Enthusiasm Uncurbed

Close friends and family pay tribute to television actor and Highlands resident George Coe

By MICHAEL AUSHENKER | Pali Life Editor

He may not have been as famous as John Belushi, Dan Aykroyd or Gilda Radner, but when longtime Highlands resident George Coe, oldest of the original Not Ready for Prime Time Players, passed away on July 18 at the age of 86, his industry felt the loss of this talented actor. Suddenly, overnight, television, animation and feature films became a lot poorer.

The Palisadian had amassed a diverse body of work, and yet it wasn’t until right after his passing that many realized just how many different streams of fandom he had—whether it was from the FX series “Archer” or the “Transformers” film sequel “Dark of the Moon,”  “Star Wars” and “Star Trek”-related shows; or episodic television such as “Law & Order,” “Judging Amy” and “Two and a Half Men.”

On the afternoon of Aug. 10, about 50 family members and industry friends — including former Palisadian Frances Fisher, Martin Sheen and Elliott Gould—attended a special tribute to the actor at SAG-AFTRA headquarters in Mid-City, where “Poltergeist” actress JoBeth Williams had secured the theater. A clip of Coe as an undertaker sparring with former Palisadian Larry David over his inability to bury David’s scandalously tattooed mother in a Jewish cemetery on an episode of “Curb Your Enthusiasm” (key Coe quote: “There’s nothing I can do, sir! The law is the law.”) brought down an otherwise misty-eyed house.

“I’ll miss him dearly,” said fellow actor David Jolliffe. “All we did was have fun. That’s all we did.”

Coe’s “St. Elsewhere” colleague William Daniels relayed well wishes from David Huddleston of New Mexico and Scott Wilson from Toronto, while Sheen recalled how, about eight months ago, he had made Coe laugh uproariously when he shared how someone had asked Jonathan Winters “How would you like to be remembered?” to which Winters replied, “For about five minutes.”

Judging from the SAG tribute, Coe, his acting and his union work will be remembered for much longer than that. The following are a few of the day’s highlights, dedicated to an actor whose professional life was filled with many of them.