These "ER" actors dealt with death and disease every week – but they faced
their own health struggles off-camera that you may not have heard about.
Throughout the 15 seasons that "ER" ran, several episodes involved family members of characters in
subplots that would weave their way throughout the series. But one instance turned out to be the real
deal when singer Rosemary Clooney shared screen time with her famous nephew, George Clooney. The
opportunity took place during two episodes in the hospital drama's inaugural season when she played
a patient who leaves the emergency unit only to be found singing in the streets of Chicago.
The role earned her an Emmy nomination. Rosemary had already generated her own
notoriety in her career, though, starting with vocalizing the sultry 1951 hit,
"Come On-A My House," which led to a Paramount deal involving four pictures,
including "White Christmas." However, Rosemary's recording and movie career was short-lived. She
soon retired after she married director and actor José Ferrer, with whom she raised five children.
They eventually divorced and Rosemary tried to stage a comeback,
which ultimately failed due to the mental illness that affected her for most of her life.
She once said to the Ladies Home Journal,
"Many people live in mental anguish but refuse to seek help because of the stigma attached."
Rosemary sadly died of lung cancer when she was 74.
George credited Rosemary for him staying on the straight and narrow, telling The Calgary Sun,
"My aunt taught me a lot by example about what mistakes not to make because she made them all."
George Plimpton had no acting background, and it's safe to say he was hardly a thespian,
but he scored a few gigs in front of the camera throughout his career.
Though his greater notoriety was as a Harvard-educated writer and journalist,
he also made a name for himself as someone who'd get as close to the front lines of
a story or sporting event as possible, wading into the middle of the action whenever he could.
The former Sports Illustrated scribe and occasional Playboy magazine contributor
managed to take on heavyweight boxing champion Archie Moore in a three-round match
and hit the field for a few innings of Major League Baseball exhibition matches.
But he was most notorious for convincing the NFL's Detroit Lions to allow him to take
part in a football game for a series of downs as quarterback, an experience he related in his book,
"Paper Lion." Plimpton said being on the inside gave him a journalistic advantage, telling NPR,
"[What surprised me the most were] the intimate details that are sort of part
of the fabric of professional football that reporters really don't know about."
Acting was far less dangerous for him, and Plimpton managed to appear in two episodes of "ER"
and cameoed on sitcoms like "Just Shoot Me!" and "Wings" and even appeared in the 1997 film
"Good Will Hunting". He also portrayed a satirization of himself on "The Simpsons,"
which was his final role before he died at 76 of heart problems.
Tom Poston was a natural as a simpleton out of his element, an attribute that got him a
major break on the '50s outing "The Steve Allen Show," which scored him an Emmy. That victory
boosted his stock and it wasn't long before he was in demand for such live productions as
"A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum," "Bye, Bye Birdie," and "Fiddler on the Roof."
But it was also a gosh-darn demeanor that endeared audiences years later to the comedic actor best
remembered as George Utley, the dull-witted, but good-natured, caretaker of a Martha's Vineyard inn
on "Newhart." Poston recalled how the producers pulled back on the goofiness of the character,
"They didn't want him to be so totally inept.
They thought it would be kind of jokey and hokey, so uh, so they pulled way back."
His absentmindedness came in handy on other sitcoms as well, including "Will & Grace",
"That '70s Show", "Murphy Brown", and "Just Shoot Me". He also came close to the Utley
character when he played a school custodian on "Family Matters." But it was during two
episodes of "ER" during its seventh season that viewers caught a different side of the actor,
who originally cut his teeth in drama via Broadway productions of "Cyrano de Bergerac"
and "King Lear" back in the '50s. Poston was 85 when he died after a short illness.
During two episodes of "ER," Tom Bosley paired up with "Newhart" star Tom Poston to play a couple of
sarcastic seniors, a scenario that might have been out of character for someone who portrayed one of
the most reasonable TV dads in pop culture history. To fans, Bosley was "Mr. C," aka
Howard Cunningham, the kind, yet grounded, patriarch on the retro comedy, "Happy Days."
Revisiting a post-war period when rock 'n' roll was in its infancy,
the '70s sitcom placed Cunningham as a moralistic, yet amenable, guiding force to the more youthful
and restless characters, from his son Richie to flamboyant mechanic Arthur Fonzarelli.
More than a decade later, Bosley would play an entirely different father,
a priest with a thirst for solving crimes in the drama, "Father Dowling Mysteries."
He'd often play reminders of his "Happy Days" role, including a guest appearance
on yet another retro sitcom, "That '70s Show," and a satirized Mr. C cameo on "Family Guy."
But to colleagues, he was a model actor and human being. Ron Howard told the Los Angeles Times,
"A great father and husband, and a wonderful artist, Tom led by example, and made us all
laugh while he was doing it. My last conversations with Tom reflected the love of life and peace of
mind that he always maintained throughout his full and rewarding life. I miss him already."
Bosley died at 83 of lung cancer.
One of Hollywood's most versatile figures, Garry Marshall was best known for being a
juggernaut creative force as a director, writer, and the producer behind such hit
shows as "The Odd Couple," "Happy Days," "Laverne and Shirley," and "Mork and Mindy,"
all of which ruled primetime television for decades. For all that impact on pop culture,
Marshall never won an Emmy Award — despite being nominated four times.
"There's no crying. There's no crying in baseball!"
When it came to movies, Marshall received little more than goose eggs for his work on successful
productions that included "A League of Their Own," "Pretty Woman," and "The Princess Diaries."
Perhaps he was too busy to notice those omissions among his prolific output. It certainly explains
why he seldom took on projects as an actor. Still, he managed one cameo on "ER" as a senior. He
wasn't exactly a fixture on the screen, but he did manage to snag coveted roles on other TV shows,
including "Two and A Half Men," "Murphy Brown," and a 2016 remake of "The Odd Couple," his final
contribution as an actor. While not exactly a darling among critics, The New York Times,
noting his passing from a stroke at 81, described Marshall as, a "comedy mastermind" and added,
"[He] consistently found the sweet spot smack dab in the middle of the mainstream."
More heartfelt was one tweet by "Happy Days" alum Henry Winkler,
who thanked Marshall for his professional life, as well as his loyalty, friendship and generosity.
Charlotte Rae was a breath of fresh air to fans of "Diff'rent Strokes" and "The Facts of Life."
as caregiver and housemother Edna Garrett. Her first charges were two adopted children of a
well-to-do businessman. She then took on the same role at a boarding school overseeing the lives of
four reluctant, but impressionable, students. Her goofiness made her endearing to viewers,
although she wasn't afraid to play the morality card when topics from
teenage pregnancy to alcohol abuse surfaced on the latter series.
Rae first emerged in the public eye performing live theater on the small screen when television
was still in its infancy, before landing roles in early TV classics like "Car 54,
Where Are You?" and "The Defenders." She also landed numerous bit parts,
like when she played Molly the Mail Lady during the early years of "Sesame Street."
Her genre-crossing acting skills enabled her to star in four episodes of "ER" and other primetime
fodder like "Sisters'' and "The King of Queens." Her later years saw her venture more toward
voiceover work on animated projects like "The Itsy Bitsy Spider'' and "101 Dalmatians: The Series."
"Oh, Harris. That gets funnier every day!"
More remarkably, Rae managed to work when she became seriously ill. She faced pancreatic
cancer and later bone cancer, with the latter eventually ending her life at 92.
Colleagues mourned her loss, including "Diff'rent Strokes'' star Todd Bridges who said of Rae,
"You were loved by everyone on our show and you were loved by
everyone on the 'Facts of Life.' […] Rest in peace, my friend."
While Henry Fonda and his daughter, Jane Fonda, have long been lauded
by the Hollywood establishment for their work in a bevy of blockbusters,
his son, Peter Fonda, instead carved a niche for himself as an icon of the hippie counterculture
during the '60s and '70s. Peter's most popular work remains the Oscar-nominated 1969 classic,
"Easy Rider," which chronicled a motorcycle trip across America with
two-wheeling buddy Dennis Hopper that doesn't end well for either of them.
Unlike his character, Wyatt, Peter still managed to pack his rebellious following into soft-seaters
with outlaw-oriented outings like "The Hired Hand" and "Dirty Mary Crazy Larry." In 1998, Peter's
rebellious traits — this time as a fiercely independent beekeeper in "Ulee's Gold" — were
recognized once again by the Oscar brain trust, which nominated him for a Best Actor award.
"That was my father telling me 'don't get too cocky.'"
If the roles Peter picked weren't defiant, they would certainly be quirky bits,
like his only guest spot in "ER" as Pierce Tanner, a man who runs into someone from his
past while visiting the hospital to see his wife, the victim of a car accident. He also
played a cartel heavy in "The Blacklist," and himself in the arcane David Duchovny comedy,
"Californication." Peter sadly died of lung cancer at 79. His sister Jane said in a statement,
"I am very sad. He was my sweet-hearted baby brother. The talker of the family.
I have had beautiful alone time with him these last days. He went out laughing."
John Mahoney portrayed a gay character in one "ER" episode from 2006. The offering, dubbed "Somebody
To Love," saw Mahoney battle his partner's family over his partner's welfare surrounding a serious
heart condition. It was the humanitarianism that Mahoney brought to his portrayals — especially
when they clashed with the attitudes of his counterparts — that endeared him to viewers.
Fans of the sitcom "Frasier" saw that element in Mahoney all the time.
As disabled ex-cop Martin Crane, he used his meat-and-potatoes logic to bring
his erudite sons Frasier and Niles back down to earth whenever their pretensions
started to spin out of orbit. For those efforts, he earned two Emmy nominations.
Mahoney's humanitarianism may have come naturally,
or the extensive training he received at Chicago's Steppenwolf Theater — where he
was an onstage regular for nearly 40 years — may have helped develop the skill. The former
magazine editor and English teacher eventually found his footing in New York, where he nabbed
a Tony award for his work in "The House of Blue Leaves," a production that PBS later aired.
In the movies, he found himself cast in father roles that exposed him to larger audiences via
performances in "Moonstruck" and "Say Anything." Those patriarchal portrayals likely rubbed off on
his cast. After hearing of Mahoney's death from cancer complications at 77, Kelsey Grammer said,
"He was my father. I loved him."