Fred
Gwynne
and
The
Munsters
Insane couple build the Munsters house! I envy them. How cool are they?
Thanks Kim!
I
remember waking up one morning in San Francisco (no comment), and hearing the
news that Fred Gwynne was terminally ill.
That was in May of 1993.
Fred's agent made a statement to the press, "He's decided to retire
from doing anything."
She also said that Fred is healthy, happy and working his herd of Angus
cattle on a Virginia farm.
Virginia?
What a smoke screen.
Here's the scoop.
I
owe a sincere debt of gratitude to two brand new friends of Findadeath.com, Rob
Hoehn and Greg Williams.
These guys took part of their Thanksgiving weekend, to travel to
Hooterville (or thereabouts) to get the photographs for this story.
Thank you so much guys.
Well,
Fred wasn't healthy at all.
Within 2 months of that statement, he was dead.
He was best known to all of us - as Herman Munster, head of the clan on
that fantastic television show.
He tried like hell to get away from the image, but it would never leave
him. Rightfully
so. Who
cares about Car
54, Where Are You?, My
Cousin Vinny, or even Pet
Sematary (okay, we liked that one.)?
The Munsters were IT.
Fred was asked in 1982 about his favourite roles.
He mentioned a lot of plays and Cat
on a Hot Tin Roof, then he paused.
"And I might as well tell you the truth, I love old Herman Munster.
Much as I try not to, I can't stop liking that fellow."
Great. So
he died in peace.
Update Dec 99 - Findadeath.com friend Nora Lee Liederbach from the Hilton U. Brown Branch Library reminded me that Fred also penned a few children's books. Most notably, "A Little Pigeon Toad," "The King Who Rained," "Pondlarker," and "Chocolate Moose for Dinner." Nora tells me that his books were and still are popular with families. Thanks Nora!
He
discovered he was ill in January of 93.
A CAT scan on February 3 confirmed the illness, and he underwent surgery
at the famed John Hopkins Medical Center, in Baltimore.
They found that the cancer had spread to his liver, and the doctors were
unable to get it all.
He was put on a chemo program.
Not
very long before he got the bad news, he and his wife Deborah bought a farm in a
place called Taneytown, Maryland, about 40 miles Northeast of Baltimore.
Findadeath.com friend Scott Schuler writes in: Fred Gwynne's farm in Taneytown, Maryland is NORTHWEST of Baltimore, not northeast. We have so few celebrities around here (not counting politicians) so it was kind of cool to have someone as pleasant as Fred Gwynne around. Also, you mentioned his funeral was in Westminster; Curly Howard's daughter lives there. That's kind of cool, too. Once in a while she gives an interview to the local papers, but she doesn't crow about it.
Thanks, Scott.
The
farm was located on Stone
Road, near Bert Koontz (?) road, in Taneytown.
Fred succumbed to the cancer at 8am, on Friday July 2nd, in this
house.
He was 66 years old.
Here's
the house from another
angle.
Interested in Herman Munster's mailbox?
His
body was taken to the Fletcher
Funeral Home, in nearby
Westminster. Here's
the funeral
home.
When he was removed for the burial, they no doubt took his casket from
around back
here.
The
next day, July 3rd, Fred was taken to the Sandymount
Methodist Church, for a brief service.
The funeral was private, probably only attended by his wife and four
children. Afterwards, he was buried in an unmarked grave, in
this cemetery.
Could be anywhere.
June 2007 - my friend Kathleen sends this:
Thieves
Steal Herman Munster's Identity
AP - Wed, 20 Jun 2007 14:39:37 -0400 (EDT)
By TED BRIDIS
Did Internet thieves steal Herman Munster's MasterCard number?
Crooks in an underground chat room for selling stolen credit card
numbers and personal consumer information offered pilfered data
purportedly about Herman Munster, the 1960s Frankenstein-
character from "The Munsters" TV sitcom.
The thieves apparently didn't realize Munster was a fictional TV
character and dutifully offered to sell Munster's personal details --
accurately listing his home address from the television series as 1313
Mocking Bird Lane -- and what appeared to be his MasterCard number.
Munster's birth date was listed as Aug. 15, 1964, suspiciously close
to the TV series' original air date in September 1964.
CardCops Inc., the Malibu, Calif., Internet security company that
quietly recorded details of the illicit but wayward transaction,
surmised that a Munsters fan knowledgeable about the show deliberately
provided the bogus data.
"The identity thief thought it was good data," said Dan Clements, the
company's president.
Clements said evidence indicates the thief, known online as "Supra,"
was operating overseas. "They really stumble over our culture. He's
probably not watching any reruns of `The Munsters' on TV Land."
As
for the rest of the cast:
Yvonne
DeCarlo played Lily Munster.
I really don't know much about what she has been up to.
There was that dreadful new Munsters "grouping" for television,
and she showed up in that.
I do have a funny story about a guy I know calling Yvonne late one night,
pretending to be Carol Channing.
I guess that really doesn’t count.
He had her fooled though.
Al
Lewis is insane.
Loveable, but insane.
He is 89 years old, and shows no signs of stopping.
He recently ran for Governor of New York, on the Green Party ballot.
Al died in 2006, at the age of 82. Turns out he lied about his age for so many years, claiming he was OLDer. Wild old lunatic. RIP Grampa.
Pat
Priest
played Marilyn Munster.
What a groovy chick.
She's retired now and living on some farm in the middle of nowhere.
She has got wise, and her son manages her autograph sessions now, and she
makes a decent wage doing that.
Here's her photo
catalogue.
Butch Patrick -
What a handful.
He played Eddie.
He's been in and out of so much trouble.
In 1979, he was busted and did time, for having more than 200 quaaludes
on him. My friend Bun and I had an opportunity to meet him on
Halloween 1990.
As you can see, he disturbingly donned his Eddie garb. He was arrested a
day or so later, for not paying a limo driver and hitting him because he kept
getting lost. Can't
say I blame him.
Butch, not the driver.
Butch received a 30-month probation sentence for the mishap.
He moved to Georgia.
In 1996 - he was driving with a suspended license, and failed to yield,
hitting a car.
He got in to trouble.
Trivia:
Do you remember the episode where Eddie wins a trip to see his favourite TV
idol, Zombo?
Then he discovers that Zombo isn't really a monster after all, and Eddie exposes the
hoax. I
love that one.
An actor named Louis Nye played Zombo.
I met Louie once, when I was hanging out with the Beverly Hillbillies (it’s a long story, and when I do a Nancy
Kulp/Irene Ryan story, I'll fill you in.).
Anyway, here's Louis
and myself.
A very nice man.
Louis
Nye is now dead. RIP Zombo baby. 
And
just so you don't go away thinking you haven't learned anything useful, here is
an historical
marker from outside the church.
Read. Learn.
And
there are The
Munsters.
Thank you again, Rob and Greg.
Anyone have anything to add?
Please feel free to get in touch!
October 2000 - Findadeath.com friend Joe Gardner sends this in:
In 1980, NBC was thinking to themselves, "Hey, let's
make a Munsters TV movie. If it is successful, maybe another series!" They wanted to bring back Fred
Gwynne, Yvonne De Carlo, and Al Lewis, all from the original series. I suppose they didn't want it to be a
"The Munsters have grown-up, with Eddie and Marilyn married", so they decided to get a young Eddie again,
and a college-aged Marilyn.
When they called up Gwynne, he of course was still trying to live down his
Herman Munster image. His wife told him to name some astronomical figure for the part, so that perhaps, if
he was going to play Herman, he was going to get paid! The producers accepted! Fred was promised his original
make-up artist from the TV show as well. They felt like it was old times on set, but sadly the movie
didn't hit it off, when it aired in February of 1981.
Gwynne once confessed that as hard as he tried, he couldn't ever hate Herman Munster.
September 06 My pal Steve Cox has a new updated version of his Spectacular Munster's book!
Joe has his own Munsters website, check it out here:
