Football star of yore and sportscaster, actor, spokesman Merlin Olsen is suing NBC Studios, NBC Universal, 20th Century Fox Film Corporation, Sherwin Williams, Lennox Industries and other companies, claiming he developed mesothelioma, a rare form of cancer as a result of being negligently exposed to asbestos.
Most of the defendants in the suit are manufacturers or sellers of drywall and other products which formerly contained asbestos. NBC and 20th Century Fox appear to named largely for an unsafe workplace claim – Olsen’s assertion that they failed to provide him with a safe place to work by allowing the use and installation of asbestos products without proper precaution.
Olsen played for the Los Angeles Rams and then became a football announcer and then an actor on TV shows like Little House on the Prairie and Father Murphy. He was apparently diagnosed with the rare asbestos cancer mesothelioma a few months ago.
According to the lawsuit, filed in L.A. County Superior Court, Olsen was originally exposed to asbestos when working after school doing manual labor when he was 10 or 11. He was again exposed to asbestos later in life when he was doing drywall. Olsen also worked at NBC and 20th Century FOX and is alleging those companies negligently exposed him to asbestos.
