This person died in 2011, age 93. She spoke openly in support of the Equal Rights Amendment, endorsed legalized abortion, and discussed premarital sex. Her dependency on pills began in 1964 after a neck injury, and her drinking worsened as her husband’s political career advanced. When Gerald Ford lost the 1976 election, it was she who read the official concession speech with smiling grace. Today’s dead celebrity is Betty Ford.

If you enjoyed this episode, you might also enjoy Episode 48 What About Bob (Bob Dole) and Episode 47 Proud Mary (Mary Tyler Moore).

Famous & Gravy is created and co-hosted by Michael Osborne. This episode was produced by Evan Sherer and features guest co-host Wiley Hodges.

LINKS:

Transcript of this episode

CBS Remembrance of Betty Ford

Short segment of 1974 60 Minutes Interview

Betty Ford’s Lecture on Addiction and Recovery at Hazelton

Betty Ford cameo on the Mary Tyler Moore Show

The Simpsons I’m Checking In

Dead or Alive quiz game

Famous & Gravy on Facebook, LinkedIn, Threads

Famous & Gravy official website

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This person died 2005, age 67. At his peak, he reached out in his writing to a generation made cynical by the Vietnam War and Watergate, and that was prepared to respond to his visceral honesty. His early work presaged some of the fundamental changes that rocked journalism today. His approach mirrors the style of modern-day bloggers and social commentators who blend news, opinion and personal experience on Internet postings. In 1970 he ran for sheriff in Pitkin County, Colo. It seemed a joke and another outlandish act, until the votes were counted and he came close to winning. His 1972 book, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, cemented him as a singular presence in American journalism. Today’s dead celebrity is Hunter S. Thompson.

If you enjoyed this episode, you may also like Episode 102 Magical Thinker (Joan Didion) and Episode 58 Best in Show (Fred Willard).

Famous & Gravy is created and co-hosted by Michael Osborne. This episode was produced by Evan Sherer and features guest co-host Devin Fromm.

LINKS:

Transcript of this episode

1975 Lucid interview with Hunter S Thompson

Conan O’Brien visits Hunter S Thompson’s Owl Farm

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, opening scene

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, high water mark monologue

HST on the Kentucky Derby

Tom Wolfe and Hunter S Thompson letter exchange

Dead or Alive quiz game

Famous & Gravy on Facebook, LinkedIn, Threads

Famous & Gravy official website

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This person died 2022, age 96. She worked to be a rare bastion of permanence in a world of shifting values. During the Covid pandemic, she said, “Many of us will need to find new ways of staying in touch with each other and making sure that loved ones are safe,” and, “I am certain that we are up to that challenge. You can be assured that my family and I stand ready to play our part.” Her institution was forced to justify its existence in the face of often skeptical public attention and scrutiny. In 2017 she celebrated her 70th anniversary to her husband, whom she first met when she was just a teenager. She was Britain’s longest serving monarch. Today’s dead celebrity is Queen Elizabeth II.

If you enjoyed this episode, you may also like Episode 31 The Greatest (Muhammad Ali) and Episode 93 American Royalty (Elizabeth Taylor).

Transcript of this episode

NYT Article on the Queen and Corgi lineage

New Yorker Review of The Crown ending

Dead or Alive quiz game

Famous & Gravy on Facebook, LinkedIn, Threads

Famous & Gravy official website

Famous & Gravy is created and co-hosted by Michael Osborne. This episode was produced by Allie Arrazola and Evan Sherer, and features guest co-host Sara Murphy.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This person died in 2011, age 58. His colleagues said he had charisma and a knack for spontaneity. In the mid-1970s, he played minor-league baseball for about four years in the St. Louis Cardinals and Cincinnati Reds organizations. He acted in the 2002 movie “Spider-Man,” appeared on sitcoms like “Mad About You,” and lent his scratchy baritone to video games and cartoons, including “Family Guy” and “King of the Hill.” He would wear brightly colored cowboy hats and outfits dripping with fringe. He would strut into the wrestling ring to his theme song “Pomp and Circumstance,” muscles gleaming and neon spandex shining, growling his signature expression, “Oooh, yeah!” before diving at his opponents, elbows first. Today’s dead celebrity is Randy Savage.

If you enjoyed this episode, you may also like Episode 092 Acerbic Comedian (George Carlin), Episode 100 Divine Neighbor (Fred Rogers), and Episode 049 Hammer Time (Hank Aaron).

Famous & Gravy is created and co-hosted by Amit Kapoor and Michael Osborne. This episode was produced by Evan Sharer, and features guest co-host Steve Prata.

LINKS:

Transcript of this episode

Jon Finkel’s biography of Randy Savage

Randy Savage vs. Ricky Steamboat, WrestleMania III

Macho Man Slim Jim commercials compilation

Dead or Alive quiz game

Famous & Gravy on Facebook, LinkedIn, Threads

Famous & Gravy official website

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This person died 2023, age 79. He earned a law degree from Northwestern University in 1968 and started on a political career. In the 1980s he won or shared multiple Emmy Awards for local news coverage. In 1974 he was embroiled in a personal scandal after he was found to have written a check for prostitution services at a Kentucky massage parlor. He was elected mayor of Cincinnati in 1977, and in 1982 he ran for governor of Ohio. His syndicated daytime talk show began in 1991. Today’s dead celebrity is Jerry Springer.

If you enjoyed this episode, you may also like Episode 91 Studio Insider (James Lipton) and Episode1 Unapologetic Opulence (Robin Leach).

Famous & Gravy is created and co-hosted by Amit Kapoor and Michael Osborne. This episode was produced by Allie Arrazola, and features guest co-host Michelle Dahlenberg.

LINKS:

Transcript of this episode

Jerry Springer’s 25th Anniversary Final Thought

Jerry Springer’s story on This American Life

Best of Jerry Springer Compilation 1

Dr. Evil and Scott go on Jerry Springer in Austin Powers 2

Dead or Alive quiz game

Famous & Gravy on Facebook, LinkedIn, Threads

Famous & Gravy official website

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This person died in 2018, age 75. She had a self-effacing personality, which colleagues and interviewers often commented on. She was the first woman to direct a feature film that grossed more than $100 million. She also directed “Awakenings” (1990), a medical drama starring Robert De Niro. She got into directing the ‘easy’ way — by becoming a television superstar first. In 1971 she married Rob Reiner, who was then a star of the hit TV series “All in the Family.” She played Laverne on Laverne and Shirley. Today’s dead celebrity is Penny Marshall.

If you enjoyed this episode, you may also like Episode 68 Sentient Princess (Carrie Fisher) and Episode 80 Super Funkhouser (Bob Einstein).

Famous & Gravy is created and co-hosted by Amit Kapoor and Michael Osborne. This episode was produced by Allie Arrazola, and features guest co-host Michelle Dahlenberg.

LINKS:

Transcript of this episode

Penny in conversation on stage with brother Garry Marshall

Penny on The Rosie O’Donnell Show in 1999

Fred Armisen Penny Marshall impersonation

Dead or Alive quiz game

Famous & Gravy on Facebook, LinkedIn, Threads

Famous & Gravy official website

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This person died 2014 age 86. In high school he played football and basketball. In 1950, when the Korean War broke out, he was drafted. An understated comic actor, he was especially adept at conveying life’s tiny bedevilments. He was a genuine star but as an actor something of a paradox: a lantern-jawed, brawny athlete whose physical appeal was both enhanced and undercut by a disarming wit. He came to acting late, and by accident. He was best known as the amiable gambler Bret Maverick in the 1950s western “Maverick.” Today’s dead celebrity is James Garner.

If you enjoyed this episode, you may also like Episode 84 Vocal Bedrock (Johnny Cash) and Episode 62 Lord of Horror (Christopher Lee).

Famous & Gravy is created and co-hosted by Amit Kapoor and Michael Osborne. This episode was produced by Allie Arrazola, and features guest co-host Michael Warburton.

LINKS:

Transcript of this episode

James Garner on Charlie Rose

Garner on why he quit Maverick and Rockford files

James Garner interviewed by Tom Snyder on the Late Late Show

Dead or Alive quiz game

Famous & Gravy on Facebook, LinkedIn, Threads

Famous & Gravy official website

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This person died 2021, age 87. As a teenager, she typed out chapters from Hemingway novels to see how they worked. Her attraction to trouble spots, disintegrating personalities and incipient chaos came naturally. She came to prominence with a series of incisive, searching feature articles in Life magazine and The Saturday Evening Post that explored the fraying edges of postwar American life. In two early groundbreaking essay collections, she turned her cool, apprehensive gaze on the hippies of Haight-Ashbury, on eccentrics and searchers like Howard Hughes, on the film industry in the post-studio era, and on the death-tinged music of the Doors. Today’s dead celebrity is Joan Didion.

If you enjoyed this episode, you may also like Episode 96 Ranch Dresser (Paul Newman) and Episode 52 Electric Vanities (Tom Wolfe).

Famous & Gravy is created and co-hosted by Amit Kapoor and Michael Osborne. This episode was produced by Allie Arrazola, and features guest co-host Alice Florence Orr.

LINKS:

Transcript of this episode

Podcast Review website

Joan Didion 1992 Interview

Joan Didion 1971 Interview

Dead or Alive quiz game

Famous & Gravy on Facebook, LinkedIn, Threads

Famous & Gravy official website

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.