British-born leading lady Hazel Court died of a heart attack in Lake Tahoe, California, on April 15, aged 82. A product of the J. Arthur Rank “charm school”, she appeared in Ghost Ship (1952), Devil Girl from Mars, Hammer’s The Curse of Frankenstein (with Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee) and The Man Who Could Cheat Death (with Lee again), and Doctor Blood’s Coffin. In the 1960s, she made three films for Roger Corman: The Premature Burial (with Ray Milland), The Raven (as the “Lost Lenore”, opposite Vincent Price, Peter Lorre and Boris Karloff) and The Masque of the Red Death (again with Price). Her final film role was an uncredited appearance in the third Omen film, The Final Conflict (1981). She was also featured in episodes of TV’s The Invisible Man (1959), Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Thriller (“The Terror in Teakwood”), The Twilight Zone (1964) and The Wild Wild West (“The Night of the Returning Dead”). Court married British actor Dermot Walsh in 1949. They divorced fourteen years later, and she was subsequently married to American actor and director Don Taylor from 1964 until his death in 1998. In the 1970s she began a second career as a sculptor, and her autobiography, Hazel Court: Horror Queen, was published in 2008.
Danny Federici, long-time keyboard player with Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band, died of melanoma on April 17, aged 58. Federici’s playing helped create the band’s distinctive sound from “Hungry Heart” to “The Rising”.
American actress and scriptwriter Kay Linaker (Mary Katherine Linaker), who as “Kate Phillips” co-wrote The Blob (1958) for just $125.00, died of heart failure on April 18, aged 94. During the 1930s and ’40s she appeared in Charlie Chan at Monte Carlo, The Last Warning, Charlie Chan in Reno, Charlie Chan at Treasure Island (uncredited), Charlie Chan’s Murder Cruise, The Invisible Woman (uncredited), Charlie Chan in Rio and Laura (uncredited), before she retired from acting in 1945.
Norwegian-born actress and Scandinavian sex symbol Julie Ege (Julie Dzuli) died of breast and lung cancer on April 29, aged 64. A former Miss Norway and Penthouse model, the 36–24–36 actress was promoted by Hammer Films as “The New Sex Symbol of the 1970s” for the prehistoric drama Creatures the World Forgot. Her other films include the James Bond adventure On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, Every Home Should Have One (aka Think Dirty), Go for a Take (aka Double Take), The Final Programme (aka The Last Days of Man on Earth, based on the novel by Michael Moorcock), Craze (aka The Infernal Idol), Percy’s Progress (aka It’s Not the Size That Counts, with Vincent Price), The Mutations (aka The Freakmaker), Hammer’s The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires (aka The Seven Brothers Meet Dracula) and the Dutch comedy De Dwaze Lotgevallen van Sherlock Jones. She gave up acting in the mid-1970s, and later became a registered nurse in an Oslo hospital.
British actor Robert Russell, who portrayed Vincent Price’s thuggish sidekick John Stearne in Witchfinder General, died of a heart attack on May 12, aged 71. His other credits include Bedazzled, The Sign of Four (1983) and Strange Horizons, plus episodes of TV’s Out of the Unknown, The Avengers, Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased), The Guardians, Doctor Who, Space: 1999, Blakes 7 and Hammer House of Mystery and Suspense (“Czech Mate”).
Handsome American leading man John Philip Law, best known for playing the blind angel Pygar in Barbarella, died on May 13, aged 70. His other films (many shot in Europe) include Mario Bava’s Danger: Diabolik, Skidoo, The Golden Voyage of Sinbad (as “Sin-bad”), The Spiral Staircase (1975), Un sussuro nel buio, Eyes Behind the Wall, Tod im November, Un ombra nell’ombra, Tarzan the Ape Man (1981), Night Train to Terror (aka Shiver), Moon in Scorpio, Delirio di sangue, Space Mutiny, Alienator, Scream Your Head Off, My Ghost Dog, Curse of the Forty-Niner (which he also associate produced) and I tre volti del terrore.
British actor John Forbes-Robertson, who replaced Christopher Lee as Hammer’s Count Dracula in The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires (aka The Seven Brothers Meet Dracula, 1974), died on May 14, aged 80. The son of legendary theatre actor-manager Sir Johnston Forbes-Robertson, he also appeared in The Vampire Lovers for the same studio, and his other films include Bunny Lake is Missing, Casino Royale (1967), The Vault of Horror, Venom, Lifeforce (uncredited) and Room 36, along with episodes of TV’s Thriller (1975), The New Avengers and Crime Traveller. His last appearance was in the 2008 documentary The Legend of Hammer – Vampires.
Czech-born actress, director and author Hana Pravda (Hana Beck, aka Hana-Marie Pravda) died in London on May 22, aged 90. An Auschwitz survivor, she appeared in the films And Soon the Darkness and Dracula (1973, starring Jack Palance), along with episodes of Department S, Catweazle, Survivors (in the recurring role of “Emma Cohen”), Tales of the Unexpected and Hammer House of Mystery & Suspense (“Czech Mate”). The first of her two husbands was actor George Pravda, from 1946 until his death in 1985.
Eighteen-year-old British actor Robert [Arthur] Knox was stabbed to death while trying to protect his younger brother during a fight outside a bar in Sidcup, south-east London, in the early hours of May 24. Four days earlier he had completed his role as Marcus Belby in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. A 21-year-old jobless man, who went to the same school as the actor, was charged with Knox’s murder.
Eighty-six-year-old Dick Martin (Thomas Richard Martin), best-known as one half of the comedy team Rowan and Martin, who hosted the NBC-TV sketch show Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-In (1968–73), died of respiratory complications the same day. Dan Rowan died in 1987. The pair also appeared together in the 1969 spoof horror movie The Maltese Bippy. Martin’s acting credits include The Glass Bottom Boat and episodes of Fantasy Island and 3rd Rock from the Sun. In the 1970s he became a successful TV director.
Emmy Award-winning American comedian Harvey [Herschel] Korman died on May 29 of complications from the rupture of an abdominal aortic aneurysm suffered four months earlier. He was 81. Although best known for his TV work (he appeared in The Wild Wild West, the infamous Star Wars Holiday Special, three episodes of The Munsters, and voiced the alien The Great Gazoo in The Flintstones), he also appeared in such movies as Disney’s Son of Flubber (uncredited) and Herbie Goes Bananas, Lord Love a Duck, Blazing Saddles, High Anxiety, The Invisible Woman (1983), Alice in Wonderland (1985), Munchies, Radioland Murders, Dracula: Dead and Loving It and The Flinstones in Viva Rock Vegas.
Hollywood actor, director and producer Mel Ferrer (Melchor Gaston Ferrer) died of heart failure on June 2, aged 90. He appeared in The World, the Flesh and the Devil (based on the novel by M. P. Shiel), The Hands of Orlac (aka Hands of a Strangler, 1960), Paris – When It Sizzles (as “Mr Hyde”), The Antichrist (aka The Tempter), Eaten Alive (aka Death Trap), The Return of Captain Nemo, The Norsemen, Screamers, The Visitor, Guyana: Cult of the Damned, The Great Alligator, Eaten Alive! and Nightmare City (aka City of the Walking Dead). His TV credits include episodes of Search, The Fantastic Journey, Wonder Woman, Logan’s Run and Fantasy Island (as “Moriarty”, opposite Peter Lawford’s Sherlock Holmes). Ferrer also produced the thrillers Wait Until Dark (a star vehicle for the fourth of his five wives, Audrey Hepburn), The Night Visitor and W (starring Twiggy).
Pioneering blues guitarist Bo Diddley (Elias Otha Bates) died of heart failure the same day, aged 79. His first single was released in 1955, and among his best-known songs are “Who Do You Love?” and “You Can’t Judge a Book by Its Cover”. He appeared in Rockula, Blues Brothers 2000 and an episode of the Disney TV show So Weird. Winner of Lifetime Achievement at the 1999 Grammy Awards, he was also inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
New Zealand-born TV character actor [William Reginald] Bruce Purchase, who played the cyborg villain The Captain in Douglas Adams’ 1978 Doctor Who episode “The Pirate Planet”, died in London on June 5, aged 69. His other credits include episodes of Doomwatch, The New Avengers, Supernatural, Blakes 7 and The Tripods, along with Alice Through the Looking Glass (as the Walrus), The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1977) and The Quatermass Conclusion.
Robert J. (James) Anderson (aka “Bobby/Bobbie Anderson”), who played Little George Bailey in Frank Capra’s classic Christmas
film It’s a Wonderful Life, died of melanoma on June 6, aged 75. His other movies as a child actor include Mystery of the 13th Guest (directed by his uncle, William “One-Shot” Beaudine) and The Bishop’s Wife (1947). He later became a production manager on The Time Tunnel (1966–67), Goliath Awaits (featuring Christopher Lee and John Carradine) and Solar Crisis, associate produced the 1973 TV movie The Cat Creature (scripted by Robert Bloch), and was the executive in charge of production on Demolition Man.
Actor turned theatrical producer Gene Persson (Eugene Clair Persson) died of a heart attack the same day, aged 74. A juvenile actor in three of the Ma and Pa Kettle film series of the 1950s, he was also in Earth vs. the Spider and Bloodlust! Persson produced Peter Barnes’ play The Ruling Class in London and the 1967 Off-Broadway Peanuts musical, You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown. His second wife was actress Shirley Knight.
American actress Mona Knox died of heart failure on June 11, aged 79. A former child model, she made her movie debut in the early 1950s. Knox’s film appearances include Tarzan and the Slave Girl (as an uncredited slave girl), Aladdin and His Lamp (as an uncredited dancing girl) and Rosemary’s Baby (uncredited last film), along with an episode of TV’s Space Patrol.
South African-born British actor Bruce Lester (Bruce Somerset Lister) died in Los Angeles on June 13, aged 96. After appearing in a number of British films from 1934 onwards, he moved to Hollywood in 1938, where he changed his name from Bruce Lister to Bruce Lester. He appeared (often uncredited) in The Invisible Man Returns (with Vincent Price), British Intelligence (with Boris Karloff), Man Hunt, The Mysterious Doctor, Flesh and Fantasy, Tarzan’s Peril, The Son of Dr Jekyll and Tarzan and the Trappers. Lester was also in a 1951 episode of Fireside Theater (“Drums in the Night”) with George Zucco.
Hollywood dancer and actress Cyd Charisse (Tula Ellice Finklea) died of cardiac arrest on June 17, aged 86. With her legs famously insured for $5 million, she danced with Gene Kelly in Singin’ in the Rain, It’s Always Fair Weather and the 1954 fantasy Brigadoon, and appeared with Fred Astaire in Ziegfeld Follies, The Band Wagon and Silk Stockings. She also appeared in The Silencers, Warlords of Atlantis, and episodes of TV’s Hawaii Five-O (“Death Mask”) and Fantasy Island.
Off-Broadway actress Jacqueline Bertrand died the same day from complications following knee replacement surgery. She was 83. In the 1960s she played a ghost on TV’s Dark Shadows.
Incredibly prolific Canadian-born character actor Henry Beckman died of heart failure in Spain on June 17, aged 86. His numerous film and TV credits (usually as a cop or military type) include Dead Ringer, The Satan Bug, The Stalking Moon, David Cronenberg’s The Brood, Lion of Oz and Epicenter, plus episodes of 1950s Flash Gordon (as “Commander Paul Richards”), The Twilight Zone, My Favorite Martian, My Living Doll, The Man from U.N.C.L.E., The Munsters, The Wild Wild West, Tarzan, The Flying Nun, Bewitched, The Monkees, I Dream of Jeannie, The Immortal, Night Gallery, The Sixth Sense, The Starlost, Kolchak: The Night Stalker, The Six Million Dollar Man, The Lost Saucer, Fantasy Island, Werewolf, The Ray Bradbury Theater, the 1990s Outer Limits, The X Files (“Tooms” and “Squeeze”) and Honey I Shrunk the Kids: The TV Show.
Influential American stand-up comedian and author George [Dennis Patrick] Carlin died of heart failure on June 22, aged 71. As an actor he appeared as “Rufus” in Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure and Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey, and voiced the character in the 1990 cartoon show, Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure. He was also in Scary Movie 3, and voiced characters in Disney’s Tarzan II and Cars, Happily N’Ever After and TV’s The Simpsons.
American actor John T. (Thomas) Furlong, who was the uncredited narrator on Russ Meyer’s Faster Pussycat! Kill! Kill! (1965), died on June 23, aged 75. Furlong also dubbed all Meyer’s screen appearances, and his other credits include Helter Skelter (1976), The Swarm, More Wild Wild West, Suburban Commando, John Carpenter’s Vampires and Maniacts, along with episodes of TV’s The Invisible Man (1975), Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, Fantasy Island and Highway to Heaven.
French-born character actress and drama teacher Lilyan Chauvin, who appeared in Ralph Brooke’s Bloodlust! (1961), died of complications from breast cancer and heart disease on June 26, aged 82. Her many credits include The Mephisto Waltz, Silent Night Deadly Night, Predator 2, Universal Soldier, Pumpkinhead II: Blood Wings, Joe Dante’s pilot The Warlord: Battle for the Galaxy and The Passing, plus episodes of TV’s Adventures of Superman, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, One Step Beyond, Thriller, The Man from U.N.C.L.E., Man from Atlantis, Fantasy Island, Darkroom, Earth 2, The X Files, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Alias. Her acting students included Raquel Welch and Suzanne Sommers.
Sixty-five-year-old American TV actor Don S. (Sinclair) Davis, best known for his recurring roles as “Major Garland Briggs” in Twin Peaks, and “Major General George S. Hammond” in both Stargate SG-1 and Stargate: Atlantis, died of a heart attack in Canada on June 29. A former US Army captain, his many other credits include the movies Watchers, Omen IV: The Awakening, Hook, Needful Things, Hideaway, The 6th Day, Savage Island, Seed, Beneath and Vipers, the TV movies I-Man, Beyond Loch Ness and The Unquiet, and episodes of MacGyver, Nightmare Café, Highlander, M.A.N.T.I.S., X Files (as Dana Scully’s military father), The Outer Limits (1995), Poltergeist: The Legacy, Viper, The Sentinel, Honey I Shrunk the Kids: The TV Show, The Twilight Zone (2003), Andromeda, The Dead Zone, Supernatural and the Sci-Fi Channel’s Flash Gordon.
Versatile British character actress Elizabeth Spriggs (Elizabeth Jean Williams) died on July 2, aged 78. She appeared in the TV movies The Cold Room, Alice in Wonderland (1999), A Christmas Carol (1999), and episodes of Tales of the Unexpected, The Haunting of Cassie Palmer, Simon and the Witch, Doctor Who, The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles, The Casebook of Sherlock Holmes (“The Last Vampyre”), The Tomorrow People (“The Rameses Connection” with Christopher Lee), Tales from the Crypt and the revival of Randall & Hopkirk (Deceased). Spriggs also portrayed the Fat Lady in the first Harry Potter film, but was replaced by Dawn French in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.
Larry Harmon (Lawrence Weiss), who portrayed and licensed popular children’s TV character Bozo the Clown in the 1950s, died of congestive heart failure on July 3, aged 83. He was the announcer on the English-language versions of several Tintin series and, after acquiring the rights to the comedy duo’s names and likenesses, voiced Stan Laurel for the 1966 series A Laurel and Hardy Cartoon.
Harmon also produced the controversial 1999 movie The All New Adventures of Laurel & Hardy in “For Love or Mummy”, and he used the model of robot Gort from The Day the Earth Stood Still for an unsold TV pilot called General Universe and the 1950s series Commander Comet.
Hollywood actress Evelyn [Louise] Keyes, best known for playing Scarlet O’Hara’s younger sister Suellen in Gone With the Wind (1939), died of uterine cancer on July 4, aged 91. She made her movie debut in 1938, and her many credits include Before I Hang (with Boris Karloff), The Face Behind the Mask (with Peter Lorre), Here Comes Mr Jordan, Ladies in Retirement, Strange Affair, A Thousand and One Nights (as the Genie), Around the World in Eighty Days (1956), A Return to Salem’s Lot, Wicked Stepmother (with Bette Davis) and an episode of NBC-TV’s Amazing Stories (“Boo!”). The first of her four husbands shot himself, and she went on to marry film directors Charles Vidor and John Huston, and band leader Artie Shaw. In the 1950s she also had a three-year relationship with film producer Michael Todd, who left her to marry Elizabeth Taylor. She published two tell-all autobiographies, Scarlett O’Hara’s Younger Sister: My Lively Life in and Out of Hollywood (1977) and I’ll Think About That Tomorrow (1991).
Former actor turned San Francisco TV talk-show host Les Crane (Leslie Stein), known as “The Bad Boy of Late-Night Television”, died on July 13, aged 74. In 1971, his Grammy Award-winning spoken-word recording of Max Ehrmann’s poem Desiderata became a one-hit wonder, reaching #8 in the US music charts and #7 in the UK the following year. Crane also appeared in episodes of Burke�
��s Law, The Virginian, It Takes a Thief and Ironside (as himself), and starred in the 1966/73 TV movie I Love a Mystery (as detective “Jack Packard”). From 1966–70 he was married to actress Tina Louise.
British comedy actor Hugh Lloyd MBE died on July 14, aged 85. He began his career in Hancock’s Half Hour, before co-starring with Terry Scott in the BBC’s Hugh and I (1962–67) and The Gnomes of Dulwich (1969). Lloyd’s other credits include the films It’s Trad Dad!, She’ll Have to Go (aka Maid for Murder), The Mouse on the Moon, Quadrophenia, Venom, the 1999 TV version of Alice in Wonderland, along with episodes of Doctor Who (“Delta and the Bannermen”), Woof! and the 2000 remake of Randall & Hopkirk (Deceased). He was so popular with the British public that, in a poll conducted by the Observer newspaper in the 1960s, he was named by readers as second only to Peter Ustinov as the person they would like to see as President if the Queen was ever replaced. Lloyd’s 2002 autobiography was titled Thank God for a Funny Face.
Emmy Award-winning American actress Estelle Getty (Estelle Scher) died July 22, aged 84. She had been suffering from advanced Lewy Body Disease. Best known as the octogenarian Sophia Petrillo in the NBC-TV sitcom The Golden Girls (1985–92), she reprised the character in episodes of Empty Nest, Blossom, Nurses and the shortlived sequel series The Golden Palace (1992–93). Getty also appeared in the films Mannequin and Stuart Little, along with an episode of Touched by an Angel.
German actress and voice artist Eva Pflug, best known in her native country for portraying Officer Tamara Jagellovsk on the short-lived cult TV series Space Patrol: The Fantastic Adventure of the Spaceship Orion (1966), died on August 5, aged 79. She also appeared in Harald Reinl’s influential 1959 Edgar Wallace krimis, Face of the Frog.
The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror 20 Page 66