66-year-old professional American footballer turned actor Marlin McKeever died of complications from injuries received at his home on October 27th. For thirteen years he played with the Los Angeles Rams, the Minnesota Vikings, the Washington Redskins and the Philadelphia Eagles. McKeever and his twin brother Mike (who died in 1967) played the Siamese Cyclops’ Ajax and Argo in The Three Stooges Meet Hercules (1962). He also appeared in Disney’s The Absent Minded Professor (1961).
Smooth-voiced British actor William Franklyn died of prostate cancer on Halloween, aged 81. His films include Roman Polanski’s Cul-de-sac, plus Hammer’s Quatermass 2, The Snorkel and The Satanic Rites of Dracula (aka Count Dracula and His Vampire Bride). On TV, Franklyn appeared in episodes of The New Adventures of Charlie Chan, The Avengers, The Champions and The New Avengers, and he took over the role of the Book from the late Peter Jones for the 2004 Radio 4 presentation of Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.
American actress Bettye Ackerman [Jaffe] died of complications from Alzheimer’s disease on November 1st, aged 82. The widow of actor Sam Jaffe (who died in 1984 and was more than thirty years her senior), her film credits include Face of Fire and Prehysteria! 2, plus episodes of TV’s Alfred Hitchcock Presents (“Speciality of the House”), The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, The Sixth Sense, Wonder Woman and Tales of the Unexpected.
40-year-old independent New York film actress Adrienne Shelly (Adrienne Levine) was found hanged in her office the same day. A 19-year-old construction worker was arrested several days later and charged with second-degree murder in connection with her death (apparently the result of an argument over noise). Shelly wrote and directed the 1994 horror film Urban Legend.
Trinidad-born Hollywood actress Marian Marsh [Henderson] (Violet Ethelred Krauth) died on November 9th, aged 93. Best known as the teenage Trilby O’Farrell under the mesmeric influence of John Barrymore in the 1931 Svengali, based on George du Maurier’s 1894 novel, her other credits include The Mad Genius (again with Barrymore), The Black Room (with Boris Karloff), Crime and Punishment (with Peter Lorre), The Man Who Lived Twice and Murder by Invitation. After retiring in the late 1950s, she married her second husband, pioneer aviator Clifford Henderson, who founded the California community of Palm Desert in the 1940s.
Academy Award-winning “tough guy” actor Jack Palance (Vladimir Palahniuk, aka “Walter Jack Palance”) died on November 10th, aged 87. Best known for his Westerns (including the classic Shane), Palance’s more than 125 film appearances also included Man in the Attic (as Jack the Ripper), The Silver Chalice, Amicus’ Torture Garden, Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1968), Jess Franco’s Justine (aka Deadly Sanctuary), Craze, Dracula (1973, as the Count), Welcome to Blood City, H. G. Wells’ The Shape of Things to Come, Hawk the Slayer, Without Warning, Evil Stalks This House (aka Tales of the Haunted), Alone in the Dark, Gor and Outlaws of Gor, Batman (1989), Solar Crisis, Cyborg 2, Twilight Zone: Rod Serling’s Lost Classics, The Swan Princess, Ebenezer, The Incredible Adventures of Marco Polo and Living With the Dead (aka Talking to Heaven). On TV he hosted the documentary series Unknown Powers (1978) and ABC’s Ripley’s Believe It or Not! (1980–85), the 1997 special Monster Mania, and narrated The Omen Legacy (2001). Palance also appeared in episodes of TV’s Lights Out, Suspense, The Man from U.N.C.L.E., Buck Rogers in the 25th Century and Night Visions.
76-year-old British character actress Diana Coupland died the same day after failing to recover from heart surgery. Her first husband was composer Monty Norman and, in 1962, she supplied the voice for Ursula Andress’ Honey Ryder singing “Underneath the Mango Tree” in the first James Bond movie, Dr. No.
R&B singer Gerald Levert, son of The O’Jays’ lead singer Eddie Levert, died on November 10th, aged 40. He suffered from a heart condition and died from an apparently accidental mixture of over-the counter and prescription drugs.
British character actor Ronnie Stevens died on November 12th, aged 81. For the 1963 puppet TV series Space Patrol (aka Planet Patrol) he voiced the characters Slim, Husky and Professor Hag-garty. Other television work included narrating the children’s series Noggin the Nog and appearing in episodes of The Avengers, Tales of the Unexpected and Goodnight Sweetheart. Stevens also appeared in the movies Some Girls Do and Morons from Outer Space.
Busy British character actor John [William Francis] Hallam died on November 14th, aged 65. Best known as the tyrannical 19th-century squire Thomas Mallen in the 1979 TV series of Catherine Cookson’s The Mallens, he also appeared in the films Quest for Love, Trial by Combat (aka Dirty Knight’s Work), The People That Time Forgot, Flash Gordon (1980), Dragonslayer, Lifeforce, Santa Glaus, Kull the Conqueror and The Incredible Adventures of Marco Polo. His role as PC McTaggart in the opening scenes of The Wicker Man (1973) were cut from the original theatrical release of the cult movie. Hallam’s TV credits include The Chronicles of Narnia (1989), The 10th Kingdom, Arabian Knights and episodes of Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased), Moonbase 3, Doctor Who (“Ghost Light”) and She-Wolf of London.
R&B singer Ruth Brown died of complications from a stroke and heart attack on November 17th, aged 78. Between 1949 and 1961 she had more than two dozen hits, including “(Mama) He Treats Your Daughter Mean”. Brown also appeared in such films as Under the Rainbow and Hairspray (1988).
80-year-old American character actor Jeremy Slate died of complications following oesophageal cancer surgery on November 19th. His many films include Hitchcock’s North by Northwest (uncre-dited), Born Losers, Hell’s Angels ’69 (he also wrote the original story), Hell’s Belles, the obscure Curse of the Moon Child, Wes Craven’s Stranger in Our House (aka Summer of Fear), The Dead Pit and The Lawnmower Man. He also appeared in episodes of TV’s Men Into Space, One Step Beyond, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, The Man from U.N.C.L.E., The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, Bewitched, Tarzan, Ghost Story, Wonder Woman and Starman.
South African-born Vonne Shelley, who as a teenager appeared in a small number of films under the name “Yvonne Severn”, including Tower of London (1939), died on November 22nd, aged 79.
76-year-old French actor Philippe Noiret died on November 23rd after a long battle with cancer. The two-time Cesar Award-winner’s more than 125 film credits include The Night of the Generals, Hitchcock’s Topaz and the supernatural comedy Fantome avec chauffeur.
Veteran American jazz and big-band vocalist Anita O’Day (Anita Belle Colton) died of cardiac arrest the same day, aged 87. She recorded around thirty albums and wrote candidly of her battles with heroin addiction and alcoholism in her 1981 biography, Hard Times, Hard Times.
British actor Anthony Jackson, who played the ghostly Fred Mumford in the children’s TV series Rentaghost (1976–78), died on November 26th, aged 62. As a voice artist, he contributed to Labyrinth and Watership Down.
“Greetings, pop-pickers!” After being diagnosed with arthritis in 1991, Australian-born British disc jockey Alan “Fluff” [Leslie] Freeman MBE died on November 27th, aged 79. He was a pioneering presenter for BBC Radio since the early 1960s and, later, TV’s Top of the Pops. In 1965 he starred in the carnivorous vine episode of the anthology film Dr Terror’s House of Horrors and appeared as God in two episodes of TV’s The Young Ones (1984). “Not arf!”
French actress Claude Jade (Claude Marcelle Jorre) died of complications from eye cancer on December 1st, aged 58. A discovery of Francois Truffaut, who fell in love with her, she appeared in Hitchcock’s Topaz and such TV productions as A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1969), the mini-series Coffin Island and a 1990 episode of The Hitchhiker.
Actor and voice artist Sid Raymond (Raymond Silverstein) died of a stroke the same day, aged 97. Best remembered as the voice of such cartoon characters as Baby Huey and Katnip, he also appeared in Fright (aka Spell of the Hypnotist, 1957) and Tobe Hooper’s The Funhouse.
84-year-old American supporting actor Adam Williams (Adam Berg) died of lymphoma on December 4th. His many credits include The Day the Earth Stood Still, The Space Children, and episodes of TV’s Science Fiction Theater, The Twilight Zo
ne, Thriller, Alfred Hitchcock Presents and Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea.
American stuntman turned actor Michael Gilden died on December 5th, aged 44. Best known for playing Finnegan and Liam on several episodes of TV’s Charmed, he also appeared in Star Wars IV: Return ofthejedi (as an Ewok), Freaked, Pulp Fiction, Snow White (2001) and Twice Upon Christmas.
Actor Russell Wade died on December 9th, aged 89. Best remembered for his roles in Val Lewton’s The Leopard Man, The Ghost Ship and The Body Snatcher, he also appeared in The Falcon in Danger and A Game of Death. He retired from the screen in the late 1940s for a career as a realtor.
American character actor Peter Boyle died of multiple myeloma and heart disease on December 12th, aged 71. A former member of the Christian Brothers religious order, he spent three years living in a monastery before he turned to acting. After working as a production manager on the offbeat science fiction comedy The Monitors (1968), Boyle’s acting credits include Young Frankenstein (as a singing and dancing Monster), Taxi Driver, Beyond the Poseidon Adventure, Outland, Solar Crisis, The Shadow (1994), The Santa Clause, A Deadly Vision, Species II, Doctor Dolittle (1998), The Adventures of Pluto Nash, The Santa Claus 2 (uncredited), Scooby-Doo 2 Monsters Unleashed and The Santa Claus 3: The Escape Claus. He also appeared in two episodes of TV’s Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, and he won an Emmy Award for his guest-starring role in The X Files episode “Clyde Bruckman’s Final Repose” (1995). John Lennon was the Best Man at Boyle’s wedding to Rolling Stone journalist Loraine Alterman.
Mike Evans, who played Lionel Jefferson in the American TV sitcoms All in the Family and The Jeffersons, died of throat cancer on December 14th, aged 57. He also appeared in the films Now You See Him Now You Don’t and The House on Skull Mountain.
Former model Kimberly [Ann] Ross, who starred in the 1989 horror film Pumpkinhead, died on December 19th, aged 47. She also appeared in The Last Starfighter.
Republic Pictures leading lady Lois Hall died of a heart attack on December 21st. The 80-year-old actress had earlier been taken ill on the set of David Fincher’s The Curious Case of Benjamin Button filming in New Orleans. Although best known for appearing in Westerns, her many other credits include playing a low budget female Tarzan in Daughter of the Jungle, the 1949 serial The Adventures of Sir Galahad (as the Lady of the Lake) and Kenneth Branagh’s Dead Again. On TV she appeared in episodes of Dick Tracy (1950), Fireside Theatre (“The Canterville Ghost”), Adventures of Superman, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Miracles and Lost.
Peter G. Spelson, who produced, scripted and starred in the 1980 horror/SF film The Psychotronic Man, died the same day, aged 75.
“Hello, my darlings.” 81-year-old British TV and film comedian Charlie Drake (Charles Edward Springall) died in his sleep at a London nursing home on December 23rd following a long illness caused by two strokes in the late 1990s. In 1974 he starred in the Children’s Film Foundation movie Professor Popper’s Problem, in which he was shrunken down to miniature size. His novelty pop song “My Boomerang Won’t Come Back” stayed at the #1 slot for four weeks in the Australian music charts in December 1961.
“The Godfather of Soul”, influential American singer James Brown, died of pneumonia in Atlanta, Georgia, on Christmas Day, aged 73. Best known for such hits as “I Got You (I Feel Good)”, “It’s a Man’s World” and “Get Up (I Feel Like Being a Sex Machine)”, he appeared in Ski Party, The Phynx, The Tuxedo, The Blues Brothers and Blues Brothers 2000. Brown’s funky music can also be heard on the soundtracks for The Fan, Android, Jacob’s Ladder, Hudson Hawk, Ghost in the Machine, Demon Knight, The Nutty Professor (1996), Pace/Off Kiss the Girls, Doctor Dolittle (1996), My Favorite Martian, Muppets from Space, Nutty Professor II: The Klumps, Osmosis Jones, Black Knight, Garfield, Blade Trinity and Disney’s Robots.
Tough guy character actor Frank Campanella died on December 30th, aged 87. One of his first roles was as Mook the Moon Man in an episode of TV’s Captain Video and His Video Rangers, and Campanula’s other credits include Seconds, Matt Helm (1975), High Anxiety, Heaven Can Wait (1978), Angel on My Shoulder (1980), Dick Tracy (1990) and episodes of TV’s Wild Wild West, Kolchak: The Night Stalker and Salvage 1.
FILM/TV TECHNICIANS
American cinematographer Leonard J. South died of pneumonia and complications from Alzheimer’s disease on January 6th, aged 92. Best known for his nearly a dozen collaborations with Alfred Hitchcock, including Dial M for Murder, North by Northwest, Rear Window, The Trouble with Harry, The Man Who Knew Too Much, Vertigo, The Birds and Family Plot, his other films include Hang ’em High, Herbie Goes to Monte Carlo, Home for the Holidays, A Cold Night’s Death, Scream Pretty Peggy, Satan’s Triangle, The Ghosts of Buxley Hall and the TV series Rod Serling’s Night Gallery and Buck Rogers in the 25th Century.
74-year-old Academy Award-winning film editor Stu Linder died of a heart attack while on location on January 12th. His credits include Seconds, Catch-22, The Day of the Dolphin, Young Sherlock Holmes and Sphere.
British production designer Norris Spencer, a frequent collaborator with Ridley and Tony Scott, died of pneumonia the same day, aged 62. He worked on Britannia Hospital, Hannibal and National Treasure.
Oscar-winning German film producer Franz Seitz died after a long illness on January 19th, aged 84. In 1979 he directed a version of Thomas Mann’s Doctor Faustus.
Austrian-Hungarian-born film and TV director Otto Lang died of complications from heart disease on January 30th, aged 98. Arriving in America in the mid-1930s, he worked on such TV series as World of Giants (which he also produced), Men Into Space and The Man from U.N.C.L.E.
Polish-born film director, animator, sculptor and photographer Walerian Borowczyk died in Paris on February 3rd, aged 82. His 1974 film Immoral Tales featured Paloma Picasso as Countess Bathory bathing in the blood of virgins, The Beast (1975) was an erotic retelling of “Beauty and the Beast”, and Bloodlust (aka Dr Jekyll and His Women, 1979) marked the final screen appearance of actor Patrick Magee.
Writer, television director and drama professor Luther James died on February 5th, aged 76. He directed episodes of Bewitched and was a production executive on such CBS-TV shows as Mission Impossible, The Wild Wild West, The Man from U.N.C.L.E. and The Girl from U.N.C.L.E.
British animator Eddie (Edric) Radage died in early February. His many credits include Animal Farm (1954), Yellow Submarine, Watership Down, The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe (1979), The Snowman and the 1967 TV series The Beatles.
Scriptwriter, producer and director Frank Q. Dobbs died of cancer on February 15th, aged 66. Although best-known for his many Western TV series, his credits also include Enter the Devil and the recent mini-series of King Solomon’s Mines, Mysterious Island and The Poseidon Adventure.
Australian-born film director Peter Sykes died on March 1st, aged around 66. In the early 1970s he brought some class to a flagging Hammer Films with Demons of the Mind and To the Devil a Daughter. His other credits include Venom (aka The Legend of Spider Forest), the Frankie Howerd comedy The House on Nightmare Park and several episodes of TV’s The Avengers and Orson Welles’ Great Mysteries.
Canadian-born director Lindsay Shonteff died in England on March 11th, aged 70. In the 1960s he filmed two low budget British horrors, Devil Doll and Curse ofSimba (aka Curse of the Voodoo). His other credits include Licensed to Kill (aka The Second Best Secret Agent in the Whole Wide World), The Million Eyes of Sumuru, Night After Night After Night (as “Lewis J. Force”), No.l of the Secret Service and Licensed to Love and Kill.
Animation director Brad Case died on March 19th, aged 93. He began his career as an animator on Disney’s Bambi and also worked on Song of the South and Make Mine Music. In the 1960s he moved to television, where he directed episodes of The Dick Tracy Show, The Pink Panther and Friends and The Fantastic Four. His other credits include Frankenstein Jr and the Impossibles, Birdman and the Galaxy Trio, Goober and the Ghost-Chasers, Shinbone Alley and Daffy Duck’s Movie: Fantastic Island.
66-year-old Spanish film director and scriptwriter Eloy German de la Iglesia died on March 23rd, following an operation for renal cancer. His films include Fantasia . . . 3, Cannibal Man, Clockwork Terror and No One Heard the Scream.
Australian film producer Barbi Taylor died on March 24th, aged 59. Her credits in various production capacities include Patrick, Snapshot, Thirst, Road Games, Frog Dreaming and Jackie Chan’s First Strike.
Veteran Hollywood director Richard Fleischer died on March 25th, aged 89. The son of 1930s animator Max Fleischer, his numerous films include Disney’s classic 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, The Vikings, Fantastic Voyage, Doctor Dolittle (1967), The Boston Strangler, Blind Terror (aka See No Evil), 10 Rillington Place, Soylent Green, Amityville 3-D, Conan the Destroyer and Red Sonja.
Emmy Award-winning producer-director Dan Curtis died of brain cancer on March 27th, aged 77. Creator of the Gothic daytime soap opera Dark Shadows (1966–71 and 1991), which initially ran for 1,225 episodes on ABC-TV, his movies and TV films include The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1968), House of Dark Shadows and Night of Dark Shadows, The Night Stalker and The Night Strangler, The Norliss Tapes, The Picture of Dorian Gray (1973), Dracula (1973), The Turn of the Screw, Scream of the Wolf, Trilogy of Terror, Burnt Offerings, Curse of the Black Widow, Dead of Night (1977) and Intruders (1992). His wife Norma died of heart failure two weeks earlier.
Mechanical special effects technician Gerald Endler died the same day, aged 94. His many films include Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, Silent Running, Battle for the Planet of the Apes, Sleeper, The Towering Inferno, Apocalypse Now and episodes of TV’s The Ghost and Mrs. Muir, Lost in Space, Land of the Giants and Time Tunnel.
Gloria Monty, who executive produced ABC-TV’s daytime soap opera General Hospital for more than a decade, died of cancer on March 30th, aged 84. She took over the struggling show in 1978, introducing more fantasy-orientated plots to attract a new audience. More recently, Monty produced a number of TV movies based on books by Mary Higgins Clark, including Remember Me, While My Pretty One Sleeps and Let Me Call You Sweetheart.
The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror 18 Page 72
