This Just In - Tanya Roberts Is Not Dead!!!

Tanya Roberts

Stayin' Alive!

In a first in the eleven year history of The Grandstander, I need to post a retraction to an Absent Friends post.  Apparently,  reports of the death of actress Tanya Roberts were greatly  exaggerated, as Mark Twain might put it.  Or, as Chevy Chase might put it, Tanya Roberts is still alive.

It's kind of a bizarre story:

https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/04/entertainment/tanya-roberts-update/index.html

As the story reports, Ms Roberts is still alive, but not necessarily kicking, as she is said to be in critical condition in a Los Angeles hospital.

We all, of course, are hoping for the best for the one time Charlie's Angel.

To Absent Friends - Gerry Marsden, Tanya Roberts

Let us note the passings of a couple of pop cultural figures, the first Absent Friends of 2021.

Gerry and the Pacemakers

Gerry Marsden

(far right, and insert)

1942-2021

When the most famous band to come from Liverpool, England, is The Beatles, it doesn't much matter who the second most famous band was, but it probably was Gerry and the Pacemakers, who typified the "Mersey beat" of the 1960's British Invasion rockers.  Their biggest hits were Don't Let the Sun Catch You Crying, Ferry 'Cross the Mersey, and How Do You Do It?, which producer George Martin wanted The Beatles to release as their first single (they went with Love Me Do instead).

Gerry Marsden gained a bit of renown in later years by singing You'll Never Walk Alone and the Liverpool football (soccer) matches.

Tanya Roberts

1955 - 2021

Tanya Roberts first came to wide attention when she replaced Kate Jackson on "Charlie's Angels" for one season back in the early 1980's.  She was a Bond Girl in 1984's "A View to A Kill", and then she came to even further attention when she did this:

She then pretty much disappeared off of my radar, anyway, until she showed up in the role of Midge Pinciotti, the dim-witted but sexy mother of Donna in "That 70's Show" back in the late 90's and early 00's, and she was great in it, one of the best parts of the show.

RIP Gerry Marsden and Tanya Roberts.

And let us close out with my personal favorite from Gerry Marsden and his Pacemakers, "Don't Let The Sun Catch You Crying."

https://youtu.be/hy7BZ0v4lPo