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Comedian Dody Goodman Dies After Eclectic Career

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: June 24, 2008

Dody Goodman, the delightfully daffy comedian known for her television appearances on Jack Paar's late-night talk show and as the mother on the soap-opera parody "Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman," has died at 93.

Goodman died Sunday at Englewood Hospital and Medical Center, said Joan Adams, a close family friend. The actress had been ill for some time and had lived in the Actors Fund Home in Englewood, N.J., since October, Adams said.

Goodman, with her pixyish appearance and Southern-tinged, quavery voice, had an eclectic show-business career. She moved easily from stage to television to movies, where she appeared in such popular films as "Grease" and "Grease 2," playing Blanche, the principal's assistant, and in "Splash."

It was on "The Tonight Show" when Paar was the late-night TV program's second host in the late 1950s that Goodman first received national attention. Her quirky, off-kilter remarks inevitably got laughs and endeared audiences.

After a falling out with Paar, other chat shows took up the slack, including "The Merv Griffin Show" and "Girl Talk." And there were roles on TV series, too, most notably her appearances as Martha Shumway (Louise Lasser's mother) on "Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman," starting in 1976, and guest shots on such shows as "Diff'rent Strokes," "St. Elsewhere" and "Murder, She Wrote."

In later years, Goodman was a regular in "Nunsense" and its sequels, appearing off-Broadway and on tour in Dan Goggin's comic musical celebration of the Little Sisters of Hoboken. She started out playing Sister Mary Amnesia, later graduating to the role of Mother Superior.

Winston 'Gave Life To All Of Our Ideas'

Friends, relatives and show-business colleagues gathered Sunday to remember Oscar-winning special-effects maestro Stan Winston, the man responsible for bringing the dinosaurs of "Jurassic Park" and other iconic movie creatures to life.

Winston died at his home in Malibu, Calif., surrounded by family June 15 after a seven-year struggle with multiple myeloma. He was 62.

Winston's son Matt recounted his father's last day as being filled with laughter, hugs, kisses, tears and music from the Beatles. At the end of the private memorial service, Matt played the last song Winston heard before he died: the Beatles' "All My Loving."

Colleagues including "Iron Man" director Jon Favreau, Sigourney Weaver, Tom Arnold, Ernie Hudson and Robert Patrick joined Winston's family and friends to reminisce and listen to personal stories from Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, Rabbi Judith Halevy, brother Ronny Winston, uncle Mitchell Karlan, son-in-law Erich Litoff, and directors James Cameron and Steven Spielberg.

"What Stan did is that he took our dreams - he took all of our dreams - and he blended them with his own dreams," Spielberg told mourners in attendance. "He then workshopped those dreams with pencil, clay and later years on the computer. He would basically give life to all of our ideas. He would make them come to life."

Today's Birthdays

Musician Mick Fleetwood is 61. Actor Peter Weller is 61. Rock musician John Illsley (Dire Straits) is 59. Actress Minka Kelly (TV: "Friday Night Lights") is 28. Singer Solange Knowles is 22.

Source: The Associated Press

CORRECTIONS

It is the policy of The Tampa Tribune to correct all errors of fact. To report an error, call (813) 259-7600 or e-mail news@tampatrib .com.

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