The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror. Volume 10

Stephen Jones & Kim Newman NECROLOGY: 1998

The following writers, artists, performers and technicians who made significant contributions to the horror, science fiction and fantasy genres during their lifetimes (or left their mark on popular culture in other ways) died in 1998.

Prolific author Walter D. Edmonds, best remembered for his 1930s bestseller Drums Along the Mohawk (filmed by John Ford in 1939) died on January 24th, aged 94.

Cartoonist and dust jacket illustrator “Ionicus” (Joshua Charles Armitage) died on January 29th, aged 84. He trained at the Liverpool School of Art and, following service in the Royal Navy during World War II, began contributing cartoons to Punch magazine. He produced fifty-eight covers for the Penguin P. G. Wodehouse series, but it is his sixty-five dust jacket paintings for William Kimber’s ghost story collections and anthologies between 1974–88 — by R. Chetwynd-Hayes, James Turner, Denys Val Baker, Amy Myers and others — for which he will be remembered.

Thriller writer Lawrence Sanders died on February 7th, aged 78. Best known for his novels The Anderson Tapes and The First Deadly Sin (filmed in 1972 and 1980, respectively), he also wrote such borderline-SF titles as The Tomorrow File and The Passion of Molly T, plus the fantasy Dark Summer under the pseudonym “Mark Upton”.

Fantasy and science fiction writer (Patricia) Jo Clayton died of multiple myeloma on February 13th, two days before her 59th birthday. Despite being hospitalized for more than a year and a half and suffering from advanced bone cancer, she completed the second volume (Drum Calls) and part of the third book in her “Drums” trilogy, along with a number of short stories. Among her thirty-five published novels are Diadem from the Stars (1977), Moongather, Drinker of Souls, Skeen’s Leap, Shadowplay, Wild Magic, Dancer’s Rise, Fire in the Sky and Drum Warning.

Games designer and fantasy novelist Sean A. Moore was killed in a single-car accident in the early evening hours of February 23rd. The creator of the bestselling computer game,Ultimate Wizard, he was 33 and had recently quit his job to become a full-time writer. His books included Conan the Hunter, Conan and the Shaman’s Curse, Conan and the Grim Gray God and the novelisation of the 1997 movie Kull the Conqueror (he also worked uncredited on the script).

Cuban-born cartoonist Antonio Prohias, who drew the “Spy vs. Spy” strip for Mad magazine from 1961 until he retired in 1991, died from cancer on February 24th in Florida. He was 77.

Rockin’ Sidney Simien, who won a Grammy Award in 1985 for his zydeco hit “(Don’t Mess With) My Toot Toot”, died of lung cancer on February 25th, aged 59.

Beat poet Jack Micheline, a close friend of Jack Kerouac, Gregory Corso and Bob Kaufman, who published more than twenty books of poetry, died in San Francisco on February 27th, aged 68.

Comics writer and editor Archie Goodwin (Archibald Goodwin) died on March 1st after a long battle with cancer. He was 60. In 1965 he entered the comics field as a writer and Editor-in-Chief of Warren Publication’s Creepy and Eerie titles. He later worked at both Marvel and DC Comics, and scripted such newspaper strips as Star Wars and Secret Agent X-9.

43-year-old MS sufferer Robert James Leake, the seven-foot tall “professional monster” who appeared in numerous commercials and television shows as Dracula, the Frankenstein Monster and Darth Vader, died the same day, after entering hospital with a chest infection. He joined The Dracula Society in 1974 and held a variety of positions, including Honorary Secretary, archivist, media consultant and editor of the society’s newsletter, Voices from the Vaults.

Following treatment for a series of aneurysms, playwright and screenwriter Beverley Cross, who was married to actress Dame Maggie Smith, died on March 20th, aged 66. His credits include the Ray Harryhausen fantasy adventures Jason and the Argonauts, Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger and Clash of the Titans.

Rozz Williams, the songwriter and musician who founded Gothic rock group Christian Death, hanged himself on April 1st at his home in West Hollywood. He was 34.

Puerto Rico-born science fiction illustrator Alex Schomburg died on April 7th, aged 92. His career spanned seven decades and included the covers of Hugo Gernsback’s science magazines in the 1920s, superhero titles from the Golden Age of comics, and pulp and digest SF magazine covers during the 1950s and 60s. Croma: The Art of Alex Schomburg was published in 1986, and he received a special Lifetime Achievement Award in SF Art at the 1989 World Science Fiction Convention.

Comic strip artist Lee Elias died at a nursing home on April 8th, aged 77. From 1952–55 he collaborated with Jack Williamson on the daily newspaper strip Beyond Mars. He also worked on Terry and the Pirates for many years.

Singer, photographer and vegetarian Linda McCartney died from breast cancer on April 17th, aged 56. Along with her husband Paul (whom she married in 1969) she was in the group Wings, and her photo of Clive Barker appeared on the dust jacket of Weaveworld.

American Gothic novelist and essayist Wright Morris died on April 25th, aged 88.

Carlos Castaneda, the author of a series of mystical novels about Yaqui Indian shaman Don Juan, died of liver cancer on April 27th. His age was uncertain, but he was somewhere between 68 and 74.

Veteran short story author and screenwriter (Drexel) Jerome (Lewis) Bixby died on April 28th from a heart attack after complications following quadruple bypass surgery. He was 75. The author of more than a thousand short stories, Bixby’s first sale was to the pulp magazine Planet Stories in 1949, which he also edited from 1950–1 along with the first three issues of its companion title, Two Complete Science-Adventure Books. After working as an associate editor forGalaxy, Thrilling Wonder Stories and Startling Stories, he sold a number of screenplays to Hollywood, including It! The Terror from Beyond Space, The Lost Missile and Curse of the Faceless Man. His story “It’s a Good Life” was adapted for TV’s Twilight Zone and again for the 1983 movie, he wrote the original story for what later became Fantastic Voyage, and his Star Trek scripts include “Mirror Mirror” and “Day of the Dove”. Some of his best fiction is collected in Space by the Table and The Devil’s Scrapbook.

Prolific children’s author Mabel Esther Allan died on May 14th, aged 83. Among her 180 books were the short ghost novel, A Chill in the Lane, The Haunted Valley and Other Poems andA Strange Enchantment.

British author and actor Ivan Butler, the last surviving cast member of the first commercial London stage production of Dracula, died on May 17th, aged 89. In 1929, Butler played Lord Godalming and then understudied the part of Dracula in Hamilton Deane’s dramatization of Bram Stoker’s novel. He went on to play every male part in the play, including the Count, and produced Dracula on the stage many times. In the early 1950s he had several plays presented on television by the BBC and in later years he was the author of such books as The Horror Film, The Cinema of Roman Polanski and Cinema in Britain.

Alan D. Williams, who edited half a dozen novels and the collection Different Seasons by Stephen King while at Viking Penguin, died of cancer the same day. He was 72.

Novelist, playwright and screenwriter Wolf Mankowitz died in County Cork, Ireland, on May 20th from cancer, aged 73. His screenplays include Hammer’s The Two Faces of Dr Jekyll (aka House of Fright), The Day the Earth Caught Fire and Casino Royale. Among his books are the fantasies A Kid for Two Farthings and A Night With Casanova, the vampire novel The Devil in Texas (illustrated by Ralph Steadman), plus the biography The Extraordinary Mr Poe.

British novelist and playwright Robert Muller died on May 27th, aged 72. In 1977 he created and scripted seven of the eight episodes of the BBC TV series Supernatural, two of which starred his wife Billie Whitelaw. A tie-in paperback was published by Fontana.

Mary Elizabeth Grenander, a leading authority on Ambrose Bierce, died in her sleep on May 28th, aged 79. She edited and wrote the introduction for the 1995 book Poems of Ambrose Bierce.

Book editor William Abrahams, who worked for Atlantic Monthly Press and later for Holt, Reinhart and Winston and Dutton, died on June 2nd, aged 79. His authors included Pauline Kael and Joyce Carol Oates, and he presided over the annual O. Henry short story awards for more than three decades.

New York bookseller and publisher Jack Biblo died on June 5th, aged 92. With his business partner Jack Tannen he started Canaveral Press in the 1960s. Under the editorship of Richard A. Lupoff, Canaveral reprinted a number of Edgar Rice Burroughs books which had gone into public domain, eventually becoming the sole authorized hardcover publisher of Burroughs, along with titles by Lupoff, L. Sprague de Camp and E. E. Smith.

French novelist Thomas Narcejac died in Paris on June 9th, aged 89. He collaborated with Pierre Boileau on more than forty thrillers, including Les Louves, Les Yeux Sans Visage and Body Parts, which were all filmed.

Bestselling thriller writer (Ralph) Hammond Innes died June 10th, aged 84. He first novel, The Doppelgänger (1936), was an occult thriller, and his ghost story “South Sea Bubble” (from the Christmas 1973 Punch) has been anthologized often. He left behind an unexpected collection of rare stamps worth up to £11,000 as part of his £6.8 million estate.

Romantic bestseller Dame Catherine Cookson (Catherine Ann McMullen) died on June 11th, aged 91. She made her writing debut at the age of 44, producing an average of two books a year. Her children’s fantasy Mrs. Flannagan’s Trumpet was published in 1976. She was awarded an OBE in 1985, and made a Dame in 1993.

Ann Elizabeth Dobbs, the only grandchild of Dracula author Bram Stoker and the last surviving link with his wife Florence, died at her home on June 15th, aged 81. She reportedly found her grandfather’s novel too scary to read!

Playwright, screenwriter and lyricist Edward Eliscu died on June 18th, aged 96. He wrote the words to “Flying Down to Rio” and was blacklisted in the 1950s for his outspoken political views.

Michael D. Weaver, whose novels include Mercedes Night and the Norse werewolf trilogy, Wolf-Dreams (1987), Nightreaver and Bloodfang, died on July 5th when he drowned in three feet of water. He was 36.

Writer, editor and fan Robert A. W. (“Doc”) Lowndes died on July 14th of renal cancer. He was 81. A founder member of New York’s Futurians SF club in 1938, he began writing his own stories in the 1940s, often in collaboration with other authors. His novels include The Mystery of the Third Mine (1953), Believer’s World and The Puzzle Planet, and a collection of his columns appeared under the title Three Faces of Science Fiction in 1973. Although Lowndes was editor of the Avalon Books hardcover science fiction line from 1955–70 and compiled The Best of James Blish in 1979, he is best remembered as a magazine editor, beginning with Future Fiction and Science Fiction Quarterly (both 1941–43), followed by Dynamic Science Fiction (1952–54) and Science Fiction Stories/The Original Science Fiction Stories (1954–60). During the 1960s he worked for Health Knowledge Inc., editing a series of digest magazines that included The Magazine of Horror (1963–71), Startling Mystery Stories (1966–71), Famous Science Fiction (1966–69) and Bizarre Fantasy Tales (1970–71). It was during this period that he published the young Stephen King’s first two professional tales in 1967 and 1969 issues of Startling Mystery Stories.

Children’s illustrator Lillian Hoban, who began her career in the 1960s illustrating the Frances books written by her husband Russell Hoban, died of a heart attack on July 17th, aged 73.

Screenwriter John Hopkins, who co-wrote the Bond film Thunderball and scripted Murder by Decree, died on July 23rd, aged 67.

French author, translator and editor Alain Doremieux died in his sleep on July 26th, aged 64. A former editor of the French editions of The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction (aka Ficcion) and Galaxy, between 1991–96 he edited nine volumes of the horror anthology series Territoires de I’lnquietude, and in 1993 he was responsible for Steve Rasnic Tem’s only collection to date,Ombres sur la Route.

Science fiction cover artist Paul Lehr died on July 27th, aged 67, six weeks after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. He received the Merit Award from the Society of Illustrators in 1980 and served as a judge for the L. Ron Hubbard Illustrators of Future contest since its inception.

Author and bookseller Noel Lloyd died on August 3rd, aged 73. With his partner Geoffrey Palmer he collaborated on thirty books, including the juvenile ghost story collections Ghosts Go Haunting, Ghost Stories Round the World and The Obstinate Ghost and Other Ghostly Tales. They also wrote the biography E. F. Benson as He Was (1988) and published a number of limited edition booklets by the author.

American author and playwright Sigmund Miller, who scripted the radio show Inner Sanctum in the 1940s, died of complications from pneumonia on August 5th, aged 87. He was blacklisted during the McCarthy era and moved to London, where he wrote movie scripts under a pseudonym.

Scriptwriter and producer Arthur Rowe died after a lengthy illness on August 6th, aged 74. He wrote the 1976 horror film The Devil’s Men (aka Land of the Minotaur) starring Donald Pleasence and Peter Cushing, and episodes of The Man from U.N.C.L.E., Fantasy Island, The Bionic Woman, The Six Million Dollar Man, Mission Impossible and Kolchak: The Night Stalker.

Lyricist Marshall Barer died of cancer on August 25th, aged 75. Better known for his Broadway musicals, he also wrote the Mighty Mouse theme song, “Here I Come to Save the Day”, in the back of a taxicab.

Scriptwriter and novelist Catherine Turney died on September 9th, aged 91. A contract writer for MGM and Warner Bros, she wrote several episodes of TV’s One Step Beyond and adapted her 1952 novel The Other One for the screen as Back from the Dead (1957).

Scriptwriter Sam Locke, whose career included the radio show Inner Sanctum, died on September 18th, aged 81. He also wrote scripts for TV shows and beach movies, as well as sketches for comedians Red Buttons and Ed Wynn.

TV scriptwriter and composer Jeffrey Moss, who created the Cookie Monster, Oscar the Grouch and other characters for Jim Henson’s Sesame Street, died of cancer on September 24th, aged 56.

Illustrator Julian Allen, who collaborated with Bruce Wagner on the comic-strip Wild Palms, which became a TV mini-series produced by Oliver Stone, died of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma on September 28th, aged 55. In 1994 he was commissioned by the American Postal Service to create a series of stamps featuring blues singers.

A former newspaper reporter turned Edgar Award-winning TV scriptwriter, Adrian Spies died during open heart surgery on October 2nd, aged 78. He scripted the 1966 Star Trek episode “Miri”, which was banned for many years in Britain.

Chinese painter and sculptor Chang Chong-Jen, who inspired Belgium artist Hergé(Georges Remi) to create the character of Chang in the Tintin books, died on October 8th at a retirement home outside Paris. He was 93.

British thriller writer Eric Ambler died on October 22nd, aged 89. His books include The Mask of Dimitrios and Journey Into Fear (both filmed). In 1953 he was nominated for an Academy Award for the screenplay adaptation of Nicholas Monserrat’s novel The Cruel Sea, he was named a Grand Master by the Mystery Writers of America in 1975, and received the O.B.E. in 1981.

Walter Kendrick, professor of English at Fordham University and an authority on Victorian literature, died of pancreatic cancer on October 25th, aged 51. His books include the 1991 study The Thrill of Fear: 250 Years of Scary Entertainment.

Two weeks after receiving the Order of Merit from the Queen, Britain’s Poet Laureate Ted Hughes (Edward James Hughes) died from cancer on October 28th, aged 68. His books include Tales of the Early World and Ffangs the Vampire Bat and the Kiss of Truth. He had been married to two poets — Sylvia Plath and Assia Wevill — both of whom committed suicide.

American screenwriter, novelist and playwright James Goldman died of a heart attack the same day, aged 71. His credits include The Lion in Winter, They Might Be Giants, Stephen Sondheim’s Follies and Robin and Marian.

Comics artist Bob Kane, who created caped crimefighter Batman with Bill Finger when he was just 24 years old, died on November 3rd, aged 83. Inspired by Zorro, The Shadow and the 1930 movie The Bat Whispers, the character made his debut in the May 1939 issue of Detective Comics No.27, and later became a billion-dollar industry that encompassed numerous films and television series. Although his name appeared on the strip until 1964, much of the work was done by other artists whom Kane called his “ghosts”.

British author Rumer Godden, whose books include Black Narcissus and The River (both filmed), died in Scotland on November 8th, aged 91. She also published a number of children’s books and collections of poetry.

Canadian novelist and teacher Wayland Drew died on December 3rd after a lengthy illness suffering from Lou Gehrig’s Disease. He was 66. Drew’s first novel was published in 1973, and although best known for the post-apocalyptic “Erthring Cycle”, he was also the author of such movie novelizations as Dragon-slayer, Willow and *Batteries Not Included.

Novelist and playwright Robert Marasco, whose first book was the haunted house novel Burnt Offerings (filmed in 1976), died of lung cancer on December 5th, aged 62. His surprise Broadway hit Child’s Play (it ran for 343 performances) was filmed in 1972 by Sidney Lumet.

American comics illustrator George Wilson, whose work appeared in Turok Son of Stone, Space Family Robinson and The Phantom, died on December 7th, aged 77.

British book cover and comic-strip illustrator Ron Turner died on December 19th, aged 76. During the 1950s and 60s he worked on such strips as Rick Random — Space Detective, The Daleks and Star Trek, and more recently produced a series of covers for Gryphon Books.

American comics artist Joe Orlando, whose credits include Tales from the Crypt, House of Mystery, Swamp Thing, Little Orphan Annie and Mad magazine, died on December 23rd, aged 71.

68-year-old French writer and comic-strip artist Jean-Claude Forest, who created sexy 41st-century spacewoman Barbarella in 1962, died on December 30th from a respiratory illness. He acted as design consultant on the 1967 movie in which Jane Fonda portrayed his seductive character. In 1984 he was awarded the Grand Prize at the annual Angouleme comic strip festival.

The voice of cartoon characters Betty Boop, Olive Oyl and Sweet Pea, Mae Questel died on January 4th, aged 89. She played opposite Bela Lugosi (dressed as Dracula) in the 1933 novelty short Hollywood on Parade No. 8, appeared in Woody Allen’s New York Stories and Zelig, and revived her Betty Boop characterisation for Who Framed Roger Rabbit.

Cher’s ex-husband and business partner, a former mayor of Palm Springs and Republican Congressman, Sonny Bono (Salvatore Bono) was killed in a freak skiing accident on January 5th. He was 62. After rising to fame as half of the singing duo Sonny and Cher in 1965 with the hit “I Got You Babe”, he appeared as a cartoon character in a 1972 Scooby-Doo TV movie and turned into a tree in the 1985 horror film Troll.

Veteran stuntman and actor Joe Yrigoyen died on January 11th, aged 87. He appeared in numerous serials, including Fighting Devil Dogs, Daredevils of the Red Circle, Drums of Fu Manchu, The Masked Marvel, Secret Service in Darkest Africa, Captain America, The Crimson Ghost and Canadian Mounties vs. Atomic Invaders.

83-year-old character actor Emil Sitka, who was a favourite foil of The Three Stooges, died on January 16th following a stroke. He appeared in thirty-five Stooges shorts between 1938–58, often playing dignified butlers, plus The Three Stooges in Orbit, The Three Stooges Meet Hercules, Watermelon Man, Intruder and TV’s My Favorite Martian.

British actor James Villiers died on January 18th, aged 64. For Hammer he appeared in The Damned (akaThese Are the Damned), The Nanny and Blood from the Mummy’s Tomb (as the scheming Corbeck). His other film credits include Repulsion, The Ruling Class, The Amazing Mr Blunden, Asylum, Spectre and the Bond movie For Your Eyes Only.

American actor Jack Lord (John Joseph Ryan), who played Detective Steve McGarrett on TV’s longest-running cop show, Hawaii Five-O (1968–79), died of congestive heart failure on January 21st, aged 77. His film roles include Dr. No and The Name of the Game is Kill, and he guested on such series as One Step Beyond, The Invaders and The Man from U.N.C.L.E.

German-born character actor Ferdinand (Ferdy) Mayne (Ferdinand Mayer-Boerckel) died in London of complications from Parkinson’s Disease on January 30th, aged 81. He was a spoof vampire in Dance of the Vampires (aka The Fearless Vampire Killers) and Dracula in The Vampire Happening. His other films include All Hallowe’en, Hammer’s The Vampire Lovers, The Horror Star, Hawk the Slayer, Conan the Destroyer, Howling II Stirba — Werewolf Bitch, My Lovely Monster and Warlock The Armageddon. On TV he guest-starred in The Avengers, The New Avengers, Monsters and the 1986 Czechoslovakian/West German series Frankenstein’s Auntie.

Character actor Philip Abbott, whose film credits include The Invisible Boy, Hangar 18 and The First Power, died of cancer on February 22nd, aged 73. He played assistant director Arthur Ward on the ABC-TV series col1_0 (1965–74).

“The King of the One-Liners”, comedian Henny Youngman died of pneumonia on February 24th, aged 92. The man who coined the phrase “Take my wife. please!” appeared in Herschell Gordon Lewis’ The Gore Gore Girls, History of the World Part 1 and Amazon Women on the Moon.

Hard-working supporting actor J. T. Walsh died of a heart attack while on vacation on February 27th, aged 54. He appeared in adaptations of Stephen King’s Misery and Needful Things, The Last Seduction, Miracle on 34th Street (1994), Outbreak, Breakdown and Pleasantville, and starred as Colonel Frank Back in the 1996–97 TV series Dark Skies.

American actor Donald Woods died on March 5th, aged 88. He starred in William Castle’s 13 Ghosts and also appeared in The Lost Volcano, The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms and Dimension 5. On TV his credits include Lights Out, Inner Sanctum, Men Into Space, Thriller and The Wild Wild West.

Hollywood leading man Lloyd (Vernet) Bridges, the father of actors Jeff and Beau, died of complications from a heart condition at his home in Los Angeles on May 10th, aged 85. His many credits include The Crime Doctor’s Strangest Case, Here Comes Mr Jordan, Strange Confession and High Noon (both with Lon Chaney, Jr.), Rocketship X-M, The Deadly Dream, Haunts of the Very Rich, Airplane and Airplane II, Honey, I Blew up the Kid and numerous TV shows, including the series Sea Hunt (1958–61). In the early 1950s he admitted to being a former member of the Communist Party and was a key witness before the House of Representatives Un-American Activities Committee.

American leading lady Helen Westcott died of cancer on March 17th, aged 70. She starred in Abbott and Costello Meet Dr. Jekyll and Mr Hyde (with Boris Karloff), Whirlpool, Invisible Avenger and Monster on the Campus.

American actress Ramsay Ames, who portrayed the reincarnated love of Lon Chaney, Jr’s Kharis in The Mummy’s Ghost (1944), died of lung cancer on March 21st, aged 78. She also co-starred with Chaney in Calling Dr. Death the previous year.

British actor Daniel Massey, the son of Raymond Massey and brother of Anna, died on March 25th of Hodgkin’s Disease after a long illness. He was 64, and his credits include Sabu and the Magic Ring, Fragment of Fear, Vault of Horror, Warlords of Atlantis, The Cat and the Canary (1977) and the TV series Sherlock Holmes and The Casebook of Sherlock Holmes.

American character actor Gene Evans died of complications from heart disease on April 1st, aged 75. He starred in Donovan’s Brain, Behemoth the Sea Monster (aka The Giant Behemoth), Shock Corridor, A Knife for the Ladies, Devil Times Five (aka Peopletoys) and was a regular on TV’s Matt Helm (1975–76).

Country singer Tammy Wynette (Virginia Wynette Pugh) died from a blood clot in the lung on April 6th, aged 55. She had ten consecutive No. 1 hits in America (out of a total of twenty), the best-known being “Stand by Your Man”. A year after her death, her body was exhumed and an autopsy performed at the request of her fifth husband, George Richey, after three of the singer’s daughters filed a $50 million lawsuit for wrongful death, claiming she died because he did not seek medical attention for her.

Punk singer with The Plasmatics, Wendy O. Williams committed suicide the same day. She was 48, and appeared in the cult 1986 movie Reform School Girls.

Actor Liam Sullivan, who portrayed the villainous Sir Branton in the 1961 fantasy The Magic Sword, died of a heart attack on April 19th, aged 74. He also played a telepathic alien in the 1968 Star Trek episode “Plato’s Stepchildren”.

Variety performer Peter Lind Hayes died in a Las Vegas hospice on April 21st, aged 82. With his wife Mary Healy he starred in The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T in 1953.

American actor Frederic Downs, whose credits include Terror from the Year 5000, died on April 24th, aged 81. For ten years he appeared on the sit-com Days of Our Lives.

Character actress Maidie Norman, who portrayed the maid in What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? died of lung cancer on May 2nd, aged 85. Her other credits include Airport ‘77 and TV’s Kung Fu.

Child stage star and leading man of the 1930s Gene Raymond (Raymond Guion) died from pneumonia in a Hollywood hospital on May 3rd, aged 89. His films include Zoo in Budapest, 7 Keys to Baldpate and Five Bloody Graves. He was married to Jeanette MacDonald.

American leading lady and a former singer with Rudy Vallee’s band, Alice Faye (Ann Leppert) died on May 9th, aged 83. She appeared in such films as Sing Baby Sing, In Old Chicago, Hello Frisco Hello, Hollywood Cavalcade and Alexander’s Ragtime Band, before retiring from the screen in the mid-1940s. She remained active in radio with her husband, band leader Phil Harris, and returned to movies in 1976 with Won Ton Ton, the Dog Who Saved Hollywood.

“OP Blue Eyes”, “The Chairman of the Board” and the leader of the “Rat Pack”, singer and actor Frank Sinatra died of a heart attack on May 14th, aged 82. A former band singer and teenage heart-throb, he received twenty-five gold albums and appeared in such films as The Manchurian Candidate, Suddenly, Around the World in Eighty Days, Road to Hong Kong and The First Deadly Sin, winning the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role as Maggio in From Here to Eternity. His long-time friend Joey Bishop subsequently revealed that Sinatra paid for the funeral of Bela Lugosi, who died broke.

Veteran American character actor Douglas V. Fowley died on May 21st, aged 86. His numerous film appearances include The Thin Man, Charlie Chan on Broadway, Docks of New Orleans, Night Life of the Gods, Charlie Chan at Treasure Island, Scared to Death (with Bela Lugosi), Mighty Joe Young, Tarzan’s Peril, Singin’ in the Rain, The Naked Jungle, Cat Women of the Moon, 7 Faces of Dr. Lao, Homebodies and The White Buffalo. In 1960 he produced and directed Macumba Love and regularly guested on such TV shows as Topper, Kolchak: The Night Stalker, Kung Fu, Quark and Fantasy Island.

49-year-old American comedy actor Phil Hartman was shot dead at his home on May 28th, apparently by his wife in a murder-suicide. Best known for his roles (1986–94) on TV’s Saturday Night Live, The Simpsons (as the voice of Troy McClure and others) and the season-ender of 3rd Rock from the Sun, he co-scripted Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure and appeared in Amazon Women on the Moon, Coneheads, So I Married an Ax Murderer, The Pagemaster and Small Soldiers.

WWF wrestler Sylvester Ritter aka “Junkyard Dog” died on June 2nd, aged 44.

American leading lady Josephine Hutchinson died in a New York nursing home on June 4th, aged 94. She starred as Alice in a 1932 Broadway production of Alice in Wonderland, played Elsa von Frankenstein in the 1939 movie Son of Frankenstein, and appeared in an adaptation of Ray Bradbury’s “I Sing the Body Electric” on TV’s The Twilight Zone.

Character actress Jeanette Nolan died from a stroke on June 5th, aged 86. Over a seventy-year acting career she starred in such films as Orson Welles’ Macbeth (1948), My Blood Runs Cold, Chamber of Horrors, The Reluctant Astronaut, The Manitou and Cloak & Dagger (with her husband John Maclntire), and appeared on TV in Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Thriller, The Twilight Zone, The Man from U.N.C.L.E., The Invaders, Night Gallery, The Sixth Sense, Fantasy Island, The Incredible Hulk and Goliath Awaits.

Character actress Theresa Merritt, who played Aunt Em in the 1978 musical The Wiz, died after a long battle with skin cancer on June 12th, aged 75. Her other films include Voodoo Dawn and The Serpent and the Rainbow.

Mexican actor Roberto Canedo died on June 16th. He appeared in numerous movies, including Doctor of Doom, Santo contra el Estrangulador, Santo contra el Espectro de el Estran-gulador, La Mujer Murcielago and Santo contra la Hija de Frankestein.

Actor and singer Felix Knight, who appeared as Tom-Tom the Piper’s Son in the 1934 Laurel and Hardy fantasy Babes in Toyland, died on June 18th, aged 89.

Irish-born American leading lady Maureen O’Sullivan, the mother of actress Mia Farrow, died from a heart attack on June 23rd, aged 87. Best remembered for her role as Jane opposite Johnny Weismuller’s Tarzan in six films, she also appeared in Just Imagine, A Connecticut Yankee (1931), Tod Browning’s The Devil-Doll, Too Scared to Scream, Peggy Sue Got Married and Stranded. She was married to director John Farrow.

Cowboy star Roy Rogers (Leonard Slye) died of congestive heart failure on July 6th, aged 86. A member of the singing Sons of the Pioneers in the 1930s, he appeared in more than one hundred movies and TV’s The Roy Rogers Show (1951–56) with his horse Trigger (who died in 1966). A chain of fast-food restaurants was named after him in America.

Hugh Reilly, who played Timmy Martin’s father Paul in the TV series Lassie (1958–64), died after a long battle with emphysema on July 17th. He was 82.

The same day saw the death from brain cancer of 64-year-old American character actor Joseph Maher, who played Warren Beatty’s butler in Heaven Can Wait.

Hollywood leading man Robert (George) Young died on July 21st, aged 91. Although best known for his Emmy Award-winning TV shows Life With Father (1954–60) and Marcus Welby, M.D. (1969–76), he also appeared in The Black Camel (with Bela Lugosi), The House of Rothschild (with Boris Karloff), Tod Browning’s Miracles for Sale, The Canterville Ghost (1943) and The Enchanted Cottage. Young battled alcoholism and depression throughout his life, and attempted suicide in 1991. In later years he advertised Sanka decaffeinated coffee on American TV.

British-born character actress Binnie Barnes (Gitelle Barnes), who went to Hollywood in the mid-1930s, died on July 27th, aged 95. Her films include Murder at Covent Garden, The Three Musketeers (1939) and The Time of Their Lives.

Buffalo Bob Smith (Robert E. Smith), the host and voice of the eponymous puppet star of the first TV programme specifically for children, The Howdy Doody Show (1947–60), died of lung cancer on July 30th, aged 80.

American TV actress Sylvia Field Truex, who portrayed Mrs. Wilson in the CBS series Dennis the Menace (1959–63), died on July 31st, aged 97.

Hungarian-born actress Eva Bartok (Eva Sjöke) died in a London hospital from heart failure after a long illness on August 1st, aged 72. Formerly married to actor Curt Jurgens, she starred in The Crimson Pirate, Hammer’s Spaceways, The Gamma People and Mario Bava’s Blood and Black Lace.

Twelve-time Emmy Award-winning children’s TV presenter and ventriloquist Shari Lewis, who created the squeaky-voiced sock puppet Lamb Chop for the Captain Kangaroo show in 1957, died of uterine cancer and pneumonia on August 2nd, aged 65. A winner of a Peabody and the John F. Kennedy Center Award for Excellence and Creativity, at the time of her death she was producer and star of the PBS series The Charlie Horse Music Pizza.

The same day saw the death in a nursing home of 50-year-old David-Allen “Chico” Ryan, who sang and played bass with 1950s revival group Sha Na Na. He also appeared in the hit movie Grease.

44-year-old Canadian stuntman Marc Akerstream was killed on August 14th when a special effects explosion went wrong on the TV series The Crow: Stairway to Heaven. A piece of debris thrown into the air by the blast struck Akerstream on the head and he later died in hospital. The show is based on the 1994 movie The Crow, during the filming of which star Brandon Lee was killed in a freak firearms accident.

Stand-up comic and character actor Phil Leeds died on August 16th of pneumonia, aged 82. His film credits include Rosemary’s Baby and Ghost, and he appeared in numerous TV sit-coms such as Dream On, Ellen and Ally McBeal.

49-year-old Indian actress Persis Khambatta, who starred as bald-headed navigator Lieutenant Ilia in Star Trek the Motion Picture, died of an apparent heart attack in a Bombay hospital on August 18th. However, some reports claimed that the 1965 Miss India had no history of heart trouble (despite having undergone a bypass operation in 1983) and that she had been murdered. Her other films include The Man With the Power, Megaforce, Night-hawks, Warriors of the Lost World and First Strike.

American actor E. (Edda) G. (Gunnar) Marshall died on August 24th after a short illness. He was 88, and his many film and TV appearances include Vampire, Superman II, The Phoenix, Creepshow, Two Evil Eyes, The Tommyknockers, Under Siege, Lights Out (with John Carradine), Inner Sanctum, Studio One: “Donovan’s Brain”,Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Moment of Fear, Night Gallery and Tales from the Darkside. He won two Emmys for his role as attorney Lawrence Preston in The Defenders (1961–65), and in 1988 the liberal actor formed the environmentalist Preservation Party to support anti-development candidates in New York.

Stage actor Jerome Dempsey, who won a Drama Desk Award for his performance as Van Helsing opposite Frank Langella in the 1977 Broadway production of Dracula, died of heart failure on August 26th, aged 69.

Russian-born character actor Leonid Kinskey, who played Sascha, the bartender of Rick’s Cafe in Casablanca, died of a stroke on September 8th, aged 95. He also appeared in such TV shows as The Man from U.N.C.L.E. and the pilot of Hogan’s Heroes.

American tough-guy actor of the 1940s and ‘50s Dane Clark (Bernard Zanville) died on September 11th, aged 85.

CNN correspondent John Holliman, who appeared as himself in the 1997 movie Contact, was killed in a car crash in Atlanta, Georgia, on September 12th. He was 49.

British character actress Patricia Hayes died on September 19th, aged 88. Her films include The Neverending Story, The Terrornauts, Fragment of Fear and Willow, and she appeared on TV in Hammer House of Mystery and Suspense and The Tomorrow People.

American TV actress Mary Frann, who portrayed Bob New-hart’s wife in the CBS series Newhart (1982–90), died of a heart attack on September 23rd, aged 55.

British leading man Marius Goring, C.B.E. died of cancer on September 30th, aged 86. Best remembered for his roles in the Powell and Pressburger classics A Matter of Life and Death (aka Stairway to Heaven) and The Red Shoes, he also appeared in The Case of the Frightened Lady and starred in the BBC-TV series The Expert (1970–75). In 1929 he was a founding member of the actor’s union Equity.

Singing cowboy Gene Autry died of lymphoma on October 2nd, three days after his 91st birthday. He made his movie debut in 1934, and appeared in ninety-five movies, usually with his horse Champion, including the SF serial The Phantom Empire, Mystery Mountain and Gold Town Ghost Riders. He also recorded 635 songs, most notably “Back in the Saddle Again” and “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer’ and co-wrote ‘Here Comes Santa Claus”. A clever businessman, he produced his own TV show (1950–56) and others, eventually creating a half-billion-dollar investment portfolio which included oil wells, hotels, television stations and the Anaheim Angels baseball team. He opened the Gene Autry Western Heritage Museum in Los Angeles’ Griffith Park in 1988.

Lon Clark, who portrayed Nick Carter, Master Detective on radio from 1943–55, died the same day, aged 86.

70-year-old British-born actor and photographer Roddy McDowall died of cancer in his Los Angeles home on October 3rd, only two weeks after word of his terminal illness became public. A former child star, he moved to Hollywood in 1940 where his later roles tended towards the bizarre or psychotic. Best remembered as the star of the Planet of the Apes film and TV series (playing various intelligent simians), he also portrayed ham horror host Peter Vincent in Fright Night and Fright Night Part 2. His many other credits include Macbeth (1948), Midnight Lace (1960), Shock Treatment (1964), The Loved One, It! the Night Gallery pilot, Tam Lin (which he also directed), Laserblast, A Taste of Evil, The Legend of Hell House, Arnold, The Cat from Outer Space, Embryo, The Silent Flute (aka Circle of Iron), Charlie Chan and the Curse of the Dragon Queen, The Thief of Baghdad (1978), The Black Hole, The Martian Chronicles, Class of 1984, Dead of Winter, Doin’ Time on Planet Earth, Mirror Mirror 2: Raven Dance, Cutting Class, Heads, The Alien Within and A Bug’s Life. He co-starred with Boris Karloff in TV’s Playhouse 90: “Heart of Darkness” (1958), portrayed the untrustworthy Jonathan Willoway on Fantastic Journey, played the villainous Bookworm on Batman, was the voice of The Mad Hatter on Batman: The Animated Series, and guested on such shows as The Twilight Zone, Alfred Hitchcock Hour, The Invaders, Journey to the Unknown, The Snoop Sisters, Nightmare Classics: “Carmilla” and Fantasy Island (as the Devil).

Another original singing cowboy star, Robert “Tex” Allen, died on October 9th, aged 92. In Hollywood since the 1930s, his films include Crime and Punishment (with Peter Lorre) and The Phantom Stallion, and he had his own TV series,Frontier Doctor, in 1952.

Radio and TV announcer Tony Marvin, who was the official “voice” of the 1939 New York World’s Fair, died in Florida on October 10th, aged 86. He was also the original voice of Tony the Tiger in the Kellogg’s cereal commercials.

American leading man Richard Denning (Louis A. Denninger) died of cardiac arrest after a long battle with emphysema on October 11th, aged 85. His films include The Creature from the Black Lagoon, Her Jungle Love, Unknown Island, Target Earth! The Creature With the Atom Brain, Roger Corman’s The Day the World Ended and The Black Scorpion. He co-starred with Vincent Price in Twice Told Tales and played Governor Philip Grey on TV’s Hawaii Five-O (1968–79). He was married to actress Evelyn Ankers, who died in 1985.

Silent screen star Molly O’Day, who began her career in Our Gang films and worked with Laurel and Hardy, died on October 15th, aged 88.

British character actress Joan Hickson, best remembered for her portrayal of Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple on TV (1984–91), died on October 17th, aged 92. She appeared with Basil Rath-bone in Love from a Stranger and Vincent Price in Theatre of Blood. Her other credits include Don’t Take It to Heart, Seven Days to Noon, Mad About Men, No Haunt for a Gentleman, One of Our Dinosaurs is Missing and the 1969 TV production of Mystery and Imagination: “Dracula”.

Former ballet dancer and actor Christopher Gable died of cancer on October 23rd, aged 58. He appeared in The Boy Friend, The Slipper and the Rose, The Lair of the White Worm and The Rainbow. He was also artistic director of the Northern Ballet Theatre, whose 1999 London production of Dracula was dedicated to his memory.

British leading lady Rosamund John, whose films include The Secret of the Loch and Green for Danger, died on October 27th, aged 85.

Bob Trow, who for thirty years appeared as the gibberish-talking Robert Troll, Bob Dog and occasionally as himself on the children’s TV show Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood, died of a heart attack on November 2nd, aged 72.

American actress Martha O’Driscoll, who starred in House of Dracula, Crazy House and The Ghost Catchers for Universal, died on November 3rd, aged 76. For the last fifty years of her life, she was married to wealthy Chicago businessman Arthur Apple-ton after promising to give up show business for ever.

Japanese actress Momoko Kochi, who starred in the 1954 Godzilla King of the Monsters, died of intestinal cancer on November 5th, aged 66. Her other films include Half Human, The Mysterians and the 1995 Godzilla vs. Destroyer.

After a long illness, French leading man Jean Marais (Jean Marais-Villain) died in Cannes of pulmonary disease on November 8th, aged 84. A protégé of surrealist artist Jean Cocteau, he is best remembered for his role in Cocteau’s La Belle et la Bete and as the super-criminal Fantomas in three 1960s movies. He also appeared in L’Eternel Retour, Orphee, Le Testament d’Orphee, Donkey Skin and Amour de Poche.

British actress Mary Millar died of cancer on November 10th, aged 62. She appeared in the London stage musical of The Phantom of the Opera as the original Madame Giry, but is probably best known as Rose in the BBC-TV sit-com Keeping Up Appearances.

British actress Valerie Hobson died of a heart attack in London on November 13th, aged 81. She appeared in Bride of Frankenstein, WereWolf of London, The Great Impersonation, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, Q Planes, Great Expectations (1946), Kind Hearts and Coronets and The Rocking Horse Winner before retiring as an actress. She married her second husband, Conservative MP John Profumo, in 1954. In 1963 he was forced to resign in disgrace as Secretary of State for War over an affair with call girl Christine Keeler, who was also involved with a Soviet military attaché.

American character actor Dick O’Neill died of heart failure on November 17th, aged 70. He appeared in added American footage for the Japanese film Gammera and was decapitated in Wolfen. Other credits include Pretty Poison, The UFO Incident, It Happened One Christmas and Chiller.

TV comedian Flip Wilson (Clerow Wilson) died of liver cancer on November 25th, aged 64. He had his own Emmy Award-winning variety show on NBC-TV in the early 1970s and often guest-hosted The Tonight Show. In 1976 he appeared in a TV movie ofPinocchio.

Silent film actress Ruth Clifford died on November 30th, aged 98. She starred in the SF film The Invisible Ray (1920) and later became a character actress in such films as Dante’s Inferno, The Searchers and Sunset Blvd.

British actor Michael Craze died on December 7th, aged 56. He played Ben Jackson on TV’s Doctor Who (1966–67), and also appeared in such films as Neither the Sea Nor the Sand, Satan’s Slave and Terror.

American character actor Norman Fell, best known for his role as irritable landlord Stanley Roper in the 1970s TV sit-coms Three’s Company and The Ropers, died of multiple myeloma on December 14th, aged 74. His other credits include the movies C.H. U. D. II Bud the Chud, The Boneyard, Hexed, Transylvania 6–5000, Stripped to Kill and such TV shows as Alfred Hitchcock Hour, The Wild Wild West, The Man from U.N.C.L.E., The Invaders, The Bionic Woman and Bewitched.

Hollywood leading lady Irene Hervey (Irene Herwick) died of heart failure on December 20th, aged 89. She appeared in House of Fear (1939), Night Monster (with Bela Lugosi and Lionel Atwill), Gang Busters, Mr Peabody and the Mermaid, Play Misty for Me, Goliath Awaits and the 1965 TV series Honey West.

Canadian-born leading man David Manners (Rauff de Ryther Duan Acklom), who was a cousin to Arthur Conan Doyle and claimed to be descended from William the Conqueror, died in a Santa Barbara nursing home on December 23rd. He was 98. In the 1930s he portrayed the hero in Dracula, The Mummy, The Death Kiss, The Black Cat, The Moonstone and Mystery of Edwin Drood before retiring from the screen. He successfully invested in property and also wrote several novels and two works of philosophy.

American actor (William Rukard) Hurd Hatfield died in Monktown, Ireland, on December 25th, aged 80. Best known for his starring role in the 1945 movie The Picture of Dorian Gray, he also portrayed Dracula on stage in America and appeared in Tarzan and the Slave Girl, Mickey One, The Boston Strangler, The Norliss Tapes, The House and the Brain and such TV series as Lights Out, Suspense, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, The Wild Wild West, Search, Blacke’s Magic and Knight Rider.

Italian director Carlo Ludovico Bragaglia, whose films include The Loves of Hercules (with Jayne Mansfield and Mickey Hargitay), died on January 4th following an operation for a broken hip. He was 103.

Production executive Gary Nardino died of a stroke on January 22nd, aged 62. His credits include Star Trek II The Wrath of Khan and Star Trek III The Search for Spock, plus such TV shows as Mork & Mindy and Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventures.

British producer, scriptwriter and former editor Sidney Cole died on January 25th, aged 89. He edited the 1940 Gaslight, was supervising editor for Ealing Studios’ ghost story Halfway House, associate produced their horror classic Dead of Night and The Man in the White Suit, and scripted the fantasy The Angel Who Pawned Her Harp.

Production designer Jack T. Collis, who worked on Voodoo Island, Frankenstein 1970 and Macabre during the late 1950s, died on February 1st, aged 75. His other credits include Splash, Cocoon, The Running Man and Star Trek IV The Voyage Home.

Script supervisor Peggy Robertson died on February 6th, aged 81. For many years she was Alfred Hitchcock’s personal assistant and worked with the director on Vertigo, Psycho and The Birds, amongst other films, as well as the TV series Alfred Hitchcock Presents.

Cinematographer Richard C. Glouner, whose credits include the H. P. Lovecraft movie The Dunwich Horror and TV series Logan’s Run and V, died on February 9th, aged 66.

Leonard Ho, co-founder of Hong Kong studios Golden Harvest, died of a heart attack on February 16th.

TV director John Nicolella, who made his movie debut with Kull the Conqueror in 1997, died on February 21st, aged 52.

British film distributor Michael Myers died on February 22nd, aged 69. Because of his successful distribution of John Carpenter’s previous film, Assault on Precinct 13, the director named the killer in Halloween after Myers as a mark of gratitude.

James Nelson Algar, who began his career as an animator on Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937), died on February 26th, aged 85. He also directed the classic “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice” sequence for Fantasia, and numerous episodes of Disney True Life Adventures.

Hollywood casting director Leonard Murphy, who cast the Munchkins in The Wizard of Oz (1939), died on March 4th, aged 87.

Hollywood make-up artist and hairstylist George Masters died of heart failure in Las Vegas on March 6th, aged 62. Over the years he worked with Marilyn Monroe (as her personal make-up artist), Ann-Margret, Lauren Bacall, Bo Derek, Marlene Dietrich and Sophia Loren, and turned Dustin Hoffman into Tootsie.

Marvin A. Davis, who died on March 8th, aged 87, joined Walt Disney Imagineering in 1953 and helped create almost every aspect of Disneyland. He won an Emmy for his art direction on TV’s Walt Disney’s Wonderful World of Color.

Academy Award-winning cinematographer Charles (Bryant) Lang died of pneumonia on April 3rd, aged 96. A self-described “women’s photographer”, his many credits include the 1934 Death Takes a Holiday, Peter Ibbetson, Midnight, The Cat and the Canary (1939), The Ghost Breakers, The Uninvited, The Ghost and Mrs. Muir, Some Like it Hot and Wait Until Dark. He received the American Society of Cinematographers’ Lifetime Achievement Award in 1991.

French producer Anatole Dauman died of an apparent heart attack on April 8th in Paris, aged 73. Credited with discovering and developing several of the French “New Wave” directors of the 1950s and ‘60s, his films include Last Year at Marienbad, La Jetee, In the Realm of the Senses, The Tin Drum, Wings of Desire, Immoral Tales and The Beast.

Film editor Louis “Duke” Goldstone, who edited George Pal’s Destination Moon, died of heart failure on April 16th, aged 84. He later became a TV director.

Producer and scriptwriter Marvin Worth died from complications from a bronchiovalvular carcinoma on April 22nd, aged 72. He scripted episodes of Get Smart and produced Lenny, Spike Lee’s Malcolm X and the remake of Diabolique.

Producer Jack Cummings died the same day of cancer, aged 49. After starting out as an assistant director on The Howling and Time Walker, he produced Highlander II The Quickening, The Addams Family and Stephen King’s Needful Things.

Producer, director and writer Leslie Stevens died of a heart attack following complications during emergency angioplasty on April 24th, aged 74. Best remembered as the producer of the classic 1960s SF series The Outer Limits, he also produced such popular TV shows as Search, The Invisible Man, Gemini Man, Battlestar Galactica and Buck Rogers in the 25th Century. In 1965 he scripted and directed the Esperanto movie Incubus starring William Shatner. He married actress Kate Manx in 1958, but she committed suicide when the marriage ended.

Film editor and director Gene Fowler, Jr. died on May 11th, aged 80. The director of such cult classics as I Was a Teenage Werewolf and I Married a Monster from Outer Space, he won an Academy Award for the documentary Seeds of Destiny, which he made while he was an Army lieutenant in World War II, and was nominated for another Oscar for editing It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad World.

71-year-old former actor, photographer, producer and director John Derek (Derek Harris) suffered a heart attack on May 20th and died two days later in hospital after lengthy surgery to unblock his clogged arteries. As an actor he appeared in Rogues of Sherwood Forest, Mask of the Avenger, The Ten Commandments (1956) and other films, before turning to directing with such movies as Tarzan the Ape Man, Bolero and Ghosts Can’t Do It. Best remembered for marrying such beautiful actresses as French star Pati Behrs, Ursula Andress and Linda Evans, his death ended a twenty-two year-long Svengali-like relationship with his fourth wife, Bo.

British film and TV composer Edwin Astley died on May 19th, aged 76. His movie scores include Devil Girl from Mars, The Woman Eater, Behemoth the Sea Monster (aka The Giant Behemoth) and Hammer’s The Phantom of the Opera, along with composing music for such TV series as The Saint, Danger Man (aka Secret Agent) and Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) (aka My Partner the Ghost).

Veteran special effects cinematographer Linwood G. Dunn died of cancer on May 20th, aged 94. At RKO Radio since the late 1920s, he worked on Bringing Up Baby, King Kong, Citizen Kane, She, Cat People, Mighty Joe Young, The Thing from Another World and The Devil’s Rain. In 1967 he was nominated for an Emmy Award for his work on the original Star Trek TV series, and in 1985 the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences presented him with its Gordon E. Sawyer Award for career contributions.

Spanish film director Ricardo Franco, the nephew of Jesus Franco, died of heart failure the same day. He was 48.

TV director Robert Gist died on May 21st, aged 74. He began his career as a child actor in Miracle on 34th Street (1947) and turned to directing in the early 1960s. Amongst his credits are the “Lizard’s Leg and Owlet’s Wing” episode of Route 66 starring Boris Karloff, Peter Lorre and Lon Chaney, Jr., and the “Galileo Seven” episode of Star Trek.

Walt Disney layout artist and art director Kendall O’Connor died on May 27th, aged 90. He worked on Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Fantasia, Cinderella, Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan and such TV specials as Man in Space, Man and the Moon and Mars and Beyond.

Make-up effects designer and actor Mark Williams died of respiratory failure the same day, aged 38. He worked on The Brain, Blue Monkey, Aliens, The Fly, The Abyss, Return to Salem’s Lot, Terminator 2 Judgment Day, Skeletons, Curse of the Puppet Master, Frankenstein Reborn, The Borrowers (1997) and Talisman (which he also scripted). Named head of Full Moon Pictures’ special effects department shortly before his death, he was also the effects design co-ordinator for rock acts such as Alice Cooper and Poison, and he published the comic books Sisters of Mercy and Nightshade.

Storyboard artist Sherman Labby, whose credits include Blade Runner, died on May 30th. He was 68.

Former chief executive of cartoon studio UPA, Henry G. Saperstein died of cancer on June 24th, aged 80. He was executive producer and US distributor of a number of Japanese SF films, including Frankenstein Conquers the World, Monster Zero, War of the Gargantuas and Terror of Mechagodzilla. His other credits include Gay Purree, What’s Up, Tiger Lily? and Mr Magoo (1997), and he was a consultant on the 1998 Godzilla.

Film editor Thomas F. Boutross, who co-directed The Hideous Sun Demon (aka Blood on His Lips) under the name “Thomas Cassarino”, died of heart failure on June 26th, aged 69. He also edited The Legend of Boggy Creek and The Town That Dreaded Sundown.

Sheldon Tromberg, who founded the distribution company Boxoffice Attractions and produced the horror thriller The Redeemer in the 1970s, died of a heart attack on July 5th, aged 67.

Argentine producer and director Alejandro Sessa, who made a number of films with Roger Corman in the 1980s, died of heart failure on July 11th, aged 60.

Choreographer Jerome Robbins (Jerome Rabinowitz), who received an Emmy for making Mary Martin fly in the 1955 TV adaptation of Peter Pan, died of a stroke on July 29th, aged 79. He won five Tony Awards as a Broadway choreographer and director for such shows as On the Town, The King and I and Fiddler on the Roof, and two Academy Awards for the movie West Side Story (which he co-directed).

Shanghai-born Edmund Goldman, who moved to Los Angeles and created independent film distribution company Manson International, died on August 5th, aged 92.

Also a reporter and critic for Variety, film publicist Mike Kaplan died of a heart attack on August 23rd, aged 80. Among the movies he worked on were The Andromeda Strain, Jaws and The Sting.

TV animation producer Lee Gunther, whose credits include Transformers, G. I. Joe and The Pink Panther Show, died of a stroke on August 25th, aged 63.

Michael Samuelson, the father of actress Emma Samms, died from a blood clot in the lung on August 27th, aged 67. Along with his brothers David and Tony, he built the family business into one of the world’s biggest film equipment service companies.

Former actor turned Emmy Award-winning TV director Leo Penn died of lung cancer on September 5th, aged 77. The father of actors Sean and Chris, he was blacklisted in the late 1940s and ‘50s for his association with actors’ trade unions and reinvented himself as a director for the 1959 series Ben Casey. He directed more than 400 hours of prime-time TV, including episodes of The Bionic Woman, Columbo, Alfred Hitchcock Hour, Star Trek, Lost in Space, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, I Spy, The Girl from U.N.C.L.E., Ghost Story, Switch and the TV movie The Dark Secret of Harvest Home.

Japanese director Akira Kurosawa died of a stroke at his home in Tokyo on September 6th, aged 88. The winner of two Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film, his many distinguished movies include Rashomon, Seven Samurai, Throne of Blood, The Hidden Fortress (which significantly influenced George Lucas’s Star Wars), Yojimbo, Sanjuro, The Shadow Warrior, Ran and Dreams. He worked closely with original Godzilla director Ishiro Honda on his later films.

Emmy Award-winning special visual effects director Mark Zarate died of complications following appendicitis surgery on September 18th, aged 39. His credits include ABC-TV’s Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman.

French film composer Paul Misraki died in Paris on October 29th, aged 90. He composed more than 100 scores for movies, including Jess Franco’s Attack of the Robots and Jean-Luc Godard’s Alphaville.

Actor, director and biographer Peter Cotes, who directed the first stage production of Agatha Christie’s The Mousetrap, died November 10th.

70-year-old American producer and director Alan J. Pakula was killed in a freak car accident on November 19th when another vehicle sent a seven-foot steel pipe crashing through his windscreen while he was driving back to his home in Long Island, New York. It struck him on the head and he lost control of his car, crashing into a barrier and suffering a fatal heart attack. His films include Rollover, The Parallax View, Dream Lover, All the President’s Men and Klute.

Italian costume designer Enrico Sabbatini was killed in a car accident in Morocco on November 25th. He was 66, and the films he worked on included The Tenth Victim, Ghosts Italian Style and Illustrious Corpses.

Academy Award-winning British cinematographer Freddie Young died on December 1st, aged 96. Best known for his work with David Lean on such films as Lawrence of Arabia and Doctor Zhivago, he also photographed Gorgo, You Only Live Twice, The Asphyx, The Blue Bird (1976) and Sword of the Valiant.

Associate producer David Leigh Macleod, whose credits include Warren Beatty’s Reds and Ishtar, was found dead of undisclosed causes in Montreal on December 6th, aged 54. He’d spent nearly a decade in Canada as a fugitive after being indicted by a New York court on a string of paedophilia charges.

Academy Award-winning British film composer John Addison died of a stroke on December 7th, aged 78. He scored such films as Seven Days to Noon, The Seven-Per-Cent Solution, Strange Invaders and the 1990 TV movie of The Phantom of the Opera, and composed the theme for TV’s Murder, She Wrote.

Ukrainian-born Lord Lew Grade (Lewis Winogradsky) died in London from heart failure on December 13th, aged 91. Raised in the slums of the East End, he became Britain’s biggest entertainment impresario. As the founder of the UK’s first commercially financed TV company, Associated Television (ATV), he was responsible for such popular series as Robin Hood, Thunder-birds, The Saint, The Muppets andSpace: 1999. Among the movies he produced are The Exorcist, Capricorn One, The Boys from Brazil, Raise the Titanic, The Legend of the Lone Ranger and The Dark Crystal. He was knighted in 1963, won the Queen’s award for industry in 1967, and given a life peerage in 1976.

Italian director Vittorio Cottafavi, whose films include Hercules and the Captive Women and Goliath and the Dragon, died the same day, aged 84.

Former actor turned director Don Taylor died of heart failure on December 29th, aged 78. His directing credits include Escape from the Planet of the Apes, The Island of Dr. Moreau (1977), The Final Countdown, Damien Omen II and episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Night Gallery and Beasts. He was married to actress Hazel Court.

Japanese director Keisuke Kinoshita, who directed the 1949 supernatural film Yotsuya Kaidan and The Ballad of Narayama, died of a stroke on December 29th, aged 86.

The following listing of organizations, publications, dealers and individuals is designed to present readers with further avenues to explore. Although I can personally recommend all those listed on the following pages, neither myself nor the publisher can take any responsibility for the services they offer. Please also note that all the information below is subject to change without notice.

The British Fantasy Society(http://www.herebedragons.co.uk/ bfs) began in 1971 and publishes the bi-monthly Prism UK: The British Fantasy Newsletter, produces other special booklets, and organizes the annual British FantasyCon and semi-regular meetings in London. Yearly membership is £20.00 (UK), £25.00 (Europe) and £30.00 (America and the rest of the world) made payable in sterling to “The British Fantasy Society” and sent to The BFS Secretary, c/o 2 Harwood Street, Stockport, SK4 1JJ, UK. E-mail: syrinx.2112@btinternet.com

The Ghost Story Society (http://www.ash-tree.bc.ca/gss.html) publishes the excellent All Hallows magazine three times a year. The annual subscription is $25.00 (USA), Cdn$32.00 (Canada) or £l6.00/$27.50 (rest of the world airmail). Write to joint organizers Barbara and Christopher Roden at “The Ghost Story Society”, PO Box 1360, Ashcroft, British Columbia, Canada VOK 1AO. E-mail: ashtree@ash-tree.bc.ca

Horror Writers Association (http://www.horror.org/) was formed in the 1980s and is open to anyone seeking Active, Affiliate or Associate membership. The HWA publishes a regular Newsletter and organizes the annual Bram Stoker Awards ceremony. Standard membership is $55.00 (USA), £38.00/$65.00 (overseas); Corporate membership is $100.00 (USA), £74.00/ $120.00 (overseas), and Family Membership is $75.00 (USA), £52.00/$85.00 (overseas). Send to “HWA”, 8490 Zephyr Street, Arvada, CO 80 005, USA.

World Fantasy Convention (http://www.farrsite.com/wfc/) is an annual convention held in a different (usually American) city each year.

Cinefantastique is a monthly SF/fantasy/horror movie magazine with a “Sense of Wonder”. Cover price is $5.95/Cdn$9.50/ £4.20 and a 12-issue subscription is $48.00 (USA) or $55.00 (Canada and overseas) to PO Box 270, Oak Park, IL 60 303, USA.

Interzone is Britain’s leading magazine of science fiction and fantasy. Single copies are available for £3.00 (UK) or £3.50/$6.00 (overseas) or a 12-issue subscription is £32.00 (UK), £38.00/ $60.00 (USA) or £38.00 (overseas) to “Interzone”, 217 Preston Drove, Brighton, BN1 6FL, UK.

Locus (http://www.Locusmag.com) is the monthly newspaper of the SF/fantasy/horror field. $4.95 a copy, a 12-issue subscription is $43.00 (USA), $48.00 (Canada), $70.00 (Europe), $80.00 (Australia, Asia and Africa) to “Locus Publications”, PO Box 13 305, Oakland, CA 94 661, USA or “Locus Subscription”, Fantast (Medway) Ltd, PO Box 23, Upwell Wisbech, Cambs PE14 9BU, UK.

Necrofile (http://www.necropress.com) is a quarterly review of horror fiction. $3.00 a copy, a 4-issue subscription is $12.00 (USA), $15.00 (Canada) or $17.50 (overseas) in US funds only to “Necronomicon Press”, P. O. Box 1304, West Warwick, RI 02 893, USA.

Science Fiction Chronicle (http://www.sfsite.com/sfc) is a bimonthly news and reviews magazine that covers the SF/fantasy/ horror field. $3.50/Cdn$4.95 a copy, a one-year subscription is $25.00 (first class USA), $26.75/Cdn$50.30 (Canada), £19.00 (UK) and $A47.00 (Australia). Make cheques payable to “Science Fiction Chronicle” and send to Science Fiction Chronicle, PO Box 022 730, Brooklyn, NY 11 202-0056, USA or payable to “Algol Press” and send to Rob Hansen, 144 Plashet Grove, East Ham, London E6 1AB, UK.

SFX (http://www.sfx.co.uk) is a monthly multi-media magazine of science fiction, fantasy and horror. Single copies are £3.25 or a 12-issue subscription is £28.00 (UK), £44.00 (Europe), £62.00 (USA) or £64.00 (rest of the world) to “Future Publishing”, SFX Subscriptions, FREEPOST (BS900), Somerton, Somerset TAl1 6BR, UK, or overseas subscribers to “Future Publishing”, SFX Subscriptions, Cary Court, Somerton, Somerset TAl1 6TB, UK.

Shivers (http://www.visimag.com) is the monthly magazine of horror entertainment. Single copies are £3.25 (UK)/$5.99 (USA)/Cdn$7.95 (Canada), and a yearly subscription is £36.00 (UK), $68.00 (USA), £46.00 (Europe airmail and rest of the world surface) or £50.00 (rest of the world airmail) to “Visual Imagination Limited”, Shivers Subscription, PO Box 371, London SW14 8JL, UK, or PO Box 156, Manorville, NY 11 949, USA.

Starburst (http://www.visimag.com) is a monthly magazine of sci-fi entertainment. Cover price is £2.99 (UK)/$4.99 (USA)/ Cdn$6.95 (Canada). Yearly subscriptions comprise 12 regular issues (“budget”) or 12 regular issues and four quarterly Specials (“full”) at £46.00 full/£32.00 budget (UK), $82.00 full/$53.00 budget (USA), £56.00 full/£39.00 budget (Europe airmail and rest of the world surface) or £71.00 full/£49.00 budget (rest of the world airmail) to “Visual Imagination Limited”, Starburst Subscription, PO Box 371, London SW14 8JL, UK, or PO Box 156, Manorville, NY 11 949, USA.

The Third Alternative (http://www.purl.oclc.org/net/ ttaonline/index.html) is a quarterly magazine of “extraordinary” new fiction, interviews and articles. Cover price is £3.00, and a four-issue subscription is £11.00 (UK), £13.00 (Europe) or $22.00/£15.00 (America and rest of the world) to “TTA Press”, 5 Martins Lane, Witcham, Ely, Cambs CB6 2LB, UK.

Video Watchdog (http://www.cinemaweb.com/videowd) is a bi-monthly magazine described as “the Perfectionist’s Guide to Fantastic Video”. $6.50 a copy, an annual 6-issue subscription is $24.00 bulk/$35.00 first class (USA), $33.00 surface/$45.00 airmail (overseas). US funds only to “Video Watchdog”, PO Box 5283, Cincinnati, OH 45205-0283, USA.

Cold Tonnage Booksoffers excellent mail order new and used SF/fantasy/horror, art, reference, limited editions etc. with regular catalogues. Write to Andy Richards, 22 Kings Lane, Windlesham, Surrey GU20 6JQ, UK. Credit cards accepted. Tel: +44 (0) 1276-475388. E-mail: andy@coldtonnage.demon.co.uk

Ken Cowley offers mostly used SF/fantasy/horror/crime/ supernatural, collectibles, pulps etc. by mail order with occasional catalogues. Write to Trinity Cottage, 153 Old Church Road, Clevedon, North Somerset, BS21 7TU, UK. Tel: +44 (0) 1275-872247.

Richard Dalby issues semi-regular mail order lists of used ghost and supernatural volumes at very reasonable prices. Write to 4 Westbourne Park, Scarborough, North Yorkshire YO 12 4AT, UK. Tel: +44 (0) 1723 377049.

Dark Delicacies is a friendly Burbank, California, store specialising in horror books, vampire merchandise and signings. It moved to a new location at the end of 1999. Credit cards accepted. E-mail: darkdel@darkdel.com

DreamHaven Books & Comics (http://www.visi.com/ dreamhvn/) store and mail order offers new and used SF/fantasy/horror/art and illustrated etc. with regular catalogues. Write to 912 West Lake Street, Minneapolis, MN 55408, USA. Credit cards accepted. Tel: (612) 823-6070. E-mail: dreamhvn @visi.com

Fantastic Literature (http://www.netcomuk.co.uk/~sgosden) mail order offers new and used SF/fantasy/horror etc. with regular catalogues. Write to Simon G. Gosden, 35 The Ramparts, Rayleigh, Essex SS6 8PY, UK. Credit cards accepted. Tel: +44 (0)1268-747564. E-mail: sgosden@netcomuk.co.uk

Fantasy Centre shop and mail order has mostly used SF/ fantasy/horror, art, reference, pulps etc. at reasonable prices with regular catalogues. Write to 157 Hollo way Road, London N7 8LX, UK. Credit cards accepted. Tel/Fax: +44 (0)171-607 9433.

House of Monsters (http://www.visionvortex/houseofmon- sters) is a small treasure-trove of a store only open at weekends from noon that specializes in horror movie memorabilia, toys, posters, videos, books and magazines. 1579 N. Milwaukee Avenue, Gallery 218, Chicago, IL 60614, USA. Credit cards accepted. Tel: (773) 292-0980. E-mail: Homonsters @aol.com

Mythos Books (http://www.abebooks.com/home/mythos- books/) mail order presents books and curiosities for the Lovecraftian scholar and collectors of horror, weird and supernatural fiction with regular catalogues and e-mail updates. Write to 218 Hickory Meadow Lane, Poplar Bluff, MO 63901-2160, USA. Credit cards accepted. Tel: (573) 785-7710. E-mail: dwynn@ldd.net

PDW Books mail order offers many speciality press items plus new and used SF/fantasy/horror etc. with regular catalogues. Write to 3721 Minnehaha Avenue South, Minneapolis, MN 55406, USA. Tel: (612) 721-5996. E-mail: PDW@visi.com

Kirk Ruebotham offers out of print and used horror/SF/ fantasy/crime and related non-fiction, with regular catalogues. Write to 16 Beaconsfield Road, Runcorn, Cheshire WA7 4BX, UK. Tel: +44 (0)1928 560540. E-mail: kirk@ruebotham.freeser-ve.co.uk

Sugen & Co. are mail order dealers who specialize in used film and TV tie-ins, with regular catalogues. Write to Southwood House, Well, Bedale, North Yorkshire DL8 2RL, UK. Tel: +44 (0)1677 470079.

Zardoz Books (http://www.zardozbooks.co.uk) are mail order dealers in used vintage and collectable paperbacks, especially movie tie-ins, with regular catalogues. Write to 20 Whitecroft, Dilton Marsh, Westbury, Wilts BAl3 4DJ, UK. Credit cards accepted. Tel: +44 (0)1373 865371. E-mail: 100124.262@ compuserve.com

DarkEcho is an excellent free service offering news, views and information of the horror field every week through e-mail. To subscribe, e-mail editor Paula Guran at darkecho@aol.com with “Subscribe” as your subject or see http://www.darkecho.com for more information.

The Gila Queen’s Guide to Markets (http://www.gilaqueen. com/) is a regular publication detailing markets for SF/fantasy/horror plus other genres, along with publishing news, contests, anthologies, updates, etc. A sample copy is $6.00 and subscriptions are $34.00 (USA), $38.00 (Canada) and $50.00 (overseas). Back issues are also available. Cheques or money orders should be in US dollars and sent to “The Gila Queen’s Guide to Markets”, PO Box 97, Newton, NJ 07860-0097, USA. E-mail: GilaQueen@aol.com or Kathryn@ gilaqueen.com In the UK The Gila Queen is distributed by: BBR Distribution (http://www.bbr-online.com). Contact Chris Reed, PO Box 625, Sheffield, SI 3GY UK. E-mail: c.s.reed@bbr-online.com

Hellnotes (http://www.hellnotes.com) is described as “Your Insider’s Guide to the Horror Field”. This weekly Newsletter is available on e-mail for $15.00 per year or hardcopy subscriptions are available for $40 per year. To subscribe by credit card, go to: http://www.hellnotes.com/subscrib.htm To subscribe by mail, send US check or money order (made out to “David B. Silva”) to: Hellnotes, 27780 Donkey Mine Road, Oak Run, CA 96069, USA. Tel/Fax: (916) 472-1050. E-mail: dbsilva@hellnotes.com or pfolson@up.net The Hellnotes Bookstore can be found at http://www.hellnotes.com/ book_store

Horroronline.com (http://www.universalstudios.com/horror) describes itself as “the horror fan’s number one resource for news and information about dark entertainment” on the Internet. It includes reviews, articles, interviews and features on current film, video, comics, games and literature, including more than 1,200 horror movie reviews.

Scavenger’s Newsletter (http://www.cza.com/scav/index.html) is a monthly newsletter for SF/fantasy/horror writers with an interest in the small press. News of markets, along with articles, letters and reviews. A sample copy is $2.50 (USA/Canada) and £2.40/$3.00 (overseas). An annual subscription is $18.00 (USA), $21.00 (Canada) and £22.80/$27.00 (overseas). Scavenger’s Scrapbook is a twice yearly round-up, available for $4.00 (USA/Canada) and $5.00 (overseas). A year’s subscription to the Scrapbook is $7.00 (USA/Canada) and $8.00 (overseas). Make cheques or money orders in US funds payable to “Janet Fox” and send to 519 Ellinwood, Osage City, KS 66523-1329, USA. E-mail: foxscavl@jc.net. In the UK contact Chris Reed, BBR Distribution, PO Box 625, Sheffield SI 3GY, UK. (http:// www.bbr-online.com). E-mail: c.s.reed@bbr-online.com