DETROIT Lawson J. Deming, an actor who emerged from a coffin each Saturday as Sir Graves Ghastly to host a movie program on WJBK-TV for 16 years, has died. He was 94.
Deming died Tuesday at a nursing home in Cleveland. The cause was congestive heart failure, said his son, David Deming.
His 1967-1983 run as Sir Graves was the highlight of a half-century career in broadcasting. A lifelong Cleveland-area resident, he traveled to Detroit twice a month to tape the show.
Deming studied speech, drama and mathematics at what now is known as Case Western Reserve University and began his radio career at Cleveland s WHK in 1932.
He appeared on the Cleveland TV puppet show Woodrow the Woodsman before Michigan s WJBK hired him as a movie host. He played all of the show s characters, in addition to Sir Graves.
People love Sir Graves, and I love people, he told the Detroit Free Press in 1982.
Lawson had personality, friend and colleague Specs Howard, creator of the Specs Howard School of Broadcast Arts in Southfield, told The Detroit News. He was a short man who took little steps, and he had this face you just had to love.
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First Published April 27, 2007, 2:44 p.m.
