Death tries to meet its Hollywood quota

Usually when Hollywood Death comes a knocking, it happens in three's.

This past week, trying to make year end quota it came in four's.

Death took Eleanor Parker, Audry Totter, Peter O'Toole and Joan Fontaine.

And today I found out that Tom Laughlin has died.

Who is Tom Laughlin?

For those of you who remember Billy Jack, its hard to believe that the hunky swabby, during filming in of South Pacific in 1958, above is a young Tom Laughlin.

In the 1960s Laughlin's creation was a half Navaho Indian who had a penchant for kick boxing, of a sort.  Billy Jack defended the right of the peaceful, the down trodden and the misunderstood.  Billy Jack was one righteous dude.

More importantly, Laughlin's fight to regain control of the first true "Billy Jack" movie from Warner Brothers Distribution, and its success in its second release, changed the way Hollywood distributed independent movies.

Laughlin's costar in the movie was his wife, Deloris Taylor.  Laughlin and Taylor were married in the early 1950s, and remained a pair until his death - you don't find that in Hollywood much, then or now.

As for Joan Fontaine, well she regained the spotlight last

No one lives forever.  And Death is never out of a job, quota or no.