Beetlejuice's Otho Dies At Age 58

Actor and gay activist Glenn Shadix, best known as the snobby interior designer in Tim Burton's 1988 hit comedy Beetlejuice, has died at the age of 58 after a fall at his Birmingham, Alabama home.

"He was having mobility problems, and he was in a wheelchair," Susan Gagne, Shadix's sister, said. "It looks like he fell and hit his head in the kitchen, and that's the cause of death." Besides his breakthrough role as the outlandish Otho in "Beetlejuice" in 1988, Mr. Shadix appeared in two more movies for the writer-director Burton, doing the voice of the mayor in "The Nightmare Before Christmas" in 1993 and playing the orangutan Senator Nado in Burton's 2001 remake of the sci-fi classic "Planet of the Apes." After retiring from Hollywood, Mr. Shadix moved back to Birmingham about four years ago to be close to his family, his sister said. He had been living in a condo on Highland Avenue.

Shadix had worked with Central Alabama Pride and in 2008 rode in the Birmingham Pride Parade. He was particularly involved in fighting the "ex-gay" movement as he had undergone electro-convulsive aversion therapy as a teenager at the insistence of his father. His personal blog remains online.


(Tipped by JMG reader Joe O.)