It comes in threes
For years now, I’ve often heard that celebrity deaths, like many other things (supposedly) come in sets of three. As in you’ll hear about one famous person dying, then very soon after there will be another, and then a third will die and someone will say, “Well, these things come in threes, you know.”
When Zero Mostel died in 1977, I’m sure a few people were sad. He was a fairly well-known character actor who had his biggest role in “Fiddler on the Roof.” Then Elvis Presley died around the same time. That was a much bigger deal, as I’m sure you know if you’ve ever tried to do anything over in Memphis around August 16th. Three days later Groucho Marx of the famous Marx Brothers passed away. I don’t know if anyone said, Well, these things come in threes” at that time, sinc I was four years old, but maybe they did.
Well, recently, we had a set of three famous people pass away. Betty White, just a few days shy of her 100th birthday, comedian and TV actor Bob Saget, and actor/director Sidney Poitier. Now Saget was the youngest of the three, at age 65, so these aren’t great tragedies like when Elvis died at the age of 42, but it’s still sad when someone who was a small part of your life dies, or as one person who fondly remembered White’s and Saget’s roles on “Golden Girls” and “Full House” respectively, tweeted, “It’s hard to lose your TV grandma and your TV dad in the same week…”
I didn’t really follow Betty White’s career. She was out of
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