The Fall Guy cast now from heart issues to cocaine addiction and tragic death | Celebrity News | Showbiz & TV

The Fall Guy hits screens today (May 2) based on the classic 80s TV show starring Lee Majors. The big screen iteration sees Ryan Gosling play his character Colt Seavers while English actress Emily Blunt plays his love interest.

In the original and much love series Lee Majors, he of Six Million Dollar Man fame, played the titular role of Colt Seavers, a Hollywood stunt man who moonlights as a bounty hunter. Most episodes saw him using his stunt skills in real life situations as he “got his man” and ubrought home the bounty.

The show was created by uber producer Glen A. Larson and ran for four and a half years on air it was axed. However the iconic theme tune (sung by Lee) and the premise lingered with fans.

Obviously it was ripe for the big screen treatment and this new incarnation sees Colt framed for the murder of another stunt performer in order to protect a huge box office star. While it doesn’t necessarily adhere to the original premise Ryan’s Colt is stll a stuntman and Emily Blunt’s character Jody is based on another character in the show.

But the orginal cast are still hugely beloved by fans and frequently show up at conventions to their delight. Express.co.uk takes a look at where they are now

The Fall Guy was Lee Majors third huge TV role following Heath Barkley on the Western series The Big Valley which he played from 1965–1969 and Colonel Steve Austin on The Six Million Dollar Man which ran for five years from 1973–1978. when the show started he was still married to his second wife Charlies Angel star Farrah Fawcett (who used Fawcett-Majors as her surname at the time) and he sang the theme tune to the show, The Unknown Stuntman, which made reference to her.

After the show eneded in 1986 he revisited his bionic past in three The Six Million Dollar Man/The Bionic Woman television films made between 1987 and 1994. The final one Bionic Ever After finally gave fans what they had been wanting for years when his character and Lindsay Wagner’s Bionic Woman wed.

He has made numerous guest appearances in TV shows such as According To Jim, Dallas and Community. He also took on another ongoing TV part when he played Coach Ross on The Game, which ran from 2006 to 2009. Now 85 Lee continues to work and is a regular on the convention scene and has a very brief appearance n the new film.

Away from the screen he divorced Fawcett in 1982 and married Playboy Playmate Karen Velez in 1986. The couple had three children together but divorced in 1994. Since 2002 he has been married to actress and model Faith Noelle.

In May 2003 a rountine check up turned into a month long health issue when doctors discovered a blockage on his arteries. He underwent a heart bypass but his blockage was at the bottom of the artery – making it difficult for doctors to clean it. He then started haemorrhaging around the artery, prompting surgeons to operate again. Thankfully he pulled through and has been in good health ever since.

Heather was a well known face on television before the Fall Guy began having been on screens since the age of 14 as one of the hosts of a series called Talking with a Giant, in which she interviewed celebrities. She played stuntwoman Jody Banks in the Fall Guy and became but her tenure on the show was marred by addiction.

She became addicted to cocaine during the run and entered rehab in the mid-1980s. Although she went on to appear in several movies she retured from acting in 1998 partyly because of unwated attention from stalkers. In 2009 she told Reuters: “I was getting so stalked. I had one guy climb over the fence with a knife one time. I had these two little girls and they desperately needed raising, so that was that. But I think now I have gotten so old that people won’t bother me much.” She briefly came out of retirement to appear in a small role in the musical comedy “Girltrash: All Night Long” in 2014.

After quitting on screen roles she wrote a screenplay called School Slut and sold it to Touchstone Pictures for a figure reported as “mid-six-figure.” However they never made the movie and she acquired the rights to produce it herself. In 2008 she published her first novel, Trophies. She also appears at conventions regularly.

Now 66 Heather has been married twice. Her first husband Allan Rosenthal is one of the founders of Cocaine Anonymous, Their marriage only lasted a year and they divorced in 1986. In October 1992 she married entertainment attorney Harry Brittenham and the couple are still together.

In 1986 she was struck by a car and she sustained serious injuries to both of her legs. She underwent six hours of plastic and orthopedic surgery to repair them.

Douglas played Colt Seaver’s cousin Howie in the show. It was his big break and made him a household name.

Following the cancellation he starred as Alex Jagger in the short-lived TV series The Wizard from 1986 to 1987, and later appeared as Bill Stillfield in Designing Women from 1988 to 1991.

He also made high profile guest appearances on shows such Fantasy Island, The Love Boat, Hotel, and Murder, She Wrote.

In 1998, he set up Hollywood and Vine Cellars, a small, high-end wine producer in Napa Valley. Now 75 he still appears at conventions thanks to The Fall Guy.

His other well-known role was in the short-lived CBS TV series The Wizard as Alex Jagger from 1986 to 1987, and he later starred as Bill Stillfield in the hit CBS series Designing Women from 1988 to 1991.

Jo Ann was already a huge star when The Fall Guy began having been in the industyry since the 60s. She had been the first woman to have a live weekly TV talk show in the late 1960s in Los Angeles on KHJ-TV, channel 9.

She only appeared on one season of The Fall Guy playing the Bail Bondswoman who employed Colt’s services.

Now 84 she is retired but kept busy after leaving the show. In 1984, she was the first actress to play Taylor Chapin in the syndicated soap opera Rituals.

She also made guest appearances on shows such as McCloud, The Love Boat, CHiPs, The Dukes of Hazzard, Knight Rider and Charlie’s Angels, and The Colbys.

In 1997 she played Boss Jack’s wife in Traveller and Cynthia Vaughn in Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. She also had her own show on Seaview Radio called The Jo Ann Pflug Show

Markie Post joined The Fall Guy in 1982 and stayed until 1985. Following her deaprture from the show she played public defender Christine Sullivan on the NBC sitcom Night Court from 1985 to 1992.

She then went on to portray Georgie Anne Lahti Hartman on the sitcom Hearts Afire from 1992 to 1995 and later Barbara ‘Bunny’ Fletcher, the mother of Detective Erin Lindsay (Sophia Bush), on the NBC drama series Chicago P.D. from 2014 to 2017.

However, despite her extensive CV she is probably most recognisable for playing the titular character’s mother in 1998’s There’s Something About Mary.

She died at her home in Los Angeles, on August 7, 2021, after battling cancer for almost four years. She was 70 years old.