Dusty Kay, the producer of Entourage and Roseanne, is dead at 69. He passed away on April 10th, and the cause of his death was not specified. However, fellow colleagues, friends, and fans are heartbroken by the news.
Kay’s real name was Eugene Lawrence Kay, but he went by Dusty in honor of Dustin Hoffman, his favorite actor. He has worked on various series, including the ABC series Once a Hero and The Twilight Zone.
Additionally, Kay wrote and produced telefilms like Triplecross, Mick and Frankie, and Cutty Whitman, as well as shows like Good Times, James at 16, Eight Is Enough, and Early Edition.
He also even acted in a few films, including Hacks, The Secret Life of Girls, and Gun Shy.
Dusty Kay Battled a ‘Brief Illness’ Before His Death
Bill Nuss, a friend and collaborator of Kay, revealed that he passed away on April 10 in Summerlin, Nevada. Allegedly, he had been battling an “undescribed brief illness.”
Kay and Nuss had recently worked on the book for a musical based on The Honeymooners. It premiered at the Paper Mill Playhouse in Millburn, New Jersey back in 2017.
In addition to all the work that saw the light of day, Kay also wrote quite a few pilots that never aired. “He was still grousing about [that] at the time of his death,” Nuss said in an email.
Kay grew up rooting for the Pittsburgh Pirates and often said the team’s decades of losing prepared him ‘for his lucrative but often frustrating 45-year career in television,’ Nuss wrote, adding that he ‘never hid the contempt he felt toward most studio and network executives.
If you feel called to do so, you can make donations in his honor to Chabad of Westwood.