Tribute To Our Fallen Stars

In just under a months time, we've heard the news of some of film's greatest characters, or rather the actors who played them, pass away. I don't typically abide by the saying "they go in 3s" but as of this writing, I guess it's true. on May 29th, Betsy Palmer died at the age of 88 from natural causes. In what is perhaps the saddest way to go of the 3 is Mary Ellen Trainor, who left us due to pancreatic cancer on May 20th. She was 62. Then lastly, with the long life of 93 years old, Christopher Lee passed away after suffering from heart and respiratory problems. 

*As this writing is about to get published to our page, I get word that wrestler The American Dream Dusty Rhodes has also died. No word yet what the cause is but man, what a bummer. He was 69 years old.

Betsy Palmer 11/1/1926 - 5/29/2015 

Maybe not as well known as Betsy or Christopher, trust me, you know who she is. Mary was married to Robert Zemeckis (Back to the Future, Forrest Gump) and kind of fell into the acting business. Her first film was Zemeckis' Romancing the Stone. She was in all 4 Lethal Weapon films, Die Hard, Scrooged and Ghostbusters II. For me, she will go down as being one of my favorite mothers on screen during my childhood. Monster Squad and The Goonies! If there would have been a movie about my life, even though they don't look the same, I would have picked her to play the part of my mom. 

Christopher Lee 5/27/1922 - 6/7/2015 

Betsy has been in a lot of television and film from the 50s, has been in episodes of popular TV shows, CHiPs, The Love Boat, T.J. Hooker, Charles in Charge and Murder, She Wrote and of course is most well known for her role as Mrs. Pamela Voorhees, Jason's mother. Friday the 13th is said to be a rip off of Halloween (even according to creator Sean Cunningham) but I always thought because of the character she played, we got something fun and different. Not knowing that Betsy's Mrs. Voorhees was the villain the whole time, brought a different dynamic to the film. She went from being a sweet, sad lady who lost her son due to bullies at camp, to a ruthless killer who picked off each fornicator one by one. Man, she was awesome! 

Mary Ellen Trainor 7/8/1952 - 5/20/2015 

I could spend so much time here. The guy has done so much work. It would be a book if I listed all the movies he's been in alone. Christopher's been working in film almost nonstop since the 40s and has been in pretty much every major franchise. James Bond, Star Wars, Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit films. He was almost cast in the role of Dr. Loomis in the Halloween series which just would have been even more insane to his career. He's also been in most of Tim Burton's films since 1999's Sleepy Hollow. Don't forget that he played what is considered to be the best version of Dracula and on top of that, has been putting out Metal albums! What more was this guy capable of? At almost 100 years old, I'd say he accomplished a lot and left behind a tremendous legacy. 

Dusty Rhodes (Virgil Runnels Jr.) 10/12/1945 - 6/11/2015 

The American Dream is probably the greatest stick man in the history of the wrestling business. For those that don't know what a "stick man" is, it's a male wrestler who is really good at talking on the microphone... And he was better than good. You could maybe argue that someone like The Rock, CM Punk or Macho Man were better but they all learned it from him. Dusty had a great career as a wrestler, a manager, a commentator and as a behind the scenes expert. He'll one of the motht loved and motht imperthonated wrethtlers in the busineth. If you're a fan of The Dream, you know what all those words mean. 

Thanks to all of you for what you've done for fans for decades. You will all be missed but at least we have your legacies left in our memories and TV screen! 

Billy