Christopher Shea, 52; Original Voice of 'Linus' (died 19 Aug)

[Brad Ferguson]

Christopher Shea, who was the original voice of Linus in the original
Peanuts TV special "A Charlie Brown Christmas" and four subsequent
specials, died on 19 August near Honeydew, CA at the age of 52,
reportedly of natural causes. Shea appeared in a number of TV series
in the mid to late 1960s, and was a regular in the 1966 western series
Shane. (His younger brother Eric was probably better known,
particularly as the kid in The Poseidon Adventure. His other younger
brother, Stephen, took over the role of Linus in seven later Peanuts
specials and a theatrical film.) Christopher Shea is survived by his
wife Sara and their two children.

There was a memorial service for Shea on 17 October.

Shea's obit from the Eureka (CA) Times-Standard:

http://thurly.net/0iaw

Thanks for the heads-up here to boomerhead.com:

http://thurly.net/0iaz

[Michael O'Connor]

His younger brother Eric was probably better known,
> particularly as the kid in The Poseidon Adventure.  

The young boy in the movie Airplane!, whom Peter Graves asked if he
liked movies about Gladiators, if he had ever been in a Turkish
prison, and if he had ever seen a grown man naked, was directly based
on the young boy from The Poseidon Adventure.

[AndrewJ]

On Dec 27, 7:28 am, "Michael O'Connor" <mpoconn...@aol.com> wrote:
> His younger brother Eric was probably better known,
>

Eric also played Gene Kelly's estranged son in "Viva Knievel!"

[ultim...@gmail.com]

"Natural causes"......uh huh.....at age 52.

[91b...@gmail.com]

No, it wasn't. The whole movie is a spoof of "zero Hour!" from 1954. The scene in Zero Hour! is nearly identical to Airplane!