"Hexum's Funeral Not Yet Arranged"


USA Today, October 22, 1984
Funeral services have yet to be scheduled for actor Jon-Erik Hexum. His body was flown back to Los Angeles Saturday after his heart, corneas and kidneys were removed Friday in San Francisco for organ transplant.

Hexum had been on life-support systems for a week, since accidentally shooting himself in the head Oct. 12 with a blank-loaded pistol on the set of his CBS series, Cover Up.

The heart went to a 37-year-old man Friday and one cornea went Friday night to a 66-year-old man with cataracts, said a hospital spokesman. The other cornea probably will be transplanted within days, and doctors are trying to match his kidneys with potential recipients. His mother, Gretha, requested the organ donations.

The shooting, which the coroner's office had ruled accidental, occurred when Hexum put several blank and empty shells into the pistol, told crew members, "Let's see if I get myself with this one," and then put the gun an inch from his head and pulled the trigger, according to police accounts.

Lt. Mike Carpenter says police "are satisfied he had no knowledge of the dangers of this blank cartridge or he wouldn't have fired it." He says it was "a case of careless handling of a firearm," not Russian roulette, as some earlier police reports have suggested.

Cover Up, which also stars Jennifer O'Neill, will continue, say CBS spokesmen. Auditions were conducted last week for a replacement for Hexum, but no one has been chosen. Bud Grant, CBS president, says there may be a short pre-emption and a few repeats may be shown, but "the show won't leave the air."

Besides co-starring on Cover Up, Hexum was best known as the object of Joan Collins' attention on the ABC TV-movie The Making of a Male Model last season. He also had a role in the current film The Bear.

In a recent interview with USA TODAY, Hexum described the Male Model role as "just a vehicle" to demonstrate his potential. He called Cover Up, in which he played a private eye masquerading as a male model, "a wildly commercial idea, but he's not just a male model. He has personality, and an Indiana Jones/Sean Connery type of personality."

Hexum said he had begun a self-improvement campaign, "reading a lot of novels and plays I've been too embarrassed to admit I never had. I'm a real hard worker."


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