Best New Horror 29

by Stephen Jones

  British author and former Best New Horror contributor John Gordon died of complications from Alzheimer’s disease on November 20, the day after his 92nd birthday. His supernatural and horror novels—often written for adolescent readers—include The Giant Under the Snow, the Jamesian The House on the Brink, The Ghost on the Hill, The Waterfall Box, The Edge of the World, The Quelling Eye, The Grasshopper, Ride the Wind, Secret Corridor, Blood Brothers, Gilray’s Ghost, The Flesh Eater, the award-winning The Midwinter Watch, Skinners, The Ghosts of Blacklode and Fen Runners. Gordon set much of his fiction in The Fens area of eastern England, and his superior short stories are collected in The Spitfire Grave and Other Stories, Catch Your Death and Other Ghost Stories, The Burning Baby and Other Ghosts and the retrospective Left in the Dark: The Supernatural Tales of John Gordon.

  American author M. (Mary) M. (Margaret) Justus died of metastatic cancer on November 22, aged 58. Her historical SF and horror novels include the “Time in Yellowstone” series (Repeating History, True Gold and Finding Home) and the “Unearthly Northwest” series (Sojourn and Reunion).

  American librarian and biographer Harold [Wayne] Billings died on November 29, aged 86. He wrote three books about author M.P. Shiel: M.P. Shiel: A Biography of His Early Years, M.P. Shiel: The Middle Years 1897-1923 and An Ossuary for M.P. Shiel: The Final Years 1923-1947. Billings also wrote a number of supernatural short stories.

  American investigative reporter and horror author Leslie H. (Hunter) Whitten died of complications from sepsis on December 2, aged 89. His novels include Progeny of the Adder (1965, which may have inspired The Night Stalker), Moon of the Wolf (aka Death of a Nurse, filmed for TV in 1972), The Alchemist (as by “Les Whitten”) and The Fangs of Morning. An enemy of President Richard M. Nixon, Whitten was spied on by the CIA and arrested by the FBI while he was working as a Washington journalist.

  American illustrator Joe Wehrle, Jr. (Joseph J. Wehrle, Jr.) died on December 10, aged 76. His artwork appeared on the covers of Planets and Dimensions and The Revised H.P. Lovecraft Bibliography (both Mirage Press) and Prince Zaleski and Cummings King Monk and The Princes of All Lands (both Arkham House), and in such magazines and one-shots as If, Galaxy, Whispers (Karl Edward Wagner’s ‘Sticks’), REH Two-Gun Raconteur, The Digest Enthusiast, Readers Guide to the Cthulhu Mythos, The Hannes Bok Memorial Showcase of Fantasy Art and Ec’h-Pi-El Speaks (a posthumous collaboration with Virgil Finlay). Wehrle also had a few stories pubished in Weirdbook and elsewhere.

  Veteran American animator and layout artist Bob Givens (Robert Herman Givens) died on December 14, aged 99. Credited with redesigning the first model sheet of “Bugs Bunny” for the 1940 short A Wild Hare, he worked on numerous Warner Bros. cartoon shorts (including Ghost Wanted and Transylvania 6-5000). Givens’ later credits include Daffy Duck’s Movie: Fantastic Island, The Duxorcist, The Night of the Living Duck, Daffy Duck’s Quackbusters and the cartoon TV series Ghostbusters (1986) and She-Ra: Princess of Power.

  Japanese anime writer Michiru Shimada died on December 15, aged 58. His many credits include the Little Witch Academia TV series (2017).

  American SF writer Roger Lee Vernon, whose death was erroneously reported in 1980, actually died the same day, aged 93. His collection The Space Frontiers appeared in 1955 and he followed it with a novel, Robot Hunt, four years later. He finally returned to the genre in 2010 with the novel The Fall of the American Empire – 2013: A Remembrance of Things Future, and followed it with another novel, The Plant God, and a second collection, If?????: In the World of “If” All Futures Are Possible.

  American comedy scriptwriter and producer Lawrence J. Cohen died on December 17, aged 82. With Fred Freeman he co-wrote five episodes of TV’s Bewitched and the 1976 movie The Big Bus.

  62-year-old American fan Rick Sullivan (Rickie P. Sullivan), who edited, published and was head writer for 110 issues of the influential New Jersey horror fanzine Gore Gazette (1980-94), died on December 18. Sullivan also fronted the horror-themed punk group, The Creeping Pumpkins.

  French comics artist Annie Goetzinger, whose work includes the 1980s masked heroine “Félina” (with writer Victor Mora), died on December 20, aged 66.

  American music composer, conductor and accordion player Dominic [Carmen] Frontiere died on December 21, aged 86. A former head of music at 20th Century Fox and Paramount Pictures, his credits include Incubus (1966), Hang ’Em High, Revenge!, Probe, Hammersmith is Out, Haunts of the Very Rich, The House of Seven Corpses, A Name for Evil, Cleopatra Jones and the Casino of Gold, Don’t Go to Sleep and Kingdom of the Spiders. On TV, Frontiere composed the theme and incidental music for the first season of The Outer Limits (including the unsold pilots ‘The Unknown’ and ‘The Ghost of Sierra de Cobre’), and he also worked on The Invaders, The Flying Nun, The Immortal and Search.

  Scottish comics artist Jim Baikie (James George Baikie) died on December 29, aged 77. Amongst the strips he worked on were ‘The Monkees’ and ‘Star Trek’ in Look-In, ‘Judge Dredd’ and Alan Moore’s ‘Skizz’ in 2000AD and ‘New Statesman’ in Crisis. He also contributed to Clive Barker’s Nightbreed for Epic, Star Wars: Empire’s Ends for Dark Horse Comics, and Batman, The Spectre and Electric Warrior for DC Comics.

  American pulp expert, collector, writer and publisher Joel [Jay] Frieman was found in his New Jersey apartment, having died on or around New Year’s Eve. He co-edited the fanzines Deeper Than You Think (1968-69) with business associate Robert Weinberg and Pulp (1970-81) with Weinberg and Steve Riley. Frieman also contributed introductions to a number of reprints of Norvell W. Page’s novels about “The Spider”, one of several Popular Publications characters he bought the rights to in 1979 under his Argosy Communications banner, and in 2017 he launched a new graphic series of The Spider under his own Argosy Comics imprint.

  PERFORMERS/PERSONALITIES

  American actress, former beauty pageant contestant, and fitness and nutrition expert Francine York (Francine Yerich), who starred in Ted V. Mikels’ cult favourite The Doll Squad, died of cancer on January 6, aged 80. Trained in acting by Jeff Corey and mentored by Jerry Lewis, her other movies include The Nutty Professor (uncredited, 1963), Space Probe Taurus, Mutiny in Outer Space, Curse of the Swamp Creature, I Love a Mystery (1973), The Centerfold Girls, Time Travelers (1976) and Mikels’ Astro Zombies M3: Cloned. On TV York appeared in episodes of Shirley Temple’s Storybook, My Favorite Martian, My Brother the Angel, Batman (as The Bookworm’s henchwoman), Lost in Space, The Wild Wild West, I Dream of Jeannie, Land of the Giants, Bewitched, Future Cop, Jason of Star Command (as “Queen Medusa”), Lois & Clark: The Adventures of Superman, and the failed 1969 Irwin Allen pilot City Beneath the Sea. She was film director Vincent Sherman’s companion for the last nine years of his life.

  Veteran Indian actor Om Puri OBE died of a heart attack the same day, aged 66. He appeared in many films in his native country, and was also in the Hollywood movies Wolf, The Ghost and the Darkness, Code 46 and The Lovers (aka Time Traveller).

  72-year-old American character actor Gary Bayer died of prostate cancer in Jerusalem, Israel, on January 6. He appeared in the movies Eyes of Laura Mars, All That Jazz, Starflight: The Plane That Couldn’t Land (aka Starflight One), Creator and Psycho III, along with an episode of TV’s Highway to Heaven.

  Pioneering American stuntwoman and former circus acrobat Paula Dell (Paula Unger) died on January 9, aged 90. She began her movie career in Disney’s Son of Flubber in 1963, and she also did stunt work in Earthquake, Death Race 2000 (1975), Logan’s Run, Freaky Friday (1976), Once Bitten and Mystery Men.

  Italian-born Canadian character actor and comedian Tony Rosato (Antonio Rosato) died of a heart attack on January 10, aged 62. He appeared on TV in episodes of RoboCop, Highlander, F/X: The Series, Eerie Indiana and Relic Hunter, and he was also in the movies The Haunting of Lisa and Sicilian Vampire.

  India-born Nickola Sterne (Pamela Violet Rown-Robinson) died in London on January 11, aged 102. She had small roles in the BBC-TV serials The Quat
ermass Experiment (1953) and Quatermass II (1955), and the 1984 post-apocalyptic Play for Today ‘Z for Zachariah’.

  American TV actor, comedian and cartoonist Dick Gautier (Richard Gautier), who appeared as “Hymie” the robot on TV’s Get Smart from 1966-68 and reprised the role in the 1989 spin-off movie, Get Smart, Again!, died of pneumonia in an assisted living facility on January 13, aged 85. A regular on the superhero comedy series Mr. Terrific (1966-67), he also appeared in episodes of Bewitched, The Flying Nun, Kolchak: The Night Stalker (‘The Werewolf’), Good Heavens, Wonder Woman, Man from Atlantis, Fantasy Island, Happy Days (‘Welcome to My Nightmare’), Knight Rider, Freddy’s Nightmares and The Munsters Today. Gautier also voiced a number of animated TV shows, and he replaced Adam West as Batman in a public service announcement about equal pay for women, appearing alongside Burt Ward as Robin and Yvonne Craig as Batgirl.

  British actor Philip Bond, the father of actress Samantha Bond, died while on holiday in Portugal on January 17, aged 82. His TV credits include episodes of The Voodoo Factor, Doctor Who (‘The Daleks’), Sherlock Holmes (‘The Hound of the Baskervilles’ with Peter Cushing), The Champions, The Avengers and Doomwatch.

  73-year-old American adult film-maker, actor, porn advocate and historian William Margold died of a heart attack while hosting a live radio show the same day. He appeared in Flesh Gordon, Dracula Sucks, Carnal Encounters of the Barest Kind, Pleasure Dome, Sex Drive 2020, Debbie Does the Devil in Dallas (as “The Devil”), Voodoo Lust: The Possession, Nympho Zombie Coeds and Hackin’ Jack vs. the Chainsaw Chick 3D, and he also worked in a production capacity on Star Virgins, The Devil in Miss Jones 5: The Inferno and many other adult movies. Margold founded or co-founded the X-Rated Critics Organization (XRCO), Fans of X-Rated Entertainment (FOXE) and the charity group Protecting Adult Welfare Foundation (PAW).

  American actor Miguel [José] Ferrer, the eldest child of actor José Ferrer and singer Rosemary Clooney, died of throat cancer on January 19, aged 61. He portrayed FBI Agent “Albert Rosenfield” in both the original 1990s TV series of Twin Peaks and the 2017 revival, as well as the spin-off movie, Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me. Ferrer’s other movie credits include Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, RoboCop (1987), Badlands 2005, DeepStar Six, The Guardian, Project: ALF, Justice League of America (1997), the Stephen King adaptation The Night Flier, Brave New World (1998), Sightings: Heartland Ghost, The Manchurian Candidate (2004), Hard Ride to Hell and Iron Man 3. A regular on the brief 2007 revival of Bionic Woman, he also appeared on TV in episodes of Tales from the Crypt, 3rd Rock from the Sun, Night Visions and Medium, along with the 1994 mini-series of King’s The Stand, and contributed voice work to many animated shows and films. During the 1970s, Ferrer played drums and sang in bands with Lost in Space actor Billy Mumy.

  Japanese actor Hiroki Matsukata (Hiroki Meguro), who starred in the 1966 fantasy The Magic Serpent, died of brain lymphoma on January 21, aged 74. He later turned up in Takashi Miike’s existential Izo.

  American actress Mary Webster, who co-starred with Vincent Price and Charles Bronson in AIP’s 1961 Jules Verne adaptation Master of the World, died on January 23, aged 81. She also appeared in episodes of TV’s Men Into Space and The Twilight Zone before retiring from the screen in 1963.

  British character actor Gorden [Irving] Kaye, best known for his starring role in the BBC-TV sit-com ’Allo ’Allo (1982-92), died in a care home the same day, aged 75. He had been suffering from dementia, and in 1990 the actor underwent emergency brain surgery after being involved in a car accident during a severe storm. Director Terry Gilliam cast Kaye in his films Jabberwocky and Brazil.

  British leading man Sir John [Vincent] Hurt died of complications from pancreatic cancer on January 25, aged 77. He began his acting career on TV in the early 1960s, and his movie credits include The Pied Piper (1972), The Ghoul (with Peter Cushing, 1975), Spectre, The Shout, Watership Down, The Lord of the Rings (1978), Alien (replacing Jon Finch), The Elephant Man, The Plague Dogs, 1984, After Darkness, Disney’s The Black Cauldron and The Tigger Movie, Jake Speed, Spaceballs, Frankenstein Unbound (based on the novel by Brian Aldiss), Monolith, Dead Man, Contact, Lost Souls, The Skeleton Key, V for Vendetta (based on the graphic novel series by Alan Moore and David Lloyd), Perfume: The Story of a Murderer, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, Outlander, Melancholia, Immortals, Only Lovers Left Alive, Snowpiercer and Hercules (2014). Hurt appeared as “Professor Trevor ‘Broom’ Bruttenholm” in Hellboy and Hellboy II: The Golden Army, recreating the character for Hellboy Animated: Blood & Iron, and he played “Mr. Ollivander” in Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (aka Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone) and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 and Part 2. On TV, he appeared in the eponymous role in Jim Henson’s The Storyteller (1987-88), voiced “General Woundwort” in the animated Watership Down series (1999-2000), and starred in a disppointing 2010 version of M.R. James’ Whistle and I’ll Come to You. He was also in episodes of Masters of Science Fiction (Harlan Ellison’s ‘The Discarded’), The Labyrinth and Merlin (as the voice of The Dragon), and he turned up as the “missing” “War Doctor” in the Doctor Who special ‘The Day of the Doctor’ (opposite Matt Smith and David Tennant’s Time Lords).

  Emmy Award-winning American actress and production executive Mary Tyler Moore, who starred in TV sitcoms The Dick Van Dyke Show (1961-66), Mary Tyler Moore (1970-77) and Rhoda (1974-77), died of cardiopulmonary arrest due to pneumonia the same day, aged 80. Her other TV credits include episodes of Steve Canyon and Thriller, along with the 1976 musical special Mary’s Incredible Dream (in which she appeard as the Devil, amongst other roles).

  Armenian-American leading man Mike Connors (Krekor Ilevado Ohanian, aka “Michael Connors” and “Touch Connors”), who starred as the eponymous Los Angeles private detective in CBS-TV’s Mannix (1967-75), died on January 26, aged 91. He had been diagnosed the week before with leukaemia. He appeared in Roger Corman’s Day the World Ended and Swamp Women, along with The Ten Commandments, Voodoo Woman, Kiss the Girls and Make Them Die, Nightkill and Too Scared to Scream (which he also produced). Connors’ TV credits included episodes of One Step Beyond and Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1989), and the 1984 half-hour SF sitcom pilot Earthlings, and he was also the voice of “Chipacles” in ten episodes of Hercules (1998-99).

  American actress and former model Barbara Hale, best-remembered as legal secretary “Della Street” in the Perry Mason series (1957-66) and TV movies (1985-95), died of complications from COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease) the same day, aged 94. She arrived in Hollywood in 1943 and was put under contract with RKO Radio Pictures, initially making uncredited appearances in a number of movies, including Val Lewton’s The Seventh Victim, until working her way up to bigger roles. Hale was in the 1978 movie The Giant Spider Invasion and two episodes of TV’s Science Fiction Theatre. She also appeared in an episode of The Greatest American Hero and a number of the Perry Mason tele-movies (including Perry Mason: The Case of the Sinister Spirit) alongside her son, actor William Katt.

  American stage and screen actor Stephen Joyce also died on January 26, aged 85. He was in A Stranger is Watching and appeared on TV in episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents, The Outer Limits, Invasion and the mini-series The Dark Secret of Harvest Home, based on the novel by Thomas Tryon.

  American stage actor and singer Bob Holiday died on January 27, aged 84. He originated the lead role in the musical It’s a Bird, It’s a Plane, It’s Superman! in 1966, and played Clark Kent and the Man of Steel in 129 performances on Broadway. Holiday also appeared as Superman in a couple of TV commercials before retiring from show business in the 1970s and founding a successful home-construction business.

  British stage and screen actor Alec McCowen CBE (Alexander Duncan McCowen) died on February 6, aged 91. He appeared in Hammer’s The Witches (aka The Devil’s Own), Alfred Hitchcock’s Frenzy and the rival Bond movie Never Say Never Again (as “Q”). He was also in an episode of Orson Welles
’ Great Mysteries on TV.

  American leading man Richard [Lawrence] Hatch, who starred as “Captain Apollo” in the ABC-TV series Battlestar Galactica (1978-79), died of pancreatic cancer on February 7, aged 71. He was also in Charlie Chan and the Curse of the Dragon Queen (as “Lee Chan, Jr.”), Prisoners of the Lost Universe, Unseen Evil (aka The Unbelievable), InAlienable, Season of Darkness, Alien Hunger, Starship II: Rendezvous with Ramses, The Enchanted Cottage (2016), Asylum of Darkness and Chatter. On TV Hatch appeared in episodes of The Sixth Sense and Fantasy Island, and he played “Tom Zarek” in the revided Battlestar Galactica series (2004-09). Between 1997 and 2005 he is credited as co-writer on seven Battlestar Galactica tie-in novels, along with Christopher Golden, Stan Timmons, Alan Ridgers and Brad Linaweaver, and in 1999 Hatch created a trailer for a possible sequel to the series entitled Battlestar Galactica: The Second Coming.

  American adult movie actress Jody Maxwell (Jody Marie Hogsett), who starred in the 1977 movie The Devil Inside Her and appeared in the 1980 science fiction porn The Satisfiers of Alpha Blue, died of cancer on February 12, aged 71. She also wrote articles for numerous adult magazines, and her 2004 autobiography was titled My Private Calls. She later became a public school teacher, and was inducted into the Legends of Erotica Hall of Fame in Las Vegas in 2006.

  American professional wrestler George “The Animal” Steele (William James Myers), who played Tor Johnson in Tim Burton’s biopic Ed Wood (1994), died of kidney failure on February 16. He was 79.

  British-born Canadian character actor Chris Wiggins (Christopher John Wiggins), who starred as “Jack Marshak” on TV’s Friday the 13th: The Series (1987-90), died of complications from Alzheimer’s disease on February 19, aged 87. His film credits include The Neptune Factor, Welcome to Blood City, Murder by Decree, An American Christmas Carol, Virus and Mazes and Monsters. He also appeared in episodes of TV’s The Unforeseen, Purple Playhouse (‘Sweeney Todd, the Demon Barber of Fleet Street’), Faerie Tale Theatre, RoboCop, Earth: Final Conflict and ReGenesis. In the 1960s Wiggins was the voice of “Thor” and “Don Blake” on the cartoon series Mighty Thor and Captain America, and the voice of “Will Scarlet” on Rocket Robin Hood. He also worked on many other animated series and movies.