Prolific British fantasy author Louise Cooper (Louise Antell) died of a brain aneurysm on October 21, aged fifty-seven. She worked in publishing before becoming a full-time writer in 1977, and her more than eighty books for both adults and children included her debut, The Book of Paradox (1973), plus the “Time Master” trilogy (The Initiate, The Outcast and The Master), the “Indigo” sequence (Nemesis, Inferno, Infanta, Nocturne, Troika, Avatar, Revenant and The Aisling), the “Daughter of Storms” trilogy (Daughter of Storms, The Dark Caller and Keepers of the Light), the “Mirror, Mirror” trilogy (Breaking Through, Running Free and Testing Limits), Storm Ghost, The Summer Witch, Hunter’s Moon, The Bad Seed and Doctor Who: Rip Tide.
American writer and editor Janet [Kaye] Fox died the same day after a long struggle against cancer. She was sixty-eight. A former high school teacher, she was best known as the editor of the monthly writers’ market report Scavenger’s Newsletter from 1984 to 2003. Fox’s short stories and poems appeared in Twilight Zone Magazine, Weird Tales, Cemetery Dance, Weirdbook, Whispers, Fantasy Tales and elsewhere, and some of her fiction was collected in Witch’s Dozen (2003). Between 1990 and 1993 she also wrote five of the six novels in Ace Books’ “Scorpio” SF series under the house name “Alex McDonough” (Scorpio Rising, Scorpio Descending, Dragon’s Blood, Dragon’s Eye and Dragon’s Claw).
Maureen Doyle, the wife of agent/editor/publisher Philip Harbottle, died of a massive pulmonary embolism on October 21. Together they worked on the short-lived 1970s British SF magazine Vision of Tomorrow, which Harbottle edited.
Seventy-three-year-old American artist Don Ivan Punchatz, who studied with Burne Hogarth and designed the first Star Wars poster, died on October 22. He had suffered a heart attack eleven days earlier and never regained consciousness. From 1970 onwards, the artist used a team of multiple assistants, known as “the elves”, to help him meet tight deadlines. His work appeared in numerous magazines, including Playboy, Esquire, Rolling Stone, Time, National Lampoon and National Geographic, and he also produced book covers for Isaac Asimov’s “Foundation’’ trilogy, Philip José Farmer’s “Riverworld’’ series, Harlan Ellison’s Dangerous Visions anthology and various Ray Bradbury titles, along with the packaging art for the original Doom video game. During his career, Punchatz worked for publishers Ace, Dell, Avon, Warner and New American Library.
Comic-book collector Sheldon Dorf, the freelance artist and letterer who founded the hugely successful and influential San Diego Comic-Con in 1970, died of kidney failure on November 3, aged seventy-six. He had been hospitalized for more than a year, suffering from complications of diabetes. Dorf was hired to letter Milton Caniff’s Steve Canyon strip during its final fourteen years and he was also a consultant on the 1990 film Dick Tracy. Characters based on him appeared in Caniff’s Steve Canyon and Jack Kirby’s Mister Miracle. The first San Diego event attracted 300 people, which was enough to keep it going, and by 2009 attendance had risen to more than 125,000.
Ninety-one-year-old British SF bibliographer I. (Ignatius) F. (Frederic) “Ian” Clarke died on November 5, following complications from a leg amputation three months earlier. An expert on future-war fiction, he wrote The Tale of the Future, Voices Prophesying War, The Pattern of Expectation and eight volumes of the “British Future Fiction” series. In 1974 he received the Pilgrim Award from the Science Fiction Research Association for distinguished contribution to science fiction studies.
British editor, publisher and literary agent William Miller died in Japan the same day, aged seventy-five. After working at the Four Square paperback imprint, he joined John Boothe in the early 1960s as joint managing editor of Panther Books, which published H.P. Lovecraft and others. Panther was bought by Granada Publishing in 1965, and seven years later Miller and Boothe resigned from Granada to launch Quartet Books along with Ken Banerji and Brian Thompson. The new imprint included Michael Moorcock and Angela Carter. Miller moved to Tokyo in 1979, where he co-founded the English Agency to sell translation rights to Japanese publishers.
Ron Sproat, who was the head writer (1966–69) for TV’s Dark Shadows and created that series’ vampire character, Barnabas Collins, died of a heart attack on November 6, aged seventy-seven.
American H.G. Wells scholar David C. Smith, who was vice-president of The H.G. Wells Society and wrote the respected 1988 Wells biography Desperately Mortal, died on November 7.
American academic and scholar Karl Kroeber, the brother of Ursula K. Le Guin, died after a long battle with cancer on November 8, aged eighty-three. He wrote the 1988 non-fiction study Romantic Fantasy and Science Fiction.
British author Robert (Paul) Holdstock died of a severe E. coli infection on November 29, aged sixty-one. He had been admitted to a London hospital after collapsing two weeks earlier and moved to intensive care after slipping into a coma with complete organ failure. Holdstock’s first story appeared in New Worlds in 1968, and during the 1970s and 1980s he published a number of novels in various genres under a wide variety of pseudonyms, including “Robert Faulcon” (the “Night Hunter” series), “Chris Carlsen” (the “Beserker” series) and “Richard Kirk” (the “Raven” series). He also wrote the film novelizations of Legend of the Werewolf (as “Robert Black”) and The Emerald Forest. But the author is best-known for his World Fantasy Award-winning novel Mythago Wood (1984) and its various sequels: Lavondyss: Journey to an Unknown Region, The Hollowing, Merlin’s Wood, Gate of Ivory Gate of Horn and Avilion. His other novels include Eye Among the Blind, Earthwind, Necromancer, Stars of Albion, Where the Time Winds Blow, The Fetch, Ancient Echoes, Unknown Regions and the “Merlin Codex” (Celtika, The Iron Grail and The Broken Kings). He co-edited the anthologies Stars of Albion with Christopher Priest and three volumes of Other Edens with Christopher Evans, and he co-wrote a number of art books with Malcolm Edwards, including Alien Landscapes, Tour of the Universe, Magician, Realms of Fantasy and Lost Realms.
American writer and publisher [Marcelo] “Buddy” Martinez committed suicide by hanging himself on November 30. He had apparently been depressed about money problems. In 1990, Martinez, Jesus (J.F.) Gonzalez and Bill Furtado founded the horror magazine Iniquities (later Phantasm). He then took over Afraid after the magazine’s founder, Mike Baker, died, and went on to publish a short-lived spin-off title, Skull. Martinez also handled layout and design for a number of Gauntlet Press titles, and he wrote several short stories (which appeared in Mondo Zombie and elsewhere). An eBay auction was organized to help pay for his funeral costs.
American literary agent Don (Donald) [Keith] Congdon, who was Ray Bradbury’s agent for more than fifty years (Fahrenheit 451 is dedicated to him), died the same day, aged ninety-one. Congdon’s other clients included Jack Finney, C.L. Moore and Henry Kuttner, and he edited the anthologies Alone by Night (with Michael Congdon), Tales of Love and Horror and Stories for the Dead of Night.
Harry C. Crosby, Jr, who wrote science fiction under his own name and that of “Christopher Anvil”, also died on November 30, aged eighty-four. His first story appeared in Imagination in 1952, and over the next couple of decades he appeared in Astounding/Analog more than any other author. His novels include The Day the Machines Stopped, Strangers in Paradise, Warlord’s World, The Steel the Mist and the Blazing Sun and Pandora’s Legions (2002). A recent reissue series edited by Eric Flint, “The Complete Christopher Anvil” (2002-10), collected all his SF work in eight volumes.
Kennedy “Kippy” Poyser, the former husband of Hugo Award-winning artist Victoria Poyser, died of a heart attack the same day in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. He worked on various Norwescons, ran the Connecticut Hatcon in the 1980s and was Fan Guest of Honor at the 1981 Orycon. Poyser also designed and edited the 1982 World Fantasy Convention programme book and owned bookstores at various times in Connecticut and Texas.
Eighty-three-year-old American songwriter, publisher and record producer Aaron [Harold] Schroeder died of complications from dementia on December 2. He is credited with writing more than 2
,000 songs, recorded by Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett, Roy Orbison, Nat King Cole, the Beatles and many others. Seventeen of his songs were recorded by Elvis Presley, including “It’s Now or Never”, the King’s biggest hit. Schroeder also reportedly wrote the theme song for Scooby Doo, Where Are You!
American writer and academic Jeffrey M. Elliot died of cancer on December 12, aged sixty-two. His numerous interviews with SF and fantasy writers were published widely, and he worked on biographies of Raymond Z. Gallum, Stanton A. Coblentz, George Zebrowski, Pamela Sargent and Jack Dann. Elliot’s books include the children’s fantasy Olgethorpe the Hip Hippopotamus, the SF novel If J.F.K. Had Lived (with Robert Reginald), and the SF anthology Kindred Spirits.
American bibliographer and small press publisher Mark [Samuel] Owings died of pancreatic cancer on December 13. He was sixty-four. He worked with Jack Chalker on The Index to the Science-Fantasy Publishers and The Revised H.P. Lovecraft Bibliography, and was a publisher at Croatan House. A founder of the Baltimore Science Fiction Society, he chaired various Balticons and the Compton Crook Award committee.
Screenwriter and director Dan O’Bannon (Daniel Thomas O’Bannon), best known for co-scripting Alien (1979) with Ronald Shusett, died of Crohn’s disease on December 17, aged sixty-three. O’Bannon got his start collaborating with fellow USC student John Carpenter on the script of the low budget SF comedy Dark Star (in which he played Sgt Pinback). After working on the special effects for Star Wars, his other film writing credits include the underrated Dead & Buried (again with Shusett), Heavy Metal, Blue Thunder, Lifeforce, Invaders from Mars (1986), Total Recall, Screamers, Bleeders (aka Hemoglobin, an uncredited adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft’s “The Lurking Fear” with Shusett) and AVP: Alien vs. Predator. O’Bannon also wrote and directed The Return of the Living Dead, and directed another Lovecraft adaptation, The Resurrected, based on “The Case of Charles Dexter Ward”.
American film writer/critic Chas (Charlie) Balun died after a long battle with cancer on December 18, aged sixty-one. A regular contributor to Fangoria and GoreZone (with his opinionated “Piece of Mind” column from 1988 to 1991), he created his own self-published magazine, Deep Red, and wrote the novel Ninth and Hell Street. Balun’s non-fiction books include The Connoisseur’s Guide to Contemporary Horror Film, The Gore Score, More Gore Score, Horror Holocaust and Beyond Horror Holocaust. An underground cartoonist and graphic designer, he also designed the monster for Fred Olen Ray’s 1991 horror comedy Evil Toons and he appeared in the 2001 documentary In the Belly of the Beast.
British film teacher and critic Robin (Robert Paul) Wood died in Toronto, Canada, the same day, aged seventy-eight. His essay “The American Nightmare” was one of the first to take 1970s horror movies seriously. Wood’s influential 1965 volume Hitchcock’s Films was amongst the earliest critical studies of a movie director in the English language, and he went on to write books about directors Howard Hawks, Michaelangelo Antonioni, Arthur Penn and Claude Chabrol.
American scriptwriter and producer Michael Fisher died on December 31, aged sixty-nine. A story editor on Starsky and Hutch (including “The Vampire” episode) and producer of the TV movie Return to Fantasy Island, Fisher scripted episodes of The Evil Touch, Matt Helm and Fantasy Island, plus the 1981 SF movie Earthbound.
PERFORMERS/PERSONALITIES
British-born actor Edmund [Anthony Cutlar] Purdom died in Rome, Italy, on January 1, aged eighty-four. He began his film career in the early 1950s and quickly moved to Hollywood before settling in Europe after gaining a reputation as a “diffi -cult” actor. His credits include The Night They Killed Rasputin (as Rasputin), Queen of the Nile (with Vincent Price), The Man Who Laughs (1966), Evil Fingers (aka The Fifth Cord), The Devil’s Lover, Jungle Master (aka Karzan, Jungle Lord), Jesus Franco’s Los ojos siniestros del doctor Orloff, Frankenstein’s Castle of Freaks, The Cursed Medallion, Nightmare City (aka City of the Walking Dead), Anthropophagus 2, Pieces, Ator the Fighting Eagle, Invaders of the Lost Gold, 2019: After the Fall of New York, Fracchia contro Dracula (as the Count) and The Rift. In the 1960s Purdom narrated a number of “educational” sex documentaries (including the infamous Sweden: Heaven and Hell), along with Witchcraft ’70 (aka The Satanists). He also directed and starred in the 1980s British slasher film Don’t Open ’Til Christmas (which even had its own “making of” documentary). Married four times, Purdom left his first wife to marry Mexican actress Linda Christian.
Veteran character actor Steven Gilborn died of cancer on January 2, aged seventy-two. A former humanities professor at MIT, he appeared in such TV shows as Beauty and the Beast, The Dreamer of Oz, Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, Touched by an Angel, The Tick and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. He also appeared in the movies Timescape (based on a novel by Henry Kuttner and C.L. Moore), Doctor Dolittle (1998) and Evolution, and his voice was heard in Alien: Resurrection.
Busy American character actor Pat Hingle (Martin Patterson Hingle), best known for playing Commissioner James Gordon in Tim Burton’s Batman (1989) and its three sequels, died of blood cancer on January 3, aged eighty-four. Often cast as judges or police detectives, Hingle also appeared in the movies Sweet Sweet Rachel, Nightmare Honeymoon, Tarantulas: The Deadly Cargo, Stephen King’s Maximum Overdrive, Not of This World (1991), The Shining (1997) and Muppets from Space, along with episodes of TV’s Suspense (“Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde”), Alfred Hitchcock Presents, The Twilight Zone, The Invaders, Kung Fu, The Six Million Dollar Man, Amazing Stories, American Gothic and Touched by an Angel.
British character actor John Scott Martin, who died of Parkinson’s disease on January 6, aged eighty-two, is probably best known for being the chief Dalek operator in more than seventy episodes of the BBC’s Doctor Who between 1964 and 1980. He also appeared in supporting roles in TV’s Quatermass and the Pit (1959), A for Andromeda, Adam Adamant Lives!, Out of the Unknown, The Tripods and such movies as The Blood Beast Terror (aka The Vampire-Beast Craves Blood, with Peter Cushing), Pink Floyd The Wall, The Meaning of Life, Young Sherlock Holmes and the 1986 musical remake of Little Shop of Horrors.
The original horror host of San Francisco’s KTVU Creature Features show (1970-79), Bob Wilkins (Robert Gene Wilkins), who sat in a rocking chair to introduce movies, died of complications from Alzheimer’s disease on January 7, aged seventy-six. From 1977 to 1979 he hosted the afternoon TV show Captain Cosmic and 2T2 with the titular robot sidekick. Wilkins also appeared in the 1975 movie The Milpitas Monster and the 2006 documentary American Scary.
Billy Powell, the long-time keyboard artist with Southern rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd, died of a suspected heart attack the same day, aged fifty-six. Powell joined the group around 1972 and survived the plane crash five years later that killed three band members. Lynyrd Skynyrd’s hits include “Free Bird” and “Sweet Home Alabama”.
British actress Leigh Madison (Pamela Williams), who starred in Behemoth the Sea Monster (aka The Giant Behemoth), died of complications from a degenerative neurological condition on January 8, aged eighty-three. She also appeared in a couple of early Carry On films and an episode of TV’s The Invisible Man (1959).
Three-foot, six-inch Steve Luncinski, who played Stefan, the Castle Prankster in Pittsburgh TV horror host Chilly Billy’s (Bill Cardille) Chiller Theatre show from 1976 to 1983, died the same day, aged fifty-two.
American actor Don Galloway (Donald Poe Galloway), best remembered for playing Sgt Ed Brown in NBC-TV’s Ironside (1967–75) and a pioneering 1972 cross-over episode of The Bold Ones: The New Doctors, died of complications from a stroke on January 8, aged seven. He also appeared in episodes of Gemini Man, Mork and Mindy, Automan, Fantasy Island, Knight Rider, MacGyver and the movie Satan’s Mistress (with John Carradine). Galloway portrayed director John Frankenheimer in a 1990 TV biopic of actor Rock Hudson.
1960s British pop star Dave Dee (David Herman), the lead singer with Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick and Tich, died following a three-year battle with cancer on January 9, aged sixty-five. Between 1965 an
d 1969 the group spent more weeks in the UK singles charts than any other band with hits that included “Hold Tight”, “Bend It” and the whip-cracking “The Legend of Xanadu”. A former police officer who attended the 1960 car crash that killed Eddie Cochran and injured Gene Vincent, he was later head of A&R at WEA Records, signing new bands (including AC/DC, Boney M and Gary Numan) and continued to tour with his original group.
Canadian-born actor Russ Conway (Russell Zink) died in California on January 12, aged ninety-six. Often appearing (uncredited) in films like A Double Life, One Touch of Venus, Abbott and Costello Meet the Invisible Man, Abbott and Costello Go to Mars and War of the Worlds, he was billed in Flight to Mars, Bomba and the Killer Leopard, The Screaming Skull, What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?, Our Man Flint and the TV movie The Space-Watch Murders (with Barbara Steele), along with episodes of Science Fiction Theatre, The Hardy Boys (playing Fenton Hardy), Men Into Space, Thriller, The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, The Munsters, The Time Tunnel, The Green Hornet, The Invaders and Get Smart.
American-born Irish actor Patrick [Joseph] McGoohan died after a short illness on January 13, aged eighty. The Emmy Award-winning actor starred as John Drake in TV’s Danger Man (aka Secret Agent), and in 1967 he co-created, produced, directed and scripted (often pseudonymously) and starred as the rebellious Number Six in the controversial 1967-68 series The Prisoner. He recreated the character for a 2000 episode of The Simpsons. McGoohan’s other credits include Disney’s The Scarecrow of Romney Marsh, The Three Lives of Thomasina, Baby: Secret of the Lost Legend and Treasure Planet, David Cronenberg’s Scanners, The Phantom (1996) and Hysteria (1998). During his career he reportedly turned down the roles of TV’s The Saint (it went to Roger Moore), James Bond (it went to Moore again for Live and Let Die), Gandalf in The Lord of the Rings trilogy (it went to Ian McKellan) and Dumbledore in the Harry Potter series (it went to Richard Harris).
The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror Page 50