I was pulling for him to beat it, but pancreatic cancer is tough, especially for an elderly person. Ruth Bader Ginsburg had it too, but survived beyond the initial diagnosis for 11 yrs, after beating colon cancer 9 yrs before that.
Alex was a Real Person, hard to find one of those in the TV or Movie world. Sad to see him be replaced probably by someone with much less Class and personality. My cousins son also had Pancreatic Cancer and lived just eight months after diagnosis. He was an opiate addict and alcoholic and was starting to have Cirrhosis also.