Veteran actor Gene Janson dies ONSTAGE...

[LynnieD]

Veteran Actor Collapses Onstage, Dies
Oct 06 4:45 PM US/Eastern

Twenty minutes into the performance of "The Best Man" at a Chicago theater, veteran stage actor Gene Janson, onstage with fellow performer David Darlow, unexpectedly put his head in his hands.
When Darlow asked Janson if he was OK, "He replied that he was not," said James Bohnen, artistic director of the Remy Bumppo Theatre Company, which is producing the play.

Darlow rushed off the stage to get help, and a nurse in the matinee audience came to Janson's aid. Janson, 72, was taken Wednesday to Lincoln Park Hospital, where he died shortly after of a heart attack, said his son, Christopher Janson.

"There is a certain poetic irony to his death," Christopher Janson said. "He died doing what he loved, which was being on the stage and in a play he was so proud of."

In the Gore Vidal drama, Janson portrayed a fictional former U.S. president who dies unexpectedly. Bohnen said the role was one of Janson's finest in a 50-year career.

"He brought so much to his character," Bohnen said. "He was having the time of his life with this part."

Janson worked mainly on the stage, although his film credits included "The Blues Brothers," "While You Were Sleeping," and "My Best Friend's Wedding." He also appeared in TV shows and commercials.

Janson was familiar to Chicagoans as a pledge drive spokesman for public station WTTW-TV, a job he held for more than 20 years.

Remy Bumppo planned to resume "The Best Man" with an understudy in Janson's role, a spokesman said Friday. The company has dedicated the rest of the play's run at Chicago's Victory Gardens Greenhouse Theater to his memory.

Besides his son, Janson is survived by a wife, two daughters and four grandchildren
http://www.breitbart.com/news/2006/10/06/D8KJC0U80.html



Don't remember him from the movies they list, and don't have a pic...but that's sad that he died in the middle of his preformance, yet, kind of cool. Died doing what he loved!

[bite me spidey]

That is good that he died doing what he loved, but it's also very tragic. I doubt he thought "this is my last performance, got to give it my all." If anything he could have felt like crap and looked forward to tomorrow. Poor guy, RIP.

[ourmaninBusan]

I have a certain admiration, perverse as it may seem, for people whose
life ends with their work. Charles M. Schulz died the same week that his
comic strip retired for good, back in February 2000. They were his
life's work, and when it was over, he was over.

Perhaps this guy was just trying to join the same club.

[pacific breeze]

Well, you know the saying: The show must go on!

[bite me spidey]

Originally Posted by ourmaninBusan

I have a certain admiration, perverse as it may seem, for people whose
life ends with their work. Charles M. Schulz died the same week that his
comic strip retired for good, back in February 2000. They were his
life's work, and when it was over, he was over.

Perhaps this guy was just trying to join the same club.

I think that's actually very common and not at all perverse. I've heard stories about how, when people go through something in their life that is finally ending, they tend to die because of it. The first example that comes to mind are the couples that seem to die one after the other; one person in the long and committed relationship will die and months later the other will die. I think it's more than just coincidence; I think a lot of people when they lose something or someone very important in their life they just die with it because they either want to or they don't have any reason to live so their body shuts down. I often think that's the best way to go.

Now that's a difference circumstance compared to this actor because this actor wasn't ending his acting career or anything, so I think this was more of a tragic accident that just so happened to happen at the wrong/right time.

[calendargurl]

It says he died at the hospital, not onstage

[AliceInWonderland]

well thats a full life he lead.