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posted by martyb on Monday June 19 2017, @10:14AM   Printer-friendly
from the R.I.P. dept.

Stephen Furst, who played naive fraternity pledge "Flounder" Dorfman in the hit movie Animal House, has died of complications from diabetes, his family said Saturday. Furst was 63.

Furst's long list of credits included the 1980s medical drama St. Elsewhere, on which he played Dr. Elliot Axelrod. He played Vir Coto and was an occasional director on the 1990s sci-fi series Babylon 5.

The Verge notes Steven Furst's role on Babylon 5 was a remarkable example of a sci-fi sidekick:

Vir might have started out as a meek and bumbling character, but over the course of the show, that changed. In many shows, these characters remain static: funny and deferential to their superiors. While he largely remains at Londo's side throughout the show, he becomes a moral figure in the center of a complicated story. Vir became a rare example of a background character who grows in importance over the course of the story, whose seemingly naïve moralistic qualities become the most important guide for the characters around him. He essentially becomes a stand-in for Londo's conscious, calling out his mentor's disastrous decisions, standing up to powerful figures, and often provides the right and just choice during times of moral ambiguity. In doing so, he becomes an indispensable and heroic character in the show, one who actively influences the outcome of the story.


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  • (Score: 2) by deadstick on Monday June 19 2017, @03:50PM (1 child)

    by deadstick (5110) on Monday June 19 2017, @03:50PM (#527965)

    Not sure if there is any recent scandal why IMDB would be a bad idea

    IMDB is in a state of flux: recently shut down its popular user-comments forum amid vague explanations about reinventing itself.

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  • (Score: 2) by fnj on Tuesday June 20 2017, @03:27AM

    by fnj (1654) on Tuesday June 20 2017, @03:27AM (#528318)

    IMDB's suicide made me sick. Fond memories of countless pleasant hours spent reading and participating in the forums.

    May the bastards responsible for destroying it all rot in hell. Especially the way they mercilessly and pointlessly destroyed all the traces. They could have left the whole vast irreplaceable resource there in read-only form.