Notable Passings

...Bil Keane, the creator of one of my all-time favorite comic strips, Family Circus, passed away last Tuesday at the age of 89.

I loved that Keane's strip was very "real" and relatable, yet simultaneously he was unfailingly sweet and positive.

Keane's wife Thelma, the inspiration for the mother of Billy, Dolly, Jeffy and P.J., passed away in 2008.

Keane's work added countless smiles and chuckles to the world, truly leaving it a better place than he found it.

...Actress Margaret Field O'Mahoney, the mother of actress Sally Field, died last weekend at the age of 89. It was her daughter Sally's birthday.

Field had 90 film and TV credits spread over nearly three decades, from the mid '40s to early '70s.

Sally Field was one of two children from Margaret Field's first marriage. Margaret was later married for a few years to stuntman-Westerns actor Jock Mahoney, who also went by the last name O'Mahoney. They had a daughter named Princess who works behind the scenes in the film industry.

...Costume designer Theadora Van Runkle passed away on November 4th. She was 83.

During Van Runkle's three-decade career she received three Oscar nominations, for BONNIE AND CLYDE (1967), THE GODFATHER: PART II (1974), and PEGGY SUE GOT MARRIED (1986).

...Comedy writer Hal Kanter, screenwriter of Bob Hope's BACHELOR IN PARADISE (1961) and creator of the '60s TV series JULIA, has passed on at the age of 92.

Kanter directed Elvis Presley and Dolores Hart in LOVING YOU (1957) and wrote the screenplay for Elvis's BLUE HAWAII (1961).