Actor, Jay Thomas Has Died After A Battle With Cancer

Jay Thomas, 'Cheers' actor, dead at 69

Jay Thomas, a comic and character actor whose credits include roles on "Cheers" and "Murphy Brown," has died after a battle with cancer, according to his publicist Tom Estey. Thomas was 69.

"Jay Thomas was one of the funniest and kindest men I have had the honor to call both client and friend for 25 years plus. He will be dearly missed by so many," Estey said in a statement to CNN.

In addition to his work on TV, many know Thomas from his annual holiday season appearance on "The Late Show with David Letterman," where he'd retell what Letterman once called "the greatest talk show story of all time."

The colorful anecdote involved Thomas giving a ride to a costumed Clayton Moore, star of TV's "The Lone Ranger," and getting involved in a minor car crash that escalated into more.

"I loved Jay," Letterman told CNN in a statement. "His Lone Ranger story was the best I heard in 30 years. Plus, nobody could throw a football like Jay. Maybe Tina Fey, maybe. My heart goes out to his family."

He first told the story in 1998 and returned almost every year to tell it again until Letterman retired. In 2013, John McEnroe filled in for Thomas, who was recovering from surgery.

Thomas' TV career started in the early '80s, and he quickly amassed a number of credits.

He recurred on "Mork & Mindy" as deli owner Remo DaVinci, played the love interest of Rhea Perlman's Carla Tortelli on "Cheers," and played tabloid talk show host Jerry Gold on "Murphy Brown."

Thomas won two Emmy awards for outstanding guest actor in a comedy series for his portrayal of Gold.

His most recent credits include appearances on "Bones," "NCIS: New Orleans," and "Ray Donovan."

source:http://edition.cnn.com/2017/08/24/entertainment/jay-thomas-dead/index.html

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Jay Thomas, Actor on ‘Murphy Brown’ and ‘Cheers,’ Is Dead at 69

Jay Thomas on Cheers

Jay Thomas, an actor and radio personality whose work on the television series “Murphy Brown” won him two Emmy Awards in the early 1990s, died on Thursday at his home in Santa Barbara, Calif. He was 69.

The cause was cancer, his agent, Don Buchwald, said.

Mr. Thomas was a disc jockey in 1979 when he was cast in a recurring role on “Mork & Mindy,” the ABC sitcom about a space alien played by Robin Williams. Mr. Thomas played Remo DaVinci, co-owner of a deli, and appeared in dozens of episodes during the run of the show, which ended in 1982.

After that, the work came fairly regularly, often in the form of smaller TV roles but also the occasional movie appearance, most notably in “Mr. Holland’s Opus” in 1995.

Between “Mork & Mindy” and “Murphy Brown” his most prominent role was a recurring spot on “Cheers” in the 1980s as Eddie LeBec, an ice hockey player who was married to Carla Tortelli (Rhea Perlman), a waitress at the Boston bar of the show’s title.

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Mr. Thomas was one of the main characters in “Love & War,” a CBS sitcom that ran for three seasons beginning in 1992. His other television credits included the ABC ensemble series “Married People” in the early 1990s and the recent Showtime series “Ray Donovan.”

Mr. Thomas’s good looks and ability to play a wiseacre were something of a calling card, and his secondary roles could brighten even a weak show or movie. When he and Joan Cusack played best friends to the central couple in the 1997 movie “A Smile Like Yours,” Janet Maslin wrote in her review in The New York Times, “Ms. Cusack, Mr. Thomas and a brief bit about budget airlines are notably funnier than the rest of the film.”

His quick tongue also served him well on the talk-show circuit. He was especially ubiquitous on “Late Show With David Letterman,” where he appeared every Christmas season and always told the same story about meeting Clayton Moore, the actor who played the Lone Ranger on TV, a tale that also involved marijuana and a broken headlight. (Mr. Thomas, an athlete in his younger days, would also engage in a challenge that involved throwing footballs at a Christmas tree.)

He also pursued a radio career, even as he developed his acting side. Most recently he had a show on SiriusXM satellite radio.

Jay Thomas in 2010

Mr. Thomas found amusement in the way people confused him with his television characters.

“I always seem to play the role of a Jewish person,” he said in an interview with The Times in 2000. “On ‘Love and War’ I played Jack Stein, a left-wing Jewish man. On ‘Murphy Brown’ I was Jerry Gold, a right-wing Jewish man. And I won an Emmy for that part. The trouble is, I’m not Jewish. But everyone I met in L.A. thought I was a Jewish man from Brooklyn.”

“I’m from New Orleans,” he added. “My father was a WASP and my mother was Italian.”

Mr. Thomas was born Jon Thomas Terrell in Kermit, Tex., on July 12, 1948, and raised in New Orleans. During college — he attended several universities — he started dabbling in sportscasting and also did stand-up comedy; he eventually found himself on the radio in New York. He later became well known for his work on Power 106 in Los Angeles.

He is survived by his wife, Sally Michelson, whom he married in 1987, and their two children, Samuel and Jacob. In recent years he reunited with a son he had fathered in his 20s who was given up for adoption, the country singer J. T. Harding.

“I met my biological mother, and she told me, ‘Your father is an actor, and he’s on ‘Cheers,’ ” Mr. Harding said during an appearance that he and Mr. Thomas made on “The View.” “So for about a week I thought Ted Danson was my father.”

source:https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/24/arts/television/jay-thomas-dead-actor-cheers-murphy-brown.html

News On Chris Pratt-Anna Faris Separation

Chris Pratt, Anna Faris Announce Separation On Social Media

By The Associated Press

LOS ANGELES — Chris Pratt and Anna Faris announced Sunday that they are separating after eight years of marriage, sparking a wave of shock and sadness online about the demise of one of Hollywood's most popular power couples.

The actors announced their breakup on social media in a joint statement confirmed by Pratt's publicist.

"We tried hard for a long time, and we're really disappointed," the actors wrote. "Our son has two parents who love him very much and for his sake we want to keep this situation as private as possible moving forward. We still have love for each other, will always cherish our time together and continue to have the deepest respect for one another."

Chris Pratt announces separation with Anna Faris on social media

Pratt, who stars in the "Guardians of the Galaxy" franchise and Faris, who stars on CBS' comedy "Mom," married in 2009. They have a 4-year-old son.

The actors were publicly supportive of each other in their work and on social media. Pratt guest-starred as Faris' love interest on "Mom" earlier this year, and the couple laughed and kissed in April when Pratt was given a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Their breakup quickly became a worldwide trending topic on Twitter, where the pair had frequently shared messages about each other and their family.

Pratt, 38, has become an international superstar in recent years and is the face of two major franchises: Marvel's "Guardians of the Galaxy" films and a new slate of films based on the "Jurassic Park" universe.

He spoke about balancing his home life and his career in an interview with The Associated Press earlier this year before the release of "Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 2," which went on to become a blockbuster.

Chris Pratt and Anna Faris before separation

"For the first part of our relationship, we put our careers at the top," Pratt said of his relationship with Faris. "We were like, 'Honey, if you get a job and you have to go to Istanbul for six months, you're going. I'll help you pack. I'll Skype with you every day. You're living your dream, I'm living my dream. That's what we do.'"

He said, at the time, that starring in two major franchises made it easier for them to strategize what roles they would take.

Faris, 40, has starred in "Mom" for five seasons opposite Emmy-winner Alison Janney. The actresses play mother-daughter who are both recovering drug addicts and are trying to navigate sobriety and relationships together. She is also the voice of the Jailbreak character in recently-released "The Emoji Movie."

Legal separation can be a precursor to a divorce filing, but it doesn't mean one is imminent.

Several celebrity couples have in recent years announced their separations before filing any legal paperwork. Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner announced their separation in June 2015 but didn't file to end their marriage until April. Affleck's younger brother, Casey, and his wife announced they were separating in March 2016, but did not file divorce petitions until July 31.

Gwyneth Paltrow and Coldplay frontman Chris Martin announced their breakup in March 2014 and said they were going through a process called "conscious uncoupling," but a divorce filing wasn't made until the following month. Their divorce was finalized last year.

Comedians Amy Poehler and Will Arnett announced they were separating after nine years of marriage in 2012, but it wasn't until 2014 that a divorce petition was filed. Their divorce was finalized in August 2016.
(source:http://www.newsday.com/entertainment/celebrities/chris-pratt-anna-faris-announce-separation-on-social-media-1.13944387)

 Anna Faris and Chris Pratt's Marriage: Destroyed by Fame?

 by Zach Johnson

Fame hasn't always been kind to Anna Faris.

After the Scary Movie actress married fellow actor Ben Indra in 2004, her movie career only got hotter, thanks to scene-stealing roles in movies like Brokeback Mountain and Just Friends. Ben's career, in comparison, seemingly stalled. "That kind of destroyed my marriage," Anna, who divorced Ben in 2007, confessed to Marie Claire four years later. "The divide became too great."

Perhaps the same can be said of her eight-year marriage to Chris Pratt.

When Anna began dating Chris, whom she wed in July 2009, she was unquestionably the bigger star. "I've had those moments, where I was like the guy holding the purse at events and people just looked right through me. And, you know, actors come up and just blatantly hit on my wife in front of me and don't even look at me," he told GQ in 2015. "I'm like, 'What the f--k, dude?'"

Chris was cognizant of how being part of a power couple could affect their relationship. "I think it's something you have to manage. It's a little different, because she's achieved enough to hang her hat on for her life, anyways," Chris said. "She's done really amazing things. She's always gonna be known for really funny and great work, critically acclaimed work and successful stuff."

The balance of power began to shift in 2014, when Chris became an international movie star thanks to his leading role in Guardians of the Galaxy. No one was prouder of Chris' success than Anna, who had given birth to their son, Jack Pratt, in August 2012. And as he booked bigger roles in movies like Jurassic World, The Lego Movie and Passengers, she found success on the small screen in Mom, in addition to making cameos in comedies like 22 Jump Street and Keanu.

Given their high-profile projects and propensities for giving gushy sound bites about each other, it was only a matter of time before the tabloids starting dissecting their marriage. "I had always kind of believed that part of the rumors of celebrity couples were sort of true because they had never been part of my life. I was like, 'Oh, maybe there's a kernel of truth to that. It's been a little devastating, because for us, it's like, 'What the heck?' This has been blindsiding to us," Anna told Us Weekly in 2015. "We have an incredible relationship. It's been weirdly stinging."

Months later, she told Us Weekly they tried as best they could to create a sense of normalcy for themselves and Jack. "We spend a lot of time at home building fires and just cooking and just being together. Just enjoying the simple times, too. Now that Chris is, like, a crazy huge movie star, going out is just a whole different thing. It's just a whole different weird. We look at each other sometimes and we're like, 'Oh, my God.' Because it feels very surreal sometimes, since we both grew up in Washington State," Anna said. "We just are sort of cherishing these times."

And yet, the reports of marital strife continued. "We grapple with the idea of being a public couple. For the first time, maybe a year ago or 10 months ago, we were in the public a little bit. There were some tabloid rumors about strain on our relationship. I just remember feeling so hurt in a way that bothered me because I didn't want to think of myself as somebody that could be affected by tabloid s--t. There was a picture of me walking alone on the beach: 'Aging Anna Faris, Alone on the Beach,'" the Scary Movie star said on her Unqualified podcast in December 2016. "I take pride in how great my relationship is with Chris. Having said that, of course, in this crazy world where he's off doing movies and I'm in L.A. raising our child, of course I'm going to feel vulnerable, like any normal human would. It did make me feel like, 'Is public perception— even though it's false—is there a grain of something?' It made me feel incredibly insecure."

Distance kept them apart for long stretches at a time, but Chris never stopped letting his wife know much she meant to him. During his Hollywood Walk of Fame ceremony in April, for example, the actor gushed, "You've given me so much. You gave me the greatest star in the galaxy in my little boy. I love him and I love you. We have bonded to make this molecule that is more important to me than air or water, and without it none of this means anything to me."

"With every challenge, with every day, week, month, decade, we become more bonded. You make me laugh like nobody else. You're very caring, and thank you for your trust and your sacrifice—and for your dedication and your heart. I will do my best to protect it, and in return I will give you all of those things as well," he said. "You have my heart, my dedication, my trust."

But when Anna spoke to People just a few weeks ago (while promoting The Emoji Movie), she again admitted that fame had changed the dynamic of her marriage to CHris. "I don't think that's something, when you're an actor, that you're prepared for," she said. "There are two different roles that you play—the one on-camera and the one in public. That's the tricky part."

Because of they love they shared, Anna and Chris will remain on good terms post-split. "We tried hard for a long time, and we're really disappointed. Our son has two parents who love him very much and for his sake we want to keep this situation as private as possible moving forward," the exes said in a joint statement Sunday. "We still have love for each other, will always cherish our time together and continue to have the deepest respect for one another."
(source: http://www.eonline.com/news/871817/anna-faris-and-chris-pratt-s-marriage-destroyed-by-fame)
 

Why the Anna Faris-Chris Pratt Separation Hits Harder Than Other Celeb Splits 

By Dr. Nancy Berk  @nancyberk

Anna Faris and Chris Pratt

It’s hardly surprising that social media responses to the separation announcement of celeb couple Anna Faris and Chris Pratt suggest that fans and followers were hit especially hard with the sad news. Could it be that the Faris-Pratt split feels more “real” to us than most of those other Hollywood uncouplings? Probably.

The humorous, kind and honest sides of both stars have been ever-present in their disclosures to the public. Faris’ weekly CBS spotlight as Mom’s lovably flawed Christy and her candidly quirky podcast Unqualified have helped her become the celebrity-next-door. Coffee or cocktails, we want to invite her to the party. And Pratt’s transformation from Parks and Recreation’s Andy Dwyer to feature film matinee idol (and box office draw), feels like the perfect “regular nice guy wins the lottery” story.

When two cool people who seem perfect for each other call it quits, it’s not uncommon to reflect on the fragility of our own relationships or the intricacies and stress that can circle around families. 
What can we learn from Faris and Pratt and their split?

• Only the couple knows the real backstory and that’s really their business.
•  Couples need support and that support can be as simple as refusing to be part of the privacy-bashing dialogues that so often accompany unfortunate news. 
• Children matter most as parents make changes in their lives—whatever we can do to facilitate the children’s wellbeing (including squelching those rumor mills) is important. 
• There doesn’t have to be a designated bad guy– sometimes nice people just get divorced. 
• Great teamwork is as critical in a healthy separation as it is in a marriage. Grace under pressure is a rare commodity, but it is helpful for most in the equation.

If anyone can make this transition with continued grace and heart, my money is definitely on Faris and Pratt.
Forget the typical celebrity rep announcement, Faris and Pratt told the public about their split themselves. And from an observational standpoint, I’d say they did it as a team, sharing virtually the same message via Twitter.
(source: https://parade.com/592732/nancyberk/why-the-anna-faris-chris-pratt-separation-hits-harder-than-other-celeb-splits/)