How Many Guys Are Buried Wearing a Hairpiece?

Michael Ansara died a few days ago. Was his body on view for mourners? With or without hairpiece?

AND...is the deceased buried in one or not?

George Burns, Fred Astaire, Frank Sinatra, and on and on...not to mention all the vain common men. While some reach the "I don't give a damn anymore" age (Groucho was one of those) and stop wearing a rug, others glue one on to the bitter end. Or the bulbous end. Or the stupid end...call that dome what you want.

The 91 year-old Ansara was probably not a known star around the world. His most famous role was as an Indian (before they were called Native American) in a short-lived TV show called "Broken Arrow." It was one of very, very few series that featured an Indian character in the lead (another was "Brave Eagle"). Very few even had an Indian as a sidekick ("Lone Ranger" of course, and the one-year "Hawkeye and the Last of the Mohicans.") Aside from the TV show, and many character roles, geeks would pester him because he played a Vulcan named KANG on a few episodes of "Star Trek."

Ansara wore the most egregious rugs...but if a role actually called for him to be bald, he did it. I'm not sure if he was in the middle of filming some baldy role when he posed with then-wife Barbara Eden, and his young son (who grew up only to die of a drug overdose). Maybe he just didn't have a handy hunk o' hair to hang on his head when the photographer arrived.

I guess an interview with somebody from Forest Lawn might give an answer to what percentage of bald men "Rest in Toupee." If that's what Michael wanted, I hope that's what he got. And that if he was cremated, the wig was not made of asbestos or some fire-retardant fiber. How sad, for the man to be gone, and the fake hair to remain sizzling in the oven....