscaster;
Actor Ted Knight Dies Of Cancer At 62

FROM: The Los Angeles Times (August 27th 1986) ~
By Burt A. Folkart, Staff Writer

Ted Knight, whose egomaniacal pyrotechnics as a newscaster proved a
particular delight to audiences but a perennial horror to other
characters on television's fabled "Mary Tyler Moore Show," died
Tuesday afternoon in his Pacific Palisades home.

The self-styled patrician of the mythical newsroom where boss Lou
Grant alternately chided and confided in Miss Moore, was 62 and had
cancer.

Born Tadeus Wladyslaw Konopka in Terryville, Conn., where he was
called "Sausage" because of his Polish blood, Ted Knight and
newscaster Ted Baxter became indelibly mixed in the minds of TV
viewers from the day "Mary Tyler Moore" went on the air, Sept. 19,
1970.

He was the pompous, overbearing sage of the WJM-TV news department --
the on-the-air presence for the words written by Murray Slaughter
(Gavin McLeod) as edited by Miss Moore's Mary Richards under the
direction of Grant (portrayed by Ed Asner, who went on to star in his
own "Lou Grant" series).

Won Two Emmys

Baxter found himself constantly surrounded by a group of co-workers
who never could comprehend what he perceived as his dramatic
sensitivities. Their attempts to bring him back to the real world of
news broadcasting generally ended in angry frustration on both sides.

He was the strutting, immaculately garbed popinjay who swept into the
newsroom for each evening's broadcast hollering "Hi guys," much like a
monarch greeting his subjects.

It was a job, he said when the show went off the air in 1977, "that
gave me more happiness than I ever had in life."

It also led to two supporting actor Emmys, for the 1972-73 and 1975-76
seasons and his own program, "The Ted Knight Show," which survived
only a month in 1978. Most recently he had been the middle-aged,
hard-pressed father on "Too Close for Comfort," ranked No. 1 among
situation comedies currently in first-run syndication.

It was a long way from Terryville for the son of a Polish immigrant
bartender and a housewife.

Tadeus Konopka became Ted Knight sometime after dropping out of high
school to fight in World War II, where he became one of the first
soldiers to enter Berlin.

He entered a Hartford, Conn., drama school and became a minor
celebrity in that city as a disc jockey, ventriloquist and puppeteer
before moving to New York City for television and radio roles in the
mid-1950s.

Knight then came to Hollywood, where he appeared in more than 300
roles, among them the 1981 film "Caddyshack."

But the public persona always remained the embarrassingly exuberant
anchorman Ted Baxter, who between shows courted and eventually wed the
simple but well-meaning Georgette Franklin.

Knight even developed a nightclub act around Baxter, who was the sole
survivor in the final script when Mary Tyler Moore took her show off
the air after eight seasons.

Ironically, new management opted to keep only Baxter from the mythical
Minneapolis crew -- the anchor whose histrionics caused the newscast's
low ratings.

Larry Bloustein, vice president for publicity at Mary Tyler Moore
Enterprises, said there would be no comment from Miss Moore.

"We are terribly private about this sort of thing," said Bloustein.

"I really loved Ted Baxter and Ted Knight altogether," Grant Tinker,
producer of the Mary Tyler Moore Show, said. "I loved them both. They
gave so many of us so many great laughs."

Knight, survived by his wife of 36 years, Dorothy, a daughter and two
sons, said he patterned Baxter after "all the prima donnas around the
radio and TV stations where I'd worked."

"I was one myself," he admitted of his early years in the business.

Services will be private, and the family is asking contributions to
the Price-Pottenger Foundation for the Ted Knight Memorial Fund, a
financial source for films on children's nutrition and natural life
styles. The address is P.O. Box 2614, La Mesa, Calif. 92041.
---
Photo:
http://www.shop4photos.net/graphics/231/231506.jpg
(w/TMTMS cast)

Aaron Ruben on producing The Ted Knight Show (Too Close for Comfort after it went to syndication); and Ted Knight's sudden death