Remembering ‘The Mary Tyler Moore Show’ Star Ted Knight Who Died from Cancer 35 Years Ago at 62 Years Old

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The Connecticut native later went on to host his own show, The Ted Knight Show, in 1978. He also starred in ’80s shows like The Love Boat and Too Close For Comfortnot to mention the iconic 1980 slapstick sports comedy film Caddyshack with John Candy and Bill Murray. But the hilariously conceited Ted Baxter was his eternal brand.

Knight’s former publicist, Vanita Cillo, confirmed that he died of cancer, and Knight’s agent at the time, Sol Leon, shared that the actor’s wife of nearly 40 years, Dorothy Smith, and their three children, Elyse, Eric and Ted Jr., had been present when he died in his Pacific Palisades home. Smith passed away twenty years later in 2005.

Related: The Toughest Conversations: Losing a Spouse to Cancer

The former radio DJ and announcer was a team player within his craft, and was known as a fan of this phrase: “Success is empty unless it is shared; it is meaningless unless achieved without coercion, injury or pain to others.”

 

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Ted Knight’s Cancer Battle

Although it is unclear what type of cancer that Knight was diagnosed with initially, the cancer recurred and then spread to his bladder. He had a cancerous growth removed from his urinary tract the year before his death and then returned to the hospital months later due to surgery complications and died just weeks after.

As we remember Ted Knight and how he lost his fight to this disease, we also have to keep in mind that so much has changed since the 1980s and even since the early 2000s when it comes to cancer. People are living with cancer and surviving cancer more than ever before as the medical field continues to evolve, discovering more and more treatments and improving procedures.

“There has never been a time of greater excitement in the cancer field,” Dr. Heather Yeo from Weill Cornell tells SurvivorNet in a previous interview.

Related: American Life Expectancy Goes Up Decline In Cancer Deaths A Major Factor

Deaths from cancer went down 26% in the years between 1991 and 2015. The percentage of American adults who smoke cigarettes, obviously a leading cause of cancer, has gone from 42% in 1965 to 14% today and continues to decline. This information comes in a report to Congress from the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR), the world's first and largest organization "dedicated to advancing cancer research and its mission to prevent and cure all cancers." The report says the decline of the cancer death rate, which has been going on since the 1990s, translates into almost 2.4 million cancer deaths avoided.

Many experts believe the reduction in deaths is the payoff from research started in 1971 with the passage of the National Cancer Act. Dr. Michael Kastan, executive director of the Duke Cancer Institute says, "Investment into basic science and clinical research led to a tremendous increase in our understanding of what causes cancer and how cancer cells differ from normal cells. These insights led to more effective approaches to prevention (especially smoking cessation programs), more effective screening programs (including colonoscopies, mammography, and PSA testing), and more effective and less toxic treatments. "

The Revolution in Cancer: Remarkable 26% Decline in Deaths, $80 Billion a Year for Care

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