By Madhuri Dey
Los Angeles, Mar 12, (THAINDIAN NEWS) Merlin Olsen passed away on Thursday, Mar 11, 2010. According to reports from his family and friends, the former football player and the player turned actor succumbed to cancer, after fighting against it with chemotherapy for a very long time. He passed away at the City of Hope hospital located outside Los Angeles, where he was being treated for mesothelioma, a kind of cancer that affects the lining of the lungs. He had been diagnosed with the deadly form of cancer in the last year itself. Merlin Olsen was 69 years of age at the time of his death.

A few days before his death, Merlin Olsen had sued some production companies he had worked with, including NBC studios, on the grounds that his disease had been brought about by his constant exposure to asbestos. He had been an inductee of the Pro-Football Hall of Fame. Throughout his career in the National Football League, he had been playing with the Los Angeles Rams for the whole of the 15 years, setting a kind of record. He was part of the defensive tackle of the team, his inclusion highly responsible for bringing to the tackle group the title of the “Fearsome Four.”

Always a prodigal in the field, Merlin Olsen had already earned several All-American honors while he was still in junior and high school. He was even the winner of the Outland Trophy, which is awarded to the most outstanding defensive tackle of the country. After he left the football field for the silver screen, Merlin Olsen’s magic was not missing. He acted successfully in soaps like “Little House on the Prairie” and “Father Murphy.”