- LOS ANGELES, Calif. (Reuters)
- Sydney Omarr, the world's most widely read astrologer and a prognosticator
to real life Hollywood stars, has died at age 76 from complications of
pneumonia in Southern California, his ex-wife said on Friday.
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- Omarr died at St John's Health Center in Santa Monica,
California on Thursday, surrounded by close friends and assistants who
for years helped him put out his syndicated horoscope column. Omarr was
hospitalized on Dec. 23 suffering from double pneumonia, his ex-wife, Jeraldine
Saunders, said.
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- He had suffered since 1971 from multiple sclerosis, which
left him blind and paralyzed, but had entertained as recently as two weeks
before his hospitalization, Saunders said.
-
- His hugely successful column, which ran seven days a
week in 125 U.S. and foreign newspapers, will now be written by Saunders,
said Walter Mahoney, vice president of domestic syndication for the Tribune
Media Co. in Chicago.
-
- Saunders, a former model and cruise director whose career
was the basis for the popular TV series "Love Boat," also wrote
a book called "Love Signs" that combines astrology and related
arts, and has lectured extensively on the subject.
-
- She was married briefly to Omarr in 1966 and remained
one of his closest friends. She said the column would keep Omarr's name
and continue to use his methods.
-
- "I do everything just the way he does it because
... his column was so much more accurate than any others," Saunders
told Reuters. "He would tie in numerology and palmistry and the kabbala."
-
- Omarr told friends that he wanted to be remembered as
the man who defended astrology, according to a rare interview he granted
to the Los Angeles Times last month. As an astrologer, he had a devoted
following that included former California Gov. Goodwin Knight, Mae West,
Jennifer Jones, Angie Dickinson, Jayne Mansfield and a onetime actor named
Ronald Reagan, for whom Omarr predicted great things.
-
- In a column due to run Jan. 14, Omarr wrote that he wanted
his epitaph to be "He was handsome and erudite. He enjoyed boxing
and his star rose when he fought the good fight for astrology," Saunders
said.
-
- He told the Times he didn't understand how the positions
of celestial bodies affected human affairs, just that they did.
-
- "No one knows what gravity is either but we don't
fear falling off the world," he said in the Dec. 13 interview. In
addition to his column, Omarr wrote 13 books annually -- one on each of
the 12 signs of the zodiac and one on the astrological year. His books
have sold more than 50 million copies.
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- The man who would become the world's best known astrologer
was born Sidney Kimmelman on Aug. 5, 1926, under the sign of Leo, son of
a Philadelphia grocer and a housewife. He became fascinated with stargazing
and magic in grade school, and by 15, began analyzing celebrity horoscopes
for magazines and selling personalized horoscopes for $1 each.
-
- The same year, he changed his name to test a numerological
theory that the new moniker would add pizzazz to his life, he told the
L.A. Times. He found his new surname in the film "Shanghai Gesture"
starring Victor Mature as a character named Dr. Omar.
-
- In 1943, he enlisted in a Army and was shipped to Okinawa
as the U.S. military's first and only astrologer, predicting the outcomes
of sporting events on a weekly radio show for the Armed Forces Network.
-
- After the Army, he went to work for United Press and
CBS radio as a news reporter, later giving up journalism to become a full-time
columnist and astrology consultant.
-
- His proudest moment, he told the Times, was a 1951 debate
he had with astronomer Roy Marshall over the legitimacy of astrology. In
the 1970s, his columns, books and celebrity studded parties had catapulted
Omarr to fame, landing him on the couches of several talk show hosts, including
Merv Griffin, Johnny Carson and Mike Douglas, as the resident stargazer.
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- He became paralyzed below the neck about 20 years ago
and blind 15 years after that, but dictated his column and recorded daily
horoscopes for his pay-per-use telephone horoscope service after planetary
charts were read to him. "He never faltered for a word and he added
drama to it," Saunders said.
-
- She added that he was a typical Leo: very generous and
always delighted to have an adoring crowd around him.
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