American SF cover artist Stanley Meltzoff died on November 9th, aged 89. In the 1950s he painted a number of influential covers for Signet/NAL paperbacks for books by Isaac Asimov, Alfred Bester, Edmond Hamilton, Robert A. Heinlein and A. E. van Vogt, amongst others. He also did the covers for Science Fiction Terror Tales edited by Groff Conklin and the Gold Medal paperback of Richard Matheson’s I Am Legend. Meltzoff illustrated the May 1955 issue of The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction.
Jack (John Stewart) Williamson (aka “Will Stewart”), the oldest surviving author from Weird Tales and the early pulp magazines, died at his home in New Mexico on November 10th, aged 98. Widely regarded as “the Father of American Science Fiction”, he began his career with “The Metal Man” in Amazing Stories in 1928 (three years before the term “science fiction” was actually coined). In a career that spanned an incredible nine decades, he contributed to most of the major magazines, including Science Wonder Stories and Astounding, and his novels include The Girl from Mars (with Miles J. Breuer, 1929) published by Hugo Gernsback, The Legion of Space, Darker Than You Think, The Humanoids and its sequel The Humanoid Touch, Seetee Shock and Seetee Ship, the “Undersea Quest” and “Starchild” trilogies (both with Frederik Pohl), Manseed, Firechild and The Stonehenge Gate (2005). In the 1990s, Haffner Press began collecting all Williamson’s short fiction in handsome limited editions, and Seventy-Five: The Diamond Anniversary of a Science Fiction Pioneer was published in 2004. The annual Jack Williamson Lectureship Series began at Eastern New Mexico University in 1977, and The Jack Williamson Science Fiction Library at the university contains some 30,000 books and magazines. A winner of both the Hugo and Nebula Awards for his fiction, he was also a recipient of the SFWA Grand Master Award, the World Fantasy Life Achievement Award, and the World Horror Convention Grand Master Award. His 1984 Hugo Award-winning autobiography, Wonder Child: My Life in Science Fiction, was updated in 2005.
Ken Ishikawa, who co-created the 1970s giant robot anime Getter Robo, died on November 15th, aged 58.
British literary agent Maggie (Margaret) [Irene] Noach died on November 17th, aged 57. She was admitted to hospital complaining of back pains. Diagnosed with a broken vertebra, she developed breathing problems during an operation on her spine that led to massive heart failure. After beginning her career at A. P. Watt, Noach established her own literary agency in 1982 and represented such SF authors as Brian Aldiss, Geoff Ryman, Stephen Baxter, Garry Kilworth, Michael Scott Rohan and Colin Greenland. With her second husband, Alan Williams (the son of actor and playwright Emlyn), she complied The Dictionary of Disgusting Facts (1986).
American-born writer Guy Mariner Tucker, author of the 1996 study, Age of the Gods: The History of Japanese Fantasy Film, died of heart failure in Tokyo the same day. He contributed many articles on Japanese fantasy films to such magazines as G-Fan, Cult Movies and Kaiju-Fan.
American television writer Chris Hayward, who co-created The Munsters and also worked on Rocky and Bullwinkle, died on November 20th, aged 81.
Russian-born Broadway lyricist and screenwriter Betty Comden (Basya Cohen), whose credits include the Mary Martin stage version of Peter Pan, On the Town, Singin’ in the Rain and The Band Wagon with songwriter Adolph Green (who died in 2002), died of heart failure on November 23rd, following a long illness. She was aged around 90. Comden’s lyrics were also heard in What a Way to Go!, Blue Sunshine, The Addams Family, Dr Giggles and TV’s Star Trek Deep Space Nine.
Jerry G. (Gwin) Bails, regarded as “the father of American comic book fandom”, died of a heart attack the same day, aged 73. He began publishing his influential fanzine, Alter Ego, in 1961 and his books include Collector’s Guide: The First Heroic Age, Who’s Who in American Comic Books, Fifty Who Made DC Great, Golden Age of Comic Fandom and Alter Ego: The Best of the Legendary Fanzine.
Prolific British author Sydney J. (James) Bounds died of cancer on November 24th, aged 86. He joined the Science Fiction Association in 1937, where he met writers Arthur C. Clarke, William F. Temple and John Christopher (Sam Youd). Bounds founded the SF fan group, the Cosmos Club, during World War II, and his early fiction appeared in the club’s fanzine, Cosmic Cuts. His first professional sale never appeared, but by the late 1940s he was contributing “spicy” stories to the monthly magazines published by Utopia Press. His early novels include Dimension of Horror, The Moon Raiders, The World Wrecker and The Robot Brains. Writing under a wide number of pseudonyms, he became a regular contributor to such SF magazines as Tales of Tomorrow, Worlds of Fantasy, New Worlds Science Fiction, Other Worlds Science Stories and Fantastic Universe, amongst other titles. When the magazine markets began to dry up, Bounds became a reliable contributor to such anthology series as New Writings in SF, The Fontana Book of Great Ghost Stories, The Fontana Book of Great Horror Stories, The Armada Monster Book and The Armada Ghost Book. His story “The Circus” was adapted by George A. Romero for a 1986 episode of the TV series Tales of the Darkside. Other anthologies to feature his stories include Tales of Terror from Outer Space, Gaslight Tales of Terror, Frighteners, Keep Out the Night, The Mammoth Book of Vampires, The Mammoth Book of New Terror, Great Ghost Stories, Tales to Freeze the Blood and Philip Harbottle’s Fantasy Adventure series. In 2002, Harbottle edited the first-ever collections of Bounds’ work, The Best of Sydney]. Bounds: Strange Portrait and Other Stories and The Best of Sydney]. Bounds: The Wayward Ship and Other Stories, for Cosmos Books.
90-year-old actress and author Phyllis Fraser (Helen Brown Nichols/Phyllis Cerf Wagner) died of complications from a fall the same day. The cousin of Ginger Rogers, she appeared in a handful of 1930s films, including Thirteen Women and The Black Room (with Boris Karloff). She married publisher and co-founder of Random House, Bennett Cerf, in 1940. With Herbert A. Wise she co-edited the seminal anthology Great Tales of Terror and the Supernatural in 1944 for her husband’s The Modern Library imprint. Following Cerf’s death in 1971, she married New York City Mayor Robert Wagner four years later. In the late 1950s she started collaborating with her friend Theodore Geisel (“Dr. Seuss”) on a number of children’s books, including Green Eggs and Ham and The Cat in the Hat Comes Back.
American academic Leon E. (Eugene) Stover, who collaborated with Harry Harrison on the 1968 anthology Apeman, Spaceman and the 1972 novel Stonehenge, died of complications from diabetes on November 25th, aged 77. Stover also wrote non-fiction studies about Harrison, H. G. Wells and Robert A. Heinlein.
American comic book illustrator Dave [Emmett] Cockrum, best-known for his work with Len Wein on Marvel’s X-Men title during the mid-1970s, died after a long battle with diabetes on November 26th, aged 63. Many of the X-Men characters Cockrum co-created and designed, including Storm, Mystique, Nightcrawler and Colossus, went on to appear in the popular film franchise. His other credits include drawing the Legion of Super-Heroes for DC Comics before he moved to Marvel. He reportedly died wearing Superman pyjamas and was cremated in a Green Lantern shirt.
Film music composer and conductor Shirley Walker died of a brain aneurysm on November 29th, aged 61. Her many credits include The Dungeonmaster, Ghoulies, Memoirs of an Invisible Man, Batman: Mask of the Phantasm, The Haunting of Seacliff Inn, The Adventures of Zoom in Outer Space, Escape from L.A., It Came from Outer Space 2, Asteroid, The Love Bug (1997), all three Final Destination films and the remakes of Willard (2003) and Black Christmas (2006). She also scored many animated TV series, including Batman (1992–95).
51-year-old American author [John] Pierce Askegren was found dead at his home from a massive heart attack the same day. He wrote the “Inconstant Moons” trilogy (Human Resource, Fall Girl and Exit Strategy) along with comic books and TV and gaming tie-ins.
42-year-old British writer Craig Hinton, whose credits include five Doctor Who spin-off novels, was found dead at his London home on December 3rd.
Romance writer Patricia [Anne] Matthews died of respiratory failure and congestive heart failure on December 7th, aged 79. Her 1991 novel The Unquiet was an oc
cult romantic thriller, and as “Laura Wylie” she wrote the 1970s horror novel The Night Visitor. She was also the author of a number of Gothic romances, often in collaboration with her husband Clayton Hartley Matthews, under the pen name “Patty Brisco”.
American comics artist Martin Nodell, who co-created and illustrated the original 1940s Green Lantern under the name “Matt Dellon”, died on December 9th, aged 91. Nodell reportedly got the idea for Green Lantern’s magic ring while waiting for a New York subway and seeing a train operator waving his green light. The character soon got his own comic book, which ran until 1947. He was revived in 1959 and has appeared in various incarnations since. Nodell eventually left the comics industry in the early 1950s and moved on to a career in advertising, where he was part of the original team who created the Pillsbury Doughboy.
TV scriptwriter Robert Schaefer died of emphysema on December 14th, aged 80. He wrote for numerous shows, including Science Fiction Theater and Highway to Heaven, and scripted the 1958 feature The Lone Ranger and the Lost City of Gold.
American comics artist Hardin “Jack” Burnley, who was the first person other than their creators to draw Superman, Batman and Robin during the Golden Age of comics, died of complications from a broken hip on December 19th, aged 95. Burnley drew the cover for New York’s World Fair in 1940, featuring the heroic trio, and he continued at DC, assisted by his sister Betty as letterer and brother Ray as background inker, where he co-created Starman (with Gardner Fox) for Adventure Comics and All-Star Comics. He retired in 1976.
American SF author Jayge Carr (Margery Ruth Krueger), whose books include Leviathan’s Deep, died on December 20th, aged 66. A contributor to Omni, Analog, The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction and Amazing, she also wrote the “Rabelais” series of novels: Navigator’s Sindrome, The Treasure in the Heart of the Maze and Rabelaisian Reprise.
86-year-old British children’s author [Ann] Philippa Pearce, whose Carnegie medal-winning time-slip novel Tom’s Midnight Garden was published in 1958, died of a stroke on December 21st while visiting an exhibition of her work at the Seven Stories children’s book museum in Newcastle-upon-Tyne. Her other books include What the Neighbours Did and Other Stories and Who’s Afraid? and Other Strange Stories, and she edited Dread and Delight: A Century of Children’s Ghost Stories.
American SF fan Dick (Richard Harris) Eney died of a stroke on December 22nd, aged 74. He published the Fancychpedia II in 1959 and was Fan Guest of Honor at the 1984 World Science Fiction Convention.
PERFORMERS/PERSONALITIES
49-year-old Bryan Harvey, the former singer and guitarist with folk/ rock duo House of Freaks, was found dead with his family in the basement of his burning home in Richmond, Virginia, on New Year’s Day. Along with his wife and two young daughters, he had been bound with tape and had his throat cut before the house was set ablaze. With drummer Johnny Hott, Harvey released five acclaimed albums between 1987 and 1995, including Tantilla (1989), Cakewalk (1991) and Invisible Jewel (1994).
Stuntman and actor Jerry Summers died the same day, aged 74. The movies he worked on include Surf Party, Dr. Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine, The Phynx, Diamonds Are Forever, 99 & 44/100% Dead, Charlie Chan and the Curse of the Dragon Queen, D.A.R.Y.L., The Monster Squad and Alien Nation.
Danish-born actress Osa Massen died in Santa Monica on January 2nd, aged 91. She went to Hollywood in the late 1930s, where she appeared in such films as Cry of the Werewolf, Night Unto Night and Rocketship X-M. She was also in a 1955 episode of TV’s Science Fiction Theatre. After retiring from acting, she served on the foreign film selection committee for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences.
Puerto Rican-born actor and television producer Raul Davila, who played a voodoo priest in The Believers (1987), died of a heart attack in New Jersey the same day, aged 74.
British character actor John Woodnutt died on January 3rd, aged 81. His film credits include The Scarlet Blade, All Neat in Black Stockings, Lifeforce and Dragonhead: A New Beginning. On TV Woodnutt appeared in Children of the Stones, as “Merlin” in Knightmare (1987–90) and in episodes of Suspense, The Saint, Sherlock Holmes, The Avengers, Adam Adamant Lives!, Out of the Unknown, The Tomorrow People, Doctor Who and The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes.
Phyllis [Lucille] Gates, the former wife of Rock Hudson (who died of AIDS in 1985), died of complications from lung cancer on January 4th, aged 80. She met Hudson in 1954 while working as a secretary for his agent. They married a year later but divorced in 1958. She later discovered that the romance had been arranged to dispel rumours that the actor was gay. Gates became an interior designer and never saw Hudson again.
Soul singer Lou Rawls died of lung and brain cancer on January 5th, aged 72. During a forty-year career, Rawls released more than sixty albums and won three Grammy Awards. His biggest hit was “You’ll Never Find (Another Love Like Mine)” in 1976. During the 1960s he branched into acting, appearing in such films as Angel Angel Down We Go (aka Cult of the Damned), Morella, Blues Brothers 2000 and episodes of Fantasy Island, The Fall Guy, Early Edition and Baywatch Nights (as regular “Lou Raymond”). As a voice artist he also contributed to Garfield and The Rugrats Movie.
Stage and screen actress Anne Meacham died on January 12th, aged 80. After earning an Obie Award for creating the role of “Catherine Holly” in the 1958 Off Broadway production of Tennessee Williams’ Suddenly Last Summer, she appeared in such films as Lilith, Dear Dead Delilah, Seizure and Seeds of Evil (aka The Gardener).
Two-time Academy Award-winning Hollywood star Shelley Winters (Shirley Schrift) died of heart failure on January 14th, aged 85. She had been in poor health since suffering a massive heart attack the previous October. After working as a chorus girl on Broadway, Winters moved to Los Angeles in the early 1940s where she shared an apartment with a then unknown Marilyn Monroe. Initially cast for her curvaceous 37–26–36 figure, she later reinvented herself as a capable character actress with more than 130 films to her credit, including A Thousand and One Nights, A Double Life (she also appeared in the TV remake), The Night of the Hunter, Wild in the Streets, The Mad Room, Roger Corman’s Bloody Mama, What’s the Matter with Helen?, Whoever Slew Auntie Roof (aka Who Slew Auntie Roof), Revenge, The Poseidon Adventure (1972), The Devil’s Daughter (1972), Cleopatra Jones, The Tenant, Pete’s Dragon, Tentacles, The Initiation of Sarah, The Visitor, Witchfire, Déjà Vu, Alice in Wonderland (1985), The Purple People Eater and Rudolph and Frosty’s Christmas in July. The actress also played “Ma Barker” on the 1960s Batman TV show. She was married and divorced three times, including to actors Vittorio Gassman and Anthony Franciosa, and in two biographies (1981 and 1989) claimed romances with Burt Lancaster, Erroll Flynn, Clark Gable, William Holden, Marlon Brando and Elvis Presley.
American leading man Anthony (Tony) Franciosa (Anthony Papaleo) died of a massive stroke on January 19th, less than a week after the death of his former wife (1957–60), actress Shelley Winters. He was 77. The actor, who went to Hollywood in the mid-1950s, had a reputation for being “difficult” on movie sets. His credits include Antonio Margheriti’s Web of the Spider, Earth II, Curse of the Black Widow, Dario Argento’s Tenebrae (aka Unsane), Daughter of Death, Ghost Writer, La Morte e di Moda and a TV remake of The Night of the Hunter (1991). In 1957 he served ten days in the Los Angeles County jail for punching a press photographer, and two years later went to prison for thirty days for possession of marijuana. Universal fired him from the 1968–71 TV series The Name of the Game, accusing of him of “erratic behaviour”. He also co-starred in the 1972–73 series Search (as “Nick Bianco”), but his sci-spy show Matt Helm was cancelled after half a season in 1976.
American soul singer “Wicked” Wilson Pickett died of a heart attack on January 20th, aged 64. His 1960s hits include “Mustang Sally” and “The Midnight Hour”. His career enjoyed a renaissance in 1991 with the release of the film The Commitments, about a Dublin band that idolised him, and his last album, the Grammy-nominated It’s Harder Now, was released
in 1999.
43-year-old American character actor Chris (Christopher) Penn, the burly younger brother of actor Sean and son of director Leo (who died in 1998), was found dead on January 24th in his Santa Monica apartment. According to the coroner’s office, the main cause of death was an oversized heart and the effects of multiple medication intake. Best remembered for his role as “Nice Guy Eddie Cabot” in Quentin Tarantino’s Reservoir Dogs, his other credits include Pale Rider, Future Kick and Fist of the North Star.
91-year-old Fayard Nicholas, who performed with his younger brother Harold (who died in 2000) as the tap dancing Nicholas Brothers, died of pneumonia and complications from a stroke the same day. The team made their film debut in 1932 and later headlined at the Cotton Club in Harlem.
Benny Hill’s straight man, comedian and actor Henry McGee, died of complications from Alzheimer’s disease on January 28th, aged 77. Early in his career he appeared in the 1950 SF thriller Seven Days to Noon, and he was also in Hammer’s Fanatic (aka Die! Die! My Darling), Digby the Biggest Dog in the World, Come Play With Me, Revenge of the Pink Panther, Carry On Emmannuelle and TV’s The Avengers.
Scottish-born ballerina and actress Moira Shearer [King] (Lady Kennedy) died on January 31st, aged 80. She had been ill for some time. The flame-haired dancer first rose to prominence as the lead in Michael Powell’s The Red Shoes (1948), and continued the collaboration with Powell in The Tales of Hoffman and Peeping Tom. She was married to author and broadcaster Ludovic Kennedy and hosted the 1972 Eurovision Song Contest in Edinburgh.
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