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AMC: James Mitchell has passed away

Chris B

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DRW50 Grand Master

DRW50

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This is where the "boring" part of soaps which has now been gutted is supposed to make the difference. The handing down of the show from generation to generation. The idea that this was not necessary for AMC, because all we need is Rylee or the many flashes in the pan of the past decade, is one of their biggest problems.

I don't think it's too late, some of those characters can still return to bridge the gap, and help introduce new characters who are not so damaged, but I guess that isn't likely.

I was watching some of Phoebe's funeral recently, and the Dear Aggie part always gets to me, even if they wouldn't let Phoebe have an entire episode dedicated to her goodbye.

I hope they will at least bring back Taylor Miller for a few days. The Cortlandts could do so much to revitalize AMC, there are still many branches of that family with viable characters. People are still talking about them today, while most of the Laverys are a distant memory after a whopping 2-3 years.

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EricMontreal22 Collaborator

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In Band Wagon he genuinely outdances the lead, Fred Astaire! It's too bad that so few of his ballet and musical theatre roles were filmed--youtube used to have a clip of his performance in So Dear to My Heart, in a racy Arabian pas de deux with Cyd Charisse that actually got him in trouble with the censors--it's as erotic a dance as anything in film history. But I can't find it anymore :(

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DRW50 Grand Master

DRW50

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I was thinking about the Michael Delaney story, and how the script originally would have called for Palmer to have a homophobic reaction, but James Mitchell asked them to change that, as he felt Palmer would have been supportive. He was right. Palmer was such a complex character, not all good or all bad, the way a lot of soap characters are now. Mitchell, and the show, trusted viewers to see both sides of Palmer.

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SFK Rising Star

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So sad, I have already missed him on AMC, and now I will go on missing him forever. :( I am sentimental to a fault and it's tough for me when I lose memorable television personalities from my childhood. The best of times to be an AMC fan.

About ten years ago, he and a lady friend/relative (?) and her little girl came into my friend's store. She said that he had to sit and rest for a spell, and that he sported an earring. :blush: He was super gentlemanly.

I just Google'd and the Advocate was the only news source that's already got an obituary up: http://www.advocate.com/News/Daily_News/2010/01/23/All_My_Children_Star_James_Mitchell_Dead_at_89/?id=105840

Eric, according to that article, his partner is still living.

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SFK Rising Star

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I might still have this on tape, but Ruth Warrick celebrated her 80th birthday on Regis & Kathy Lee (Joan Rivers was subbing and thought poor Ruthie had lost it because she was wearing a replica of her infamous white ensemble from Citizen Kane). At any rate, the surprise ending of the interview was Susan Lucci and James Mitchell wheeling out a birthday cake with lit candles. James helped Ruth blow out the candles, it was very sweet.

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teplin Collaborator

teplin

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I've never been an AMC fan. But I did flip the channel to AMC during DOOL commercials. (This was back in the days before remote control -- I actually had to get out of my chair!) I was just a kid, but the young, "hot" stars held no interest for me. I was fascinated by Palmer and Phoebe and Langley and Mona and Charles and Opal, such rich characters played by such marvelous actors. These characters and actors were never part of my daily life like those from DOOL and AW, but I mourned their passing nonetheless – on screen and in real life -- just as I mourn what soaps were when characters like these were prominently featured. RIP, James Mitchell. You were a class act.

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MarkH Newbie

MarkH

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<embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="640" height="504" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" src="http://www.archive.org/flow/flowplayer.commercial-3.0.5.swf" w3c="true" flashvars='config={"key":"#$b6eb72a0f2f1e29f3d4","playlist":[{"url":"http://www.archive.org/download/TouchofM1961/format=Thumbnail?.jpg","autoPlay":true,"scaling":"fit"},{"url":"http://www.archive.org/download/TouchofM1961/TouchofM1961_512kb.mp4","autoPlay":false,"accelerated":true,"scaling":"fit","provider":"h264streaming"}],"clip":{"autoPlay":false,"accelerated":true,"scaling":"fit","provider":"h264streaming"},"canvas":{"backgroundColor":"0x000000","backgroundGradient":"none"},"plugins":{"audio":{"url":"http://www.archive.org/flow/flowplayer.audio-3.0.3-dev.swf"},"controls":{"playlist":false,"fullscreen":true,"gloss":"high","backgroundColor":"0x000000","backgroundGradient":"medium","sliderColor":"0x777777","progressColor":"0x777777","timeColor":"0xeeeeee","durationColor":"0x01DAFF","buttonColor":"0x333333","buttonOverColor":"0x505050"},"h264streaming":{"url":"http://www.archive.org/flow/flowplayer.h264streaming-3.0.5.swf"}},"contextMenu":[{"View+TouchofM1961+at+archive.org":"function()"},"-","Flowplayer 3.0.5"]}'> </embed>

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