With a name like Mason Adams, he has to be dead

Mason Adams, an omnipresent character actor best known as kindhearted managing editor Charlie Hume on Lou Grant, had died at the age of 86. Adams was nominated for the Best Supporting Actor Emmy for three straight years, losing twice to Rockford Files juggernaut Stuart Margolin, then getting washed away in the Hill Street Blues 1981 landslide. Adams’ also put his crotchety voice to work in a number of radio serials in radio’s golden era, most notably Pepper Young and Atom Man in Superman, and in dozens of commercials, including 30 years worth of Smuckers’ ads. Other roles included cranky retiring Supreme Court justice Joseph Crouch on The West Wing.