Six Television Celebrities that Passed Away from Pneumonia

Pneumonia is a leading cause of death among the elderly, an inflammation of the lungs caused by bacteria, viruses, or other organisms. Sixty thousand Americans succumb each year to pneumonia, and older celebrities are no more immune than the next person. Among some well-known people that have caught pneumonia and died are a man who played Perry Mason's private eye, the father of three sons on "Bonanza", another dad from "My Three Sons", the fellow everyone tuned into for music every week, the sixth of "The Three Stooges", and the man who played Jed Clampett and then Barnaby Jones.

William Hopper was the only child of Hollywood gossip columnist Hedda Hopper, a man who resisted getting into acting but wound up doing it anyways. As a Navy frogman, Hopper was awarded a Bronze Star in the Pacific Theatre. He played in a number of films, movies like "Rebel Without a Cause" and "Track of the Cat", but he is best known as private investigator Paul Drake on the popular "Perry Mason." Hopper was on the series from 1957 until 1966, the year his mother died of pneumonia. Ironically, Hopper himself caught pneumonia after he was hospitalized with a stroke in 1970 and died from it on March 6th in Palm Springs, California.

Lorne Greene was a Canadian-born actor who played Ben Cartwright on the long-running NBC Western series "Bonanza." Greene was the father of three sons on the drama, each from a different wife who had passed away. They were played by Pernell Roberts, Dan Blocker, and Michael Landon, only Roberts still survives today. Greene had formerly worked as a radio announcer in Canada, and after "Bonanza" went off the air, he worked narrating documentaries and played a commander in the short-lived sci-fi series "Battlestar Gallactica." Greene became ill and died from pneumonia on September 11th, 1987 in Santa Monica, California.