Publication: Globe
Date: 12 Apr. 2010
Detect a pattern yet? Somebody famous dies, and the next week the tabloids tell us about the sad secrets he or she took with them to the grave.
As a mathematician, I'd like to dispel the "death comes in threes" idea. Death comes when death comes. In the past month, the big American TV stars that have died are Fess Parker, Peter Graves, Robert Culp and now John Forsythe, who I expect will be on the covers of next week's tabs. In that time period, we also lost Corey Haim, much younger but not a TV star whose death was still mentioned by several tabloids, and Merlin Olsen, a character actor on TV but better known as a football player, whose death went unreported in the supermarket rags.
The tabloids were given credit for being accurate last year because they reported that Michael Jackson had six months to live, and he did die within six months. The facts are that they say that about a lot of famous people who live, and a lot of other people who are just as famous pass away without any warning sign from The Only Ten Magazines That Matter.
Best wishes to Mr. Culp's family and friends, from a fan.
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