Lee Thompson Young

 

I doubt most of my blog readers have heard of Lee Thompson Young. I didn’t actually know his name either until I did a little internet search……a search I wish I hadn’t done.

My man and I will sometimes watch a series through a second time if we really like it. We’ll wait a few months before we watch it again, but it’s fun to see things a second time. We’ve done this with Blacklist, Ozark, Santa Clarita Diet, Longmire, Rizzoli & Isles, and more.

Rizzoli & Isles

I love the relationship between the two main characters on Rizzoli & Isles. I feel like I’m a combination of the two. I’m kind of a tough tomboy like Rizzoli but at the same time I’m a total nerd like Maura. I have a huge crush on Sergeant Detective Vince Korsak. He’s sweet, sensitive, can sing and play guitar, and he loves puppies. What’s not to love, right? Then there’s the gorgeous partner of Jane Rizzoli, Detective Barry Frost.

Detective Barry Frost

Barry Frost, played by Lee Thompson Young, has the most beautiful eyes I have ever seen. I could just stare at that man for hours. The character is killed in a car accident at the end of season four. It was a very sad moment for me the first time I watched the series. My hubby and I both assumed the actor, like many actors before him, had left the series to pursue other acting gigs.

On our second time through the series, we got to the episode where Barry Frost dies. I realized at that point that I’d never seen Lee Thompson Young in anything else, so I looked him up on the internet. There had to be some other shows for me to watch so that I could look at those beautiful eyes some more.

I was heartbroken to learn that the actor took his own life. He was killed off on the show because he had died in real life. How hard it must have been for those actors to film the funeral scene for Barry Frost when in real life their friend Lee Thompson Young was gone.

Heavy Heart

There are certain movies that have affected me deeply. When I wake up the following morning after viewing it, that heavy heart sadness is still with me. You’re filled with that dread, that heaviness that you’re not even aware of the cause because you haven’t fully woken up yet. This happened to me when I saw The Champ. I was a teenager and watching Ricky Schroder try to wake up his dead dad devastated me. I also had a similar experience when Barbra Streisand heard Kris Kristofferson’s voice on the answering machine after he died in A Star is Born.

Knowing that Barry Frost, aka Lee Thompson Young, had died in real life really messed with me. I was still sad the next morning and am still thinking about it a week later. I think with all the sadness going on right now with Covid-19 and the George Floyd death, this was just lumped into all of that. Now I have an even bigger mountain of sadness.

I’m sorry for the depressing post. I wanted to talk about Lee Thompson Young. Mental illness is no joke. I didn’t know Lee at all so am basing everything off the character he played, but I can see clearly that big smile of his and his happy eyes. I don’t have any pictures for this blog because I don’t own any of his pinups and I get scared using images that aren’t mine. If you own any and are willing to share, I would love to post them with this blog.

Thanks for reading. Be kind. You never know what’s going on with people.