The Grim Reaper has stepped back in for another trifecta of celebrity deaths. Russell Johnson – the Professor from Gilligan’s Island – is gone. Ruth Duccini, the last surviving female Munchkin from the Wizard of Oz, died. (It was a slow week in the Hereafter.) And now, Fox News is reporting, rounding out the triple play, Dave Madden.
Dave Madden was best known as Reuben Kincaid on The Partridge Family. Kincaid was the gruff but lovable band manager for all 4 seasons of The Partridge Family show.
The Partridge Family starred Broadway superstar Shirley Jones as a mother of 5 children, including her real-life step-son, David Cassidy. David Cassidy himself has sen quite a bit of news coverage lately due to his drunk driving escapades. But he was not the first to meet the Reaper. The series also starred Susan Dey and Danny Bonaduce.
Madden was also a semi-regular on Alice, starring Linda Lavin, as a frequent Mel’s diner patron, Earl Hicks. He did the round of late-70’s shows like Barney Miller, The Love Boat, Fantasy Island, and Starsky and Hutch.
But Madden’s start really came on Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-In as a regular performer who drank milk and threw confetti. I guess you had to be there.
His Reuben Kincaid character is undoubtedly the role that people will remember him for. The humor of the role came from the fact that he was a band manager for a family band with five kids, but he hated kids.
But Madden was quite the opposite himself. Child co-star Danny Bonaduce, who went on to have a colorful life himself, says he is indebted to Madden for taking him into his own home with his family when Bonaduce’s family was imploding.
Madden was 82 years old, and according to the L.A. Times, died in Jacksonville, Florida in hospice care.
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