PD entertainment critic Mark Dawidziak, who with Dick Shippy were
the best TV critics in BJ history, has warm memories of Ken Howard, the white
basketball coach of an all-black team in “The White Shadow” TV series, who died
Wednesday at the age of 71.
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| Ken Howard |
“So
sorry to hear about the death of Ken Howard. Great, great guy. Got to know him
a bit when he was working toward an MFA at Kent State University in the late
'90s.
“Always
cherished his work as Thomas Jefferson in ‘1776’ and in the title role of the
landmark drama ‘The White Shadow.’
“But
knowing he had played Mark Twain in an episode of ‘Bonanza’ (‘Hal Holbrook, it
isn't,’ he told me), as well as the title role in a PBS adaptation of Mark
Twain's ‘Pudd'nhead Wilson,’ I gave him a copy of my 1996 book ‘Mark My Words:
Mark Twain on Writing.’
“Every
time we met at a network press event after that, he mentioned how much the book
meant to him. I later found out he cited it in his dissertation and his book ‘Act
Natural.’
“He
had many grand stories to tell, and we shared a few memories of Long Island
childhoods.”
Howard was the
current national president of SAG-AFTRA.
Howard also played Hank
Hooper, the cable company CEO on the sitcom “30 Rock,” won a supporting actor
Emmy Award in 2009 as the absent father Phelan Beale (the uncle of Jacqueline
Kennedy Onassis) in the HBO telefilm “Grey Gardens,” lawyer Garrett Boydston on
the ABC’s “Dynasty” and “The Colbys,” the retired police detective father of Jill
Hennessy on “Crossing Jordan.”
He received a 1970 Tony
Award as a phys-ed teacher at a Catholic boarding school for boys in “Child's Play.”
Survivors include
his wife, retired stuntwoman Linda Fetters.
He earlier was
married to actress Louise Sorel ("Days of Our Lives") and Margo Howard, the
daughter of Eppie Lederer, who dispensed advice as the syndicated newspaper
columnist Ann Landers. Both marriages ended in divorce.
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