R.I.P. - Loved him in "Little House" series.

Will someone be sending flowers?

Merlin Olsen, who was a football player and then went on to become a sportscaster for NBC and an actor on such TV shows as Little House on the Prairie and Father Murphy, is suing NBC Studios, NBC Universal, and 20th Century Fox for exposing him to asbestos. Olsen was diagnosed with mesothelioma last year.

Because he was exposed to asbestos at a job when he was around 11 years old and also exposed when he was an adult while working at a job involving drywall, Olsen is also suing Sherwin-Williams and Lennox Industries.

What a prick. I'm glad he never got a chance to see it through.

Mary Kate and Ashley's Dad?

Who?

What a prick.

Why?

Because he wanted his family to be compensated for his loss by a corporation?

Mesothelioma not caused by asbestos is extremely rare.

Wasn't he the "Flowers By Phone" guy?

Mesothelioma not caused by asbestos is extremely rare.
#6 | Posted by silver_ironist

That's an understatement. And the latency period for onset of symptoms can be thirty or forty years or more. Nasty stuff. Guys who were exposed working with and around asbestos during WWII didn't get diagnosed until 50 to 60 years later. Hopefully for his family, they have access to testimony from other cases to use in theirs because absent the ability to identify manufacturers, they don't have much of a shot. A terrible way to die. Truly sad.

RIP Mr. Olsen.

#7
FTD. Yes.

I think that is my only frame of reference for him sadly. Glad it was the right guy. Amazing he made an impression on my memory from just that.

At least he's not going to Bogart National Health Care.

If you were a science major, you got your share of asbestos burning off of the pad used between the Bunsen burner and beaker or flask ... every science course used the burner, asbestos pad combo at one time or another, and sometimes for the entire lab hours ... thirty or more asbestos pads burning and which can be blamed on the Navy, or some other occupation the shysters make it into ...

And, Democrats are the ones dragging their feet on tort reform ...

The men in my experience who got mesothelioma were exposed to asbestos far more than what is found on the average bunsen burner pad. Steampipe fitters working with bags of raw asbestos. Railroad car repairmen working on brake pads every day. Electric Company workers sleeping on asbestos filters when they had to work double shifts. These are just a small example of the different ways people who contracted mesothelioma. But the bunsen burner pads could definitely have caused pleural plaques or asbestosis, its just far less likely that you'd have the PFT screening to diagnose it, and with the long latency period, you probably think any decrease in pulmonary function is just a product of old age.

very sad.
he seemed like a great guy and called as good a game as anyone.
cheers to you on the next level, m.

RIP I always liked him.

Most of the manufactuers are BK on the asbestos deal. Or they changed names or bought by another company and went BK.

Their insurance is gone too.

Now they are going after anyone in the stream of commerce.

You know they handled the breast implant litigation with the companies putting in the money into one pot to share.

And now they sell the implants again.

Not sure why they couldn't handle the asbestos the same as the breast implant litigation.

He was a pretty good egg..

RIP

Merlin Olsen
Lamar Lundy
Deacon Jones
Rosey Grier

Merlin Olsen
Lamar Lundy
Deacon Jones
Rosey Grier

#18 | Posted by LetUsPrey at 2010-03-11 03:00 PM | Reply | Flag (X)Kiss and Tell

#19...

Fearsome Foursome Cook...

The Rams used to come to Costa Mesa and play a charity basketball game against the faculty and I was a ball boy once back around 1970. Olsen looked like Grizzly Adams but was as nice could be to all the fans. He never played, but was there for the cause and to sign autographs.

You know they handled the breast implant litigation with the companies putting in the money into one pot to share.

And now they sell the implants again.

Not sure why they couldn't handle the asbestos the same as the breast implant litigation.

#16 | Posted by MURPHY

Breast implant litigation was bogus; asbestos isn't.

Re: using something akin to the breast implant compensation process with asbestos exposure:

The hatch bill of 2004 was supposed to do that. It was going to turn the whole process into a simple claim system that essentially took attorney's out of the equation.

You might think that this is a great idea, but there were a couple of problems with this. The one that sticks out in my mind is that it would not have changed the requirement that the afflicted person had to be able to name the names of the manufacturers and describe their products to which they were exposed, including packaging of product and method of use, in order to win a settlement.

One of the benefits of keeping asbestos litigation attys in the process was that when they had multiple clients from the same job site (very common in this type of litigation), they were able to use deposition testimony from one case to provide the link to a manufacturer in another case.

Again, due to the long latency period from exposure to onset of symptoms and dx of disease, many claimants would be unable to provide this information. In this way, the claims process was designed to prevent people from being justly compensated for their injuries. With breast implants, there is a retreivable paper record identifying the culpable parties and because you could get this information as soon as you learned of a potential problem, you didn't have to wait to take proper action.

attorneys.

RIP Merlin. I watched him play at the Coliseum when I was a kid.

#3 Go fuck yourself you heartless bastard.

#4 Mary Kate and Ashley's Dad?

Reminds me of something I heard attributed to Bob Sagget when asked how could tell the difference between Mary Kate and Ashley... Ashley swallows...

Bulemia is no laughing matter.

Merlin Olsen is dead?

Dang, he was a good 'un.

Appreciated his skills on the football field and thought he did a pretty credible job as an actor on the Little House series.

Thought his legal actions against those responsible for his asbestos related medical condition was righteous.

RIP Merlin Olsen.

Thoughts and condolences to family, friends and fans.

Be Well.

"What a prick. I'm glad he never got a chance to see it through."

#3 | Posted by Ron_Karate

Childish attention whore, you are a stupid, fucking idiot.

Merlin, rest in peace.