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Dick Van Dyke And Friends Hold Private Vigil For Orson Bean

LOS ANGELES (CBSLA) — Dick Van Dyke and other friends of Orson Bean held a private vigil for the late actor Saturday night at the Pacific Resident Theater in Venice.

Bean was walking to the theater and died within feet of it Friday night, after being struck by two cars.

Friends and family have been leaving flowers near the spot where he was killed, fondly remembering a man they deeply loved.

From the original Twilight Zone to dozens of TV sitcoms and dramas, Bean was a working actor for almost 70 year and Dick Van Dyke knew him for the last 65.

"We were knocking around New York together as young comedians and I had him on our show, on 'Diagnosis Murder,' but I was kind of the physical comedian and he was the intellectual comedian,"  Van Dyke recalls.

Other friends remembered him as a man who always kept people laughing both on and off the stage.

"Every time I would meet him I would leave with a smile," said Madeline King Hardy.

"He, I swear, is the greatest example of always living the creative life," Nancy Linehan Charles said.

Bean was due to start rehearsals at the Pacific Resident Theater soon on a play he wrote himself. He spent much time there in his later years, acting and on the board of trustees, nurturing his own creativity and inspiring others.

"I'm just like an actor in the company you know and he's Orson Bean and but he never made you feel like that, you know?" actor Joe McGovern said.

It was near his beloved local theater where Bean lost his life. Police say a car hit him as he was walking on a busy roadway in Venice Friday night. Before anyone could get to him, a second car ran him over.

Friends say he was walking from his house to the theater to meet his wife for a show. That play went on Saturday tonight with thoughts for an actor who has left his fans and his friends wanting more.

"He was in this day and age a gentleman… I will miss him," his friend Alan Hardy said sadly.

There's no word yet on whether the planned production of the play Bean wrote will still go on.

 

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