Harper Goff, who designed the Nautilus for Disney’s 2000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954) died on March 3rd, aged 81. His other credits include Casablanca, Fantastic Voyage and Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.
Robert Becker, who directed two episodes of TV’s Star Trek the Next Generation, was killed in a car accident on May 6th. He was 47.
Producer Paul Malvern died on May 29th at the age of 91. He started his film career as a stunt man, but went on to produce many movies for Monogram and Universal Studios during the 1940s, including Doomed to Die, Phantom of Chinatown, The Mad Doctor of Market Street, The Mystery of Marie Roget, House of Frankenstein and House of Dracula.
James Bridges, who scripted Colossus The Forbin Project and wrote and directed The China Syndrome, died of intestinal cancer on June 6th, aged 57.
TV producer Sam Rolfe died of a heart attack while playing tennis on July 10th, aged 69. Among his many credits, he created and produced the sci-spy series The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (1964–68) and The Girl from U.N.C.L.E. (1966–67).
John Beck, who produced the fantasies Harvey (1950) and One Touch of Venus, died on July 18th, aged 83.
Robert Glass, who won an Oscar for his sound work on E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial, was found stabbed to death in his Los Angeles home on July 21st, apparently the victim of a robbery. He was 53.
Jazz pianist Roy Budd died from a brain haemorrhage, aged 46. His final work was a symphonic score for the silent The Phantom of the Opera (1925).
Cinematographer Claude Renoir, the nephew of film director Jean Renoir, died on September 5th in France, aged 79. His credits include The Witches of Salem (aka The Crucible), Blood and Roses, Barbarella and The Spy Who Loved Me.
Charles Lamont, who directed such comedies as That’s the Spirit, . . . Meet the Invisible Man, Abbott and Costello Meet Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, Abbott and Costello Meet the Mummy, Abbott and Costello Go to Mars and Francis in the Haunted House, died of pneumonia on September 12th, aged 98.
Film editor Christian Nyby, who is credited as directing Howard Hawks’ The Thing from Another World (1951), died on September 17th, aged 80. He also directed several episodes of the original Twilight Zone TV series.
TV writer/producer Richard Landau died on September 18th of complications following surgery. He was 79 and his many credits include The Wild Wild West, Space: 1999, The Six Million Dollar Man and Beyond Westworld.
Director Gordon Douglas died on September 29th, aged 85. His many movie credits include thirty Our Gang shorts, Zombies on Broadway, Gildersleeve’s Ghost, Them!, The Fiend Who Walked West, In Like Flint and Skullduggery.
Writer and animator Leo Salkin, who inspired the character of Mr Magoo, died of congestive heart failure on October 13th, aged 80. His credits include Disney’s Lady and the Tramp, 2000 Year Old Man starring Mel Brooks, and the TV cartoon The Addams Family.
Italian writer/director Federico Fellini died on October 31st, aged 73. He was in a coma for two weeks after suffering a heart attack caused by choking on a piece of mozzarella cheese. The five-time Oscar winner made around thirty films, including La Strada, Nights of Cabiria, 8½, Juliet of the Spirits, Spirits of the Dead, Fellini’s Satyricon, The Clowns and Amarcord.
British director and screenwriter Duncan Gibbins, whose credits include Eve of Destruction, died on November 3rd from burns he suffered in the series of Malibu wildfires when he went back into his blazing home to rescue a cat. He was aged 41 and his other films include Fire With Fire and Third Degree Burn.
Italian producer Mario Cecchi Gori died of a heart attack in Rome on November 5th, aged 73. His many credits include Toto in the Moon, The Church and The Devil’s Daughter (aka The Sect).
Gerald Thomas, director of the Carry On series (including Carry On Spying and Carry On Screaming) died on November 9th, aged 72.
Disney art director Ken Anderson, aged 84, died on December 13th after suffering a stroke. He worked on Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Pinocchio, Fantasia, Sleeping Beauty and Pete’s Dragon, and was the principal designer of the original Disneyland.
Actor and director Sam Wanamaker died on December 18th after a five year battle against cancer. He was 74 and received a CBE in July in recognition of his campaign to build a replica of Shakespeare’s Elizabethan Globe theatre next to London’s River Thames. In 1977 he directed Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger.
Alexander Mackendrick, who directed the SF comedy The Man in the White Suit, died of pneumonia in Los Angeles on December 22nd. Aged 81, his other credits included The Ladykillers, Whisky Galore (aka Tight Little Island) and A High Wind in Jamaica.
Hollywood agent Irving “Swifty” Lazar died of kidney failure on December 30th, aged 86. His clients included Humphrey Bogart, Ernest Hemingway, Noel Coward, Truman Capote, Richard Nixon, Cole Porter, Franco Zeffirelli and Faye Dunaway.
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