Obituaries : ‘The Gregarious Aquarius’ : Carroll Righter, 88; Dean of Astrologers

Carroll Righter, doyen of American astrologers, whose fascination with heavenly bodies led him into a lengthy and profitable career, has died at St. John’s Medical Center in Santa Monica.

Thomas S. Pierson, his longtime colleague and business manager, said Righter was 88 when he died early Sunday morning from the complications of old age.

It was a hospitalization he had predicted he wouldn’t survive, Pierson said.

At his death Righter’s daily columns were being syndicated in 166 newspapers in the United States, Europe and Canada, including The Times. He also was the author of several books.

Long Career

“The gregarious Aquarius,” as he liked to call himself, was believed to have been at his specialty longer than any other astrological columnist.

And what he wrote late in life as an act of faith began in his youth on a shred of doubt.

As a boy in Philadelphia he had been introduced to Evangeline Adams, an astrologer whose advice was sought by such disparate figures as Enrico Caruso and King Edward VII.

“She told me I had the perfect chart for becoming an astrologer,” Righter recalled in an interview with The Times late in his life.

Unimpressed, he spent the next several years working toward a degree in law while scoffing at and trying to disprove astrology.

But after a sports injury threatened his life he said he cynically looked at his own chart and discovered he had “physical protection in the Southwest.”

Show Business Connections

Despite his family’s protests, he moved to Los Angeles where, thanks to family connections, he began doing charts for several show business acquaintances.

He claimed to have warned Marlene Dietrich not to go to the studio one day because it could prove harmful to her. She ignored his advice, he said, and broke an ankle when reaching out to save a falling child with whom she was working.

Word of the accident and Righter’s prophecy ensured his fame and other actors began seeking his charts and his counsel.

He began writing for newspapers in 1951 and, said Pierson, a fellow astrologer who will take over the column, at his death had completed his prognostications through this October.

“He liked to work six months or a year ahead of time,” Pierson said.

Not Widely Known

While such other astrologers as Joyce Jillson and Jeane Dixon became better known to the public, Righter was well-known to students of astrology. Until shortly before his death, he continued to conduct weekly lectures at his Hollywood home, as he had done for 25 years, advising his listeners when the moon augured the best for romance in the coming week, or advising them of the “void of course”--the best time for dropping an unwanted suitor.

He pecked out his predictions on an old Royal typewriter in his living room, using a thesaurus to find different ways of expressing hope, tempered with caution.

He sat on a 17th-Century chair, surrounded by photographs of such famous clients as Arlene Dahl, Rhonda Fleming, Jane Withers (married to Pierson), Joan Fontaine or the late Princess Grace of Monaco.

Kept Charts Handy

Righter stayed close to his pillared home and its constantly ringing phone, keeping a set of charts on his bed stand to dole out advice to those seeking after-hours counsel.

A small man who espoused suits and ties rather than casual clothes, he had a courtly manner that alternated with an impish sense of humor. One moment he could be greeting someone with the formal demeanor of Philadelphia gentry, and in the next would pinch a guest, tease that he was overweight and bound with a delighted laugh and a Mary Poppins-like “Whee!” to the next person.

Many who knew him said that even though he often forgot the names of people he met he always remembered their “sun sign.” On reacquaintance he would cheerfully greet them as “Miss Virgo” or “Mr. Aries.”

Stars ‘Don’t Compel’

Asked regularly over the years whether his interpretation of the movements of celestial bodies could be taken as guidelines for life, Righter would offer the same advice he offered as a disclaimer to his column:

“The stars impel, they don’t compel. What you make of your life depends on you.”

Pierson said his mentor had been sick several times over the past few years, but that he had always told friends he would survive those illnesses.

“This time,” Pierson said by phone Monday, “he knew it would be difficult because the sun had gone into the sign of Taurus, a difficult period for an Aquarius. He admitted he probably wouldn’t get through.”

Righter is survived by several nieces and nephews.