{"id":23468,"date":"2026-10-17T19:27:52","date_gmt":"2026-10-17T19:27:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cehre.net\/?p=23468"},"modified":"2026-10-17T19:27:53","modified_gmt":"2026-10-17T19:27:53","slug":"the-hidden-illness-that-took-this-hollywood-legends-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cehre.net\/?p=23468","title":{"rendered":"The hidden illness that took this Hollywood legend\u2019s life"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Born in 1934, this talented actor and TV director had a career that spanned over three decades. He\u2019s best known for playing a character named David Banner in the late \u201970s and early \u201980s \u2014 and trust us, you definitely wouldn\u2019t like him when he\u2019s angry! Sadly, he passed away too soon in 1993\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

For over 30 years, this American television icon benefited from his talent, both on-screen and behind the camera.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His easygoing charm didn\u2019t go unnoticed. Colleague Ray Walston highlighted this as a key reason for his popularity, saying:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201dI believe that was the reason people liked him \u2014 instantly and completely.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Who are we talking about? Of course, it\u2019s Bill Bixby!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Big break in 1963
Bill Bixby, born Wilfred Bailey Everett Bixby III on January 22, 1934, in San Francisco, was a beloved actor and TV director whose career spanned over three decades.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Growing up as an only child, he discovered his love for performing early on, joining the speech and debate team at Lowell High School. He later attended City College of San Francisco and UC Berkeley but left school to pursue acting, supporting himself with modeling and commercial work before landing steady TV roles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bixby\u2019s big break came in 1963 with My Favorite Martian, where he played reporter Tim O\u2019Hara opposite Ray Walston\u2019s mischievous alien.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The show ran for three seasons and made him a household name. He later starred as widowed dad Tom Corbett in The Courtship of Eddie\u2019s Father, earning three Emmy nominations, and as stage illusionist Anthony Blake in The Magician, which developed a cult following despite lasting only one season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But for many fans, Bixby is most remembered as Dr. David Bruce Banner in The Incredible Hulk (1978\u20131982). He continued to reprise the role in three made-for-TV movies, two of which he directed himself: The Trial of the Incredible Hulk and The Death of the Incredible Hulk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bixby also appeared in films like Lonely Are the Brave and guest-starred on popular series such as Fantasy Island and Murder, She Wrote, showcasing his versatility.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His son died at 6 years old
Off-screen, Bixby faced significant tragedies. He divorced his first wife, actress Brenda Benet, in 1980. In 1981, their six-year-old son Christopher died suddenly from a rare throat infection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just a year later, Benet died by suicide. Despite these hardships, Bixby continued working, moving into directing in the 1980s on shows like Goodnight, Beantown and Sledge Hammer!, and eventually becoming a regular director on Blossom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the 1970s, the star was one of Hollywood\u2019s most eligible bachelors \u2014 he loved the ladies, and the ladies loved him. But he never married.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m a very private person. I rarely go to cocktail parties because I can\u2019t stand the idle chatter of drunks. My weekends are spent at Malibu. I take a lady and got ot the beach and enjoy the beauty of the beach and the lady,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But in the end, he would find the love of his life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He married Laura Michaels in 1990, but they divorced in 1991, the same year he was diagnosed with prostate cancer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bixby openly discussed his illness, hoping to raise awareness and encourage others to seek treatment. Reflecting on his hopes, he admitted:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMy prayer was that I would die in my sleep.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Months before his passing, Bixby married Judith Kliban on October 3, 1993. His health declined rapidly, and on November 15, he was so weak while directing Blossom that he had to work from a sofa. Kliban cared for him at their home near Century City for six days until he peacefully slipped into a coma and passed away on November 21, 1993, at just 59 years old. She later recalled:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201dI prayed for some extra time, but what we got was really intense and quite fabulous.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Legacy
Bixby\u2019s legacy lives on through his iconic roles alongside Ray Walston in My Favorite Martian, as the human side of The Incredible Hulk, and in his early work on shows like The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis and The Joey Bishop Show.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He earned his first Emmy nomination for The Courtship of Eddie\u2019s Father and left a mark as both an actor and a director.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the last public photos of Bill Bixby in 1991 at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel in Beverly Hills, California.
In 1983, he focused on directing, working on projects such as Wizard and Warriors, Goodnight, Beantown, and Sledge Hammer!, proving his talent extended far beyond acting. Beyond his acting career, Bixby enjoyed Chinese cooking, playing bridge, listening to music, and gardening.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Born in 1934, this talented actor and TV director had a career that spanned over three decades. He\u2019s best known for playing a character named David Banner in the late \u201970s and early \u201980s \u2014 and trust us, you definitely wouldn\u2019t like him when he\u2019s angry! Sadly, he passed away too soon in 1993\u2026 For …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23469,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23468","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cehre.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23468","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cehre.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cehre.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cehre.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cehre.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=23468"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cehre.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23468\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23470,"href":"https:\/\/cehre.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23468\/revisions\/23470"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cehre.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/23469"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cehre.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=23468"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cehre.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=23468"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cehre.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=23468"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}