British stage and TV actress Jennifer [Mary] Hilary died of cancer on August 6, aged 65. She portrayed both Laura Fairlie and the title character in the 1966 BBC serial of The Woman in White, and her other credits include the 1989 SF movie Slipstream and episodes of Hammer’s Journey to the Unknown, Out of the Unknown and Tales of the Unexpected.
Blonde American porn actress Missy (Maria Christina) was found dead in her Valencia, California, apartment on August 18 from an accidental overdose of prescription medication. She was 41. While working as an administration clerk at a local hospital, she met her future husband, Mickey G., and they became the first married couple to appear in adult movies. After being featured in more than 350 films since 1994, she retired in 2001, having found religion following a mental breakdown.
Fifty-year-old American comedian and actor Bernie Mac (Bernard Jeffery McCullough) died of complications from pneumonia on August 9. He had suffered from the tissue inflammation disease sarcoidosis since 1983, but announced it had gone into remission in 2005. Mac’s film credits include the remake of Oceans Eleven and its two sequels, plus Michael Bay’s Transformers.
Sixty-five-year-old musician Isaac [Lee] Hayes died shortly after being found unconscious next to his running machine on August 10. Best-known for his Oscar-winning #1 theme song to the original Shaft movie and as the voice of Chef on TV’s South Park, Hayes also appeared in Escape from New York, Oblivion, Oblivion 2: Backlash, Uncle Sam, Blues Brothers 2000, Book of Days, Anonymous Rex, Return to Sleepaway Camp and episodes of Tales from the Crypt, Sliders and Stargate SG-1. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2002.
British character actor Terence Rigby died of lung cancer the same day, aged 71. He portrayed Doctor Watson in the 1982 TV movie The Hound of the Baskervilles, opposite Tom Baker’s Sherlock Holmes, and the following year turned up as Inspector Layton in the The Sign of Four, starring Ian Richardson as Holmes. His other credits include Watership Down, Friends in Space, the Bond film Tomorrow Never Dies, Simon Magus and the Welsh horror movie Flick, along with episodes of Tales of Unease, The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes and Spooky.
American character actor and playwright George Furth (George Schweinfurth) died of a lung infection on August 11, aged 75. He appeared in the films Games, The Boston Strangler, Myra Breckinridge, Sleeper, Blazing Saddles, Airport ’77, Oh God!, Megaforce and The Man with Two Brains, along with episodes of The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, Honey West, Batman, The Girl from U.N.C.L.E. (“The Carpathian Killer Affair”), The Monkees (“A Coffin Too Frequent”), I Dream of Jeannie, Night Gallery (Cyril M. Kornbluth’s “The Little Black Bag”), Salvage 1 and You Wish. Furth won a Tony Award for writing the book for the 1970s Stephen Sondheim musical Company. The pair collaborated again on the 1981 show Merrily We Roll Along, based on a play by Moss Hart and George S. Kaufman, and the 1996 comedy thriller Getting Away with Murder.
American character actor Julius Carry (Julius J. Carry, III), who co-starred as Lord Bowler in the Fox Network’s The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr, died of pancreatic cancer on August 19, aged 56. He made his debut in the movie Disco Godfather, and his other credits include World Gone Wild and episodes of Misfits of Science, Dinosaurs, Tales from the Crypt and Earth 2.
Legendary Nashville drummer Buddy Harman (Murrey Mizell Harman, Jr.) died of congestive heart failure on August 21, aged 79. He reportedly played drums on more than 18,000 recordings, including Roy Orbison’s “Pretty Woman”, Johnny Cash’s “Ring of Fire”, Roger Miller’s “King of the Road”, Tammy Wynette’s “Stand by Your Man”, the Everly Brothers’ “Bye Bye Love” and Elvis Presley’s “Little Sister”.
Fred Crane, best remembered for his role as Scarlett O’Hara’s young beau Brent Tarleton in Gone with the Wind, died of a blood clot in the lung the same day, aged 90. He had been suffering from complications related to diabetes. Crane, who was the best man at his friend George (Superman) Reeves’ first wedding in 1940, later became a classical music radio announcer in Los Angeles. He appeared as an uncredited technician in the pilot for Lost in Space, and supplied the voices for Victor Buono’s deadly cyborgs in an episode of Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea.
Sixty-six-year-old British comedy actor and experimental theatre director Ken Campbell (Kenneth Campbell) died on August 31, just days after appearing on stage at the Edinburgh festival. He founded the Science Fiction Theatre of Liverpool in 1976, through which he put on such shows as The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, the eight-hour Illuminatus! (which starred Jim Broadbent), and the twenty-two hour The Warp. As a character actor, Campbell also appeared in the films The Tempest, The Bride, Dreamchild, Alice in Wonderland (1999) and Creep, along with episodes of TV’s Mystery and Imagination (“Uncle Silas”) and The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes.
Australian-born character actor Michael Pate, who was best known for his villainous roles, died in New South Wales of complications from pneumonia and a chest infection on September 1, aged 88. After relocating to Hollywood in the early 1950s, he appeared in The Strange Door (with Charles Laughton and Boris Karloff), The Black Castle (with Karloff and Lon Chaney, Jr), The Maze, The Silver Chalice, Curse of the Undead (as vampire gunslinger Drake Robey), Beauty and the Beast (1962), Tower of London (1962, with Vincent Price) and Brainstorm (1965). In the late 1960s he returned to Australia, where he became a producer and director, and played the President in both The Return of Captain Invincible (with Christopher Lee) and The Marsupials: The Howling III. He also co-wrote the original story (“The Steel Monster”) for the 1961 SF movie Most Dangerous Man Alive. On TV the prolific Pate played Clarence Leiter in the 1954 Climax! adaptation of “Casino Royale” opposite Barry Nelson’s James Bond, and he was also in episodes of Sugarfoot (“The Ghost”, scripted by C. L. Moore), Men Into Space, Thriller (“Trio for Terror”), The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, Get Smart, The Man from U.N.C.L.E., Honey West, Batman, The Wild Wild West (“Night of the Infernal Machine”), The Time Tunnel, Tarzan and Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, amongst many other shows.
Don LaFontaine, who distinctively voiced over 5,000 American movie trailers and 300,000 radio and TV commercials during a career that spanned more than forty years, died of complications from a collapsed lung the same day, aged 68. He appeared as a reporter in the SF mummy movie Time Walker, and he narrated the opening credits of TV’s Team Night Rider (1997–98). LaFontaine’s favourite film trailer voice-over was reportedly for the original Friday the 13th (1980).
MGM silent actress Anita Page (Anita Pomares), who began her film career in 1925 and co-starred with Lon Chaney, Sr in While the City Sleeps (1928), died in her sleep on September 6, aged 98. She also had an uncredited bit part in Chaney’s West of Zanzibar the same year, before retiring from the screen in 1936, after successfully making the transition to sound films. She returned in character roles in the 1990s with appearances in Witchcraft XI: Sisters of Blood, The Crawling Brain, Bob’s Night Out and Frankenstein Rising (in a cameo, playing Elizabeth Frankenstein).
British actress Celia [Christine] Gregory, who played the recurring role of Ruth Anderson in BBC-TV’s Survivors (1976), died on September 8, aged 58. She also appeared in episodes of Hammer House of Horror (“Children of the Full Moon”), Tales of the Unexpected and The Casebook of Sherlock Holmes before giving up work in 1993 to devote more time to her family.
Rick Wright (Richard William Wright), who played keyboards with Pink Floyd, died of cancer on September 15, aged 65. A founding member of the influential British rock band, Wright also co-wrote songs (“Us and Them”) and sang on several tracks on such early albums as The Piper at the Gates of Dawn, The Dark Side of the Moon and Wish You Were Here. Roger Walters fired Wright during the recording of The Wall, but he returned as a full member to the band a decade later.
American session drummer Earl [Cyril] Palmer, who worked with the like of the Beach Boys, The Monkees, Frank Sinatra, Barbra Streisand, Sarah Vaughan, Neil Young, Tom Waits, Doris Day and Randy Newman, died on September 19, aged 83. Reputedly the most
recorded drummer in history, he played on such hits as Little Richard’s “Tutti Frutti”, “Long Tall Sally” and “Lucille”, Ritchie Valens’ “La Bamba”, the Righteous Brothers’ “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’” and Ike and Tina Turner’s “River Deep, Mountain High” for producer Phil Spector, and Elvis Costello’s “King of America”. Palmer also worked on movie soundtracks, including In the Heat of the Night, The Odd Couple and Bullitt, and he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2000.
Philippines-born British character actor and playwright William [Hubert] Fox died on September 20, aged 97. His credits include an early TV version of The Two Mrs Carrolls (1947), episodes of The Avengers (“The Winged Avenger”) and Doomwatch, and the third Omen movie, The Final Conflict.
Former child star Buddy McDonald (Thomas McDonald) died of congestive heart failure on September 22, aged 85. He appeared in a number of Our Gang shorts in the early 1930s and was one of the last surviving members of the Little Rascals. After drink problems led to a term in prison for robbery, he recovered in the 1950s and spent the rest of his life helping others with alcohol addiction.
Oscar-winning Hollywood star, director and producer Paul [Leonard] Newman died on September 26, aged 83. He had been suffering from lung cancer for several months. He made his film debut in The Silver Chalice (1954), and his other film credits include The Towering Inferno, Quintet and When Time Ran Out . . . He also voiced the character of Doc Hudson in Disney/Pixar’s Cars and the spin-off short Mater and the Ghostlight. Early in his career, Newman appeared in episodes of TV’s Tales of Tomorrow and Suspense. The founder of the “Newman’s Own” range of food products, which has generated more than $125 million to charitable organizations, he was married to actress Joanne Woodward for fifty years.
Singer George “Wydell” Jones, a member of the 1950s doo-wop band The Edsels, died of cancer on September 27, aged 71. Jones wrote “Rama Lama Ding Dong”, which finally became a hit for the group in the early 1960s.
American character actor and prolific Western player [Robert] House Peters, Jr, died of pneumonia on October 1, aged 92. Best known as the original bald-headed “Mr Clean” in a series of TV commercials for a household cleaner in the 1950s and ’60s, he made his film debut in 1935 and appeared in Flash Gordon (1936), Batman and Robin (1949), King of the Rocket Men, The Day the Earth Stood Still (uncredited), Red Planet Mars (uncredited), Port Sinister (aka Beast of Paradise Isle) and Target Earth. His TV credits include episodes of Ramar of the Jungle and the Twilight Zone. Having failed to become a star, he retired in 1965 at the age of 50 and went into the real estate business in the San Fernando Valley.
Nick Reynolds, a founding member the Kingston Trio, died the same day, aged 75. The American folk rock group’s first hit was “Tom Dooley” in 1958.
Japanese actor Ken (Akinobu) Ogata died of liver cancer on October 5, aged 71. He appeared in such movies as Kichiku (aka The Demon), Vengeance is Mine, Virus, Samurai Reincarnation, The Peacock King, the vampire comedy My Soul is Slashed, and Izo.
Prolific British film, television and stage character actor Peter Copley died on October 7, aged 93. Often cast as stuffy authority figures, his numerous film credits include The Hour of 13, The Man Without a Body, The Beatles’ Help!, Hammer’s Quatermass and the Pit (aka Five Million Years to Earth) and Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed, The Shoes of the Fisherman, Jane Eyre (1970), What Became of Jack and Jill?, Gawain and the Green Knight and The Colour of Magic. He also appeared in episodes of TV’s Sherlock Holmes (1954), Dimensions of Fear, The Avengers, The Champions, Doomwatch, Out of the Unknown, Survivors (1975), Doctor Who (“Pyramids of Mars”), The New Avengers, Tales of the Unexpected and Strange.
Scottish-born actress Eileen Herlie (Eileen Isobel Herlihy), who portrayed Myrtle Lum Fargate in ABC-TV’s soap opera All My Children since 1976, died in New York of complications from pneumonia on October 8, aged 90. Earlier in her career she played Queen Gertrude opposite both Laurence Olivier and Richard Burton in two versions of Hamlet (1948 and 1964).
Sky News presenter Bob Friend MBE died of cancer the same day, aged 70. Following a twenty-year career with the BBC, he joined the fledgling satellite TV channel in 1989, and remained until his retirement in 2003. Friend appeared as himself in such films as Independence Day and Mission Impossible.
French actor Guillaume Depardieu, the son of actor Gérard Depardieu, died of complications from pneumonia on October 13, aged 37. He contributed voice work to the omnibus cartoon Fear(s) of the Dark.
American actress, Broadway musical star and TV celebrity Edie Adams (Elizabeth Edith Enke, aka “Edith Adams”) died of complications from cancer and pneumonia on October 15, aged 81. She had been suffering from cancer for some years. Adams made her stage debut in a 1947 production of Blithe Spirit, and her film and TV credits include Cinderella (1957, opposite Julie Andrews), The Spiral Staircase (1961), It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World, The Oscar (co-scripted by Harlan Ellison), The Happy Hooker Goes to Hollywood, The Haunting of Harrington House, and episodes of Suspense and Fantasy Island. Her first husband, comedian Ernie Kovacs, was killed in a car crash in Los Angeles in 1962, as was their daughter Mia exactly twenty years later.
TV announcer Jack Narz (John Lawrence Narz II) died of complications from a stroke the same day, aged 85. His credits include the 1950s series Space Patrol and Adventures of Superman. He subsequently hosted the popular CBS-TV quiz show Dotto (1958) until it was cancelled when it was revealed results were rigged.
Levi Stubbs (Levi Stubbles), the lead singer with Motown group The Four Tops, died in his sleep on October 17, aged 72. He was diagnosed with cancer in 2000 and subsequently suffered a stroke. The Four Tops sold more than fifty million records worldwide, and Stubbs’ deep baritone voice can be heard on such hits as “Reach Out, I’ll Be There”, “I Can’t Help Myself (Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch)” and “Standing in the Shadows of Love”. He also supplied the voice of the carnivorous plant Audrey II in the 1986 movie Little Shop of Horrors and that of Mother Brain in the Captain N: The Game Master animated TV series.
Burmese-born dancer, choreographer, singer and actor Peter Gordeno (Peter Godenho) died on October 18, aged 69. In the early 1970s he appeared as Captain Peter Carlin in seven episodes of Gerry and Sylvia Anderson’s live-action TV series UFO. He was also in the movies Secrets of a Windmill Girl, Urge to Kill and Carry on Columbus. In 2005 he directed the stage production The Baskerville Beast, a two-hour musical version of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Hound of the Baskervilles.
The 1960s soul and gospel singer Dee Dee Warwick (Delia Mae Warrick), the younger sister of Dionne, died the same day, aged 63. A former back-up singer with the Drifters, Ben E. King, Wilson Pickett, Nina Simone, Aretha Franklin and others, she made her debut as a solo singer in 1963 with the original version of “You’re No Good”. The record failed to chart, but Warwick went on to make several albums and have a few minor hits.
Comedian and singer Rudy (Rudolph) Ray Moore, the self-proclaimed “Godfather of Rap”, died of complications from diabetes on October 19, aged 81. In the 1970s he made his name in such cult blaxploitation movies as Dolemite, The Human Tornado and Disco Godfather. He later returned in direct-to-video productions like Violent New Breed, Vampire Assassin, It Came from Trafalgar and even The Return of Dolemite (2002).
Eight-six-year-old former fashion designer Mr Blackwell (Richard Sylvan Selzer), whose annual “Best Dressed List” and “Worst Dressed List” spread fear through female celebrities from 1960 onwards, died from an intestinal infection the same day. He had collapsed at his Los Angeles home two months earlier. A former child actor and later talent agent, he became a designer in the 1950s. Mr Blackwell appeared as himself on the ABC-TV soap opera Port Charles.
Jamaican-born British character actor and restaurant and gym owner Roy Stewart died on October 27, aged 83. A former stunt-man, his many film credits include Hammer’s The Curse of the Mummy’s Tomb, She and Twins of Evil, the James Bond adventure Live and Let Die, and
Arabian Adventure. He also appeared in episodes of Out of the Unknown (John Wyndham’s “No Place Like Earth”), Adam Adamant Lives!, The Avengers, Sherlock Holmes (1968), Doomwatch, Doctor Who (“The Tomb of the Cybermen”) and Space: 1999. Stewart retired from acting in the early 1980s.
Adult film-maker and actor Buck Adams (Charles S. Allen), the brother of hardcore actress Amber Lynn, died of heart failure on October 28, aged 52. He appeared in more than 450(!) films, including Whore of the Worlds (aka Lust in Space II), 2002: A Sex Odyssey, Amazing Sex Stories, Hunchback of the Notre Dame, Ground Zero L.A., Genie in a Bikini, Edward Penishands 3, Whorelock, Princess Orgasma and the Magic Bed and Intercourse with the Vampire, along with porno versions of Frankenstein (1994) and Blade (1996).
Reclusive “Peruvian Songbird” Yma Sumac (Zoila Augusta Emperatriz Chavarri del Castillo, aka “Imma Sumack”), an exotic soprano best remembered for her remarkable four-and-a-half octave vocal range, died of colon cancer on November 1, aged 86. Born in Cajamarca, Peru, she moved to the United States in 1940, where she appeared in a few films and TV shows, including Secret of the Incas and an episode of Climax!
Jimmy Carl Black (James Inkanish, Jr), the original drummer with Frank Zappa’s 1960s band Mothers of Invention, died in Germany of cancer the same day, aged 70. He also appeared in Zappa’s 1971 movie 200 Motels.
German actor Michael Hinz died of a stroke on November 6, aged 68. His credits include Lana Queen of the Amazons, Beyond the Darkness and Mario Bava’s 1972 sex-comedy Four Times That Night.
British drummer [John] “Mitch” Mitchell, the last surviving member of The Jimi Hendrix Experience, was found dead in a hotel room in Portland, Oregon, on November 12. He was 61. Mitchell played on such influential albums as Are You Experienced? and Electric Ladyland, and performed with Hendrix at the iconic 1969 Woodstock festival.
The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror 20 Page 67
