R.I.P. Regis Philbin (88) and John Saxon (83)

At one point the Guinness Book of Records recognized that Regis Philbin had spent more time on camera than anyone in the history of US television – some 17,000 hours. To recognize the enormity of that, imagine that you spend two hours a day on camera, five days a week, 52 weeks per year, with no vacations. Even at that pace, it would take you more than 30 years to get to Regis level.

John Saxon’s face is one that everyone knows. He has been ubiquitous throughout our lifetimes, having appeared in more than 100 films, and nearly as many different TV shows.

7 thoughts on “R.I.P. Regis Philbin (88) and John Saxon (83)

  1. It must be the dying season…” Olivia de Havilland, Star of ‘Gone With the Wind,’ Dies at 104”

  2. I think the 4 roles I remember John Saxon for most (in no particular order) are the Gene Roddenberry pilot turned TV movie Planet Earth, Steve Austin’s friend that is kidnapped and replaced with a look alike android on Six-Million Dollar Man, Heather Langenkamp’s father in a Nightmare on Elm Street, and of course Enter the Dragon. Enter the Dragon being a movie that shows you don’t need martial arts training to play a martial arts expert.

    I read a couple of obituaries of Regis Philbin yesterday and was surprised neither mentioned his association with Joey Bishop even though being Bishop’s sidekick was his first national exposure. But i suppose the people writing those obits were my age or younger. I’m too young to remember Regis with Bishop. My first exposure to Regis was on the Morning Show before Kathy Lee became his co-host.

    I did read that he had been named Regis because his father hoped he would attend his alma mater Regis High School in Manhattan. That is an elite Catholic boys high school that charges no tuition, but acceptance is based on a competitive entrance exam. It is the Catholic equivalent of the Bronx High School of Science. I don’t know why Regis didn’t go to Regis, but can you imagine the teasing he would get being named after the school he was attending? That would have been like my naming my son or daughter (if I’d had kids) Science McChesney so they would follow me at Bronx Science. Although come to think of it, if I hadn’t gotten in to Bronx Science I was going to go to my father’s alma mater, Mt. St. Michael. I was also accepted to Fordham Prep, a high school associated with Uncle Scoopy’s alma mater Fordham University. But Mt St. Michael offered me a larger scholarship. Bronx Science as a public school charges no tuition so my parents weren’t too upset I didn’t attend a Catholic high school. I think my mother regretted that because when I was 16 I decided I didn’t have enough evidence to believe in God and declared myself agnostic. My mother spent the next 35 years praying my faith would return. For some reason I’ve found myself thinking of my parents, particularly my mother quite a bit this past week. Yesterday would have been her 80th birthday, but she passed away last year and last week we sold the home my family had lived in for the past 47 years. Nope, I have no idea why she’s been on my mind so much.

    1. Of no particular relevance to the blog, but pertinent to this comment, I had kind of a similar experience recently. June 28th would have been my mom’s 100th birthday, so I spent an unusual amount of time recalling her.

    2. Sometimes “The Joey Bishop Show” turns up on late night broadcast TV around here. I was surprised that he had had a sitcom, and that I had never heard of it. Bishop has really been forgotten.

    1. How strange. “Battle Beyond the Stars” was just on broadcast TV in my area late last night (or early this morning). I only had it on for a few minutes, but Saxon was in the part I saw.

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