America's TV Hero
Richard Dawson, the longtime "Family Feud" game-show host and "Hogan's Heroes" actor, has died in Los Angeles. He was 79.
His son, Gary Dawson, announced his death via Facebook.
"It is with a very heavy heart that I inform you that my father passed away [Saturday] evening from complications due to esophageal cancer. He was surrounded by his family. He was an amazing talent, a loving husband, a great dad and a doting grandfather. He will be missed but always remembered," Gary Dawson wrote.
Richard Dawson was born in England on Nov. 20, 1932. He was perhaps best known for hosting "Family Feud for nine years in the 1970s and 1980s and then again shortly in the 1990s.
According to the Associated Press, the audience gave him a standing ovation during his final show.
"Please sit down. I have to do at least 30 minutes of fun and laughter and you make me want to cry," Dawson said at the time. "I've had the most incredible luck in my career. I never dreamed I would have a job in which so many people could touch me and I could touch them."
The Times will have a full obituary later Sunday.
Its name gave it notoriety around the world, but Felony Franks on Chicago's West
Side may have to shut down. Jim Andrews, the owner of the criminally-themed
hotdog stand at 229 S. Western, tells the Sun-Times that business is declining
and he's having problems with a nearby liquor store. Andrews took his theme
seriously. Since 2009, he's hired more than a dozen ex-cons to help them get a
second start in life, beginning at Felony Franks. Manager Brian Smiley is one of
them. Smiley says he doesn't know what he'll do if the restaurant closes its
doors, but he's grateful for the opportunity to work there.
Fathers' Day Mass 
