Sad to report the passing of Stephen Furst, who joined St. Elsewhere in season two as a recurring character, playing medical student Elliott Axelrod, and then joined the main cast for season three onwards. The cause of death is reported as complications from diabetes.Furst is probably best known for his pre-St. Elsewhere role as the naive fraternity pledge Flounder in the great college movie, National Lampoon's Animal House. He later appeared on Babylon 5 in the 90s, and worked extensively as a voice-over actor.
Here are a couple of news stories from elsewhere on the web:
Animal House actor, Stephen Furst, dead at 63
R.I.P. Stephen Furst, from Animal House and St. Elsewhere
im so sorry to hear of his passing He was a good actor and im sure a neat person
ReplyDeleteI'm so sorry to hear of his passing. I was pretty much a kid when St. Elswhere was originally airing - but I still watched it - and continued to watch reruns every now and then. But for some reason - I didn't remember Dr. Elliott Axelrod dying and was greatly surprised when I rewatched the series recently (Hulu still airs the series). St. Elsewhere shocked and surprised me many time (including the snowglobe ending. But I was surpised and saddened when I discovered that Elliott died. I mean... nobody but Fiscus was really concerned about his death. The staff and friends he worked with couldn't find a time to have a memorial for him. I mean... Dr. Calwell had a memorial... and he'd been gone for years. Even Dr. White had a memorial... and he was a rapist. I feel that the show wanted to degrade Elliott - that he was nothing special or anything. Even Elliotts dad wasn't too upset about his son't death. It really made me sad.
ReplyDeleteYep I rewatched the show too and no one was treated as badly as poor misguided and miserable Elliott. They did him so badly from fellow residents to the crazy ER patients. He was smart and really cared about his patients and becoming a doctor. I loved his character.
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