Johnny Grant, honorary mayor of Hollywood, dies

[Refugee 7]

Johnny Grant, the avuncular honorary mayor of Hollywood who traveled the world as Tinseltown's No. 1 cheerleader for more than a half-century, has died. He was 84.

Grant died just before 7 p.m. Wednesday, apparently of natural causes, said Officer Jason Lee, a spokesman for the Los Angeles Police Department. Grant was found dead on a bed in the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, Lee said.

Grant was perhaps best known as the jolly host alongside more than 500 celebrities he inducted into the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

The lifelong bachelor lived in a 14th-floor suite at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel.

From hosting red carpet Oscar arrivals and Walk of Fame festivities to bit parts in movies and producing Hollywood's annual Christmas Parade, Grant's mission in life was bringing the Tinseltown story to everyone.

"I feel I have been the luckiest guy in the world," he often said. "It's been a pretty good ride."

Grant also joined globe-trotting Bob Hope as a USO ambassador, bringing entertainers to war zones to perform for U.S. military personnel during the Korean and Vietnam wars and battles in the Middle East.

As such, he helped introduce homesick GI's to Debbie Reynolds, Connie Stevens, Jane Russell, Terry Moore, Penny Singleton and Angie Dickinson, among others, leading Hope to once quip that he himself was "the rich man's Johnny Grant."

"You'll never find a more generous soul in your life," Dickinson told The Associated Press in 2006. "He was a ladies man. He's a Taurus. He's a doll."

[agirl 0]

He was an incredible person and he seemed indestructible. R.I.P.

[Echosoftom 3]

I grew up watching him every year on TV announcing the Annual Hollywood Christmas Parade. Seems so sad he died alone.

Rest in peace, Mr. Tinseltown. :085:

[WildflowerNJ 136]

:085: