The time has come when The Grandstander pays one final tribute to those Absent Friends of 2022. When I began writing this blog thirteen (!!) years ago, who would have thought that one of the more prominent features of it would be obituaries for those that I called "Absent Friends", a term used by the great sportswriter Red Smith when he would eulogize those who had passed to the great beyond. To me, an Absent Friend could be somebody famous in the world of entertainment, politics, sports, or pop culture. It could be someone who may be known to very few people outside of a given local area. Or, it could be someone that I had never heard of but whose news obituary caught my eye and I found his or her story to be worthy of recognition.
I posted 29 Absent Friends notices in 2022, a light year for me. Since I began doing this, the total number of folks so recognized has now reached the symmetrical number of 444. Let us bid these Friends adieu one final time before the calendar turns to a new year. If you want to see what I had to say about them at the time of their deaths, just type the name in the search box at the top of this page, and that will get you to the original post.
Betty White
Peter Bogdanovich
Sidney Poitier
William Hurt
Sally Kellerman
Bobby Rydell
Dwayne Haskins
Wendy Rieger
Guy Lafleur
Bob Lanier
Ray Liotta
Roger Angell
James Caan
Larry Storch
Tony Sirico
Monty Norman
Dick Schofield
Paul Sorvino
Tony Dow
Bill Russell
Vin Scully
Queen Elizabeth II
David McCullough
Maury Wills
Angela Lansbury
Ron Masak
Jerry Lee Lewis
Franco Harris
Pele
RIP One and All
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