68-year-old British artist Malcolm (Roy) Poynter died from a series of cardiac events on November 14. Related to the painter Sir Edward Poynter and an art school contemporary of Gilbert & George, his underground comics artwork appeared in Oz, International Times, Ally Sloper and other 1970s publications. Poynter’s art was also published in Science Fiction Monthly, Radio Times and Time Out, and he worked for Pan Books and other publishers. More recently, he contributed a Foreword to the fifth collected volume of Adventures Into the Unknown from PS Art Books.
Swedish SF fan, translator, author and musician Johan Frick died of a brain tumour the same day, four days before his 50th birthday. In the early 1980s he published a number of fanzines before becoming a translator for the works of such authors as Philip K. Dick, Katharine Kerr, Patricia A. McKillip and Gene Wolfe, amongst others. In 2001, Frick and Glenn Petersen started the Gothenburg branch of the Stockholm-based Science Fiction Bookstore. He also wrote a series of futuristic noir stories, the first three of which were published as e-books.
P.F. Sloan (Philip Gary Schlein), the enigmatic songwriter of Barry McGuire’s #1 apocalyptic anthem ‘Eve of Destruction’ (1965), written when he was just 19 years old, died of pancreatic cancer on November 15, aged 70. Sloan also co-wrote (with Steve Barri) the theme song for the 1960s TV series Secret Agent Man (originally titled Danger Man), which became a hit for Johnny Rivers.
American artist, designer and film producer Michael C. (Curtiss) Gross, who co-produced Ghostbusters and Ghostbusters II, died of cancer on November 16, aged 70. His other credits include the animated Heavy Metal and TV series The Real Ghostbusters (1986-91). When he was 16, Famous Monsters of Filmland published his paintings based on 7th Voyage of Sinbad. Gross was art director at National Lampoon from 1970-74, and he designed the iconic “no ghosts” Ghostbusters logo, based on a concept in the original script. He also created a Christmas card and book designs for John Lennon and Yoko Ono.
American author Ann Downer died of ALS on November 19, aged 54. Her “Spellkey” trilogy consisted of The Spellkey, The Glass Salamander and The Books of the Keepers, while her other novels were Hatching Magic and its sequel, The Dragon of Never-Was.
Historian and novelist Anthony Read, who was a story editor on such British TV series as The Indian Tales of Rudyard Kipling (1964), Sherlock Holmes (1965), Doctor Who (1977-79) and Hammer House of Horror (1980), died on November 21, aged 80. Read also wrote scripts for The Indian Tales of Rudyard Kipling, the West German series Sherlock Holmes (1967), The Omega Factor, Doctor Who, Hammer House of Horror (‘Witching Time’), Into the Labyrinth, Sapphire & Steel, The Baker Street Boys, John Wyndham’s Chocky plus the original sequels Chocky’s Children and Chocky’s Challenge, and A Twist in the Tale.
American SF writer Perry A. Chapdelaine (Perry Anthony Fabio) died on November 24, aged 90. His first story appeared in If magazine in 1967, and his novels include Swampworld West and The Laughing Terran. With George Hay and Tony Chapdelaine he helped compile two volumes of John W. Campbell’s letters.
Award-winning Japanese writer and artist Shigeru Mizuki, who is credited with popularising manga with his seminal comic GeGeGe no Kitarō (which was turned into TV series and video games), died on November 29, aged 93.
Self-taught Northern Ireland-born artist Gerard A. (Alphonsus) Quinn died on November 30, aged 88. During the 1950s and early ‘60s he produced numerous covers and interior illustrations for John Carnell’s SF magazines New Worlds and Science Fantasy. Quinn also worked on a number of paperback covers, including those for Robert A. Heinlein’s The Man Who Sold the Moon (1950) and Arthur C. Clarke’s Prelude in Space (1951) and Islands in the Sky (1952). He later contributed cover and interior art to the Australian/UK magazine Visions of Tomorrow.
American artist Jon (Douglas) Arfstrom, the last surviving Weird Tales cover artist, died of lung cancer on December 2, aged 87. In the early 1950s he worked for the iconic pulp magazine for the last four years of its existence, along with such digest magazines as Other Worlds Science Stories and Mystic Magazine, and the science fiction fanzines The Fanscient, Fantasy Advertiser and Space Trails. During this period he also illustrated the dustjackets for The Dark Other by Stanley G. Weinbaum and Omnibus of Time by Ralph Milne Farley (both Fantasy Publishing Company, 1950). He left the genre in 1956 to work full-time as a commercial artist, and in the 1970s he became a surrealist painter and portrait artist. Arfstrom returned to the genre the following decade, and his art was used on covers by such specialist publishers as Fedogan & Bremer, Haffner Press and PS Publishing.
Takamasa Sakurai, a leading promoter of Japanese anime, fashion and music abroad, was killed by a train on December 4 after falling from a platform at Nishi-Nippori Station in Tokyo. The 49-year-old was reportedly intoxicated when he fell onto the tracks at around 12:30 a.m. Sakurai wrote a number of books about Japan’s pop culture, including Sekai Kawaii Kakumei (World Cuteness Revolution).
Timothy Seldes, who was Isaac Asimov’s editor at Doubleday in the 1960s, died of pneumonia on December 6, aged 88. Finding himself unemployed by the early ‘70s, he became a successful literary agent until his retirement in 2012.
Spanish comics artist Luis Bermejo (Rojo) died on December 12, aged 84. His work appeared in such UK comics as Tarzan Weekly, The Eagle (‘Heros the Spartan’) and Fantastic (‘Johnny Future’), and he was also employed by Warren Publishing, with the entire issue of Creepy #71 devoted to his work. In 1980 Bermejo illustrated a Spanish comics adaptation of The Lord of the Rings, and he also produced a graphic version of Isaac Asimov’s I, Robot three years later.
David Grotta-Kurska, whose 1976 volume J.R.R. Tolkien: Architect of Middle Earth was the first biography of the author, died on December 13, aged 71. He also had short stories published in Asimov’s and other magazines.
Australian-born fantasy author Tom Arden (David Rain, aka “David Rains”) died of brain cancer on December 15. He was 54. Arden moved to the UK in 1990, and his books include such novels as The Harlequin’s Dance, King and Queen of Swords, Shadow Black and The Translation of Bastian Test, along with the Doctor Who novella, Nightdreamers.
Rhodesian-born British author and poet Peter (Malcolm de Brissac) Dickinson OBE died on December 16, aged 88. The winner of two Carnegie Medals for his books for children and young adults, his many titles include The Gift, The Blue Hawk, The Flight of Dragons, Tulka, A Bone from a Dry Sea, The Tears of the Salamander and In the Palace of the Khans. His “Changes” SF trilogy was made into a TV series by the BBC in 1975. Dickinson wrote one adult SF novel, The Green Gene, and he was also known for his crime and thriller books. Some of his short fiction is collected in City of Gold and Other Stories from the New Testament, Merlin Dreams and The Lion Tamer’s Daughter and Other Stories. With his wife, Robin McKinley, he wrote two YA collections, Water: Tales of Elemental Spirits and Fire: Tales of Elemental Spirits.
American comics creator and musician Carson Van Osten died on December 22, aged 70. During the 1960s and ‘70s he created Mickey Mouse and Goofy comics for Disney Studios, before becoming a vice-president with the company and working on tie-in adaptations such as Atlantis: The Lost Empire. He received a Disney Legends award in 2015, along with George Lucas.
American SF fan Jack Robbins (Jack Rubinson), one of the last two surviving members of the Futurians group (which he helped create), died on December 23, aged 96. A high school classmate of Issac Asimov, he published ten issues of the fanzine Looking Ahead in the 1940s.
American author and scriptwriter George Clayton Johnson, who had been suffering from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, died of bladder and prostate cancer on Christmas Day, aged 86. His death had been prematurely announced online three days earlier. Best known for co-writing the novel Logan’s Run (1967) with William F. Nolan, and for his scripts for TV’s The Twilight Zone, Honey West, Kung Fu and Star Trek (the debut episode, ‘The Man Trap’), Johnson’s short fiction and scripts are collected in All of Us Are Dying and Other Stories, Scripts and Stories
Written for The Twilight Zone and Writing for The Twilight Zone. He also co-wrote (with Jack Golden Russell) the original story that formed the basis for the Ocean’s 11 movies and, as an actor, appeared in Roger Corman’s The Intruder, The Boneyard Collection, Her Morbid Desires, Crustacean and Saint Bernard.
PERFORMERS/PERSONALITIES
American actress Donna Douglas (Doris Smith), best known for her role as blonde tomboy “Elly May Clampett” in CBS-TV’s The Beverly Hillbillies (1962-71) and the 1981 spin-off movie, died of pancreatic cancer on January 1, aged 82. The former Louisiana beauty queen’s other credits include classic episodes of The Twilight Zone (‘The Eye of the Beholder’) and Thriller (‘The Hungry Glass’), along with Mister Ed, Rod Serling’s Night Gallery and Project U.F.O. In her later years she sang gospel music and gave inspirational speeches to church congregations and Christian organisations.
American actor and stuntman Bill Hart (Billy Gene Welch) died of cancer on January 2, aged 80. His credits include The Wild Wild West Revisited, Scrooged, Solar Crisis, Escape from New York, The Sword and the Sorcerer, The Beastmaster, Hell Comes to Frogtown, Army of Darkness and Dr. Giggles, along with episodes of TV’s The Outer Limits and The Wild Wild West.
Korean-born British actor Khan Bonfils died of cardiac arrest in London on January 5, aged 43. He had supporting roles in Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace, Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life, Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, Batman Begins, the Bond film Skyfall, and Razors.
British comedy actor Lance Percival (John Lancelot Blades Percival) died following a long illness on January 6, aged 81. Following an uncredited appearance in the 1961 Edgar Wallace krimis The Devil’s Daffodil (featuring Klaus Kinski and Christopher Lee), his other supporting credits include What a Whopper, The Weekend Murders and the 1990 TV version of Jekyll & Hyde. He was the voice of “Old Fred” in Yellow Submarine, and voiced both “Paul McCartney” and “Ringo Starr” for the 1965-67 animated TV series The Beatles. His love of calypso music saw him release a cover version of ‘Shame and Scandal (in the Family)’, which reached #37 in the UK charts in 1965.
Australian-born leading man Rod Taylor (Rodney Stuart Taylor) died in Beverly Hills of a heart attack on January 7, aged 84. He had suffered a fall a couple of weeks earlier. Best remembered as “H. George Wells” in George Pal’s classic The Time Machine (1960), a role he recreated in the 1993 PBS documentary Time Machine: The Journey Back, the actor’s other credits include World Without End, Colossus and the Amazon Queen, Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds, Joe Dante’s pilot The Warlord: Battle for the Galaxy (aka The Osiris Chronicles) and Kaw. On TV, Taylor starred in Outlaws (1986-87) and appeared in episodes of The Twilight Zone, Tales of the Unexpected and Murder She Wrote (‘Nan’s Ghost’). In the early 1950s he played “Tarzan” in an Australian children’s radio serial, and he voiced “Pongo” in Walt Disney’s 101 Dalmatians (1961). Taylor was originally considered for the lead in Planet of the Apes (1968), a role that eventually went to Charlton Heston.
American comedy actor Taylor Negron (Brad Stephen Negron) died of liver cancer on January 10, aged 57. He studied comedy at a private seminar taught by Lucille Ball and appeared in Disney’s Angels in the Outfield and Freaky Friday (1995), Mr. Stitch, A Kid in Aladdin’s Palace, Stuart Little, The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas, Call Me Claus, Super Capers: The Origins of Ed and the Missing Bullion, Vamps and Alienated, along with episodes of TV’s Faerie Tale Theatre, Touched by an Angel, You Wish, G vs E, Special Unit 2 and Wizards of Waverly Place.
Swedish-born actress Anita Ekberg (Kerstin Anita Marianne Ekberg), best known for her role in Federico Fellini’s La dolce vita (1960), died in Italy after a series of illnesses on January 11, aged 83. A former Miss Sweden, she also appeared in Abbott and Costello Go to Mars, The Golden Blade, Screaming Mimi, Sheba and the Gladiator, Fellini’s Boccaccio ‘70, Way…Way Out, Fangs of the Living Dead (aka Malenka), The French Sex Murders, Gold of the Amazon Women, The Killer Nun and S+H+E: Security Hazards Expert. She retired from acting in 2002, but nine years later was destitute after her villa was burgled and badly damaged by fire while she was in hospital. Following a long-running affair with Tyrone Power, Ekberg’s marriages to actors Anthony Steel (1956-59) and Rik Van Nutter (1963-75) both ended in divorce.
British-born actor, stuntman and bodyguard Darren (Majian) Shahlavi died of a heart attack in Los Angeles on January 14, aged 42. His credits include Legion of the Dead, Beyond the Limits, In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale, Alien Agent, Watchmen, Red Riding Hood (2011), Aladdin and the Death Lamp, Survival Code, High Moon and Disney’s Tomorrowland: A World Beyond, along with episodes of TV’s Reaper, Bionic Woman (2007), Smallville, Sanctuary, Mortal Kombat (2011), Arrow, Continuum, Once Upon a Time in Wonderland and Metal Hurlant Chronicles.
British character actress Pauline (Lettice) Yates died on January 21, aged 85. Her credits include episodes of TV’s Out of This World (hosted by Boris Karloff), Strange Report and So Haunt Me, although she is probably best known as the long-suffering wife of Leonard Rossiter’s Reginald Perrin in The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin (1976-79) and The Legacy of Reginald Perrin (1996). She was married to writer/actor Donald Churchill from 1960 until his death in 1991.
British actor Barrie (Stanton) Ingham died in Florida on January 23, aged 82. A former leading man with the Royal Shakespeare Company, his film credits include Dr. Who and the Daleks (as the leader of the Thals, opposite Peter Cushing’s eccentric time-traveller), Invasion (1966), Hammer’s A Challenge for Robin Hood (in the title role), the six Josh Kirby…Time Warrior titles and Jekyll & Hyde: The Musical. In 1986 he voiced the title character in Disney’s animated The Great Mouse Detective (which also featured Vincent Price). On TV, Ingham appeared in episodes of The Indian Tales of Rudyard Kipling (‘A Germ Destroyer’), Doctor Who, The Avengers, Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased), The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes, Voyagers!, Shadow Chasers, Faerie Tale Theatre, Star Trek: The Next Generation and The Triangle. He was also cast as John Barrymore in a 1985 made-for-TV biopic of Errol Flynn.
American poet-songwriter Rod McKuen (Rodney Marvin McKuen) died of pneumonia on January 29, aged 81. He wrote and performed the theme for the animated 1969 movie A Boy Named Charlie Brown, based on Charles M. Schulz’s popular newspaper strip. As an actor, McKuen appeared in an episode of the TV series Shirley Temple’s Storybook and turned up in the 2008 horror anthology The Boneyard Collection, along with Forrest J Ackerman, Peter Atkins, Brad Dourif, Donald F. Glut, Barbara Steele and others.
82-year-old British actress Geraldine McEwan died on January 30, following a stroke. Best known for playing Agatha Christie’s sleuth “Miss Marple” in the 2004-07 TV series, she also appeared in episodes of Out of This World and Red Dwarf, and was the voice of “Miss Thripp” in the stop-motion Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit and the short A Matter of Loaf and Death.
American actor Than Wyenn died on January 30, aged 95. His many credits (often playing scientists) include Bert I. Gordon’s Beginning of the End, The Boy and the Pirates, The Invisible Boy, The Billion Dollar Threat and Disney’s Splash. On TV he appeared in episodes of Terry and the Pirates, Ramar of the Jungle, Science Fiction Theatre, The Twilight Zone, Thriller, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, The Munsters, The Man from U.N.C.L.E., The Girl from U.N.C.L.E., Mr. Terrific, The Invaders, Get Smart, Night Gallery, The Sixth Sense, Search, The Six Million Dollar Man and Knight Rider.
Sultry-voiced Hollywood leading lady Lizabeth Scott (Emma Matzo) died of congestive heart failure on January 31, aged 92. Following a national tour of the Hellzapoppin stage review, the former model appeared in such movies as The Strange Love of Martha Ivers, Hammer’s Stolen Face, and Scared Stiff (with Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis). She all-but-retired from films in 1957, after appearing with Elvis Presley in Loving You.
American actress and singer Mary Healy, who co-starred in The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T (1953), died on February 3, aged 96. She also appeared i
n the 1959 TV version of Miracle on 34th Street before retiring from the screen in the early 1960s.
American character actor John Miranda died the same day, aged 88. Best known for starring as “Sweeney Todd” in Andy Milligan’s memorable Bloodthirsty Butchers (1970), he also had small roles in Pinocchio (1968), Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, Innerspace, The Invisible Kid, and episodes of TV’s Dark Shadows, Mork & Mindy, The Greatest American Hero, ALF and Free Spirit.
British stage and screen actor Jeffrey Segal died on February 5, aged 94. He was in the 1987 Spanish film Rest in Pieces and had a recurring role in TV’s Rentaghost.
American actress Laura (Lynn) Nicholson, the daughter of American International Pictures co-founder James H. Nicholson, died of complications from pancreatic cancer on February 6, aged 69. During the 1960s she had small roles in her father’s movies Beach Party, Pajama Party, Beach Blanket Bingo and Dr. Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine.
American voice actor Gary Owens (Gary Bernard Altman), best remembered as the on-screen announcer for TV’s Rowan & Martin’s LaughIn (1968-73), died on February 12, aged 80. The voice of “Space Ghost” and “Blue Falcon” on TV, his credits also include Larry Buchanan’s The Naked Witch, Disney’s The Love Bug and Return from Witch Mountain, Dr. Phibes Rises Again, It’s a Bird…It’s a Plane…It’s Superman!, Hysterical and Muppets from Space, episodes of The Munsters, Mr. Terrific, The Green Hornet, Batman, I Dream of Jeannie, Man from Atlantis, Galactica 1980, Sabrina the Teenage Witch and Wizards of Waverly Place, and such cartoon shows as Space Ghost, Yogi’s Space Race, Dynomutt Dog Wonder, The New Batman Adventures, Buzz Light-year of Star Command, Johnny Bravo and Batman: The Brave and the Bold.
KTLA-TV (Los Angeles) announcer Stan Chambers (Stanley Holroyd Chambers), who was the TV announcer in Bert I. Gordon’s War of the Colossal Beast (1958), died on February 13, aged 91. He also appeared in the 1996 giant monster spoof Zarkorr! The Invader.
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