Mitch Miller of Sing Along With Mitch has departed, at 99. If I was truly hip, I suppose I would sneer at the man’s irredeemable corniness & at his famous reactionary scorn for rock n’ roll, but…well, back in my teen years, the late ‘70s, my parents once bought tickets for me & my brother to see Miller conduct the Erie Philharmonic in a sing-along pops concert at the Warner Theatre. The two of us went, probably mostly because we didn’t want to hurt their feelings, & ended up having a great time together. So my only significant memory of Miller is a happy one. Plus, he had a seriously cool beard:
RIP also to the lantern-jawed actor Dan Resin, passed on at 79, a Broadway veteran who specialized in country-club types in movies & on TV—he was the toilet-tank yachtsman in the Ty-D-Bowl commercials, & most memorably, played Dr. Beeper in Caddyshack.
Further RIPs to top-notch art director Robert F. Boyle, at 100, & to screenwriter & occasional director Tom Mankiewicz, at 68. The son of Joseph L., Mankiewicz wrote the scripts for Diamonds Are Forever, Live and Let Die, & The Man with the Golden Gun, among many other films, & directed 1987’s hit Dragnet as well as many episodes of TV’s Hart to Hart.
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