British literary agent Gerald [John] Pollinger, who represented such SF and fantasy authors as John Wyndham, James Blish and Eric Frank Russell during his more than fifty years with the Laurence Pollinger agency, died on January 5th, aged 79.
Prolific American author Bruce B. [Bingham] Cassiday died from complications from Parkinson’s disease on January 12th, aged 84. A pulp author for such titles as Dime Mystery and Shock, he edited Argosy from 1954–73 and in 1971 became the last fiction editor of Adventure. Cassiday wrote the 1975 novelization Flash Gordon: The War of the Cybernauts (as “Carson Bingham”), co-wrote The Illustrated History of Science Fiction (1989) and edited Modern Mystery, Fantasy, and Science Fiction Writers (1993).
Diane Gail Kelly Goldberg, who published horror fiction as “d. g. k. Goldberg”, died of cancer on January 14th. A former psychotherapist and the author of around fifty short stories, her novels include Skating on the Edge, published as a print-on-demand title, and Doomed to Repeat It. At the time of her death, she left behind a sequel to her first novel and a collection of short stories entitled Wrong Turn.
Canadian-born “cozy” mystery writer Charlotte [Matilda] MacLeod (aka “Alisa Craig”/“Matilda Hughes”) died in Maine the same day, aged 82. Her novels The Curse of the Giant Hogweed, The Wrong Rite and The Grub-and-Stakers House a Haunt include fantasy and supernatural elements.
British-born composer and arranger Albert Harris died in New Zealand on January 14th, aged 88. Arriving in the US in 1936, he worked on such films as Kiss Me Deadly, Master of the World, The Raven (1963), Dr. Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine, The Ghost in the Invisible Bikini and the Curse of Dracula segment of the 1979 TV series Cliffhangers.
Canadian-born Dan Lee (Danny Wei-Ping Lee) died of lung cancer on January 15th, aged 35. Described as one of America’s “brightest and most promising” animation designers, Lee joined Pixar Animation Studios in 1996 where he created major characters for A Bug’s Life, Toy Story 2, Monsters Inc. and Finding Nemo.
German author, editor, translator and literary agent Walter Ernsting (aka “Fred McPatterson”) died in Austria the same day, aged 84. In the 1950s and 1960s he edited and wrote for Utopia-Magazin and Galaxi while, as “Clark Darlton”, he co-founded the hugely successful “Perry Rhodan” franchise with Karl-Herbert Scheer in 1961.
Swedish SF author, poet, playwright, editor and translator Sven Christer Swahn also died on January 15th, aged 71. He had spent the previous three months in a coma. Swahn translated around 300 books into Swedish, and his own titles include 13 Stories of Ghosts and Other Things, My Dearly Departed and A Monster’s Memories: A Ghost Story of the 20th Century.
Bookseller and publisher Stephen Gregg died of a degenerative disorder of the nervous system on January 18th, aged 50. During the 1970s he published the SF semi-prozine Eternity.
Theatre composer Dick Gallagher, whose credits include Have I Got a Girl for You: The Frankenstein Musical, died on January 20th, aged 49.
British author, publisher and antiquarian book dealer Geoffrey Palmer died on January 22nd, aged 92. With his long-time partner Noel Lloyd he wrote a number of children’s ghost stories which appeared in such collections as Ghosts Go Haunting, A Brew of Witchcraft, Ghost Series Around the World, Moonshine and Magic, The Obstinate Ghost and Other Ghostly Tales and Haunting Stories of Ghosts and Ghouls. They also collaborated on a biography of E. F. Benson and another about his father, and published a series of chapbooks under the Hermitage Books imprint.
British SF fan Ken Lake died of liver cancer on January 24th. His reviews, articles and letters appeared in BSFA publications from the early 1980s onwards.
Bookstore owner Beverly J. (Jean) Mason, who ran the wonderful Toad Hall Records and Books in Rockford, Illinois, with her late husband Larry, died on February 3rd, aged 68.
Country music singer and songwriter Merle Kilgore, who was also manager for Hank Williams, Jr, died in Mexico after a long battle with cancer on February 6th, aged 70. He wrote the hit “Wolverton Mountain” for Claude King and teamed up with June Carter to co-write “Ring of Fire”, which became a signature tune for Carter’s husband, Johnny Cash.
Pulitzer Prize-winning American playwright, screenwriter and author Arthur [Asher] Miller, who is probably best remembered for his marriage (1956–61) to Marilyn Monroe, died of congestive heart failure on February 10th, aged 89. Miller’s 1953 play The Crucible was set during the seventeenth-century witch trials in Salem, but was in reality a veiled attack on Joe McCarthy and his House Committee on Un-American Activities. It was filmed in 1997, starring Miller’s son-in-law, actor Daniel Day-Lewis.
American songwriter Jack Segal, who wrote “Scarlet Ribbons”, died of heart failure the same day, aged 86.
American SF and fantasy author and editor Jack L. [Laurence] Chalker died of lung and kidney failure after several surgeries on February 11th, aged 60. When only fourteen years old he started publishing his Hugo-nominated fanzine Mirage, and he later founded the Baltimore Science Fiction Society with a high school friend, which led to the regular Balticons. He was the author of more than sixty books, including A Jungle of Stars (1976), Dancers in the Afterglow, A War of Shadows and The Moreau Factor. His best-known series include “The Well of Souls” novels, “The Four Lords of the Diamonds” quartet, the “Soul Rider” quintet, the “Change-winds” trilogy, and the “Dancing Gods” and “Rings of the Master” sequences. Also the founder of Mirage Press, he also produced such non-fiction studies as The New H. P. Lovecraft Bibliography (1962), In Memoriam: Clark Ashton Smith, The Necronomicon: A Study and The Index to the Science-Fantasy Publishers: A Critical and Bibliographic History (both with Mark Owings), and An Informal Biography of Scrooge McDuck.
American fan and reviewer Gary S. Potter, who co-published and introduced the 1993 chapbook Voyages Into Darkness by Stephen Laws and Mark Morris, died on February 13th, aged 46. His horror fanzine The Point Beyond was published since 1989.
British writer, scriptwriter and anthologist Richard Davis was found dead of an apparent heart attack at his home on February 14th, aged 60. During the 1960s and 1970s he was extremely active in the horror field, making his fiction debut in 1963 in The Pan Book of Horror Stories. In 1966 he became assistant story editor on the BBC-TV’s second series of Out of the Unknown and was also story editor on the 1968 series Late Night Horror. He edited The Tandem Book of Horror Stories No. 2 and No. 3, and the Space, Spectre and Armada Sci-Fi anthology series for younger readers. He began Sphere Books’ annual Year’s Best Horror Stories series in 1971 which, after three volumes, was taken over by other editors and American publisher DAW Books. Davis attempted to continue the series as The Orbit Book of Horror Stories. He also worked as a scriptwriter on the 1974 BBC World Service radio series Price of Fear starring Vincent Price, which formed the basis of the 1976 anthology of the same name.
American SF short story writer and poet Sonya Dorman [Hess] died on the same day, aged 80. She won a Rhysling SF poetry award in 1977 and her fiction appeared in Amazing, The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Orbit and Dangerous Visions. Planet Patrol (1978) was a young adult fix-up novel.
SF author F. M. (Francis Marion) [“Buz”] Busby died after a lengthy intestinal illness on February 17th, aged 83. Winner (with his wife Elinor) of the 1960 Hugo for Best Fanzine for Cry of the Nameless, he made his fiction debut in 1957 in Future SF magazine. His best-known novels include Cage a Man, All These Earths, The Breeds of Man, Arrow from Earth and the “Rissa Kerguèlen”, “Demu” and “Dynas” series. His short fiction is collected in Getting Home.
“Gonzo” American counter-culture journalist Hunter S. (Stockton) Thompson killed himself with a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head on February 20th, aged 67. Well-known for his prolific drug use and eccentric and acerbic behaviour, his cult 1972 book Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas was filmed in 1998 with Johnny Depp as Thompson, and Bill Murray played him in the semi-biographical film Where the Buffalo Roam (1980). Thompson also briefly appeared in the pilot e
pisode of TV’s Nash Bridges, which he co-created with star Don Johnson. The model for the character of “Duke” in Garry Trudeau’s comic strip Doonesbury, he once famously described President Richard Nixon as “America’s answer to the monstrous Mr Hyde. He speaks for the werewolf in us”. Thompson’s ashes were fired from a cannon on August 21st during a fireworks ceremony, which Depp reportedly picked up the $2 million-plus tab for.
75-year-old Polish artist Zdzislaw Beksinski was found dead from multiple stab wounds in his Warsaw home on February 22nd. Two teenagers were charged with murder. Some of his work was collected in The Fantastic Art of Beksinski (1998).
Paperback cover illustrator James Avati died on February 27th, aged 92. His realistic style appeared on such titles as Harry Harrison’s Deathworld titles, Doc Savage: Meteor Menace and the original cover for J. D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye. A documentary, James Avati: A Life in Paperbacks, was released in 2000.
American SF writer Raylyn Moore, the first woman to publish a story in Esquire (1954), died the same day, aged 77. Her books include the novel, What Happened to Emily Goode After the Great Exhibition and the 1974 study of L. Frank Baum, Wonderful Wizard, Marvelous Land. Her short fiction appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, the Orbit anthologies and elsewhere.
Pianist Martin Denny, credited with creating the jungle sounds of “exotica” or “tiki” music in the 1950s, died in Honolulu on March 2nd, aged 93.
Walt Disney animator and character designer Vance Gerry died of cancer on March 5th, aged 75. He began working at Disney in 1955 and was a layout artist on 101 Dalmatians and The Sword in the Stone before moving on to other roles on such titles as The Jungle Book, The Aristocats, The Black Cauldron, The Great Mouse Detective, Hercules, Fantasia 2000 and many others.
Radio and TV scriptwriter Gertrude Fass who, with her husband George (who died in 1965), wrote episodes of Science Fiction Theater and Sherlock Holmes, died on March 6th, aged 95.
British novelist, screenwriter and playwright Willis Hall died on March 7th, aged 75. His TV work included many scripts for Worzel Gummidge, starring Jon Pertwee. His books for children include the “Vampire/Henry Hollins” series beginning with The Last Vampire (1982), and his ghost stories appeared in such anthologies as The Midnight Ghost Book and The After Midnight Ghost Book.
American cartographer and illustrator Karen Wynn Fonstad, who created The Atlas of Middle-Earth (1981), died of breast cancer on March 11th, aged 59. Her other fantasy and SF map books include The Atlas of Pern, The Atlas of the DragonLance World and The Forgotten Realms Atlas.
Scriptwriter William Cannon died on March 12th, aged 67. He wrote such films as Skidoo, Hex and the 1980 TV movie of Brave New World.
93-year-old SF and fantasy author, poet and editor Andre Norton (Alice Mary Norton) died in her sleep of congestive heart failure after a long illness on March 17th at her home in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. A former reader at Gnome Press (1950–58), her first book, The Prince Commands, was published in 1934. Norton’s more than 130 novels, many aimed at young adults, included such titles as Star Man’s Son 2250 A.D., Star Guard, Sargasso of Space (as “Andrew North”), The Time Traders, Catseye, Steel Magic, Operation Time Search, Fur Magic, Exiles of the Stars, High Sorcery, Dragon Magic, Shadowhawk, Dare to Go A-Hunting, Mirror of Destiny, The Solar Queen and the popular “Witch World”, “Time War”, “Beast Master”, “Mark of the Cat”, “Solar Queen” and “Trillium” series. Her 170th book, Three Hands for Scorpio, was published posthumously in 2005. She also collaborated with a number of writers and editors, among them, Robert Adams, Robert Bloch, Marion Zimmer Bradley, Martin H. Greenberg, Mercedes Lackey and Julian May. The author of nearly 100 short stories and editor of numerous anthologies, including the ghostly Small Shadows Creep and the Cat Fantastic series, she became the first female SFWA Grand Master in 1984 and received a World Fantasy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1997. The SFWA Andre Norton Award for young adult novels was inaugurated in 2006. She arranged to be cremated along with copies of her first and last books.
Old-time fanzine publisher Art Rapp died of Alzheimer’s disease on March 24th. Between 1947 and 1950 he produced forty issues of Spacewarp, and continued the title into the late 1990s with issue #204.
Film and TV writer Paul Henning, who created the hit 1960s shows The Beverly Hillbillies and Petticoat Junction and executive produced Green Acres for CBS-TV, died on March 25th, aged 93. He also wrote the Hillbillies theme song, “The Ballad of Jed Clampett”, sung by Jerry Scoggins.
American writer and film-maker Robert F. Slatzer, who wrote two books about Marilyn Monroe and claimed to have briefly married the actress in 1952, died after a long illness on March 28th, aged 77. A scriptwriter for such studios as Monogram, Republic, Universal, MGM, Columbia and Paramount, Slatzer also wrote and directed films, including Bigfoot (1969), starring John Carradine.
Scriptwriter Dave Freeman, whose credits include Rocket to the Moon and episodes of TV’s The Avengers, died on March 28th, aged 82.
Songwriter Jack Keller, who composed the theme song to the 1960s sit-coms Bewitched and Gidget, died of acute leukaemia in Nashville on April 1st, aged 68. His songs include “Everybody’s Somebody’s Fool”, “Venus in Blue Jeans” and the Monkees’ “Your Auntie Grizelda”. Keller was also credited as a producer on the Monkees TV theme and first record album.
Comic strip writer and artist Dale Messick (Dalia Messick), whose long-running Brenda Starr, Reporter ran in 250 newspapers during its peak in the 1950s, died on April 5th, aged 98, after suffering a series of strokes. Messick was pressured by her syndicate to retire in 1985, and she received the National Cartoonist Society’s Milton Caniff Lifetime Achievement Award in 1997. Movie versions of Brenda Starr were filmed in 1945, 1976 and 1987, while the US Postal Service issued a Brenda Starr stamp in 1995.
Canadian-born author Saul (Solomon) Bellow died at his home in Massachusetts the same day, aged 89. The Nobel laureate and Pulitzer Prize-winning author wrote more than a dozen novels, at least two of which are genre-inspired: Henderson the Rain King and Mr. Sammler’s Planet. He appeared in Woody Allen’s Zelig as himself.
Bibliographer and book dealer Leonard A. (Angus) Robbins, who compiled the six-volume set The Pulp Magazine Index for Starmont House (1989–91), died from ALS (Lou Gehrig’s Disease) and pneumonia on April 5th, aged 84.
Animation designer Gene Hazelton died on April 6th, aged 85. He worked on Invitation to the Dance, The Flintstones, Tom and Jerry and the credits for I Love Lucy.
Disney background artist Bill Layne died on April 7th, aged 94. His many credits include Sleeping Beauty, 101 Dalmatians, The Sword in the Stone, Mary Poppins, The Jungle Book, Bedknobs and Broomsticks and Robin Hood.
Feminist author Andrea Dworkin died on April 9th, aged 58.
Terri Pinckard, whose article “Monsters Are Good for My Children” appeared in Famous Monsters of Filmland, died after a long illness on April 10th, aged 75. Her short stories appeared in the Year’s Best Horror Stories, Fantasy Book and Vertex: The Magazine of Science Fiction, and were anthologised by Forrest J Ackerman in such volumes as Dr. Acula’s Thrilling Tales of the Uncanny and Sci-Fi Womanthology.
Australian-born author, magazine columnist and movie expert John [Raymond] Brosnan was found dead in his London flat on April 11th after friends were unable to contact him. He had reportedly died some days earlier of acute pancreatitis. Brosnan, who was aged 57, published several books on genre cinema, including James Bond in the Cinema, Movie Magic: The Story of Special Effects in the Cinema, The Horror People, Future Tense: The Cinema of Science Fiction (aka The Primal Screen: A History of Science Fiction Film), Hollywood Babble On, Lights! Camera! Magic!, Scream: The Unofficial Companion to the Scream Trilogy) and The Hannibal Lecter Story. His novels include such SF and fantasy titles as the “Skylords” series (Skyship, The Midas Deep, The Skylords, War of the Skylords and The Fall of Skylords), The Opononax Invasion, Damned & Fancy, Have Demon Will Travel, Mothership and
Mothership Awakening, along with a number of horror novels under the acronymic pseudonyms “Harry Adam Knight” and “Simon Ian Childer” (often in collaboration with Leroy Kettle) and “James Blackstone” (with John Baxter), including The Fungus, Tendrils, Worm, Torched, Carnosaur, Slimer and Bedlam (the latter three all filmed). Brosnan apparently suffered from acute depression and, according to close friends, simply lost the will to live after years of health problems. He was cremated along with a plastic dinosaur and a Czech translation of one of his novels to the James Bond theme.
American fanzine editor Bill (William) [Lawrence] Bowers was found dead at an assisted living facility on April 18th, aged 61. He probably died of complications from emphysema. From the 1960s–90s he edited such fanzines as the Hugo-nominated Double Bill (with Bill Mallardi), Xenolith and five-times Hugo nominee Outworlds. A Fan Guest of Honour at the 1978 Worldcon, as a drafting engineer he also helped design some of the early Star Wars toys from the Kenner Toy Company.
Canadian-born composer Robert Farnon died on April 21st, aged 87. His credits include the TV shows Quatermass II, The Prisoner and The Champions, along with such movies as Road to Hong Kong and Expresso Bongo.
Czechoslovakian satirical SF author and psychiatrist Josef Nesvadba died on April 25th, aged 78. His collections include The Death of Tarzan (1958, filmed in 1962), Einstein’s Brain, Vampires Ltd. (filmed as Upir z Feratu in 1981), The Last Journeys of Captain Nemo and In the Footsteps of the Abominable Snowman (aka The Lost Face).
Disney artist and writer Joe Grant died of a heart attack at his drawing table on May 6th, aged 96. Starting with Mickey’s Gala Premiere (1933), he worked at Disney designing the evil Queen/Witch in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, was co-story director on Fantasia, co-scripted Dumbo and conceived Lady and the Tramp. His other credits include The Reluctant Dragon, Pinocchio, the Oscar-winning short Der Fuehrer’s Face, Alice in Wonderland, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, The Lion King, Mulan and Fantasia 2000 (the flamingo yo-yo ballet) and he came up with the title Monsters, Inc. At the time of his death he was still working four days a week at Walt Disney Feature Animation.
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