Just as a slight diversion, I thought that it would be interesting if I posted a "whatever happened to..." post from time to time. I will see or hear a performer and wonder whatever became of them. So just once in awhile, I'll post something here about a performer. Others are welcome to do the same, and of course, please feel free to discuss what you liked and disliked about the performer.

I'll start with Jamie Farr.

Jamie played Maxwell Q. Klinger in M*A*S*H. He has had a fairly long acting career. Interesting, only Jamie and Alan Alda ever served in Korea, though Jamie was there long after the war - he served in Japan during the war. (Alan was a gunnery officer in Korea.)

For fans of M*A*S*H, Jamie's father really was Lebanese. He has one sister, and in High School was voted the most outstanding student at Woodward High School. He was class president for 3 years, a member of the Drama Society, feature editor of the school newspaper, president of the radio class, manager of the football and basketball teams and a member of the varsity tennis team.

Jamie has worked as a delivery person for a lithograph company, a post office clerk, an Army-surplus store clerk, an airline reservations clerk, and an employee at a chinchilla ranch.

He has a son and a daughter, Jonas and Yvonne (the name of his sister).

He was only supposed to do one episode of M*A*S*H, but it went over so well that he became a regular.

He was born Jameel Joseph Farah on July 1, 1934, in Toledo, Ohio, the only son of Samuel, a meat cutter/grocer, and Jamelia, a seamstress.

His acting career began at age 11 when Jamie won $2. in a local talent contest. He graduated from Woodward High with honors and was named most outstanding student, having served as class president for three years. He also wrote and acted in two variety shows, was editor of his school paper, president of the Radio Club, and manager of the football and basketball teams. He became a member of the National Honor Society, and after graduation he moved with his family to Southern California where he attended the Pasadena Playhouse. He won his first film role as Santini in “The Blackboard Jungle”, then served two years in the army in Korea and Japan. He then proceeded to carve out a TV career by appearing as a regular on “The Red Skelton Show” and several episodes of the “The Danny Kaye Show” as well as the Chicago Teddy Bears” series.

It isn't regularly known that he has helped create game shows, has written tv screenplays, and has directed tv shows, in addition to 11 years in M*A*S*H and appearing in other movies. He's been the guest of Presidents Jimmy Carter, Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan and George Herbert Walker Bush at the White House, and also has a star on Hollywood's walk of fame. He has Hosted the Jamie Farr LPGA Golf Classic for twenty years donating over 4 million dollars to children’s charities in Northwest Ohio. Much of his time currently revolves around Golf and promoting the LPGA (Ladies Professional Golf Association).

Jamie is currently on the St. Jude Children's Research Hospital Professional Advisory Board. He still sometimes acts, the last show he was in being released in 2001. The park where Jamie Farr used to hang out when he was younger was renamed "Jamie Farr Park" in his honor on July 5, 1998.

So Jamie is going strong, and as near as I can find out, still lives in Toledo, when he isn't on the road.

Ever wondered what happened to Mister Rogers?
He's dead

__________________

You are the place where I find shelter left out in the cold.
You are the Hell in helter skelter

Hey Mr. Rogers was a neighborhood kind guy who carefully took off his sweater and shoes..was that an example or what?

You wonder if he may still be alive and his death is only a rumor...

- Art

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"it benefits us to be thoughtful, not of the glory of our minds, but rather, above all else, of the glory of God."
- Johannes Kepler

Mister Rogers (Fred Rogers) died on Feb 27, 2003, at the age of 74, of stomach cancer. He was an ordained Presbyterian minister (ordained in 1962).

Fred was born in Latrobe, Pennsylvania. He received a BA in music in 1951

In 1998 he received a Lifetime Achievement Award from Daytime Emmys. Esquire Magazine wrote of that event,


In 1969, Rogers appeared before the United States Senate Subcommittee on Communications. His goal was to support funding for PBS and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, in response to significant proposed cuts. In about five minutes of testimony, Rogers spoke of the need for social and emotional education that public television provided. He passionately argued that alternative television programming like his Neighborhood helped encourage children to become happy and productive citizens, sometimes opposing less positive messages in media and in popular culture. He even recited the lyrics to one of his songs.

The chairman of the subcommittee, John O. Pastore, was not previously familiar with Rogers' work, and was sometimes described as gruff and impatient. However, he reported that the testimony had given him goosebumps, and declared, "Looks like you just earned the $20 million." The following congressional appropriation, for 1971, increased PBS funding from $9 million to $22 million.

Fred Rogers has been the subject of a few urban legends, among them, ideas that he served in the military around the era of the Vietnam war; was a sniper; was a Navy Seal; or had a drug problem. It is also rumored that the reason for him always wearing cardigans was to cover the tatoos that he had on his arms. It is rumored that he had a skull tattoo on his arm for every man that he killed as a sniper. Rumors to this effect are discounted as being false on urban legend verification websites[2]. Not only is military service not mentioned in any biographies about him, but there wasn't a period of time, unaccounted for, where he could have been involved in such. During most of the Vietnam conflict, he was fully dedicated to his television show Mister Rogers' Neighborhood and before that, around the start of Vietnam, he was working on getting rights for his show and moving it to Pittsburgh.

Fred also received Lifetime Achievement Awards from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, and from the TV Critics Association. He received 2 George Foster Peabody Awards. He was inducted into the Television Hall of Fame in 1999. He wrote several books and also has records that have been released through the years. He received a "Pennsylvania Founder's Award" in June 1999 for his "lifelong contribution to the Commonwealth in the spirit of Pennsylvania's founder, William Penn." He was a member of Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia, a national music fraternity.

In all, he did 895 episodes of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood.

His red sweater is currently on display at the Smithsonian Institute Museum of American History.

I miss Mr Rogers. I really do.

__________________

You are the place where I find shelter left out in the cold.
You are the Hell in helter skelter