Robert Osborne
1932 - 2017
Movie lovers everywhere had to be saddened to learn of the death yesterday of Turner Classic Movies host Robert Osborne at the age of 84.
Comments made by fans on various social media yesterday had a common theme. Everyone loved Osborne's introductory and closing remarks when he presented TCM's prime time features, "The Essentials" series, and his one-on-one interviews with Hollywood greats. Like many, I often would tune in just to hear what Osborne had to say about a movie, even if I had no intention of watching the movie itself, and oft times, those remarks would make me watch the movie anyway. Similarly, there were any number of times when a movie that I had seen a million times would be showing ("The Graduate", "Double Indemnity", "Sunset Boulevard", "The Music Man"...you get the idea), and I'd say to myself, "well, I am not going to watch this again right now, but I want to hear what Robert Osborne is going to say about it", and, yes, as often as not, I'd end up watching the movie.
It seems that I always learned something and was always entertained by Robert Osborne. He was away from his regular hosting chores at TCM for the past several months, so perhaps this news was not a surprise, but that doesn't mean that classic movie fans and fans of TCM are going to miss him any less. TCM has some really big shoes to fill.
I read several obits and tributes to Osborne yesterday, but perhaps the best one came from the Hollywood Reporter, and it was written by his fellow TCM host and heir apparent, Ben Mankiewicz, and I recommend it to you:
RIP Robert Osborne.
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