UNCLE EDDY
Last night, 3/18/20, at about 11:20 pm my brother Edward
Thompson Jr. passed away.
He was eighty nine years old and suffered from Alzheimer's
disease for a number of years. He lived with us for the last two
and one half years and then in the past few months had been
admitted to the R.I. Veterans Home in Bristol.
I was the youngest of four siblings and he was the oldest,
separated by a span of twenty years and different mothers but we
were as close as any brother or sister could be. He was there for
me and me for him and he was there for my family.
Ed was born December 5th 1930 in Pawtucket Rhode Island to
Dr. Edward R.Thompson and Doris Platt. He attended Pawtucket
elementary schools and Pawtucket West High School from which
he graduated in 1948. He graduated from Worcester Academy in
1950 and enlisted in the army in 1953 with his lifelong friends,
Frank and John Palana.
After serving his country Ed pursued a career in the motion
picture industry and moved to California to attend the Pasedena
Playhouse. Ed did land a few parts as a collegiate in Dragstrip Riot
and a few small parts on different television series like Playhouse
90 but to support himself he developed a career in the lighting
effects of the industry that spanned more than forty years and put his name in the credits for lighting technician for movies like
Commando, Project X, Road House, Back to the Future II and III,
Hook, Death Becomes Her and Jurassic Park. He was also a lighting
technician for several TV series such as Mash, Kojak, Operation
Petticoat, Emergency, The Bold Ones: The Lawyers.
Ed could tell you stories about working with some of the biggest
Hollywood movie stars. He worked on almost all of the Elvis
Presley movies and said Elvis was a really nice man and had given
everyone working on the set a check for a hundred dollars which
was like a thousand back then. He would tell us how he ate
lambchops with Barbara Streisand because he walked by her
trailer on the set and she was cooking and he remarked how good
they smelled! He said Telly Savales and Arnold Schwatzenheger
were really nice guys and he once smoked a cigar with Arnold!. He
was Burt Reynolds' roommate for a while and they both tried out
for the same part, but of course Burt got it!
Ed never met an animal he didn't like. He loved his dogs and his
cat Georgie and loved horseback riding as well.
He loved to act, ski, read and sing.
Ed is survived by myself and my husband, Mr.and Mrs. Raymond
Byron, his nephews, Bradley Byron, Michael Byron and Johnathan
Byron and his niece Cori Byron Harris, his great nephews Raymond
Harris and Jett Byron and his great niece Addison Byron. He is also
survived by his sister, Susan E. Tansey and her husband, John
Tansey. Edward was also the brother of the late Alexander
Thompson and uncle to the late Edward G. Cohen.
Edwards funeral will take place from the O'Neill Funeral Home in
Middleboro, Massachusetts with his burial taking place at Swan
Point Cemetery in Rhode Island. Due to an
abundance of caution, only the immediate family will be
encouraged to attend the funeral to diminish the risk of anyone
contracting or spreading the Covid 19 virus.
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