Raymond L. Danner Sr., 83, a businessman who helped build the restaurant chain Shoney’s, died Saturday of cancer at his home in Nashville, Tenn., said a spokeswoman for his firm, the Danner Co.
Raised in Louisville, Ky., the son of a German immigrant started his career by buying a small grocery store in his hometown. He retired in 1987 as Shoney’s chairman and formed his own company, Danner Co.
Shoney’s was started by Alex Schoenbaum in 1947 with one drive-in restaurant in Charleston, W.Va. In 1959, Danner acquired the franchise rights for Shoney’s Big Boy and opened his first restaurant in Madison, Tenn. It merged with Danner Foods of Nashville in 1971 to become Shoney’s Big Boy Enterprises and became Shoney’s Inc. five years later.
At its peak, Shoney’s was one of the largest restaurant chains in the world, operating 1,600 stores and producing annual sales that surpassed $800 million.
Michael Pate, 88, an Australian actor who appeared in more than 50 films and was a regular guest star on American TV shows in the 1950s and ’60s, died of respiratory failure late Monday in Gosford, New South Wales.
Born in Sydney in 1920, Pate began his career as a writer and broadcaster for Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio, before moving to the United States.
He spent almost 20 years there, guest-starring in various Westerns and a number of popular TV shows including “Batman,” “Mission: Impossible,” “Get Smart” and “The Man from U.N.C.L.E.”
Pate returned to Australia in the late 1960s to act, write and direct.
