Eggs' New MF Thread for Friday 12/16 - A Tribute

[Eggs Mayonnaise]

'West Wing' Actor John Spencer Dies at 58

LOS ANGELES - John Spencer, who played a dedicated politico on "The West Wing" who survived a serious illness to run for vice president, died of a heart attack Friday, his publicist said. Spencer, 58, died at a Los Angeles hospital, said publicist Ron Hofmann. He would have been 59 next week.

Spencer played Leo McGarry, the chief of staff to President Jeb Bartlet (Martin Sheen) through the first few seasons of the NBC series. In a sad parallel to life, his character suffered a heart attack that forced him to give up his White House job.

The character recovered and was picked as a running mate for Democratic presidential contender Matt Santos, played by Jimmy Smits; the campaign has been a central theme this season for the drama.

Spencer, who also starred on "L.A. Law" as attorney Tommy Mullaney, received an Emmy Award for his performance on "The West Wing" in 2002 and was nominated four other times for the drama.

The actor mirrored his character in several ways: both were recovering alcoholics and both, Spencer once said, were driven.

"Like Leo, I've always been a workaholic, too," he told The Associated Press in a 2000 interview. "Through good times and bad, acting has been my escape, my joy, my nourishment. The drug for me, even better than alcohol, was acting."

Spencer grew up in Paterson, N.J., the son of blue-collar parents. With his enrollment at the Professional Children's School in Manhattan, he was sharing classes with the likes of Liza Minnelli and budding violinist Pinchas Zukerman.

As a teenager, Spencer landed a recurring role on "The Patty Duke Show" as the boyfriend of English twin Cathy. Stage and film work followed. Then his big break: playing Harrison Ford's detective sidekick in the 1990 courtroom thriller "Presumed Innocent." That role led to his hiring for the final four years of "L.A. Law."

Service and funeral arrangements were pending, Hofmann said.

RIP, Leo.

 

[CaptainWacky]

Never watched it but for you!

 

[Mentalist]

I never watched it either but I can appreciate what bad news this is.

R.I.P

 

[Eggs Mayonnaise]

If you want to download an episode just to see a great actor at the top of his game, try "Bartlet for America" from S3. He deservedly won an Emmy for it.

I sincerely hope they end the show after this season, there's just no point now...

 

[CaptainWacky]

I take it they'll be hastily rewriting storlylines as we speak?

 

[Mentalist]

Yeah, what is going to happen to the storylines?

 

[Eggs Mayonnaise]

Who knows? The whole election storyline has been a farce anyway, hijacking the show for 2 seasons and bungling most of it along the way.

Maybe they'll realize now that the show is supposed to be about the Jed Bartlet White House, and resolve the core character's stories before shutting the show down for good. I don't care who Martin Sheen's successor is, it was the main characters from the beginning that has drawn me to the show. Hopefully they'll have Spencer's character die too, and then put less emphasis on the wretched election and more on the final days of the Bartlet staffers.

But this is John Wells, who gets rid of characters by dropping helicopters on them. So who knows?

 

[CaptainWacky]

Oh yeah, Romero was the BEST character on ER but then they turned him into an iredeemable evil cartoon villain by the end and killed him and all the other characters just shrugged!

 

[Eggs Mayonnaise]

Who knows? The whole election storyline has been a farce anyway, hijacking the show for 2 seasons and bungling most of it along the way.

Maybe they'll realize now that the show is supposed to be about the Jed Bartlet White House, and resolve the core character's stories before shutting the show down for good. I don't care who Martin Sheen's successor is, it was the main characters from the beginning that has drawn me to the show. Hopefully they'll have Spencer's character die too, and then put less emphasis on the wretched election and more on the final days of the Bartlet staffers.

But this is John Wells, who gets rid of characters by dropping helicopters on them. So who knows?

I've grown to like some of the election storylines since then...there wasn't much left to tell about the core characters after 6 seasons, they had to do something...

They ended up having John's character (who was the Dem candidate for VP) have a heart attack on election night, a couple hours before the polls closed. The Dems won anyway. As a hastily thought-out plot twist, it was handled fairly well.

 

[Dr Dave]

The election stuff was not bad.

West Wing in general FTW.

 

[CaptainWacky]

At least ER's finished now.