Yesterday, Jeff Conaway died. He was taken off life support, surrounded by loved ones. The actor had suffered from many illnesses over the years, and at sixty he just couldn't take any more. He did not seek treatment in time for a bacterial infection, and his ravaged body could not defeat it.
You can click here to read the obituary on Yahoo! Entertainment. It lists his accomplishments, and what he is known for by different generations. I'm just going to explain why his life and death is so memorable for me. I just plain liked him in Grease, and he disappeared off my radar for many years. When I saw him on other shows, it was as himself. A polite, well read and scary intelligent guy who was eaten up with pain. The line between his physical and mental anguish surely blurred over the decades. I saw in him the same deep soul I saw in John Candy and the great Clark Gable... pain without relief, life without comfort. He will be remembered for his acting, perhaps for his drug addictions, but those who ever saw a glimpse of the real man will carry his true legacy. Above all things, when he wasn't in so much pain that he could function, Jeff Conaway was kind. And now, though it's a sad ending to a sad life, he is no longer in pain.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment