TV creates a kind of immortality for its actors that can seem surreal, so it can be jarring
to learn that certain stars of the small screen have died. With that in mind, here are some
sitcom actors who you may not have known have passed away.
From 1986 to 1990, NBC fell in love with ALF, a fuzzy, smart-mouthed alien from the planet
Melmac who occasionally tried to eat the family cat. The father of that family was Willie
Tanner, played by Max Wright. He was the straight man to the wisecracking ALF puppet, an experience
that eventually soured him enough that he reportedly didn't bother saying goodbye to
anyone on his last day of work on the series.
In 1995, Wright was diagnosed with lymphoma, which went into remission after radiation
and chemotherapy treatments. His work was on the decline after ALF, but after his diagnosis
and subsequent remission, he started to find joy again. In 2000, he told People Magazine,
"I came back to life after being on the edge, with a tremendous gusto for the things I love."
Among other things, Wright landed a regular gig on the Norm McDonald sitcom Norm and received
a Tony nomination for his work on the Anton Chekhov play Ivanov. Unfortunately, Wright's
lymphoma didn't stay in remission, as he succumbed to the disease in 2019 at the age of 75.
Lisa Robin Kelly is best known for her role as Laurie Forman on That '70s Show. For the
first five seasons, she played Eric's older sister, but in the sixth season, she was replaced
by Christina Moore. In 2012, Kelly told ABC News that alcoholism was the reason for her
departure, and she also that said that her alcohol abuse began after she suffered a miscarriage.
As she explained it,
"I had lost a baby. As a result of that, I lost it. I lost everything, and I was abusing
alcohol."
At the time, Kelly said that she was ready for a comeback, but unfortunately, that wasn't
in the cards. From 2010 to 2013, she had a number of run-ins with the law. She was charged
with driving under the influence in 2010, and in 2013, she was arrested for DUI again
when she reportedly parked her car on California's I-5 freeway, blocking a lane of traffic.
She was also arrested for some violent crimes. She was charged with corporal injury upon
a spouse in March 2012, and that November, both she and her husband, Robert Joseph Gilliam,
were arrested after an alleged domestic disturbance.
Kelly's battle with addiction didn't end well. She died shortly after checking in to rehab
in August 2013. The Los Angeles County Coroner deemed that her death was due to combined
drug intoxication in an accidental overdose. She was 43.
John Ritter was a staple of American TV for decades. Best known as Jack Tripper on the
long-running sitcom Three's Company, he didn't slow down after that show or its spin-offs
ended. In the late 80s, he helped coin the term "dramedy" with the ABC show Hooperman.
In the early 90s, he led the political satire Hearts Afire as senatorial aide John Hartman.
He also had memorable film appearances like 1996's Oscar-winning Sling Blade.
Ritter's final role was protective father Paul Hennessy on the ABC sitcom 8 Simple Rules.
In September 2003, while rehearsing for the show, he was taken to the hospital after vomiting
and complaining of chest pains. Initially, he was treated for a heart attack, but it
was later discovered that he had a tear in his aorta. He died during surgery a week shy
of his 55th birthday.
"It wasn't supposed to happen, Mom. Not now. When we were old and gray and living someplace
warm."
Shelley Morrison enjoyed a long, fruitful acting career, including regular appearances
as Sister Sixto on the Sally Field-starring 60s sitcom The Flying Nun. But the role she
became best known for wouldn't come until 1999, with the season one finale of Will & Grace.
Rosario is mentioned as early as the series premiere, but we don't actually meet her until
the season one finale when Karen gets Jack to marry Rosario so that she won't be deported.
Rosario wasn't meant to show up beyond that episode, but she proved to be popular enough
to stick around. While she works as Karen's maid over the course of the series, it's eventually
revealed that she has a degree in clinical psychology, performed with Jennifer Lopez,
and somehow rakes in $350,000 per year.
Morrison was asked to reprise the role for the 2017 Will & Grace revival, but by that
point, she had retired from acting for good. In December 2019, news broke that she had
passed away from heart failure after a brief illness at the age of 83.
"Rosie and I would do other normal couple things, you know, like get into a fight at
IKEA."
While he died much too young, Merlin Santana had a decades-long career in sitcoms. In the
early '90s, he played the recurring role of Stanley, boyfriend of Rudy Huxtable, on The
Cosby Show. Soon after, his character, Marcus, proved to be one of the most popular parts
of Getting By, a short-lived sitcom about two single mothers and their children.
Merlin's last big regular sitcom spot was as young ladies man Romeo Santana on The WB's
The Steve Harvey Show. That show ended in 2002, the same year that Santana was killed
in his car in Los Angeles. He was only 26 years old when he was shot in the head by
a man named Damien Andre Gates, who apparently erroneously believed that Santana had been
making advances toward his girlfriend.
Gates was sentenced to three consecutive life sentences plus 70 years in prison for killing
Santana and for attempting to kill fellow actor Brandon Quintin Adams, who was in the
car with Santana.
During Home Improvement's eight seasons, one of its most popular characters was also its
least visible. With his face always obscured, usually by a fence, Earl Hindman's Wilson
W. Wilson Jr. doled out Yoda-like wisdom to the tool-obsessed Tim Taylor.
Audiences didn't get to see Wilson's entire face until the series finale's curtain call,
though in the meantime, the show occasionally had fun with the audience by showing the bottom
half of his face but not the top.
Hindman had been working in film and TV since the 60s, mainly in smaller roles. His big
screen credits include the 1981 military school drama Taps and the 1985 western Silverado.
Before Home Improvement, he was best known as Detective Lieutenant Bob Reid on the soap
opera Ryan's Hope.
Four years after Home Improvement ended, the man behind Wilson had to give another goodbye.
In December 2003, Hindman died of lung cancer at the age of 61.
While it's not the only thing he ever did, Gary Coleman will always be remembered for
the role of Arnold Jackson on Diff'rent Strokes. Arnold was the younger of two Harlem-born
brothers taken in by successful businessman Phillip Drummond. Todd Bridges played Arnold's
older brother Willis, the namesake of Coleman's classic catchphrase.
"What'chu talkin' 'bout, Willis?"
Coleman dealt with severe health issues his whole life. While he was adamant about not
publicly sharing specifics, it is known that his short stature was due to kidney disease.
He underwent at least two kidney transplants that were ultimately unsuccessful. A year
before his passing, he had heart surgery, after which he was seriously ill with pneumonia.
While nothing has been made officially public, it seems likely that one or more of these
issues ultimately led to Coleman's death. He passed away in 2010 after falling down
the stairs in his home and hitting his head. He'd suffered a number of seizures in the
preceding months, and it's believed that those seizures may have been what caused the fall.
The injury eventually led to a brain hemorrhage from which he didn't recover.
"And while that storyline is too familiar, a famous kid struggling to find his way as
an adult only to die young, each time it's just as tragic."
Years before Will Smith was punching out aliens, he was better known as half of the hip hop
duo DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince. That fame helped him eventually bridge the worlds
of hip hop and acting with the NBC sitcom The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.
Smith played a fictionalized version of himself who's sent to live with his aunt and uncle
in the Los Angeles neighborhood Bel-Air after a confrontation with a violent gang. Over
the course of the series, James Avery would become one of the most well-loved father figures
on American TV as Smith's Uncle Phil.
Besides Fresh Prince, Avery was also known for his exceptional voice work. He was the
voice of Shredder in the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles animated series and of
James Rhodes, aka War Machine, in the 90s Iron Man cartoon. As for his live-action work,
he didn't have too many huge roles besides Uncle Phil. In a 2007 interview with the New
York Film Academy, he was candid about missing out on the spotlight, saying,
"You can either be a movie star or an actor. I'm an actor. [But] I've done pretty good."
Avery died in December 2013 due to complications from open heart surgery. He was 68.
In the first four seasons of the 80s sitcom Growing Pains, Andrew Koenig played "Boner,"
best friend to Kirk Cameron's Mike Seaver. His character left the show in season four
to drop out of college and join the Marine Corps.
Koenig's acting work after Growing Pains wasn't extensive, though he had some other memorable
claims to fame. He was the son of Walter Koenig, best known as the original Chekov on Star
Trek.
Andrew Koenig also starred in one of the most famous fan films of all time. He played the
Joker in Batman: Dead End, in which the Dark Knight finds himself facing the xenomorphs
from the Alien films, as well as the ruthless hunters from the Predator franchise.
In the 90s and 2000s, Koenig became an outspoken activist and gained notoriety in his efforts
to draw more attention to China's support of the military dictatorship ruling Burma.
In 2008, he was arrested for interrupting Pasadena's Rose Parade by blocking a float
advertising the Beijing Summer Olympics and holding up a sign that said "China: Free Burma."
In February 2010, Koenig's body was found hanging from a tree in Vancouver's Stanley
Park. His father confirmed at a press conference that his son had taken his own life. He later
wrote on his website that Andrew died after "a long battle with depression" and urged
other depression sufferers to reach out for help.
David Strickland's acting career was tragically short. In the 90s, he had popular recurring
roles on the sitcoms Sister, Sister and Mad About You. In 1996, he was tapped for the
part he'll forever be known for: young, eager rock reporter Todd on the Brooke Shields-starring
Suddenly Susan. Behind the scenes, Strickland suffered from mental health and substance
abuse issues. His Suddenly Susan co-star Nestor Carbonell told People Magazine in 1999,
"If he had an episode where he fell off the wagon, it would be once every two months,
sometimes once every six months. He'd have a bad episode, and we’d all worry about
it for a night or two, and he'd resurface as if nothing had happened. He'd always resurface."
Strickland was reportedly off his prescribed medication and upset about much of his role
in the 1999 rom-com Forces of Nature being left on the cutting room floor when he and
Andy Dick flew to Las Vegas in March 1999. The pair reportedly bounced from strip club
to strip club, partying hard, and on March 22, Strickland was found in his motel room
where he'd hanged himself with a bed sheet.
The writers of Suddenly Susan decided to have art imitate life. In the season three finale,
Todd's co-workers panic when he goes missing. They tell stories about him, interspersed
with clips of out-of-character interviews with the cast. The episode ends with the police
calling to report his fate, which is left ambiguous.
If you or anyone you know is having suicidal thoughts, please call the National Suicide
Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255).