The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror

by Stephen Jones

  The 1940s “singing cowboy” Monte Hale (Samuel Buren Ely) died the same day, aged eighty-nine. He made nearly three dozen “B” Westerns for Republic Pictures and had a small role as Rock Hudson’s lawyer in Giant. Hale also appeared in the 1945 serial The Purple Monster Strikes and an episode of TV’s Honey West. The actor also had his own popular comic book series, which were translated into twenty-seven languages. He later became the original owner of the Los Angeles Angels baseball team, and helped establish the Autry National Center of the American West.

  Canadian-born actor and country music disc jockey Murray Kash, who voiced the character Colonel Raeburn in the 1960s puppet TV series Space Patrol, died in London on March 30, aged eighty-five. He had small roles in episodes of Tales of Adventure (“20,000 Leagues Under the Sea”), The New Adventures of Charlie Chan, Invisible Man (1959), Out of the Unknown and Whoops Apocalypse, plus the movies Mouse on the Moon, Devils of Darkness and Thunderball. His scenes were cut from The Pink Panther Strikes Again. Kash was married to singer and comedienne Libby Morris.

  Texan character actor Lou Perryman (Louis Byron Perryman, aka Lou Perry) was shot to death on April 1 by a mentally ill convict who was out on parole. He was sixty-seven. After working as an assistant cameraman on The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, Perryman had small roles in The Blues Brothers, Poltergeist, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2, The Cellar and The Monster Hunter (aka Natural Selection).

  Veteran Hispanic character actor Victor Millán (Joseph Brown), who portrayed Zahir in the 1950s TV series Ramar of the Jungle, died on April 3, aged eighty-nine. He also appeared in such movies as Orson Welles’ Touch of Evil, Doc Savage The Man of Bronze, and episodes of Bewitched, The Flying Nun, Kung Fu, The Six Million Dollar Man and Knight Rider.

  Jody McCrea (Joel Dee McCrea), the eldest son of actors Joel McCrea and Frances Dee, died of cardiac arrest on April 4, aged seventy-four. The six-foot, three-inch actor was best known for his role as the dimwitted surfer Deadhead/Bonehead in AIP’s Beach Party, Muscle Beach Party, Bikini Beach, Pajama Party, Beach Blanket Bingo and How to Stuff a Wild Bikini. He also appeared in a number of Westerns (four with his father), along with The Monster That Challenged the World and The Glory Stompers. He all-but-retired from acting in 1970 and became a cattle and elk rancher in Hondo, New Mexico.

  American character actress and political activist Maxine Cooper, who memorably made her film debut as Ralph Meeker’s sexy secretary Velda in Robert Aldrich’s classic film noir, Kiss Me Deadly (1955), died the same day, aged eighty-four. She married Oscar-nominated screenwriter Sy Gomberg in 1957, but was “grey-listed” by the Hollywood establishment for her outspoken political views. Subsequently only featured in supporting roles, her later credits include Aldritch’s What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? and episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents and The Twilight Zone.

  Philippine actress Tita Muñoz (Maria Theresa Sanchez Muñoz) died on April 11, aged eighty. She appeared in Mad Doctor of Blood Island.

  Former advertising model and actress Marilyn Chambers (Marilyn Ann Briggs), who had a career in both adult films and mainstream movies, died in her mobile home of a cerebral haemorrhage following an aortic aneurysm on April 12. She was fifty-seven. As well as appearing in such movies as Behind the Green Door, Resurrection of Eve, Beyond De Sade and Insatiable and Insatiable II, she also starred in David Cronenberg’s Rabid and the sci-spy spoof Angel of H.E.A.T. More recently she appeared such direct-to-video fare as Bedtime Fantasies, Lusty Busty Fantasies, Dark Chambers, Little Shop of Erotica and Naked Fairy Tales.

  Former actress and community activist Lesley Gilb [Taplin], who played the seductive title role in the 1973 vampire film Lemora: A Child’s Tale of the Supernatural, was killed on April 13 in a six-car pile-up on Los Angeles’ Highway 101. She was sixty-two.

  British actor, musician and writer Bob Hewis (Robert John Hewis) died of an aneurysm the same day, aged fifty-six. He appeared on stage (as The Actor) in The Woman in Black and scripted a radio and stage adaptation of Edgar Allan Poe’s The Tell-Tale Heart.

  Thin-faced Spanish character actor Fernando [Jose] Hilbeck [Gavalda] died on April 25, aged seventy-five. His many movies include Pyro, It Happened at Nightmare Inn, Voodoo Black Exorcist, Clockwork Terror, Creation of the Damned, The Living Dead at the Manchester Morgue, The Possessed, Flesh + Blood, Howl of the Devil (with Paul Naschy) and Mi nombre es sombra, a 1996 version of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.

  Tony and Emmy Award-winning actress-comedienne Bea Arthur (Bernice Frankel), best known for her role as Dorothy Zbornak on the NBC sitcom The Golden Girls (1985–92), died of cancer the same day, aged eighty-six. In 1958 she played an ugly witch in an episode of the 1950s Omnibus TV series, was an alien bartender in the infamous The Star Wars Holiday Special (1978), and contributed her voice to an episode of Futurama.

  Overweight comedian Dom DeLuise (Dominick DeLuise) died of kidney failure and respiratory complications from cancer on May 4, aged seventy-five. His many film credits include Fail-Safe (1964), The Glass Bottom Boat, The Busy Body, The Adventure of Sherlock Holmes’ Smarter Brother, The Muppet Movie, Wholly Moses!, The Secret of NIMH and its sequel, Haunted Honeymoon, An American Tail and All Dogs Go to Heaven, along with their sequels and spin-off TV series, Spaceballs, the uncompleted The Princess and the Dwarf, The Magic Voyage, Munchie, The Silence of the Hams, A Troll in Central Park and Lion of Oz, plus episodes of The Munsters, The Girl from U.N.C.L.E., The Ghost & Mrs Muir, Amazing Stories, SeaQuest DSV, 3rd Rock from the Son, Hercules, Sabrina the Teenage Witch, Stargate SG-1 and Duck Dodgers.

  Hollywood leading lady Jane Randolph (Jane Roemer), who starred in Val Lewton’s Cat People and its sequel, Curse of the Cat People, died the same day in Gstaad, Switzerland, of complications from hip surgery. She was ninety-three. Her other films include The Falcon’s Brother, The Falcon Strikes Back, the Universal serial The Mysterious Mr M, and (Abbott and Costello) Meet Frankenstein. She retired in the late 1940s and moved to Spain with her husband, property developer Jaime del Amo, and became a Madrid socialite. Disney reportedly used Randolph as a model for one of the humans in the ice-skating sequence in the 1942 cartoon Bambi.

  Lynyrd Skynyrd bass player Donald “Ean” Evans died of cancer on May 6, aged forty-eight. Evans joined the tragedy-hit band in 2001, after the death of Leon Wilkeson.

  Four-foot, seven-inch Mickey Carroll (Michael Finocchiaro), another of the last surviving Munchkins from The Wizard of Oz (1939), died of a heart ailment and complications from Alzheimer’s disease on May 7, aged eighty-nine. He played the candy-striped Fiddler Munchkin, for which he claimed he was paid just $125 a week. He also reportedly appeared in the Spanky and Our Gang film series and his godfather was mobster Al Capone. Carroll later worked for his family’s gravestone-making business and replaced the worn headstone for L. Frank Baum’s niece, Dorothy Gage, when her grave was rediscovered. Carroll’s family subsequently sued his caregiver, who he had signed control of his assets over to four months prior to his death.

  The sixty-seven-year-old actress and dancer Linda Dangcil lost a seven-year battle with tonsilar cancer the same day. In 1954, at the age of twelve, she made her Broadway debut as a Native American dancer in Peter Pan, starring Mary Martin. She recreated the role in the 1960 TV version, and her other credits include playing Sister Ana in ABC’s The Flying Nun (1967–70), portraying a singing trucker in an episode of 3rd Rock from the Sun, and contributing voice work to the cartoon series A Pup Named Scooby-Doo and Batman.

  American character actor Frank Aletter died of lung cancer on May 13, aged eighty-three. Best known for his roles in sitcoms, he also appeared in Disney’s Now You See Him Now You Don’t, and episodes of The Twilight Zone, My Favorite Martian, Planet of the Apes, The Six Million Dollar Man, Kolchak: The Night Stalker, The Invisible Man (1975), Holmes and Yo-Yo, The Bionic Woman, Project U.F.O., Fantasy Island and Automan. From 1958 to 1974 Aletter was married to actress and former Miss America Lee Meriweather.

  Australian actor and director Charles
“Bud” [William] Tingwell died of complications from prostate cancer on May 15, aged eighty-six. He flew Spitfires for the Royal Australian Air Force during World War II, and throughout the 1960s became a familiar face on British television in such shows as Adam Adamant Lives!, The Avengers (“Return of the Cybernauts”), Sherlock Holmes, Out of the Unknown, Catweazle and U.F.O., as well as voicing Captain Brown on Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons. He returned to his native Australia in 1973, where he starred in 126 episodes of the popular police series Homicide (1973–77) and guested on an episode of the children’s superhero series Legacy of the Silver Shadow. Tingwell’s film credits include Tarzan the Magnificent, Hammer’s The Secret of Blood Island and Dracula Prince of Darkness, Thunderbirds Are GO!, On the Beach (2000), WillFull and Antigravity. He was given a state funeral at St Paul’s Cathedral, Melbourne.

  Busy Norwegian-born German actor, stunt co-ordinator, assistant director and special effects expert Freddy (Goffredo) Unger died in Italy in mid-May, aged around seventy-six. He had suffered a stroke some years earlier and was confined to an electric wheelchair. Unger appeared in such films as Mario Bava’s Blood and Black Lace and Knives of the Avenger, Hercules Against the Moon Men, Wild Wild Planet, The War of the Planets, War Between the Planets, Snow Demons, Cannibal Apocalypse, Absurd, Panic, Exterminators in the Year 3000, Devil Fish, Lamberto Bava’s Demons, Wax Mask and numerous Spaghetti Westerns. Behind the camera, he worked on The Humanoid, Treasure of the Four Crowns, Hercules (1983), Yor the Hunter from the Future and Demons 5: The Devil’s Veil.

  Former sound-effects editor Wayne [Anthony] Allwine, the voice of Disney’s Mickey Mouse for thirty-two years, died of complications from diabetes on May 18, aged sixty-two. His wife, Russi Taylor, who was the voice of Minnie Mouse, was at his side. Allwine started his career as a Disney post room assistant before becoming the voice of Mickey in 1977 for The New Mickey Mouse Club. His many credits include Mickey’s Christmas Carol, The Black Cauldron, The Great Mouse Detective, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Runaway Brain, How to Haunt a House, Mickey’s Once Upon a Christmas, Fantasia 2000 and Mickey’s House of Villains, plus Splash and Star Trek V: The Final Frontier. In 1986 he won an Emmy Award for his sound editing on Steven Spielberg’s NBC-TV series Amazing Stories.

  British leading man Simon Oates (Arthur Charles Oates), who portrayed the rebellious and flamboyant Dr John Ridge in the BBC-TV series Doomwatch (1970-72) and the spin-off movie from Tigon British, died of prostate cancer on May 20, aged seventy-seven. His other credits include episodes of The Avengers, Nigel Kneale’s Beasts, The New Avengers and the Polish-made Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson. He portrayed John Steed in a 1971 London stage version of The Avengers, and also co-starred with Zena Marshall (who died in July) in the low-budget Amicus SF movie The Terrornauts, scripted by John Brunner and based on Murray Leinster’s novel The Wailing Asteroid.

  British actress and former model Lucy Gordon hanged herself the same day in the Paris apartment she shared with her cinematographer boyfriend. The twenty-eight-year-old was reportedly despondent over the recent suicide of a friend. She appeared in small roles in the films Perfume, Serial and Spider-Man 3.

  Voice actress Joan Alexander (Louise Abras, aka Joan A. Stanton), who made a career of portraying Daily Planet reporter Lois Lane, died of an intestinal ailment on May 21, aged ninety-four. She played the Man of Steel’s girlfriend on Mutual Radio’s The Adventures of Superman (1940-51), Max Fleischer’s Superman cartoon shorts of the early 1940s, and episodes of the 1960s animated shows The New Adventures of Superman, The Superman/Aquaman Hour of Adventure and The Batman/Superman Hour. The actress was also a regular on the Philo Vance and Perry Mason radio series, and appeared in TV’s Captain Video and his Video Rangers.

  Veteran British character actor and amateur numerologist Terence [Joseph] Alexander died of Parkinson’s disease on May 28, aged eighty-six. A regular on the BBC’s detective drama Bergerac (1981-91) as Charlie Hungerford, he also appeared in episodes of The New Adventures of Charlie Chan, The Avengers, The Champions, Star Maidens, The New Avengers, Doctor Who, Hammer House of Mystery and Suspense (“The Corvini Inheritance”) and Worlds Beyond. Alexander’s movies included Carry On Regardless, The Mind Benders, The Magic Christian, The Vault of Horror and the 1984 TV movie Frankenstein. He retired from acting in 1999.

  Millvina Dean, the last survivor of the Titanic, died at a nursing home in Hampshire on May 31, aged ninety-seven. At just nine weeks old, Dean was the youngest person on the liner when, during its maiden voyage, it struck an iceberg on April 14, 1912 and sank. A month before Dean’s death, Leonardo DiCaprio, Kate Winslet and James Cameron, the stars and director of the 1997 movie Titanic, collectively donated $30,000 to a fund to pay her nursing home fees.

  On June 3, the body of seventy-two-year-old American actor and singer David Carradine (John Arthur Carradine), the eldest son of veteran actor John Carradine, was found hanging naked in a closet in a hotel room in Bangkok, Thailand. He had been shooting a movie in the country, and the cause of death was allegedly an attempt at auto-erotic asphyxiation that went wrong, although an autopsy failed to confirm an exact cause of death. Best known for his role as Kwai Chang Caine in the popular ABC series Kung Fu (1972-75) and the syndicated Kung Fu: The Legend Continues (1993-97), Carradine appeared in more than 200 movies and TV shows, including Death Race 2000, Deathsport, Circle of Iron (aka The Silent Flute, with Christopher Lee), Trick or Treats, The Warrior and the Sorceress, The Bad Seed (1985), Warlords, I Saw What You Did, Wizards of the Lost Kingdom II, Future Force, Sundown The Vampire in Retreat (as Count Dracula), Dune Warriors, Future Zone, Evil Toons, Waxwork II Lost in Time, Light Speed, Children of the Corn V: Fields of Terror, Knocking on Death’s Door, The Shepherd, The Monster Hunter, Nightfall, Dead & Breakfast, The Last Sect (as Van Helsing), Fall Down Dead, The Rain, Detention, Dinocroc vs. Supergator, Night of the Templar, Eldorado, The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, Night Gallery (“The Phantom Farmhouse”), Darkroom, The Fall Guy (“October 31st”), Hammer House of Mystery and Suspense (“A Distant Scream”), Amazing Stories, The Ray Bradbury Theater, Charmed and Medium. He also hosted a video version of the silent classic Nosferatu: The First Vampire that featured a soundtrack by Goth-metal band Type-O Negative. Carradine’s acting career received a much-needed boost when he starred in the titular role in Quentin Tarantino’s two-part over-the-top action movie Kill Bill, and he voiced his original character of Frankenstein in the 2008 remake of Death Race.

  Veteran Chinese kung fu actor Kien Shih (Wing-Cheung Shek) died of kidney failure the same day, aged ninety-six. He began his career in 1939 as a make-up man in Hong Kong and is probably best known for his role in Enter the Dragon (1973) opposite Bruce Lee. From the 1940s onwards Shih appeared in more than 300 films, including A Ghostly Tale, The Ten Brothers vs. the Sea Monster, Ali Baba and the 40 Robbers, The Blonde Hair Monster, The Magic Whip, The Horrors of the Evil Shadow, Magic Snowflake Sword, Blood Reincarnation, A Friend from Inner Space and The Magic Crystal. Because he could not speak English, many of Shih’s performances were dubbed by Keye Luke.

  Hollywood leading man Ward Costello died of complications due to a stroke on June 4, aged eighty-nine. His many credits include AIP’s Terror from the Year 5000 (aka Cage of Doom), Disney’s Return from Witch Mountain, Bloody Birthday, Firefox and Project X, plus episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents and Star Trek: The Next Generation.

  American character actor Del(bert) Monroe, who appeared in the 1961 movie Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea and played Kowalski in all four seasons of the ABC-TV spin-off series, died of leukaemia on June 5, aged seventy-three. He also appeared in episodes of The Time Tunnel, Mission Impossible, Ark II, The Amazing Spider-Man, Wonder Woman, Time Express, The Incredible Hulk and Medium.

  Kenyan-born British actor and Church of England minister [Walter] Tenniel Evans died of emphysema on June 10, aged eighty-three. Descended from Mary Anne Evans (aka “George Eliot”) and Alice in Wonderland illustrator John Tenniel, he was the son-in-law o
f actor Leslie Banks. Evans appeared in episodes of The Avengers, Out of the Unknown, Journey to the Unknown, Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased), Menace, The Ghosts of Motley Hall, Ripping Yarns (“The Curse of the Claw”), The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and Worlds Beyond. He encouraged his friend Jon Pertwee to audition for Doctor Who and Evans appeared with the actor in the show’s four-part “Carnival of Monsters” serial.

  American TV announcer Ed McMahon (Edward Peter Leo McMahon, Jr) died on June 23, aged eighty-six. For thirty years he worked as Johnny Carson’s straight man on NBC’s The Tonight Show. McMahon also narrated the 1955 horror film Dementia (aka Daughter of Horror) and was in Slaughter’s Big Rip-Off, Legends of the Superheroes and Full Moon High. He guested as himself in Elvira’s Movie Macabre, Bewitched (2005), and episodes of Amazing Stories, ALF, Pinky and the Brain, The Simpsons (“Treehouse of Horror IX”), Sabrina the Teenage Witch and Duck Dodgers.

  Welsh-born character actress Irene Richmond died on June 24, aged ninety-seven. She had roles in The Brain, Dr Terror’s House of Horrors and Hammer’s Nightmare and Hysteria.

  Singer, dancer and songwriter Michael [Joseph] Jackson, who sold an estimated 200 million albums while he was alive, died from apparent cardiac arrest on June 25, aged fifty. A much-publicized autopsy revealed that his body contained lethal doses of a powerful medical anaesthetic – propofol – and at least two sedatives. A former child singer with his brothers in the 1970s Motown group The Jackson 5, he later became a solo artist with a string of mega-hits culminating in 1982 with the biggest-selling record album of all time, Thriller. In later years Jackson became a reclusive and controversial figure due to his bizarre behaviour and odd physical appearance. John Landis directed a thirteen-minute promotional video for the title song from Thriller (featuring a “rap” by Vincent Price), in which the King of Pop played both a zombie and a werewolf. Jackson also appeared in The Wiz (as the Scarecrow), Disney’s 3-D attraction Captain EO, Michael Jackson’s Ghosts and Men in Black II, and he sang the title song for the 1972 killer rat movie Ben. Jackson’s plans to produce and star in a 2002 biopic, The Nightmares of Edgar Allan Poe, came to nothing.