Best New Horror #26, page 59
American actress Marilyn Burns, who survived Tobe Hooper’s Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974), died on August 5, aged 65. She was also in Hooper’s Eaten Alive plus Helter Skelter (1976), Kiss Daddy Goodbye (with Fabian), Future-Kill, Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation, Butcher Boys, Texas Chainsaw 3D, Sacrament and In a Madman’s World.
Northern Irish character actor J.J. Murphy died on August 8, aged 86. Days earlier he had started work on HBO’s Game of Thrones as “Denys Mallister”, the oldest member of the Night’s Watch. He also had an uncredited role as a village elder in Dracula Untold.
American actor Ed Nelson (Edwin Stafford Nelson), who starred in the TV soap opera Peyton Place (1964-69), died of congestive heart failure on August 9, aged 85. He began his career as a member of Roger Corman’s unofficial stock company in such movies as Swamp Women, Attack of the Crab Monsters (as the crab!), Rock All Night, Teenage Doll, Carnival Rock, Teenage Cave Man, She Gods of Shark Reef, I Mobster and A Bucket of Blood. His other credits include Invasion of the Saucer Men, Night of the Blood Beast, The Brain Eaters, Devil’s Partner, The Screaming Woman (based on a story by Ray Bradbury), The Girl the Gold Watch & Everything, Brenda Starr, Deadly Weapon and The Boneyard, plus episodes of TV’s Thriller (‘The Cheaters’), Twilight Zone, The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, The Outer Limits, Rod Serling’s Night Gallery, The Sixth Sense, The Bionic Woman, Gemini Man, Logan’s Run and Salvage 1.
Veteran British-born soap opera actor Charles [Patrick] Keating died of lung cancer in Connecticut the same day, aged 72. He appeared in episodes of The Mind Beyond (‘Meriel, the Ghost Girl’), Supernatural (‘The Werewolf Reunion’ and ‘Countess Ilona’) and Tales of the Unexpected before moving to America in the mid-1980s, where he was featured in such popular soaps as All My Children, Port Charles and Another World. He also portrayed the god “Zeus” in cross-over episodes of Hercules: The Legendary Journeys and Xena: Warrior Princess.
63-year-old comedic film and TV star Robin [McLaurin] Williams committed suicide by hanging on August 11. He had been suffering from severe depression. Williams was an immediate hit as the offbeat alien “Mork” in the TV sitcom Mork & Mindy (1978-82), a spin-off from Happy Days, and he went on to appear in such films as Popeye, The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, Dead Again, The Fisher King, Hook, In Search of Dr. Seuss, Jumanji, Hamlet (1996), Flubber (1997), What Dreams May Come (based on the novel by Richard Matheson), Bicentennial Man (based on the novel by Issac Asimov), One Hour Photo, Insomnia, The Final Cut and The Night Listener, and he portrayed “Teddy Roosevelt” in the fantasy trilogy Night at the Museum, Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian and Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb. He was presented with an Oscar for Best Actor in a Supporting Role in 1998. Williams’ other TV credits include an episode of Faerie Tale Theatre, he was the voice of the “Genie” in Walt Disney’s animated movies Aladdin and Aladdin and the King of Thieves, and he also gave voice performances in A.I. Artificial Intelligence (based on the story by Brian Aldiss), FernGully: The Last Rainforest, Robots, Happy Feet, Happy Feet Two and Absolutely Anything.
Hollywood actress Lauren Bacall (Betty Joan Perske) died of a stroke on August 12, aged 89. Best known for her co-starring roles with future husband Humphrey Bogart in such classic 1940s movies as To Have and Have Not, The Big Sleep, Dark Passage and Key Largo, she also appeared in Blithe Spirit (1956), Shock Treatment (1964), The Fan, Misery (based on the novel by Stephen King), Presence of Mind (based on Henry James’ The Turn of the Screw) and Birth. Bacall also voiced witches in both Howl’s Moving Castle (based on the novel by Diana Wynne Jones) and Scooby-Doo and the Goblin King. She was awarded an Honorary Oscar in 2010, and her second husband was actor Jason Robards.
American actress Arlene Martel (Arlene Greta Sax, aka “Tasha Martel”), who played Spock’s Vulcan bride “T’Pring” in the classic Star Trek episode ‘Amok Time’ (1967), died of complications from heart bypass surgery and breast cancer the same day, aged 78. Her other credits include Angels from Hell, Conspiracy of Terror, the softcore Chatterbox!, Dracula’s Dog and Star Trek: Of Gods and Men, plus episodes of TV’s Twilight Zone, The Outer Limits (Harlan Ellison’s ‘Demon with a Glass Hand’), The Man from U.N.C.L.E., My Favorite Martian, I Dream of Jeannie, The Wild Wild West, The Flying Nun, The Monkees (‘Monstrous Monkee Mash’), Bewitched, The Six Million Dollar Man and the original series of Battlestar Galactica.
Actress Columba Domínguez [Alarid], who starred in the influential Mexican horror film Ladrón de cadáveres (1957), died on August 13, aged 85. She also appeared in La loba, Adventura al centro de la tierra and the 1962 TV series Las momias de Guanajuato.
Maltese-born Madeleine Collinson, who co-starred with her identical twin sister Mary and Peter Cushing in Hammer’s Twins of Evil (1971), died on August 14, aged 62. The former October 1970 Playboy Playmate of the Month also appeared in a few sexploitation films before her short-lived acting career was over.
American character actor Stephen Lee died of a heart attack the same day, aged 58. He appeared in WarGames, Dolls, RoboCop 2, The Pit and the Pendulum (1991), Ghoulies Go to College, Prehysteria!, Black Scorpion (1995), Victim of the Haunt (aka The Uninvited), Carnosaur 3: Primal Species and Black Scorpion II: Aftershock, plus episodes of TV’s Amazing Stories, Hard Time on Planet Earth, Quantum Leap, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Babylon 5, Dark Angel, Invasion, Threshold, Fear Itself (Peter Crowther’s ‘Eater’) and Ghost Whisperer.
American radio and TV announcer Don Pardo (Dominick George Pardo), best known for his work on such shows as Jeopardy! and Saturday Night Live, died on August 18, aged 96. In the 1940s he was the announcer for the radio series Dimension X and X Minus One.
British character actor, producer and Oscar-winning director Sir Richard [Samuel] Attenborough died on August 24, aged 90. He appeared in A Matter of Life and Death (aka Stairway to Heaven), Brighton Rock (as the psychopathic “Pinkie”), Seance on a Wet Afternoon, Doctor Dolittle, The Magic Christian, 10 Rillington Place (as real-life murderer John Christie), Ten Little Indians (1974), Miracle on 34th Street (1994), Hamlet (1996), Jack and the Beanstalk: The Real Story, and Steven Spielberg’s Jurassic Park and The Lost World: Jurassic Park. As a director Attenborough’s credits include Magic (based on the novel by William Goldman) and Shadowlands (the biography of C.S. Lewis). He was married to actress Sheila Sim since 1945.
American character actor John [Edward] Brandon died on August 25, aged 85. In 1966, he played the first victim of the Cybermen in the initial episode of the Doctor Who serial ‘The Tenth Planet’. His other credits include Battle Beneath the Earth, Billion Dollar Brain, Star Hunter, The Lake and The Adventures of Rocky & Bullwinkle, along with episodes of TV’s Wonder Woman, The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries, The Bionic Woman, Fantasy Island, The Greatest American Hero, Goliath Awaits, Knight Rider, Voyagers!, Tales from the Darkside and Charmed.
South African-born character actor and comedian Bill Kerr (William Henry Kerr) died in Australia on August 28, aged 92. For many years he worked in Britain, where he became one of Tony Hancock’s regular radio sidekicks. He also appeared in episodes of TV’s Adam Adamant Lives! and Doctor Who, plus the movies The Night My Number Came Up, Tiffany Jones, House of Mortal Sin (aka The Confessional), Razorback and Peter Pan (2003).
German actor Gottfried John, who played Russian general Arkady Grigorovich Ourumov in the James Bond film GoldenEye (1995), died of cancer on September 1, aged 72. He was also in the short-lived SF series Space Rangers (1993-94), an episode of Millennium, and the TV movies Flood and Rumplestilzchen.
Acerbic American comedian Joan Rivers (Joan Alexandra Molinsky) died of anoxic encephalopathy on September 4, following throat surgery a week earlier. She was 81. Rivers’ movie credits include The Muppets Take Manhattan, Spaceballs (and the subsequent animated TV series), Shrek 2, The Smurfs, Iron Man 3 and R.L. Stine’s Mostly Ghostly: Have You Met My Ghoulfriend?
Lithuanian actor Donatas [Juozas] Banionis, who co-starred in Andrei Tarkovsky’s Solaris (1972), died of heart problems the same day, aged 90. He was also in The Vampire, a 1991 version of Aleksei Tolstoy’s often-filmed novel, and portrayed Rex Stout’s detective “Nero Wolfe” in Poka ya ne umer (2001).
Memorable American character actor Stefan Gierasch died on September 6, aged 88. He appeared in High Plains Drifter, Carrie (1976), Blue Sunshine, Blood Beach, Spellbinder, Megaville and Legend of the Phantom Rider, along with episodes of TV’s Play of the Week (‘The Dybbuk’), The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, Holmes and Yo-Yo, Lucan, Fantasy Island, The Incredible Hulk, The Greatest American Hero, Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1985), The Twilight Zone (1986), Werewolf, Tales from the Crypt, Dark Shadows (1991, as “Joshua Collins”), Star Trek: The Next Generation, Touched by an Angel and Brimstone. Gierasch portrayed Hollywood director Michael Curtiz in the 1985 TV biopic My Wicked Wicked Ways: The Legend of Errol Flynn.
American character acator Don(ald) [Hood] Keefer died on September 7, aged 98. He appeared in Woody Allen’s Sleeper, The Car, Mirrors, Creepshow and Liar Liar. On TV, Keefer was in episodes of One Step Beyond, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, ‘Way Out, Twilight Zone (‘It’s a Good Life’), My Favorite Martian, The Munsters, Bewitched, Star Trek (‘Assignment: Earth’), Night Gallery, The Incredible Hulk, Time Express (with Vincent Price), Highway to Heaven and Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman.
American actor Denny Miller (Dennis Linn Miller), who portrayed the first blond Tarzan in the 1959 Tarzan, the Ape Man, died of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis on September 9, aged 80. As “Scott Miller” he was a regular on Wagon Train (1961-64), and he also appeared in episodes of The Girl from U.N.C.L.E. (Richard Matheson’s ‘The Atlantis Affair’), I Dream of Jeannie, The Wide World of Mystery, The Six Million Dollar Man, Wonder Woman, Quark, Battlestar Galactica (1978), Fantasy Island, Beyond Westworld, The Incredible Hulk, Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, Voyagers!, V, Knight Rider, Outlaws and Werewolf, along with the movies Doomsday Machine, Disney’s The Island at the Top of the World and Dr. Scorpion.
Big Richard [Dawson] Kiel, who portrayed steel-toothed James Bond villain “Jaws” in The Spy Who Loved Me and Moonraker, died of possible acute myocardial infarction on September 10, aged 74. The distinctive seven-feet, two-inch tall actor also appeared in the movies The Phantom Planet, Eegah, House of the Damned, The Nutty Professor (1963), Two on a Guillotine, The Human Duplicators, Brainstorm (1965), The Humanoid, Hysterical, Phoenix, Pale Rider, The Princess and the Dwarf, Inspector Gadget and BloodHounds Inc. #5: Fangs for the Memories. His many TV credits include episodes of Thriller (‘Well of Doom’), The Phantom, Twilight Zone (‘To Serve Man’), The Man from U.N.C.L.E., I Dream of Jeannie, My Mother the Car, Gilligan’s Island (‘Ghost-a-Go-Go’), The Monkees (‘I Was a Teenage Monkee’), The Wild Wild West, Kolchak: The Night Stalker, Land of the Lost, The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries (‘The Mystery of the Haunted House’), Out of This World and Superboy.
German leading man Joachim Fuchsberger died on September 11, aged 87. He starred (often as various Scotland Yard inspectors) in such Edgar Wallace krimi films as Face of the Frog, The Terrible People, Dead Eyes of London (1961), The Devil’s Daffodil, The Inn on the River, The Black Abbot (1963), Room 13, The Mysterious Magician and The Zombie Walks, along with The Carpet of Horror, The Face of Fu Manchu (with Christopher Lee), The College Girl Murders, Schreie in der Nacht, What Have You Done to Solange? (aka Terror in the Woods) and Trance. Fuchsberger was reportedly offered the role of “James Bond” in 1960, but advised the German producer to turn the project down because it was too expensive.
Plummy-voiced British actor Sir Donald [Alfred] Sinden died of prostate cancer on September 12, aged 90. He was in Mad About Men, Disney’s The Island at the Top of the World, The Canterville Ghost (1996 and 1997 versions) and Alice in Wonderland (1999), along with the TV series The Mystery of Edwin Drood (1960) and episodes of The Prisoner, Late Night Horror and The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes.
American Broadway actor and singer Steve Curry (Steven Michael Curry), whose curly-haired head was immortalised on the original poster and album cover art for the hit musical Hair in 1968, died of sepsis on September 13. He was 68. Curry also starred as “Glen” in the 1971 post-apocalyptic movie Glen and Randa. From 1980-81 he was married to actress Patti D’Arbanville, and he also fathered a daughter with actress Susan Anspach.
Scottish character actor Angus [Wilson] Lennie died in London on September 14, aged 84. He appeared on TV in episodes of Target Luna, The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe (1967) and Doctor Who (‘The Ice Warriors’), along with a small role in Disney’s One of Our Dinosaurs is Missing.
American actress Audrey Long, who co-starred in A Game of Death (1945, a remake of Richard Connell’s story ‘The Most Dangerous Game’), died in England on September 19, aged 92. She retired from the screen in 1952 when she married her second husband, author Leslie Charteris, creator of “The Saint”.
Austrian-born actress and dancer Peggy Drake (Liesl Lotte Mayer), who appeared in a few films and the 1942 Republic serial King of the Mounties, died the same day, aged 91.
American actress and singer Polly Bergen (Nellie Paulina Bergin) died after a long battle with emphysema on September 20, aged 84. She co-starred in the original Cape Fear (1962) with Gregory Peck and Robert Mitchum, and her other movie credits include Death Cruise, Making Mr. Right, The Haunting of Sarah Hardy and Dr. Jekyll and Ms. Hyde. On TV she appeared in episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Thriller (1973), Fantasy Island and Touched by an Angel.
Canadian actress and playwright Linda [Pauline] Griffiths died of breast cancer on September 21, aged 57. She appeared in episodes of TV’s Friday the 13th: The Series and Beyond Reality.
American actress Sarah Danielle Madison (Sarah Goldberg), who had recurring roles in the TV series Judging Amy, 7th Heaven and the revived 90210, died in her sleep of a suspected heart ailment on September 27, aged 40. She also appeared in the movies Jurassic Park III, Savage Planet and Pig.
74-year-old British-born actor David [William] Watson, who replaced Roddy McDowall for one movie as “Cornelius” in Beneath the Planet of the Apes, died of a heart attack in New York City on October 5. He had been attending the opening night of the Broadway play The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. Watson was also in episodes of TV’s The Girl from U.N.C.L.E., The Time Tunnel (as Rudyard Kipling), The Bionic Woman and Project U.F.O. As a boy chorister, he was one of three treble soloists who sung at the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II.
Trinidad-born dancer, choreographer and actor Geoffrey (Lamont) Holder died in New York City of complications from pneumonia the same day, aged 84. Best remembered for his colourful role as James Bond villain “Baron Samedi” in Live and Let Die (1973), his other credits include Doctor Dolittle, Everything You Wanted to Know About Sex** But Were Afraid to Ask, The Gold Bug (1980), Alice in Wonderland (1983), Jon Grin’s Christmas, Ghost of a Chance, and two episodes of the 1960s Tarzan TV series. The baritone-voiced Holder also narrated Tim Burton’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005), and in 1975 he won Tony Awards for Best Direction of a Musical and Best Costume Design for the Broadway stage production of The Wiz.
32-year-old Native American actress Misty [Anne] Upham was found dead in a ravine in the woods in Auburn, Washington, on October 16 after being reported missing earlier in the month. The King County medical examiner ruled that she died on October 5 of accidental blunt-force trauma to her head and torso, despite reports that she feared harassment by local police. Upham appeared in the movies Skinwalkers and DreamKeeper.
Tony Award-winning stage and screen actress Marian [Hall] Seldes died on October 6, aged 86. In a busy career, she appeared in episodes of TV’s Shirley Temple’s Storybook, Alfred Hitchcock Presents and Murder She Wrote (‘The Witch’s Curse’), along with the movie The Haunting (1999), based on the novel The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson. Seldes, who was married to writer and director Garson Kanin, is in the Guinness Book of World Records for appearing on Broadway in 1,809 performances of Deathtrap from 1978 until late 1982 without ever missing a show.
Italian character actor Fedrico Boido (aka “Rico Boido”) died on October 7, aged 74. His credits include the peplums Hercules and the Treasure of the Incas and Maciste il vendicatore dei Maya, Mario Bava’s Planet of the Vampires and Danger: Diabolik, Spirits of the Dead and numerous spaghetti Westerns. Boido also regularly appeared in many of the Killing/Satanik/Sadistik photo-novels.
American actor Paul Lukather died on October 9, aged 88. In the early 1960s he starred in Dinosaurus! and Hands of a Stranger, and later appeard in Shock Treatment (1964) and Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter. Lukather was also on TV in episodes of Science Fiction Theatre, The Outer Limits, The Man from U.N.C.L.E., Get Smart, The Invaders and Gemini Man, and he was a voice actor in numerous videogames (including “Vorador”, the vampire elder of the Blood Omen series).
American actress and comedian Jan Hooks (Janet Vivian Hooks), who appeared on TV’s Saturday Night Live from 1986-91, died of throat cancer the same day, aged 57. She appeared in the movies Pee-wee’s Big Adventure, Batman Returns and Coneheads, and played recurring characters on TV’s 3rd Rock from the Sun and The Simpsons.
Veteran American stuntman Gary McLarty, who was stunt co-ordinator and Vic Morrow’s stunt double on the ill-fated Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983) when the actor was killed, died in a traffic accident along with fellow stuntman Bob Orrison on October 11. McLarty, who was 73, testified at the Robert Blake murder trial in 2005 that the actor had offered him $10,000 to murder his wife, who Blake was accused of shooting to death four years earlier. Orrison, who was 86, was the stunt double for Leonard Nimoy and DeForrest Kelley on the original Star Trek TV series.
55-year-old Cuban-American actress Elizabeth [Maria] Peñ a died of liver cirrhosis due to alcohol abuse on October 14. Her movie credits include *batteries not included, Vibes, Blue Steel, Jacob’s Ladder, The Invaders (1995), It Came from Outer Space II, Strangeland and Dragon Wars: D-War. She was also in episodes of TV’s The Outer Limits (1995) and Ghost Whisperer.
