Boy these last two weeks have been really bad in terms of me losing people I look up to. First, as I chronicled on my racing blog, my dear friend and NASCAR Media colleague, David Poole died suddenly of a heart attack after finishing his daily NASCAR show on Sirius XM Radio.
Then yesterday, while I was out in Manhattan Beach, celebrating Cinco de Mayo with my buddies from KLAC AM 570, I got a text message from my brother that Dom Deluise, the irrepressible comic actor who was one of the funniest actors I ever had the privilege to meet, had died in his sleep the previous evening in a Santa Monica hospital. Yes, that's right I met him. I won't get into the details, but it happened back when I was volunteering at what is now known as the Northern Trust Open, the PGA's annual stop in Los Angeles, at the Riviera Country Club. He was as funny in person as he was on TV and in the movies. I got to tell him that I thought he was the funniest person I had ever seen, thanks to Captain Chaos. I wish I had a camera that day to take a picture with him.
He was in some of my most favorite movies, most importantly, "Cannonball Run," the seminal favorite all-star racing movie out there. Less serious, and deadly, than the David Carradine movie "Cannonball," the first Cannonball Run movie was not only my first exposure to humor like that, but it also would turn out to be the movie my late mentor, Mike Hollander, had a small cameo in, as a photographer at the finish line.
I will always remember him every Halloween for as long as I live, for I will, from this year on, will don the now famous cape and cowl of his "alter ego" int he film, "Captain Chaos."
Farewell, Dom. I was honored to meet you and I know that Dean and Sammy were there waiting for you to arrive.
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