(New York) The (fictional) radio world is in mourning.
Posted at 1:49 p.m.
Howard Hesseman, the unforgettable Johnny “Dr” Fever of the series WKRP in Cincinnati died on Saturday at the age of 81 following colon surgery, confirmed his manager Robbie Kass.
The actor had also interpreted the role of Charlie Moore, the teacher of a class of gifted in the series Head of the Class.
Hesseman, himself a radio host in the 1960s, was a two-time Emmy nominee for his role as Johnny Fever from 1978 to 1982. The character became a legend among counterculture followers at one time. where rock fans were poorly represented on television.
“No doubt Johnny smoked a little marijuana, drank beer and wine and maybe hard drinks,” Hesseman told the New York Times in 1979, shortly before the first of the three broadcasts of Saturday Night Live which he animated.
“And on the mornings when he had trouble waking up, he would take what we called diet pills. He was actually a moderate user of soft drugs, particularly marijuana. »
Hesseman also acted in the cinema, in particular in the film Petulia by Richard Lester in 1968.
The world of drugs was familiar to him long before his Johnny Fever character. In 1983, he acknowledged to the magazine People that he had previously conducted “pharmaceutical experiments in recreational chemistry”. In 1963 he was imprisoned for selling marijuana in San Francisco.
Hesseman was one of the members of the improv group The Committee. He hosted a nighttime show at San Francisco’s rock ‘n’ roll station KMPX.
When he was playing in WKRP in Cincinnati, he often improvised his lines that his character launched on the air.
“It is impossible to overestimate the influence of Howard Hesseman on his generation of improvisation and those that followed,” reacted comedian Michael McKean. I could see that it was real. »