Thursday Night Toast
It's a sad fact of life that once in a while, people pass on. Croak. Achieve room temperature. Check into the maggot motel. You know, DIE. Many times, these are people who are important to the Thursday Night Movie Club in some way. And for a long time now, when some luminary buys the box condo during a particular week, we will hoist a martini in their honor at the very next Thursday Night post-movie imbibing marathon. It recently occurred to us that it would be worth noting these toasts, for those folks who have become toast, on this web page as a permanent tribute to them. Also, it will help you, dear reader, to understand the TNMC ethos through examining this list of those we consider our dearly departed.
I'll try to remember past toasts to kick things off, and to document current and future toasts as they occur. If you don't find this whole endeavor too macabre, hopefully you will enjoy this chronicle. And if you DO find it too macabre, you probably aren't a Thursday Night Movie Club kind of person in the first place. Salute. Prosit. Sante. E moritori salutanti. Cheers!
Thursday Night Toastees:
(most recent entrees are at the top; note that these are the dates of the toasts; dates of the actual
deaths were usually in the preceeding week sometime)
deaths were usually in the preceeding week sometime)
Thursday, 9/14/2006; Steve "The Crocodile Hunter" Irwin
Thursday, 8/31/2006; Glenn Ford
Thursday, 7/27/2006; Jack Warden, Mako
Thursday, 7/20/2006; Mickey Spillane, Syd Barrett, Tim Hildebrandt, Red Buttons
Thursday, 6/8/2006; Billy Preston
Thursday, 3/2/2006; Don Knotts, Darren McGavin, Dennis Weaver
Thursday, 2/16/2006; Al "Grandpa" Lewis, Peter Benchley, Andreas Katsulas
Thursday, 1/26/2006; Chris Penn, Anthony Franciosa
Thursday, 1/19/2006; Shelly Winters, Wilson Pickett
Thursday, 1/12/2006; Lou Rawls
Thursday, 1/5/2006; Vincent Schiavelli
Thursday, 9/29/2005; Don Adams (finally eighty-sixed)
Thursday, 9/15/2005; Robert Wise
Thursday, 9/8/2005; Bob "Gilli-GONE" Denver
Thursday, 9/1/2005; Brock Peters, Hurricane Katrina victims
Thursday, 8/11/2005; Peter Jennings (Anchor Away!)
Thursday, 7/21/2005; James Doohan (Ain't Doohan much of anything anymore)
Thursday, 6/9/2005; Anne Bancroft (Here's to you.....)
Thursday, 5/26/2005; Ismail Merchant, Thurl (Tony the Tiger. Mr. Grinch) Ravenscroft
Thursday, 5/19/2005; Frank "The Riddler" Gorshin (riddled with cancer)
Thursday, 4/28/2005; Mason Adams, George P. ("Tombstone") Cosmatos
Thursday, 4/7/2005; Pope John Paul II (Toasted in Jamaica)
Friday, 2/25/2005; Hunter S. Thompson, Sandra Dee
Thursday, 2/10/2005; John Vernon, Ossie Davis
Thursday, 1/27/2005; Johnny Carson
Thursday, 1/6/2005; Jerry Orbach
Thursday, 10/21/2004; Christopher Reeve
Thursday, 10/7/2004; Rodney Dangerfield, Janet Leigh, Gordon Cooper, Richard Avedon
Thursday, 9/23/2004; Russ Meyer
Thursday, 9/16/2004; Johnny Ramone (that's about the end of this group)
Thursday, 9/2/2004; Laura Branigan, Fred Whipple (not the toilet paper guy!)
Thursday, 8/12/2004; Eugene Roche, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Rick James, Fay Wray, Francis Crick
Thursday, 5/20/2004; Tony Randall
Thursday, 3/25/2004; Don Cray (father of our good buddies)
Thursday, 3/11/2004; Paul Winfield, Robert Pastorelli
Thursday, 2/26/2004; Joe Viterelli
Thursday, 1/15/2004; my beloved girlfriend Linda
Thursday, 11/13/2003: Irv Kupcinet, Art Carney (goooodbye, ball!)
Thursday, 11/6/2003: Bobby Hatfield
Thursday, 10/16/2003: Willie Shoemaker
Thursday, 10/2/2003; Robert Palmer; Donald O'Connor, Elia Kazan
Thursday, 9/25/2003; Gordon Jump
Thursday, 9/18/2003; Johnny Cash, John Ritter
Thursday, 9/11/2003; Warren Zevon
Thursday, 9/4/2003; Charles Bronson (got his wish)
Thursday, 8/14/2003; Gregory Hines (tapped out)
Thursday, 7/31/2003; Bob Hope
Thursday, 7/3/2003; Katharine Hepburn; Buddy Hackett
Thursday, 6/20/2003; Hume Cronyn
Thursday, 6/13/2003; David Brinkley, Gregory Peck
Thursday, 4/17/2003; Dr. Robert C. Atkins
Thursday, 2/20/2003; "Sis" Daley, Johnny PayCheck
Thursday, 1/23/2003; Richard Crenna
Thursday, 11/21/2002; James Coburn
Thursday, 11/7/2002; Jonathon ("Dr. Smith") Harris
Thursday, 10/31/2002; Richard Harris, Kam Fong
Thursday, 10/17/2002; Ray Conniff
Thursday, 9/19/2002: James Gregory*
Thursday, 9/12/2002: Kim Hunter, Johnny Unitas
Thursday, 7/25/2002: Leo McKern
Thursday, 7/18/2002: John Frankenheimer, Rod Steiger
Thursday, 6/27/2002: Ann Landers, John Entwistle
Thursday, 6/20/2002: Dee Dee Ramone, John Gotti
Thursday, 5/30/2002: Sam Sneed
Thursday, 5/9/2002: Seattle Slew
Thursday, 5/2/2002: Linda Lovelace
Thursday, 4/18/2002: Robert Urich
Thursday, 2/28/2002: Chuck Jones, Lawrence Tierney
Thursday, 1/24/2002: Peggy Lee
Thursday, 12/27/2001: Foster Brooks (last call!)
Thursday, 12/6/2001: George Harrison (all things must pass)
Thursday, 11/1/2001: Victor Wong*
Thursday, 10/11/2001: Arne Harris
Thursday, 9/20/2001: Freddie DeCordova
Thursday, 9/13/2001: Victims of September 11th Terrorist Attacks
Thursday, 9/6/2001: Pauline Kael, Justin Wilson
Thursday, 8/9/2001: Lorenzo Music, Poul Anderson, Mr. Belvidere, Maureen Reagan
Thursday, 6/28/2001: Caroll O'Connor, Jack Lemon
Thursday, 5/31/2001: Victor Kayam, Whitman "Grady" Mayo
Thursday, 5/17/2001: Perry Como, Jason Miller
Thursday, 4/19/2001: Joey Ramone (I Wanna Be Cremated!)
Thursday, 3/23/2001: Pappa John Phillips, Glen Hughes (Village People)
Thursday, 2/22/2001: Stanley Kramer, Dale Earnhardt
Thursday, 2/8/2001: Dale Evans
Thursday, 1/11/2001: Les Brown, Woody Allen's dad
Thursday, 1/4/2001: Ray Walston, Jose Greco
Thursday, 12/28/2000: Jason Robards, Billy Barty, Victor Borge
Listed below, in reverse chronological order, are toastees that I remember toasting before the inception of this rather gruesome page, but didn't note the precise date at the time:
Previous Toastees during 2000: Werner Klemperer, Steve Allen, Gwen Verdon, Richard Farnsworth, Reggie Kray, Alec Guinness, Walter Matthau, Tito Puente, Tex Beneke, John Gielgud, Paul Bartel, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Steve Reeves, Vicki Sue Robinson, Edward Gorey, Larry Linville, Durward Kirby, Charles "Time Warp" Gray, Charles Schulz, Hedy "Hedly" Lamarr.
Previous Toastees during 1999: Clayton Moore, Desmond Llewelyn, Madeline Kahn, Walter Payton, Hoyt Axton, Wilt Chamberlain, George C. Scott, Allen Funt, John F. Kennedy Jr., Mario Puzo, DeForest "He's Dead, Jim!" Kelley, Mel Torme, Shel Silverstein, Senor Wences, Anthony Newley, Boxcar Willie, Peggy Cass, Joe DiMaggio, Stanley Kubrick, Gene Siskel, Iron Eyes Cody.
Previous Toastees during 1998: Norman Fell, Flip Wilson, Bob Kane, Frankie Yankovic, Roddy McDowall, Mary Frann, Akira Kurosawa, E.G. Marshall, Persis Khambatta, Jack Brickhouse.
(yeah, we've been seeing Thursday Night Movies since long before 1998 (it was 1988, to be precise), and people have been cacking all that time, but that's about the time that we started doing the official toast. You want more death records, feel free to check them out here.)
*Members of the Thursday Night Movie Club Hall Of Fame
Thursday Night Toast
