By Andrew Clunis,
Freelance Writer
THE CO-INCIDENCE is startling, but the fact is, the three principal cast members of the local television soap Royal Palm Estate who have died, suffered heart attacks.
They are Reggie Carter, Cyrene Tomlinson and John Jones, the recent of whom died from a heart attack this week.
Chief executive officer of Mediamix Limited and the show's creator, writer and producer Lennie Little-White, finds nothing alarming about the deaths of the three individuals.
"First of all, I must express condolences to the family of John Jones. All three persons we have lost have been critical to our efforts. But I don't think there is any reason for alarm.
"All the people who have died were in their 50s. If we were losing the younger people in their 20s, we would have greater reason to be alarmed.
"We first did the pilot for the show in 1991 which makes it almost a decade since we have been working with these people. To have lost three persons from a field of over 100 persons is not alarming," he said.
Singer 1991 the writers of the series have had to re-visit and re-work scripts and plots for varied reasons. And they'll have to go to the books again.
The death of John Jones, who played the flirtatious Pastor Johnson, rocked principals of Royal Palm Estate and once again the midnight oil is burning.
What does this say of Royal Palm Estate. Is there a jinx of some kind? Is there a pressure balloon which builds in the cast because of the double and triple-tiered nature of their lives, given they act part-time, are involved in other aspects of the fine arts, while holding full-time jobs.
Mortality
Little-White said that with each death, he has had to look at his own mortality.
"While I miss them, I have to sit down and ask myself some questions. Am I living life to the fullest? Am I living the best life I can? Once you are over 50 you have one foot in the departure lounge," he said.
How do the deaths affect the younger members of the cast?
"We are like a family at Royal Palm and its spin-off Traxx. When Reggie Carter died all the actors pulled together to ensure that this thing went on. John Jones was also like a galvanising agent. I have always felt that one of the strongest things about John, was his dedication to professionalism. It was never the amount of money he made but his desire to create good work. He was always striving for excellence," Little-White told Showtime.
When Reggie Carter died, the Ted Blackburn character was written out of the series, under the pretext that he died during a boat explosion while on his way to Cuba. When Cyrene Tomlinson died, it was felt that the character was so vital, that an instant replacement was found in the person of Marguerite Newland. With the death of John Jones, what is Little White's thinking in respect of the character Pastor Johnson?
"While the character was important, in the sense that it added a lighter side to the production, it was not as critical as 'Mass Ted' or 'Aunt Joyce'. He was not in every episode, due largely to the fact that we shoot mostly on weekends and that was when he had to be performing on the north coast.
"The character was unique, being a man of the cloth wanting to get under the cloth! We have not taken a firm decision yet, but at this point my gut feeling is not to get another actor to play the part. We are not going to have a carbon copy. The character Pastor Johnson will die. We might have another pastor, but not a Pastor Johnson," he said.
The life of the stars
IN AUGUST of 1997, Cyrene Tomlinson who played the key role of the estate house chief helper Joyce, died after ailing from a heart condition for a long time.
Leading actor and broadcaster, Reginald 'Reggie' Carter went to bed on the night of September 1 and did not wake up.
Carter will be remembered as the first television announcer and newscaster to be heard on the Jamaica Broadcasting Corporation (JBC) Radio in 1959. He also dominated the local theatre and was one of Jamaica's outstanding philanthropists.
He also gained international acclaim for his roles as the taxi driver alongside Sean Connery in the 1960s' James Bond movie, Dr. No and as the overseer in The Lunatic.
As a businessman, he was a director and partner in PKC Advertising Ltd. and one of the founding directors of CGR Communications Ltd.
Carter who is said to have been suffering from heart complications at the time of his death leaves behind his wife Sheila, a stepson and several adopted children.
