The Best New Horror 1
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Maurice Evans died March 12th, aged 87. He appeared in Scrooge (1935), Rosemary’s Baby, Planet of the Apes and Beneath the Planet of the Apes and Terror in the Wax Museum, while his many TV appearances included The Man from UNCLE, Batman (as The Puzzler), Tarzan, Search, The Six Million Dollar Man, Fantasy Island and as a series regular on Bewitched.
29-year-old actor Merritt Butrick, who played Captain Kirk’s son in Star Trek II and III, died from AIDS on March 17th. He also appeared in Fright Night Part II and From the Dead of Night.
Matt Willis, who portrayed Bela Lugosi’s werewolf assistant in Return of the Vampire, died March 30th, aged 75. His other credits include Invisible Agent and A Guy Named Joe.
Veteran character actor George Couloris died on April 25th from a heart attack. He was 85. During his sixty-year career he appeared in Citizen Kane, The Man Without a Body, The Woman Eater, The Skull, Blood from the Mummy’s Tomb, Tower of Evil, and Antichristo, as well as episodes of TV’s Dr. Who and The Prisoner.
Lucille Ball died from cardiac arrest on April 26th, aged 77. Besides her long-running TV series, she appeared in the movies The Magic Carpet, Roman Scandals and Lured (with Karloff and Zucco).
Guy Williams (born Armand Catalano), who played the title role in Zorro and the father of the castaway Robinsons in Lost in Space on TV, was found dead on May 6th at his home in Buenos Aires, Argentina. He was 65, and also starred in the 1963 movie Captain Sinbad.
Robert Webber died on May 17th from Lou Gehrig’s disease. He was 64. The urbane film and TV actor’s credits include Hammer’s Hysteria, The Silencers, Don’t Go to Sleep, Starflight One and Hauser’s Memory.
Saturday Night Live comedienne Gilda Radner died from cancer on May 20th, aged 42. She starred in Haunted Honeymoon (with husband Gene Wilder) and It Came from Hollywood.
The same day saw the death of Anton Diffring, who was 70. His many genre movies included Hammer’s The Man Who Could Cheat Death, Circus of Horrors, Fahrenheit 451, Mark of the Devil Part II, The Beast Must Die, The Masks of Death and Faceless, while on TV he appeared in Dr. Who, The Invisible Man, One Step Beyond and the 1958 pilot for Tales of Frankenstein.
Highway to Heaven regular Victor French died June 15th from lung cancer, aged 54. His other credits include the movies The Other and The House on Skull Mountain, and he played Agent 44 on TV’s Get Smart.
Ray McAnally died on June 15th, aged 63. He appeared in High Spirits, Jack the Ripper (TV) and starred in the acclaimed near future TV film A Very British Coup.
Actor John Westbrook, who played Death in Roger Corman’s Masque of the Red Death, died on June 16th, aged 66. His other credits include The Tomb of Ligeia, Lord of the Rings and TV’s Blake’s Seven.
The voice of Bugs Bunny, Mel Blanc, died of heart disease and emphysema on July 10th, aged 81. He created the voices for thousands of cartoon characters, including Porky Pig, Tweety Pie, Daffy Duck, the Road Runner, Wile E. Coyote and Yosemite Sam, as well as the robot Twiki in TV’s Buck Rogers in the 25th Century.
Pro-ball player/actor John Matuszak, who acted in Caveman, The Ice Pirates and The Goonies, died on June 17th from massive heart failure. He was 38.
The voice of Mr. Magoo, actor Jim Backus, died on July 3rd from pneumonia, aged 76. His many movie credits include Macabre, Man of a Thousand Faces, The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm, Zotz! and Miracle on 34th Street (TV).
Lord Laurence Olivier died on July 11th, aged 82. Despite a distinguished stage career he also appeared in such films as Wuthering Heights, Rebecca, Hamlet, Bunny Lake is Missing, The Boys from Brazil, Clash of the Titans and Dracula (1979).
Sunshine Sammy Morrison, star of the original Our Gang comedies during the silent era and later one of the East Side Kids, died on July 24th. He was 76. During the 1940s he appeared in Spooks Run Wild and Ghosts on the Loose, both with Bela Lugosi.
Richard Alexander, who portrayed Prince Barin in both Flash Gordon and Flash Gordon’s Trip to Mars, died on August 9th from pulmonary edema. He was 86. His other credits include The Leopard Lady, SOS Coast Guard (with Lugosi), The Ghost of Frankenstein, The House of Fear and Spook Busters.
Write/actor Graham Chapman died on October 4th from spinal cancer, aged 48. A founding member of the Monty Python’s Flying Circus comedy team for more than twenty years, his film credits include The Life of Brian, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, The Meaning of Life and The Magic Christian.
Veteran Hollywood actress Bette Davis died on October 6th from cancer. She was 81. Late into her career she made a number of genre movies, including What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?, Hush . . . Hush, Sweet Charlotte, The Anniversary, The Nanny, Madame Sin, Scream Pretty Peggy, Return to Witch Mountain (with Christopher Lee), Burnt Offerings, The Dark Secret of Harvest Home, The Watcher in the Woods and Wicked Stepmother (which she left during production).
Actor Paul Shenar, who portrayed Orson Welles in the TV movie The Night That Panicked America, died of AIDS on October 11th. He was 53. He also appeared in the pilot for TV’s Gemini Man and was the voice of Jenner in The Secret of NIMH.
Cornel Wilde died from leukaemia on October 15th, aged 74. He starred in A Thousand and One Nights, No Blade of Grass (also directed) and Gargoyles, as well as episodes of Night Gallery and Fantasy Island.
Distinguished British actor Anthony Quayle died in October, aged 76. He film credits include Hamlet, A Study in Terror, Murder By Decree, and Holocaust 2000 (aka The Chosen).
Roland Winters, who portrayed oriental sleuth Charlie Chan in six films, died on October 22nd from a stroke. He was 84. His other movies included Abbott and Costello Meet the Killer (with Karloff), and Miracle on 34th Street (1973).
John Payne, who starred in the original Miracle on 34th Street (1947), died on December 6th from congestive heart failure. He was 77. He was also published in Weird Tales under a pseudonym.
Lindsay Crosby, who appeared in Bigfoot and The Glory Stompers, shot himself in the head on December 11th when his mother’s trust fund ran out. He was 51, and according to Bing’s will, none of his sons could inherit any of his money until they were 65.
Former Tarzan, Jock Mahoney died on December 14th from a stroke. He was 70, and played the Jungle King in three movies: Tarzan the Magnificent, Tarzan Goes to India and Tarzan’s Three Challenges. He also appeared in Tarzan’s Deadly Silence and The Land Unknown.
Tough-guy actor Lee Van Cleef died on December 14th from a heart attack, aged 64. Besides being the star of numerous spaghetti westerns, he appeared in The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms, It Conquered the World, Eascape from New York and Speed Zone.
Italian actress Silvana Magnano died from a heart attack on December 16th. She was 59. Her film credits include the 1955 Ulysses, La Dolce Vita, Black Magic, The Witches, Dune and Slugs.
FILM/TV TECHNICIANS:
Composer Lionel Newman died on February 3rd from cardiac arrest, aged 73. He scored such films as Heaven Can Wait (1943), Man in the Attic, The Rocket Man, Gorilla at Large, and Doctor Dolittle.
Director Reginald LeBorg died from a heart attack on March 25th, aged 86. He began his career as a contract director for Universal with such programmers as Calling Dr. Death, The Mummy’s Ghost, Dead Man’s Eyes, Jungle Woman and Weird Woman, and went on to helm The Black Sleep, Voodoo Island, Diary of a Madman, House of the Black Death (2nd unit) and So Evil, My Sister (aka Psycho Sisters).
Director/actor Jack Starrett died on March 27th from kidney failure. He was 52. As an actor he appeared in Angels on Wheels and Angels from Hell, and he directed The Strange Vengeance of Rosalie, Race with the Devil and Kiss My Grits, amongst others.
Marc Daniels died April 24th from congestive heart failure, aged 77. He directed the first 38 episodes of I Love Lucy and his numerous TV credits include Man from Atlantis, Mission: Impossible, and fourteen episodes of the original Star Trek, including “The Menagerie”, “The Man Trap”, “The Naked Time”, “I, Mudd” and “Spock’s Brain”.
German-American film and TV director Gerd Oswald died on
May 22nd. He was 72. He directed the movies Screaming Mimi, Brainwashed and Agent for H.A.R.M., as well as episodes of Star Trek, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, Twilight Zone and The Outer Limits.
Director/actor Richard Quine shot himself to death on June 10th, aged 68. He helmed Bell, Book and Candle, W, Oh Dad Poor Dad Mama’s Hung You in the Closet and I’m Feeling So Sad, and was fired from The Fiendish Plot of Fu Manchu.
Director Franklin J. Schaffner died of cancer on July 2nd. He was 69, and his films include The War Lord, Planet of the Apes, The Boys from Brazil, Sphinx and Lionheart.
“King of the Serials” Nat Levine died on August 6th from myocardial infarction, aged 90. He produced King of the Congo (featuring Karloff), The Phantom Empire, The Galloping Ghost and The Lost Jungle.
Producer Michael Klinger died on September 15th from a heart attack, aged 68. His credits include Repulsion, Cul-De-Sac and A Study in Terror.
Italian film director Brunello Rondi died of a heart attack on November 7th, aged 64. He scripted Federico Fellini’s 8 ½, Juliet of the Spirits and Satyricon, and directed the 1963 movie The Demon.
Harvey Hart died from a heart attack on November 21st, aged 61. He directed The Pyx and such TV movies as Dark Intruder (released in US cinemas), Can Ellen Be Saved?, The Aliens Are Coming and Massarati and the Brain (with Cristopher Lee), as well as episodes of Wild, Wild West, Star Trek (“Mudd’s Women”), The Starlost and Alfred Hitchcock Hour.