GlossLip, Celebrity Gossip From Our Lips To Yours

04/11/2008 (1:50 am)

“Monk” Star Stanley Kamel Found Dead Of Apparent Heart Attack

I know, I’m supposed to be off work recuperating from pneumonia, and I promise I will go right back to bed as soon as I get done, but I couldn’t let this go.

Stanely Kamel, who played Dr. Charles Kroger on Monk (one of my all-time favorite television shows), has been found dead in his home:

Kamel was found dead in his Hollywood Hills home on Tuesday. He was 65.

Access Hollywood has learned Kamel died of a heart attack. […]

A rep for the USA network, which airs the Emmy-winning “Monk,” released the following statement to Access Hollywood:

“USA is deeply saddened by the news of Stanley Kamel’s passing. Stanley was an amazingly talented and extremely kind man, and an important member of the USA family. He will be sorely missed.”

This makes me very sad.  One of the best parts of the show was watching Dr. Kroger and Adrian Monk interact with one another, and I always enjoyed the episodes where Monk became involved with Dr. Kroger outside of the office (such as the one where the good doctor retired after believing he was responsible for the death of his cleaning lady).  He brought humor, warmth, sensitivity, and a multi-faceted portrayal to a part which could have ended up being very one-dimensional and staid.

It’s funny how we become immersed in these shows…one of my first thoughts was, “First Trudy, now Dr. Kroger…Monk has a hard enough time, what is he going to do now?”  Silly, perhaps…but for those of us who know personally what the character of Adrian Monk goes through on a daily basis, maybe it isn’t so silly after all.  You see, I got to thinking that it could be possibly the best testament an actor can leave…to somehow break down that wall that separates actor from audience and make us think beyond a character, beyond an actor, helping us to expand our horizons and incorporate new thoughts and feelings and ideas and ways of coping into our daily lives.  Anyone can mouth words off a page, but it takes someone special to mold and squish and mesh it all together and create a new person of themselves who truly touches others.

My thoughts and prayers go out to Mr. Kamel’s family and friends.

Posted by k
Filed under: R.I.P, Television Shows

10 Comments »

  1. You got pneumonia??

    You shouldn’t read OT3 without being clear.

    Comment by EastAnon — April 11, 2008 @ 4:37 am

  2.  
  3. It’s okay, I had it before I read it.

    Comment by k — April 11, 2008 @ 8:13 am

  4.  
  5. First Monk’s dad leaves the family, then Trudy dies, then Sharona leaves, and then…Dr. Kroger dies. Gotta keep all the traumas straight.

    I was very sad to hear about Stanley Kamel’s passing. He always came across as warm and sincere. His role as Dr. Kroger was perfect and gave Monk the “ground” he desperately needed. I can’t even imagine how they’ll write this into the show.

    Comment by Joanie — April 11, 2008 @ 10:18 am

  6.  
  7. I love love love Monk, too! And you hit the nail on the head when you asked about how is Monk going to handle this! I didn’t even think that far ahead.

    Comment by lronymous — April 11, 2008 @ 10:37 am

  8.  
  9. Thanks k for emerging from the fog. Get yourself better, this place NEEDS you!

    Comment by D — April 11, 2008 @ 8:05 pm

  10.  
  11. I love the show so much and it is a tribute to such actors like Stanley Kamel. My prays are with his family as well as the USA family which produces the Monk series in which this actor played his role.

    Comment by DeeplySadden — April 11, 2008 @ 8:05 pm

  12.  
  13. Nice words for a nice man.
    He will be missed.

    Comment by marcab — April 12, 2008 @ 9:34 am

  14.  
  15. It is so sad to see a good man pass on,he was the one person who could give Monk his sense of dignity back,he will surely be missed by all.

    Comment by Mohammed — April 13, 2008 @ 6:53 am

  16.  
  17. i loved stanley also but all they will probably do is replace him with another actor who will be playing the same part like they do in soaps, it won’t be the same but chirona and natalie worked out great, ziva replacing kate on ncis worked out okay , but it is truly sad, he was a good actor..

    Comment by connie gray — April 13, 2008 @ 10:05 am

  18.  
  19. I hope they will write his passing into the show. It would be wrong to say he retired.

    Stanley Kamel will be missed.

    Comment by Paula — April 13, 2008 @ 10:14 pm

  20.  

RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URI

Leave a comment