Science Fiction artist Morris Scott Dolens was found dead on 15 August, aged 75. During the late 1950s his work appeared on covers for Fantastic, Venture, Spaceways, and The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, amongst others. More recently, he worked for Omni and NASA.
Australian-born James Clavell, author of the historical bestsellers Shogun, Tai-Pan and Gai-Jin, died on 6 September at his home in Switzerland, several days after suffering a stroke. He was 69. As a screenwriter he wrote The Fly (1958), Watusi, The Great Escape, To Sir With Love and The Satan Bug.
British-born composer and songwriter Jule (Jules) Styne died on 20 September, aged 88. He created the music and songs for the 1954 Broadway production of Peter Pan, and his other shows include Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, Gypsy and Funny Girl.
Robert Bloch, who will always be remembered as the author of Psycho (filmed by Alfred Hitchcock in 1960), died of cancer of the oesophagus and kidneys on 23 September. He was 77. Originally encouraged by H.P. Lovecraft, he began selling to Weird Tales and other pulp magazines before turning his hand to novels of psychological horror. The author of more than 400 stories, he also wrote extensively for radio, television and the movies. Renowned for his wicked sense of humour, the author wrote the notes for his own obituary, and his ashes will be kept in a book-shaped urn in the American Heritage Center at the University of Wyoming, where the inscription will read: “Here lie the collected works of Robert Bloch.”
Writer, editor and publisher Karl Edward Wagner died on 14 October from medical complications resulting in liver failure. He was 48. Inspired by the works of Robert E. Howard, he sold his first novel, Darkness Weaves with Many Shades, to a small Californian publisher in 1969. It was the first in a series of books featuring his character Kane, the Mystic Swordsman. In the early 1970s he started the small press Carcosa imprint with friends David Drake and Jim Groce. He edited three volumes of Howard’s definitive Conan adventures and continued the exploits of Conan and another Howard hero, Bran Mak Morn, in novels. He took over the editing of The Year’s Best Horror Stories in 1980 from Gerald W. Page and for the next fourteen years turned it into one of the genre’s finest showcases. He won the World Fantasy Award and three British Fantasy Awards for his short fiction and also a special British Fantasy Award for his contributions to the genre.
American novelist, biographer and translator Francis Steegmuller died of heart failure in Naples on 20 October, aged 88. In 1971 he won a National Book Award for his profile of film director Jean Cocteau, Cocteau: A Biography. He also published biographies of Guy de Maupassant and Isadora Duncan and wrote three detective mysteries under the pen name David Keith. Best known for his various works on Gustave Flaubert, his 1957 translation of Madame Bovary is considered unsurpassed.
India-born Devendra P. Varma, the award-winning Canadian scholar of Gothic fiction, died on 24 October after suffering a series of strokes. He was 71. He oversaw the publication of more than 100 Gothic novels and his own books include the definitive Gothic Flame: Being a History of the Gothic Novel in England and The Evergreen Tree of Diabolical Knowledge. At the time of his death, he left a final book, On the Trail of Dracula, in preparation.
Scottish-born mystery writer John Innes Mackintosh Stewart, better known as novelist Michael Innes, creator of police hero John Appleby, died on 12 November. He was 88.
British crime novelist Julian (Gustave) Symons died the same day of a heart attack, aged 82. Also a poet, editor and biographer, he wrote The Tell-Tale Heart: The Life and Works of Edgar Allan Poe, and was the winner of two Edgar Awards from the Mystery Writers of America and two Crime Writers Association Awards.
Songwriter Tommy Boyce committed suicide by shooting himself on 23 November. He was 55. Music director for the popular 1960s TV show, The Monkees, he wrote “Hey Hey We’re the Monkees”, perhaps the least-covered hit song ever.
ACTORS/ACTRESSES
Latin-American leading man Cesar Romero died on 1 January, aged 86, from pneumonia. His film credits include The Thin Man, The Lost Continent (1951), The Jungle, Two on a Guillotine, Latitude Zero, The Spectre of Edgar Allan Poe, Mortuary Academy, Judgment Day, and Disney’s The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes, Now You See Him Now You Don’t and The Strongest Man in the World. On TV he portrayed The Joker on Batman between 1965–67.
Carroll Borland, who co-starred with Bela Lugosi in Mark of the Vampire and played a daughter of Ming the Merciless in the 1936 serial Flash Gordon, died of pneumonia on 3 January. She was 79.
British actress Heather Sears died the same day, aged 59. During the 1960s she starred in Hammer’s version of The Phantom of the Opera and The Black Torment.
Silent star Esther Ralston, aged 91, died on 14 January after a short illness. She appeared in the 1923 serial The Phantom Fortune, Peter Pan (1924), Something Always Happens and the 1950s TV series Tales of Tomorrow.
Singer/songwriter Harry Nilsson died in January. He appeared in the title role of Son of Dracula (1973) and composed the score for the animated TV movie The Point.
Veteran Russian character actor Martin Kosleck (Nicolai Yoshkin) died on 16 January, aged 89. He portrayed Goebbels in three different movies, and his many genre credits include Alraune (1930), The Mad Doctor, Strange Holiday, The Mummy’s Curse, The Frozen Ghost, Pursuit to Algiers, House of Horrors, She-Wolf of London, The Flesh Eaters, Agent for H.A.R.M., plus numerous TV shows.
French stage actor Jean-Louis Barrault died in January, aged 85. He portrayed the Jekyll and Hyde character in Jean Renoir’s 1959 TV production Le Testament du Docteur Cordelier.
Best remembered for his TV role as Kojak (1973–77), bald Greek-American actor Telly Savalas (Aristotle Savalas) died of prostate cancer on 22 January. He was 70. His many film credits include Mario Bava’s House of Exorcism/Lisa and the Devil, On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, The Assassination Bureau, Horror Express with Lee and Cushing, Gobots, Capricorn One, Beyond the Poseidon Adventure and The Muppet Movie.
Leading lady of the 1940s Frances Gifford died the same day, aged 72, of emphysema. She played the title role in Jungle Girl, and also appeared in Tarzan Triumphs, amongst many other movies.
Character actor Claude Akins died on 27 January from cancer, aged 67. He appeared in the TV movies The Night Stalker and The Norliss Tapes, plus such films as Battle for the Planet of the Apes, Shadow of Fear, Tentacles, Tarantulas, Monster in the Closet and The Curse, based on a story by H.P. Lovecraft. His many TV appearances include the classic Twilight Zone episode “The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street”, and The Man from U.N.C.L.E.’s “The Very Important Zombie Affair”.
Nick Cravat, who was once Burt Lancaster’s circus partner, died from lung cancer on 29 January, aged 82. His film credits include The Crimson Pirate, The Story of Mankind, Kiss Me Deadly and The Island of Dr Moreau, while on TV he played the gremlin on the plane wing in the classic Twilight Zone episode “Nightmare at 20,000 Feet”.
American leading man Joseph Cotten died from pneumonia on 6 February, aged 88. As a member of Orson Welles’s Mercury Theatre Group, he co-starred with Welles in Citizen Kane, The Magnificent Ambersons, Journey into Fear and The Third Man, and also appeared in Hitchcock’s Shadow of a Doubt, Gaslight, From the Earth to the Moon, Man With a Cloak (as Edgar Allan Poe), Portrait of ennie, Hush . . . Hush Sweet Charlotte, Airport 77, The Abominable Dr Phibes, Lady Frankenstein, Mario Bava’s Baron Blood, Island of the Mutations (aka Screamers), Twilight’s Last Gleaming, The Hearse, Latitude Zero, Soylent Green, The Survivor (based on the novel by James Herbert), City Beneath the Sea, The Devil’s Daughter, The Screaming Woman, Return to Fantasy Island and Guyana: Cult of the Damned.
Heavyweight actor, writer and director William Conrad died on 11 February from a heart attack. He was 73. Best remembered as the star of TV’s Cannon and Jake and the Fatman, he also appeared in The Naked Jungle, Brotherhood of the Bell and Night Cries. During the 1950s he played Buck Rogers on radio, his voice was heard in the animated TV movie The Return of the King, and he narrated the TV series The Bull
winkle Show, The Invaders, The Fugitive and Tales of the Unexpected. He directed Two on a Guillotine, My Blood Runs Cold and Brainstorm (1965), also producing the latter along with Chamber of Horrors and Countdown.
American character actor Sorrell Booke died in February from cancer, aged 64. Best known as “Boss” Hogg in the TV series The Dukes of Hazzard (1979–85), he also appeared in Fail Safe, Lady in a Cage, Slaughterhouse-Five, Matchless, Peopletoys, Brenda Starr and Disney’s Freaky Friday.
Heavily-built Canadian comedian John Candy, aged 43, died of a heart attack on 5 March while filming a movie in Durango, Mexico. His films include 1941, The Blues Brothers, Heavy Metal, It Came from Hollywood, Splash, Little Shop of Horrors (1986), Spaceballs, The Rescuers Down Under, Nothing But Trouble, Delirious, JFK, and Boris and Natasha.
Swedish actress/director Mai Zetterling died from cancer on 15 March, aged 68. Her film credits include Knock on Wood and The Witches (1989).
American leading man Macdonald Carey died from cancer on 21 March, aged 81. His many credits include Hitchcock’s Shadow of a Doubt, Hammer’s The Damned (aka These Are the Damned), End of the World, A Stranger in Our House, Foes, It’s Alive III, Island of the Alive and The Girl, The Gold Watch and Everything. He spent three decades playing Dr Tom Horton on the daytime TV soap opera Days of Our Lives.
Actor Dack Rambo, who played Jack Ewing in TV’s Dallas, died the same day, aged 53. He quit showbusiness in 1991 when he announced that he was infected with the HIV virus, and was a spokesperson against gay prejudice in the industry. He appeared in several episodes of Fantasy Island, Ultra Warrior, and the TV movies Good Against Evil and The Spring.
French-born actress Lili Damita (Liliane Marie Madeleine Carre) also died on 21 March, believed to be aged 92. She was married to Errol Flynn from 1935 to 1942.
Giulietta Masina, the actress wife of director Federico Fellini, died from a tumour on 23 March, aged 73. She appeared in many of her late husband’s best known movies, including La Strada, Juliet of the Spirits, Le Notti di Cabiria and Ginger and Fred.
British actor Bill Travers, who starred in Gorgo, Born Free (with his then-wife Virginia Travers) and A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1968), died in his sleep on 28 March. He was 72.
Spanish actor Fernando Rey (Fernando Arambillet) died in March, aged 74. A favourite of director Luis Buñuel, his numerous film credits include The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie, Goliath Against the Giants, Jess Franco’s Attack of the Robots, Quintet, The French Connection and its sequel.
Actress Lynn Frederick, widow of Peter Sellers and ex-wife of David Frost, was found dead at her home in Los Angeles on 27 April, aged 39. Her films include Hammer’s Vampire Circus, Schizo, No Blade of Grass, The Amazing Mr Blunden and Phase IV.
Bill Quinn, American character actor and Bob Newhart’s father-in-law, died on 29 April, aged 81. Best known for his many TV roles, his films include Twilight Zone The Movie and Star Trek V The Final Frontier.
American leading man George Peppard died on 8 May from pneumonia. He was 65. Besides starring on TV in Banacek and The A-Team, his many films include Breakfast at Tiffany’s, What’s So Bad About Feeling Good?, The Groundstar Conspiracy, Damnation Alley and Battle Beyond the Stars.
Actor Steven Keats apparently committed suicide in May, aged 49. His credits include The Last Dinosaur, Mysterious Island of Beautiful Women, The Ivory Ape, Hangar 18, Silent Rage, Automan and Ghost of a Chance.
Best known for his portrayal of film psychos, actor Timothy Carey died from a stroke on 11 May. He was 65. His numerous credits include Francis in the Haunted House, The Boy and the Pirates, Mermaids of Tiburon, Bikini Beach, What’s the Matter with Helen?, The Killing, Paths of Glory and Beach Blanket Bingo.
Mexican-born Gilbert Roland (Luis Antonio Damaso De Alonso), who moved to Hollywood in the mid-1920s and became a popular leading man, died from cancer on 15 May. He was 88. In a career spanning five decades, he portrayed the Cisco Kid in a series of westerns, and his many other screen credits include The Sea Hawk and Isle of Missing Men.
Lanky American character actor Royal Dano died the same day from a heart attack. He was 71. His numerous credits include The Right Stuff, Moby Dick, The Trouble With Harry, Face of Fire, 7 Faces of Dr Lao, Moon of the Wolf, Messiah of Evil, Something Wicked This Way Comes, House II The Second Story, Ghoulies II, Spaced Invaders, The Dark Half and Killer Klowns from Outer Space. On TV he played Judge Clinton Sternwood in Twin Peaks.
American leading man Stephen McNally (Horace McNally) died on 4 June from heart failure, aged 84. His many credits include Bewitched (1945), The Black Castle (with Karloff), Panic in the City and the TV movie Vanished.
Another leading man, Barry Sullivan (Patrick Barry), died on 6 June from a respiratory ailment. He was 81. He starred in Pyro, Mario Bava’s Planet of the Vampires, My Blood Runs Cold, The Immortal (and subsequent TV series), the Night Gallery pilot, Earthquake and Oh God.
British actor Peter Graves died the same day from a heart attack, aged 82. His films include King Arthur Was a Gentleman, The Wrong Box, The Slipper and the Rose and How I Won the War.
American actor Herbert Anderson, best remembered as the father of TV’s Dennis the Menace, died on 11 June, two months after suffering a stroke. He was 77. He began his acting career with Warner Bros in 1939 and his credits include The Body Disappears and I Bury the Living.
Russian-Romanian actress Nadia Gray (Nadia Kujnir-Herescu), who did a memorable striptease in Federico Fellini’s La Dolce Vita, died on 13 June, aged 70. Her other film credits include Valley of Eagles, The Naked Runner and Hammer’s Maniac (1963).
Actress K.T. Stevens, who starred as Lido in Missile to the Moon, died of lung cancer the same day, aged 74.
Veteran genre actor Cameron Mitchell (Cameron Mizell) died on 6 July from lung cancer. He was 75. One of the stars of TV’s High Chaparral from 1967–71, his many film credits include Carousel, The Swarm, Flight to Mars, The Demon, The Toolbox Murders, From a Whisper to a Scream (aka The Offspring), Blood Suckers (aka Island of the Doomed), Face of Fire, Haunts, Captive, The Tomb, Space Mutiny, Nightmare in Wax, Gorilla at Large, Autopsy of a Ghost, Death in Space, Return to Fantasy Island, Supersonic Man, Silent Scream, Without Warning, Cataclysm, Night Train to Terror, Screamers, Frankenstein’s Island, plus Mario Bava’s Erik the Conqueror, Blood and Black Lace and Knives of the Avenger, and numerous others.
Movie actress Anita Garvin Stanley, who appeared in a number of Laurel and Hardy comedies, died on 7 July, aged 88. She broke into showbusiness at the age of 12 by lying about her age and becoming a Mack Sennett Bathing Beauty on stage.
American actor Dick Sargent, best remembered as the second actor to play Darrin Stevens in TV’s Bewitched (1969–1972) died of prostate cancer on 8 July. He was 64. In 1991, on National Coming Out Day, Sargent announced that he was gay and was declaring his sexual orientation because of the high suicide rate among young homosexuals.
American tough guy actor Bert Freed died of a heart attack on 2 August while on vacation in Canada, aged 74. Among his many roles was the police chief in the 1953 version of Invaders from Mars.
Soviet star Innokenti Smoktunovsky died from a heart attack on 3 August. He appeared in many classical and popular films, and his roles included Hamlet and also Dr Jekyll (but not Mr Hyde).
American leading man Robert Hutton (Robert Bruce Winne) died on 7 August, aged 73. His many genre credits include The Man without a Body, The Colossus of New York, Invisible Invaders, Cinderfella, The Vulture, You Only Live Twice, They Came from Beyond Space, Torture Garden, Trog and Cry of the Banshee. He also directed and starred in The Slime People and co-scripted Persecution (aka The Terror of Sheba).
Horror great Peter Cushing died on 11 August from prostate cancer, aged 81. For three decades, his partnership with Christopher Lee and Hammer Films made him a household name synonymous with the genre. After making his movie debut in Hollywood during the 1940s, he went on to star in a BBC-TV adaptation of Nineteen Eighty-Four which led to hi
m being cast as Baron Frankenstein in The Curse of Frankenstein (a role he recreated six more times). During his long career he also played vampire-hunter Van Helsing, the time-travelling Dr Who, and consulting detective Sherlock Holmes on more than one occasion, before retiring from the screen in the mid-1980s.
American actor John Doucette died of cancer on 16 August, aged 73. His credits include Sabu and the Magic Ring, 7 Faces of Dr Lao, The Time Machine (1978) and Brave New World.
British light entertainer Roy Castle died on 2 September, aged 61, after a long battle with lung cancer. He co-starred in three films with Peter Cushing: Dr Who and the Daleks, Dr Terror’s House of Horrors and Legend of the Werewolf.
American leading man/tenor Dennis Morgan (Stanley Morner) died on 7 September, aged 85. His film credits include The Return of Dr X.
Actor and New York restaurant owner Patrick O’Neal died on 9 September of tuberculosis and cancer. He was 66. His film credits include The Mad Magician, Chamber of Horrors, Matchless, Castle Keep, Silent Night Bloody Night, The Stepford Wives and many others.
American actor Charles Drake (Charles Ruppert) died on 10 September, after a long illness. He was 76. His credits include Tarzan’s Magic Fountain, Harvey, It Came from Outer Space and Tobor the Great.
British-born actress Jessica Tandy died on 11 September from ovarian cancer. She was 85, and was best known for her long-time partnership with husband Hume Cronyn, with whom she co-starred in Cocoon, Cocoon The Return and *Batteries Not Included. Her other films include Dragonwyck, The Birds and Still of the Night. In 1990 she won an Academy Award for her portrayal of the title role in Driving Miss Daisy.
Tony Award-winning American comic actor Tom Ewell (S. Yewell Tompkins) died on 12 September, aged 85. Best remembered for co-starring with Marilyn Monroe in The Seven Year Itch, his other films include The Girl Can’t Help It, They Only Kill their Masters and episodes of TV’s Lights Out, Alfred Hitchcock and Fantasy Island.
The Best New Horror 6 Page 50
