While filming The Sopranos, Marchand was fighting lung cancer. But ironically, during the run of the show, it seemed that both her and her character's talents (one for acting, one for scheming) only got more powerful as health setbacks mounted. "She lent a dignity and a class to the whole show," says Gandolfini. "It's a great loss. She was a layered character who could always be counted on to do crazy, interesting things, and that's gone and impossible to replace." ESSENTIAL WORK On DVD and VHS: The Sopranos: The Complete First Season
RICHARD MULLIGAN 11.13.1932--9.26.2000
--"There are People who can do wonderful pratfalls and physical comedy, but Richard was so much more than that. It was hard for any of us to be straight-faced when he was doing what he did, but he could also break your heart....I would tend to just create scenes for his character [Soap's Burt Campbell], because it was such a pleasure to write for Richard. Nobody could deliver monologues the way he could. At times it was an indulgence to give an actor two and a half uninterrupted pages of dialogue, but he was gold every single time. Once I saw what he could do, which was limitless, I could give him silence and know he could fill it up in the right way." --Susan Harris, creator of Soap ESSENTIAL WORK Soap, airs Saturdays and Sundays, 7 a.m., 7:30 a.m., Comedy Central; Little Big Man (1970); S.O.B. (1981)
WERNER KLEMPERER 3.22.1920--12.6.2000
--It seems inconceivable that a German-born Jew whose family escaped to the U.S. in the 1930s would embrace the part of a Nazi commandant. But in 1965 Klemperer took the dummkopf role as Hogan's Heroes' Col. Wilhelm Klink as an act of subversion. That Klink was outsmarted by his POWs for six seasons was not only a regular plot twist, but also Klemperer's edict. "I had one qualification," the actor, who won two Emmys for the role, recalled last year. "If ever a segment was written where Colonel Klink is the winner, I would leave the show." After the series ended in 1971, Klemperer immersed himself in classical music, narrating live productions. Yet it was his own two-note chorus that preserves his memory: "Ho-gan!" ESSENTIAL WORK Hogan's Heroes, airs weekdays on TV Land, 5 a.m., 5:30 a.m., 8:30 p.m.
LARRY LINVILLE 9.29.1939--4.10.2000
--In the pantheon of sitcom weasels, all are judged against M*A*S*H's Maj. Frank "Ferret Face" Burns, the snooty slimeball ninny-fied masterfully by Larry Linville. With his pinched lips and high-pitched giggle, Linville made war seem that much more hellish...and hilarious. When, in one episode, Burns bemoaned the lack of glory that goes to "the thousands of wonderful guys who are fighting this war without any of the credit...that goes to those lucky ones who happen to get shot," Linville knew how to give the absurd line just the right persnickety punch. "It was a measure of Larry's maturity as an actor that he was prepared to play such an irredeemable nerd," says M*A*S*H series creator Larry Gelbart. "And he didn't fall prey to the actor's temptation to want to be liked in a role." ESSENTIAL WORK M*A*S*H (in syndication)
