Bill Daily, the affable TV actor who starred as Major Roger Healey in “I Dream of Jeannie” as well as on “The Bob Newhart Show,” died Sept. 4 in Santa Fe, N.M., his son J. Patrick Daily confirmed. He was 91.
“He loved every sunset, he loved every meal — he just decided to be happy about everything,” said his son.
The longtime New Mexico resident was a staple on series of the 1960s through 1980s, notably as Bob Newhart’s daffy neighbor, airline pilot Howard Borden, on CBS’ “The Bob Newhart Show” sitcom from 1972 to 1978. In the 1980s, he appeared as psychiatrist Dr. Larry Dykstra on NBC’s “ALF.”
For these last two Friday Hall of Famers in December, we’ll be saluting the two most famous characters played by Mr. Daily. Today we’re saluting Major Healey….
From the “I Dream Of Jeannie” wiki
Roger Healey (also known as Major Roger Healey, USA) is the best friend of Major Anthony "Tony" Nelson, as well as a fellow astronaut and exploration partner in the NASA Space Exploration Program at Cape Kennedy, FL
Roger is Tony Nelson's best friend and a major at NASA. He is known to be overly interested in women and has maintained this personality for the duration of the show. When he met Jeannie and she disappeared from him, Roger became obsessed with finding her. After discovering Jeannie's true identity as a genie in the Season 1 episode titled "The Richest Astronaut in the Whole Wide World" (episode #17), Roger kinda "kidnaps" Jeannie and stole her from Tony to satisfy his own desires, as he starts to have unexplainable luck at the casino black jack and crap tables, winning a small fortune until he is suspected of cheating at the crap table when the two dice suddenly roll "13" (you can only roll two sixes!). As Roger acquiesces to Tony's urging, he hands Jeannie "back" to him!
This backfires when the luxury he gained out of Jeannie led to too much suspicion, and Dr. Bellows to think the items were stolen. He was forced to return Jeannie to Tony and she blinked away all his fortunes as well as erasing the memory of Dr. Bellows and the police. Since then, Roger has been the only other character on the show to know about Jeannie's true identity and now completely respects that she is Tony's genie, although on some occasions he still tries to get her to grant wishes for him.
Major Healey’s three qualifications for membership in the Television Crossover Hall of Fame:
- I DREAM OF JEANNIE
- I DREAM OF JEANNIE… FIFTEEN YEARS LATER (1985)
- I STILL DREAM OF JEANNIE (1990)
It is only one of my theories of relateeveety: I'm making the claim that Roger Healey is the first cousin, an identical cousin, of next week's candidate for membership, Howard Borden.
As I said, it's only supplemental since I can't prove it. But what works for me is that you can't disprove it either.
Welcome to the Hall, Major Healey!
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