One of my favorite parts of a newspaper is the obituaries page. I love seeing how lives are summed up by friends and family (and sometimes, the deceased themselves), how a lifetime can be condensed into paragraphs. And often, I’m reminded that science fiction is everywhere.

Take this obituary that appeared in yesterday’s Washington Post for Evelyn Offutt, who died on September 2 at age 94. It states that, “Her parents divorced when she was young. Fred, a professional athlete, moved to California and made a new life as an actor.” Note the phrasing, how he didn’t just try to make a new life as an actor, but he actually did make a new life as an actor.

As you can see below, Evelyn Somers led a fascinating life, but the question I was left with after reading that sentence in her obituary was …

… who was this Fred Somers? (For Somers was Evelyn’s maiden name.) Should I have heard of him? Have you?

A search for that name on IMDB brings up a Cap Somers, born Fredrick Grant Somers, who had “a daughter from his first marriage, Evelyn S. Offutt,” so I know I’ve found the right man.

Aside from bit parts in many TV Westerns such as Gunsmoke, The Big Valley, and Bonanza as “Boxing Spectator,” “Poker Player.” and “Barfly Who Gets Drink Stolen,” Somers also appeared in Man of a Thousand Faces, The Thing from Another World (though IMDB lists that one as “unconfirmed”), plus two chapters of the 1936 Flash Gordon serial.

Which means Cap Somers was (sort of) one of us.

I can’t escape science fiction. Can you?