British actor Peter Tuddenham died on the same day, aged 88. Best known as the voice of the computer, “Orac”, in the BBC-TV series Blakes 7 (1978-81) and its 1998 radio spin-off, his other credits include Tales of the Unexpected and three episodes of Doctor Who.
Sixty-eight-year-old former singer and actor Rod Lauren (Roger Lawrence Strunk) was found dead in the parking lot of an inn in Tracy, California, on 11 July. He had apparently committed suicide by jumping from a second-floor balcony. During the 1960s he appeared in such films as Terrified, The Black Zoo (as Michael Cough’s mute assistant “Carl”) and The Crawling Hand, along with an episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents. His wife, Philippine actress Nida Blanca, was found stabbed to death in her car in 2001. Lauren returned to the US before charges were filed against him, and he had continued to resist extradition.
Irish-born leading man Kieron Moore (Kieron O’Hanrahan) died in France on 15 July, aged 82. After moving to England in 1942 to play “Heathcliff” in a London stage performance of Wuthering Heights, he appeared in such films as Satellite in the Sky, Disney’s live-action Darby O’Gill and the Little People, Doctor Blood’s Coffin, The Day of the Triffids and Crack in the World. On TV he recreated his role for a 1948 production of Wuthering Heights and turned up in an episode of Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased).
British stunt co-ordinater Frank Maher (Francis James Mahar) died on 21 July, aged 78. His credits include Children of the Damned, One More Time, and such TV shows as Danger Man (aka Secret Agent), The Avengers, The Prisoner, Space: 1999, Blakes 7, The Champions and Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased).
British stand-up comedian turned character actor Mike Reid died in Spain of a heart attack on 29 July, aged 67. A former film extra and stunt driver on such films as Casino Royale, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and Hammer’s The Devil Rides Out (aka The Devil’s Bride), he came to prominence on the 1970s TV series The Comedians. Reid’s dramatic credits include episodes of Doctor Who (“The War Machines” and “Dimensions in Time”), The Saint (he also stunt-doubled Roger Moore on the show), The Champions, Department S and Worzel Gummidge. From 1989-2005 he portrayed “Frank Butcher” on the BBC soap EastEnders.
French actor Michel Serrault died of cancer on the same day, aged 79. His numerous credits include Henri-Georges Clouzot’s Les Diaboliques, Malevil, Les Fantomes de chapelier and Belphégor: Le fantôme du Louvre.
Late night NBC (1973-82) and CBS (1995-99) TV talk show host Tom Snyder died of leukaemia on 29 July, aged 71. He appeared as himself in the 1977 episode of TV’s McCloud, “McCloud Meets Dracula”.
Character actor James T. (Thomas) Callahan died of oesophageal cancer on 3 August, aged 76. Often cast as a sheriff, he appeared in Return of the Living Dead III, the TV movies She Waits, Disney’s Mystery of Dracula’s Castle and The Haunting of Harrington House, plus episodes of The Twilight Zone, My Favorite Martian, The Time Tunnel, The Invaders, Holmes and Yo-Yo, The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries, Automan, Knight Rider, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Highway to Heaven, Amazing Stories and Medium.
Forty-year-old Canadian-born scriptwriter and part-time actor Jacob L. Adams was found dead at the Los Angeles home of actor Ving Rhames the same day. He was covered in blood and dog bites, but it wasn’t clear if he had been killed by the four dogs he had been hired to look after. Adams had small parts in several films, including Blues Brothers 2000 and the remake of Dawn of the Dead, along with episodes of Babylon 5 and Earth: Final Conflict.
American TV legend Merv(yn) [Edward] Griffin died of prostate cancer on 12 August, aged 82. Having created such popular game shows as Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune, he hosted The Mew Griffin Show on CBS-TV from 1962-86. His uncredited voice can be heard as a radio announcer in The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms, and he was featured in such films as Phantom of the Rue Morgue, Hello Down There, Slapstick (Of Another Kind), The Man With Two Brains (as the “Elevator Killer”), Alice in Wonderland (1985) and Disney’s animated Hercules. In 1950, his novelty song with Freddy Martin, “I’ve Got a Lovely Bunch of Coconuts”, went to the top of the US charts.
American character actor Robert Symonds, the step-father of actress Amy Irving, died of prostate cancer on 23 August, aged 80. His film credits include The Exorcist, Linda Lovelace for President, Superstition (aka The Witch), The Ice Pirates, Rumplestiltskin, C.H.U.D. II: Bud the Chud and Mandroid. He also appeared in the TV movies Demon Demon and The Legend of Lizzie Borden, along with episodes of Future Cop, The Six Million Dollar Man, Knight Rider, Beauty and the Beast, Freddy’s Nightmares, Quantum Leap and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. Symonds was married to actress Priscilla Pointer, and the couple often worked together.
Mexican actor/wrestler “Karloff” Legarde died in Mexico City on 1 September, aged 78. He appeared in the 1960s films El Asesino invisible, Los Endemoniados del ring, La Mano que aprieta and Santo en la frontera del terror.
The 1930s child actress Marcia Mae Jones (Marsha Mae Jones) died of pneumonia on 2 September, aged 83. Following her film debut in 1926, she appeared in The Bishop Murder Case (uncredited), Dr Kildare’s Strange Case, Haunted House (1940), The Spectre of Edgar Allan Poe and episodes of TV’s Mr Ed and Shazam!..
Thirty-four-year-old Jeffrey Carter Albrecht, a keyboard player with Edie Brickell & New Bohemians, was shot dead on 3 September when he tried to kick down the door of the house next to that of his girlfriend. The neighbour apparently thought that he was being burgled.
British-born stage and screen actor [John] Michael Evans died at an assisted-living facility in Woodland Hills, California, on 4 September, aged 87. Best remembered for his role as “Col. Douglas Austin” on The Young and the Restless during the 1980s and 1990s, he also appeared in Time After Time, Goliath Awaits (with Christopher Lee and John Carradine), The Sword and the Sorcerer and an episode of TV’s The Man from U.NC.L.E. (“The Double Affair”, aka The Spy With My Face).
Canadian-born character actor Percy Rodrigues died of kidney failure on 6 September, aged 89. His credits include Rhinoceros, The Legend of Hillbilly John (based on the stories of Manly Wade Wellman), Invisible Strangler, Galaxina, Heavy Metal, Deadly Blessing, BrainWaves, the TV movies Genesis II and Perry Mason: The Case of the Sinister Spirit, plus episodes of The Wild Wild West, The Man from U.N.C.L.E., Star Trek, Tarzan, The Sixth Sense, The Starlost, Planet of the Apes and Gemini Man. Rodrigues was also the uncredited narrator of the 3-D Michael Jackson short Captain EO, shown at Disneyland.
Italian opera singer Luciano Pavarotti died of pancreatic cancer on the same day, aged 71. The world’s most popular operatic tenor, he can be heard on the soundtracks for The Witches of Eastwick and Fatal Attraction.
Oscar-winning Hollywood actress and singer Jane Wyman (Sarah Jane Fulks [Mayfield]) died on 10 September, aged 93 (or 90, sources vary). The first wife of actor and future US President Ronald Reagan (they divorced in 1948), her film credits include The Body Disappears, The Lost Weekend and Alfred Hitchcock’s Stage Fright. She was in an episode of The Sixth Sense, and from 1981-90 she played vineyard matriarch “Angela Channing” on TV’s Falcon’s Crest.
Loretta King, who starred opposite Bela Lugosi in Edward D. Wood, Jr’s infamous Bride of the Monster (1955), died on the same day, aged around 90. She also appeared in a couple of 1990s documentaries about Wood and Lugosi, and was portrayed by Juliet Landau in Tim Burton’s Ed Wood (1994).
American comedienne and character actress Alice Ghostley died of colon cancer and a series of strokes on 21 September, aged 81. Best known for her role as the accident-prone witch “Aunt Esmeralda” in TV’s Bewitched from 1969-72, her other credits include the movies Blue Sunshine and Addams Family Reunion (as “Granny”), the TV productions of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella and Hall-mark Hall of Fame: Shangri-La, plus episodes of Dow Hour of Great Mysteries, Get Smart, The Ghost & Mrs Muir, Ghost Story, Kolchak: The Night Stalker, Monster Squad, Tales from the Darkside, Highway to Heaven, Touched by an Angel and Sabrina the Teenage Witch. In 2000 she turned up as “Matilda Matthews” in four episodes
of NBC-TV’s supernatural soap opera Passions.
French mime artist Marcel Marceau (Marcel Mangel) died in Paris on 22 September, aged 84. World-famous for his mime persona “Bip”, he also appeared in such films as Barbarella, William Castle’s horror movie Shanks and Mel Brooks’ Silent Movie (in which he spoke the only word of dialogue – “Non”). Michael Jackson reportedly based his famous “Moonwalk” routine on a sketch by Marceau.
Karl Hardman died on the same day, aged 80. In 1968 he helped produce George A. Romero’s Night of the Living Dead, as well as working in the sound and make-up departments and appearing as the obnoxious “Harry Cooper” in the film. Besides Mg^-related documentaries, his only other credits are the 1996 horror film Santa Claws and the BBC series Give Barker’s A-Z of Horror. Hardman’s wife, Marilyn Eastman, and daughter Kyra Schon, also appeared in Romero’s influential zombie film.
Texas-born singer and vocal arranger Randy Van Home, who sang The Flintstones and Thejetsons theme songs with his ensemble, died on 26 September, aged 83.
Canadian-born actress Lois Maxwell (Lois Hooker) died of cancer in Western Australia on 29 September, aged 80. For more than twenty years she was best known for her role as M’s flirtatious secretary “Miss Moneypenny” in the James Bond movies Dr No, From Russia With Love, Goldfinger, Thunderball, You Only Live Twice, On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, Diamonds Are Forever, Live and Let Die, The Man With the Golden Gun, The Spy Who Loved Me, Moonraker, For Your Eyes Only, Octopussy and A View to a Kill, along with the Bond spoofs Operation Kid Brother (as “Miss Maxwell”) and From Hong Kong With Love (as “Miss Money-penny”, opposite Bernard Lee’s “M”). Maxwell’s other film appearances include A Matter of Life and Death (uncredited), Corridor of Mirrors (which also featured Christopher Lee), Satellite in the Sky, Face of Fire, The Haunting (1963), Endless Night and Eternal Evil (aka The Blue Man). She also supplied the voice of “Lt Atlanta Shore” on Gerry Anderson’s puppet TV show Stingray, and her other credits include episodes of One Step Beyond, The Avengers, Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased), Department S, UFO and the 1987 revival of Alfred Hitchcock Presents.
Tony Award-winning American character actor George Grizzard died of complications from lung cancer on 2 October, aged 79. Although best known for his stage work on Broadway, he also appeared in the TV movies The Stranger Within and The Night Rider, along with episodes of One Step Beyond, Thriller (“The Twisted Image”), Alfred Hitchcock Presents, The Twilight Zone, 3rd Rock from the Sun and Touched by an Angel.
British stage and screen actor Rodney Diak (David Rodney Jones) died of cancer on 6 October, aged 83. His few film credits include Fire Maidens from Outer Space and The Flesh and Blood Show. Queen Elizabeth II’s sister, Princess Margaret, once described Diak as “the most handsome actor in Britain” and Dirk Bogarde reputedly vetoed his casting in A Tale of Two Cities because he was too good-looking.
Stuntman and actor Bud Ekins, best known for the classic motorcycle jump in The Great Escape, died on the same day, aged 77. He also worked on such films as How to Stuff a Wild Bikini, Diamonds Are Forever, The Thing With Two Heads, Earthquake, The Towering Inferno, Race With the Devil, Return from Witch Mountain, 1941, Megaforce, Jekyll and Hyde . . . Together Again and Black Moon Rising.
Florida TV horror host M. T. Graves (Charles Morrison Baxter) also died on 6 October, aged 82. From 1957 until the early 1960s he hosted the weekly Saturday afternoon horror film show The Dungeon on channel WCKT.
Veteran American character actor Lonny Chapman (aka “Lonnie Chapman”) died of heart disease and pneumonia on 12 October, aged 87. He made his TV debut in Captain Video in 1949, and his numerous other appearances include Hitchcock’s The Birds, The Screaming Woman, Visions, Earthquake (uncredited), The Witch Who Came from the Sea, Terror Out of the Sky and Nightwatch (1997), plus episodes of One Step Beyond, The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, Rod Serling’s Night Gallery, Planet of the Apes, The Incredible Hulk and Knight Rider.
Scottish-born leading lady Deborah Kerr CBE (Deborah Jane Kerr-Trimmer) died from complications of Parkinson’s disease on 16 October, aged 86. After making her film debut in 1941 she appeared in Black Narcissus, King Solomon’s Mines (1950), The Innocents (based on the classic ghost story The Turn of the Screw by Henry James), Eye of the Devil (aka 13) and the James Bond spoof Casino Roy ale. She mostly stopped acting in 1968 and finally retired altogether in 1986. Kerr held the record for the most Oscar nominations (six) without winning, and she received an Honorary Academy Award in 1994.
Comedian Joey Bishop (Joseph Abraham Gottlieb), the last survivor of Frank Sinatra’s legendary “Rat Pack”, died on 17 October, aged 89. He appeared in a number of films and TV shows, and had an uncredited cameo in a 1967 episode of Get Smart.
American-born character actor Don Fellows died in London on 21 October, aged 84. He appeared in Pretty Poison, The Omen (1976), Twilight’s Last Gleaming, Licensed to Love and Kill (aka The Man from S.E.X.), Superman II, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Electric Dreams, Riders of the Storm, Haunted Honeymoon and Superman IV: The Quest for Peace, plus episodes of Space: 1999 and Tales of the Unexpected.
South African-born actress Moira Lister died in Cape Town on 27 October, aged 84. She moved to England in 1944 and appeared in a number of films and TV shows. Her credits include the 1989 movie of Ten Little Indians, the miniseries The 1 Oth Kingdom, the 2007 TV movie Flood and an episode of The Avengers.
Seventy-three-year-old American singer and actor Robert [Gerard] Goulet, who portrayed “Lancelot” in the original 1960 Broadway production of Camelot, opposite Richard Burton and Julie Andrews, died of interstitial pulmonary fibrosis on 30 October while awaiting a lung transplant. A Tony Award winner in 1968, he had seventeen albums in the charts from 1962-70. His film credits include the animated Gay Purr-ee, The Daydreamer (with Boris Karloff), Beetle Juice, Scrooged, Mr Wrong, Toy Story 2 and G-Men from Hell (as the Devil). Goulet also appeared in various episodes of Fantasy Island, as well as an Emmy-winning 1966 TV version of Brigadoon and a 1967 adaptation of Carousel.
South African-born soccer star turned actor Henry Cele died of complications from a chest infection on 2 November, aged 58. He appeared in Curse III: Blood Sacrifice (aka Panga) with Christopher Lee, and The Ghost and the Darkness.
Hollywood actress Laraine Day (Laraine Johnson), who portrayed “Nurse Mary Lamont” in MGM’s Doctor Kildare series during the early 1940s, died of cancer on 10 November, aged 87. She also appeared in Tarzan Finds a Son!, Fingers at the Window (with Basil Rathbone), Return to Fantasy Island and episodes of TV’s The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, The Sixth Sense and Fantasy Island.
American-born character actor Al Mancini, (Alfred Benito Mancini), who worked for many years in Britain, died of complications from Alzheimer’s disease on 12 November, one day short of his 75th birthday. A regular on the 1960s BBC satirical TV show That Was the Week That Was, he also appeared in episodes of The Prisoner, Department S, UFO, Jason King, The Protectors, Beauty and the Beast, Monsters (Dan Simmons’ “A Shave and a Haircut, Two Bites”), Joan of Arcadia and the TV movies Madam Sin and Baffled!. Mancini’s voice was featured in Babe: Pig in the City.
American actor, novelist and screenwriter Michael Blodgett died of an apparent heart attack on 14 November, aged 68. After hosting his own TV shows in the LA area, Blodgett starred as “Lance Rocke” in the X-rated cult movie Beyond the Valley of the Dolls. His other credits include The Trip and The Velvet Vampire, and episodes of The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, The Munsters, Night Gallery (“The Dead Man”) and Isis, while Blodgett’s novel Hero and the Terror was filmed in 1988 starring Chuck Norris. One of his three wives was actress Meredith Baxter.
Actor Ronnie Burns, the adopted son of George Burns and Grade Allen, died of cancer on the same day, aged 72. He appeared in the 1961 film Anatomy of a Psycho before going into real estate investment and raising Arabian horses.
Blonde actress and former model Sigrid Valdes (Patricia Olson), best known for playing Colonel Klink’s sexy secretary “Hilda”
on the CBS-TV series Hogan’s Heroes (1965-71), died of lung cancer on 14 November, aged 72. In 1970 she married the show’s star, Bob Crane, who was found bludgeoned to death eight years later. Valdes’ other credits include Our Man Flint, The Venetian Affair (uncredited) and a two episodes of TV’s The Wild Wild West.
Veteran character actor Dick Wilson (Riccardo DiGuglielmo, aka Richard Wilson), who also appeared as various characters in Hogan’s Heroes, died on 18 November, aged 91. Best known for appearing as grocery store owner “Mr Whipple” in more than 500 TV commercials between 1964-85 for Charmin toilet paper, the British-born Wilson’s other appearances include Diary of a Madman (with Vincent Price), Our Man Flint (uncredited), The Ghost and Mr Chicken (uncredited), Disney’s The World’s Greatest Athlete and The Incredible Shrinking Woman, plus episodes of The Twilight Zone, My Living Doll, My Favorite Martian, The Munsters, My Mother the Car, The Flying Nun, Get Smart, I Dream ofjeannie, Bewitched, Tabitha and Fantasy Island. In a 1975 poll he was voted the second-most-recognizable person in America after President Richard Nixon.
The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror 19 Page 78