Deaths of Relatives and His Own Last Days
After Savalas came back to reprise his role on Kojak in the 1980s, he began to lose close relatives.
George Savalas, his brother who played Detective Stavros on the original Kojak series, died in 1985 of leukemia at age 60. George Savalas recorded a popular series of Greek folk songs which have since become highly collectible and valuable. His mother Christina, who had always been his best friend, supporter, and devoted parent, died in 1989. Later that year, Savalas was diagnosed with transitional cell cancer of the bladder. He refused to see a doctor until 1993, but by then he did not have much time to live. While fighting for his life, he continued to star in many roles, including a recurring role on The Commish.
Read more about this topic: Telly Savalas
Famous quotes containing the words deaths, relatives and/or days:
“As deaths have accumulated I have begun to think of life and death as a set of balance scales. When one is young, the scale is heavily tipped toward the living. With the first death, the first consciousness of death, the counter scale begins to fall. Death by death, the scales shift weight until what was unthinkable becomes merely a matter of gravity and the fall into death becomes an easy step.”
—Alison Hawthorne Deming (b. 1946)
“Once our idea of heaven meant
all the dead relatives waiting
on the kept lawn of the many mansions
as if, suddenly sinless, they had nothing
to do. ...”
—Deborah Digges (b. 1950)
“I have no name.
I am but two days old.
What shall I call thee?
I happy am,
Joy is my name.
Sweet joy befall thee!”
—William Blake (1757–1827)