DANNY THOMAS, 79, died Feb. 6 from a heart attack. After a successful career in nightclubs, radio and movies, Thomas became one of TV’s biggest stars in Make Room for Daddy, the wildly popular family comedy based in part on his own nightclub career. The series ran for 11 years on ABC, then CBS, ending (as The Danny Thomas Show) in 1964 only because Thomas had had enough of the weekly grind.

     His show’s success allowed Thomas to also become a producer (partnered with Sheldon Leonard) of such hit series as The Real McCoys and The Dick Van Dyke Show, spin-offs from his show (The Bill Dana Show and The Andy Griffith Show), Gomer Pyle USMC and Mayberry RFD (spun-off from Griffith’s show).

     Thomas starred in other series -- a 1967 anthology hour, a 1970 attempt to revive his old show (Make Room for Granddaddy), The Practice, I’m a Big Girl Now, and the recent syndicated show, One Big Family. None caught on, but Thomas continued to make successful guest appearances. His last TV part was on Empty Nest, one of the series produced by his son Tony, in an episode that aired four days before his death. Daughter Marlo has, of course, also had a highly successful TV career.

KEYE LUKE, 86, Chinese-American actor best known as Charlie Chan’s Number One Son, died Jan. 12 following a stroke. In a film career ranging from 1934’s “The Painted Veil” with Greta Garbo to the current Woody Allen film, “Alice,” Luke appeared in nearly 100 A and B pictures. He played Lee Chan in nine of the Warner Oland Chan movies produced at Fox in the 1930s (and returned in the final two at Monogram in 1948-49).

     Luke appeared as Kato in the two “Green Hornet” serials at Universal, in MGM’s “Dr. Gillespie” programmers, “Mr. and Mrs. Smith,” “Across the Pacific,” “Around the World in 80 Days,” “The Chairman” and “Gremlins.”

     On television, Luke had the dubious distinction of supplying Charlie Chan’s voice in The Amazing Chan and the Chan Clan cartoon series. He made numerous guest appearances, and is fondly remembered as the blind Master Po, mentor to “Grasshopper” Caine on Kung Fu.

MIKE MAZURKI, 82, tough guy supporting player in scores of films, died Dec. 9. His last appearance was as the man in the hotel lobby in 1990’s “Dick Tracy.” In 1945 he played Splitface, the villain in “Dick Tracy, Detective.” His first film was Mae West’s “Belle of the Nineties” (1934). Mazurki was typecast as thugs and dimwits in countless B movies but also appeared in such noteworthy pics as “Murder, My Sweet,” “The Horn Blows at Midnight,” “Samson and Delilah,” “Around the World in 80 Days,” “Some Like It Hot” and “It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World.” On TV he was one of the cavemen in It’s About Time and a comic thug in The Chicago Teddy Bears.

EDWARD BINNS, 74, veteran character actor, died Dec. 4. His many films included “North by Northwest,” “Judgment at Nuremberg,” “Twelve Angry Men,” “The Americanization of Emily” and “Patton.” His TV detective series Brenner was produced in 1959 and turned up as a summer replacement almost every year through 1964. Binns later took the recurring role of Wally Powers, one of Robert Wagner’s spy bosses on It Takes a Thief.

JOHN McINTIRE, 83, died Jan. 30 from cancer. Beginning his career as one of the stentorian voices heard on radio’s The March of Time, McIntire went on to notable film roles in “The Asphalt Jungle,” “The Tin Star,” “Psycho” and “Rooster Cogburn.” On television, McIntire starred in the first season of Naked City, until his character was killed off. He then played wagonmaster Chris Hale in the last four seasons of Wagon Train (after Ward Bond’s death) and the owner of Shiloh ranch on The Virginian (following Charles Bickford and Lee J. Cobb).

JOHN RUSSELL, 70, taciturn actor best known for western roles, died Jan. 19. He played Marshal Dan Troop in ABC’s Lawman for four seasons, and was in several episodes of It Takes a Thief as another of Robert Wagner’s spy contacts. His more than 50 films included “Forever Amber,” “Yellowstone Kelly,” “Rio Bravo” and “The Outlaw Josey Wales.”

BERRY KROEGER, 78, character actor usually cast as a foreign villain in TV adventure shows, died Jan. 4 of kidney failure. His busy radio career included a starring turn as The Falcon. Broadway appearances led to his first film role as an enemy agent in the 1948 picture, “The Iron Curtain.”

MARIO SILETTI, 65, actor who appeared as Del Floria in The Man From U.N.C.L.E. pilot, died Jan. 7. He spent most of his career in New York but was under contract at MGM when the U.N.C.L.E. pilot was shot and he was cast in the small part of the owner of the tailor shop that housed the secret entrance to U.N.C.L.E. headquarters. Although some so-called references list him playing the part throughout the series, Siletti only appeared in the pilot (“The Vulcan Affair” TV episode and the feature version, “To Trap a Spy”).

DEAN JAGGER, 87, longtime character actor, died Feb. 5. Graduating from B movies with 1940’s “Brigham Young,” Jagger was featured in “Western Union,” “The Robe,” “Executive Suite,” “White Christmas,” “Bad Day at Black Rock,” “Elmer Gantry” and many others, winning the supporting actor Oscar for 1949’s “Twelve O’Clock High.” Moving to television, he played numerous roles in leading series, including a regular stint on Mr. Novak, and in such TV-films as “The Delphi Bureau,” “The Brotherhood of the Bell” and “Gideon’s Trumpet.”

HARRY ACKERMAN, 78, prolific producer of TV comedy, died Feb. 1. At CBS in the early ’50s, he brought I Love Lucy, Our Miss Brooks and Gunsmoke to the air. He developed Bachelor Father and Leave It to Beaver before joining Columbia’s TV division, Screen Gems, where he served as executive producer of such popular sitcoms as The Donna Reed Show, Dennis the Menace, Hazel, Bewitched, The Farmer’s Daughter, The Flying Nun and many others.

JAMES MACDONALD, 84, former head of Disney Studio’s sound effects department as well as the voice of Mickey Mouse for 30 years, died Feb. 1. He joined the studio in 1934, and soon expanded his sound work to include his own voice when he supplied whistling, sneezing and yodeling for the dwarfs in “Snow White.” Walt Disney, Mickey’s original voice, turned the character over to Macdonald in 1946, who continued in the role until his retirement in 1976. His other voice work included Chip ’n’ Dale, Jaq and Gus in “Cinderella” and Evinrude in “The Rescuers.”