Best New Horror 29

by Stephen Jones

  British character actor Sam Beazley, who played “Professor Everard”, who lived inside his portrait in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007), died on June 12, aged 101. In the mid-1930s he was part of John Gielgud’s theatre company and appeared in the actor’s acclaimed London stage productions of William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet and Hamlet. Following a poor review, he abandoned acting to run an antique shop. He finally returned to the profession when he retired at the age of 73.

  American actress Deirdre [Michelle] Berthrong, who began her brief 1970s career playing one of the nude schoolgirls in the shower in Carrie (1976), died the same day of pneumonia, aged 64. She also worked as an assistant to director Jack Bender on the TV movie Deadly Messages.

  Best remembered for her romantic attachments with three of the original members of the Rolling Stones (Brian Jones, Keith Richards and Mick Jagger), Italian-born actress and model Anita Pallenberg died of complications of hepatitis C in England on June 13, aged 75. She appeared as “The Great Tyrant” in Roger Vadim’s Barbarella, was in Abel Ferrara’s 4:44 Last Day on Earth, and turned up as the Devil (opposite Marianne Faithfull’s “God”) in a 2001 episode of the BBC sitcom Absolutely Fabulous.

  Henry J. Deutschendorf II, one of the twin boys who played “Baby Oscar” in Ghostbusters II (1989), committed suicide by hanging on June 14, aged 29. The nephew of the late country singer John Denver, he had suffered from a schizoaffective disorder for many years.

  American actor, comedian, scriptwriter and TV producer Bill Dana (William Szathmary), best known for his Hispanic character “Jose Jiminez” (who became the mascot for the original seven Mercury astronauts), died on June 15, aged 92. He scripted the 1966 animated movie Alice in Wonderland or What’s a Nice Kid Like You Doing in a Place Like This? and the 1980 Get Smart movie, The Nude Bomb. As an actor, he appeared in episodes of Batman (as Jiminez), The Man from U.N.C.L.E., Get Smart and Fantasy Island, along with William Castle’s The Busy Body, and The Nude Bomb.

  American actor, producer and director Stephen Furst (Stephen Fuerstein), who played Centauri “Vir Cotto” in Babylon 5 (1994-98) and Babylon 5: Thirdspace (1998), died on June 16. Aged 63, he had suffered from diabetes for many years. Furst was in the movies The Unseen (1980), Silent Rage, Class Reunion, The Day After, Little Bigfoot 2: The Journey Home, Path of Destruction and Basilisk: The Serpent King, the TV special ALF Loves a Mystery, and an episode of Faerie Tale Theatre. He also executive produced the low budget movies Warbirds, Cold Moon (based on the novel by Michael McDowell and directed by his son, Griff Furst), Atomic Shark and Trailer Park Shark (also directed by his son), and directed Stageghost, Dragon Storm, Path of Destruction and Basilisk: The Serpent King (the latter two as “Louie Myman”), along with episodes of Babylon 5 and the short spin-off series Crusade.

  British TV character actor Brian Cant, best remembered as the narrator of such popular children’s series as Camberwick Green, Trumpton and Chigley, died of Parkinson’s disease on June 19, aged 83. He also appeared in episodes of Legend of Death, Doctor Who and The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1966).

  American actor Howard Witt, who portrayed the title character in the 1980s Disney TV movies Mr. Boogedy and Bride of Boogedy, died on June 21, aged 85. He was also in Revenge of the Stepford Wives and episodes of TV’s The Incredible Hulk and Once a Hero.

  American professional football player turned actor Keith [James] Loneker died of cancer on June 22, aged 46. He appeared in Lakeview Terrace, Destination Planet Negro, The Vault, and the short Scary Film.

  Veteran American stuntman-actor Loren Janes (Loren Lapham Janes, Jr.), who co-founded the Stuntmen’s Association with Dick Geary in 1961, died of complications from Alzheimer’s disease on June 24, aged 85. He began his career in the mid-1950s and his numerous credits include Jupiter’s Darling, Cult of the Cobra, Darby O’Gill and the Little People, Snow White and the Three Stooges, Planet of the Apes (1968), Beneath the Planet of the Apes, Planet Earth, The Terminal Man, Earthquake, Logan’s Run, King Kong (1976), The Swarm, Escape from New York, The Sword and the Sorcerer, Halloween III: Season of the Witch, Hysterical, The Dead Zone, Repo Man, Back to the Future, Fright Night, Short Circuit, Masters of the Universe, Dead Heat, C.H.U.D. II: Bud the Chud, The Abyss, Hook, The Silence of the Hams, Wild Wild West, Megiddo: The Omega Code 2 and Spider-Man (2002), along with episodes of TV’s Star Trek and Search.

  American character actor Skip Homeier (George Vincent Homeier, aka “Skippy Homeier”) died of spinal myelopathy on June 25, aged 86. His credits include The Ghost and Mr. Chicken, The Wild Wild West Revisited and episodes of TV’s Suspense, Science Fiction Theatre, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, One Step Beyond, The Outer Limits, The Addams Family, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, Star Trek, Circle of Fear, The Bionic Woman, The Six Million Dollar Man, Project U.F.O., The Incredible Hulk and Fantasy Island. He retired fom the screen in the early 1980s.

  56-year-old Swedish actor Michael Nyqvist (Rolf Åke Mikael Nyqvist), who starred as “Mikael Blomkvist” in the original The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2009), two sequels, and the mini-series Millennium (2010), died of lung cancer on June 27. His other credits include London Voodoo and the TV series Zero Hour.

  British actress Joan Winmill Brown, who played the maid “Mary Wells” during the April-July run of a 1951 touring stage production of Dracula starring Bela Lugosi, died on June 29 in Hawaii. She was 95. Brown had a few small film roles and also appeared in the BBC series Epitaph for a Spy starring Peter Cushing. Between 1948-49 she was the secret girlfriend of Robert F. Kennedy, who installed her in a flat in Kensington, and she later moved to America and became a follower of Billy Graham’s evangelical “Crusade”.

  Iconaclastic British actor, poet, playwright, scriptwriter, painter and sculptor [John Henley] Heathcote Williams died of lung disease on July 1, aged 75. He appeared in Derek Jarman’s The Tempest (1979, as “Prospero”), Slipstream, Orlando, WSH: The Myth of the Urban Myth, Alice in Wonderland (1999), Nostradamus, City of Ember and the TV mini-series The Odyssey and Dinotopia.

  American actress and author A’leisha Brevard, who was one of the first people to undergo sexual reassignment surgery in the US in the early 1960s, died of pulmunary fibrosis the same day, aged 79. Born Alfred Brevard Crenshaw, she appeared as the female creature in Bigfoot (starring John Carradine) and was also in The Female Bunch (with Lon Chaney, Jr.), an episode of TV’s Rod Serling’s Night Gallery, and the two Legends of the Superheroes specials (as “Giganta”).

  Popular Italian comic actor Paolo Villaggio, best known for his trademark character “Fantozzi”, died of complications from diabetes on July 3, aged 84. His credits include Dottor Jekyll e gentile signore (as “Dr. Jekyll” and “Mr. Hyde”), Fracchia contro Dracula, Sogno mostruosamente proibiti and InvaXon: Alieni in Liguria.

  Former British professional wrestler turned actor and stuntman, “Tiger” Joe Robinson (Joseph Robinson), died the same day after a short illness, aged 90. He appeared (uncredited) in Hammer’s The Two Faces of Dr. Jekyll (aka Jekyll’s Inferno), Mario Bava’s Erik the Conqueror, Tartar Invasion, Taur the Mighty, Thor and the Amazon Women, and the James Bond film Diamonds Are Forever. Robinson and his brother Doug gave actress Honor Blackman her first lessons in judo and karate for her role as “Cathy Gale” in TV’s The Avengers, and they co-authored her 1965 volume Honor Blackman’s Book of Self-Defense.

  German-born actress Solvi Stübing (aka “Silvia Stubing”) died in Italy on July 3, aged 76. She appeared in Secret Agent Super Dragon, Battle of the Amazons, Strip Nude for Your Killer and Deported Women of the SS Special Section.

  American actor Ji-Tu Cumbuka (aka “Jitu Cumbuka”) died of vascular disease on July 4, aged 77. He was in the movies Blacula, Dr. Black Mr. White, Mandrake (as “Lothar”), Death Ray 2000 and Covenant. On TV, the actor co-starred in the sci-spy series A Man Called Sloane (1979-80) and appeared in episodes of Rod Serling’s Night Gallery, The Six Million Dollar Man, Faerie Tale Theatre, Knight Rider, Alien Nation and Murder S
he Wrote (‘Night of the Tarantula’). He basically retired from the screen in 1994.

  74-year-old British actress Carol Lee Scott (Carol Waterman), who was best known as the wicked witch “Grotbags” on children’s TV, died of cancer the same day. She originated the character on the ITV series Emu’s World (1982-84) and continued it through three more series before developing her own show, Grotbags, which ran from 1991-93.

  New Zealand-born character actor John Karlsen died on July 5, aged 97. He worked in Europe for most of his career, and his many credits include Battle of the Worlds (with Claude Rains), Werewolf in a Girl’s Dormitory, The Witch’s Curse, Federico Fellini’s 8½, Crypt of Horror (aka Terror in the Crypt, with Christopher Lee), Crack in the World, The Amazing Doctor G, Michael Reeves’ The She Beast (with Barbara Steele), Modesty Blaise (1966), The Christmas That Almost Wasn’t, Mission Stardust, Fenomenal and the Treasure of Tutankamen, Spirits of the Dead, La bestia uccide a sangue freddo, Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure, The Church, Roger Corman’s Frankenstein Unbound and The Order (aka The Sin Eater).

  69-year-old American actor John [Currie] Slade was killed in an automobile accident on July 7. He had small roles in 976-EVIL, Black Magic Woman and an episode of TV’s Voyagers!

  Italian leading lady and former fashion model Elsa Martinelli (Elsa Tia) died of cancer on July 8, aged 82. She co-starred in Roger Vadim’s Blood and Roses, Orson Welles’ The Trial and The 10th Victim (based on the story by Robert Sheckley).

  American actor Nelsan Ellis (Nelson Leon Ellis), who played “Lafayette Reynolds” on the HBO series True Blood (2008-14), died the same day, aged 39. The actor had been trying to quit an alcohol addiction, and it is thought that alcohol withdrawal complications may have led to his heart failure. In Charlaine Harris’ book series, short-order cook Lafayette was killed off, but he survived in the TV show because he was such a popular character. Ellis was also a regular on Season 5 of CBS’ Elementary.

  American voice actor, voice director, sound recordist and producer Wally Burr (Walter Story Burr) died on July 9, aged 93. His credits include such cartoon TV series as The All-New Super Friends Hour and Super Friends (as “The Atom”), The Transformers, and the English-language versions of the anime movies, Fist of the North Star and Akira. Burr also co-produced the 1970 TV movie Sole Survivor featuring William Shatner.

  American stuntman-actor John [Hagen] Bernecker died of accidental blunt force trauma on July 13, after an accident on the set of AMC’s The Walking Dead. The 33-year-old suffered massive head injuries after falling more than twenty feet onto concrete, and had been on a hospital ventilator. Bernecker had small roles in Monsterwolf, Goosebumps, The Last Witch Hunter, Logan and episodes of TV’s True Detective, Salem and The Parallax Theory. He performed and co-ordinated stunts on a number of other movies and TV shows, including Jonah Hex, Vampires Suck, Mysterious Island (2010), Dylan Dog: Dead of Night, Green Lantern, Creature (2011), Battleship, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning, Looper, Escape Plan, Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters, The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2014), The Hunger Games: Mockingjay—Part 1 and Part 2, Fantastic Four (2015), Invisible Sister, The 5th Wave, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows, Ozark Sharks, Black Panther and Avengers of Justice: Farce Wars, along with episodes of The Vampire Diaries, Scream Queens, Into the Bad Lands and The Magicians.

  89-year-old American actor Martin Landau, who won an Academy Award for his portrayal of Bela Lugosi in Tim Burton’s biopic Ed Wood (1994), died of “unexpected complications” during a hospital visit on July 15. He was also in The Fall of the House of Usher (1979), Meteor, Without Warning, The Return, Alone in the Dark, The Being, The Return of the Six Million Dollar Man and the Bionic Woman, Cyclone, By Dawn’s Early Light, Firehead, Sliver, 12:01 (based on the story by Richard A. Lupoff), The Adventures of Pinocchio and The New Adventures of Pinocchio, Merry Christmas George Bailey, The X Files, Sleepy Hollow, City of Ember and Dark Horse. On TV, Landau starred with his then-wife, Barbara Bain, in the series Mission: Impossible (1966-69) and Space: 1999 (1975-77), and he was also in episodes of Wanted: Dead or Alive (‘The Monster’), Shirley Temple’s Storybook (‘The House of the Seven Gables’), The Outer Limits, The Twilight Zone (both the original and 1980s revival), The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, the 1964 pilot for The Haunted (‘The Ghost of Sierra de Cobre), The Wild Wild West, The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (‘The Bat Cave Affair’, as a Lugosi-like villain), Get Smart and Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1987). The actor was reportedly Gene Roddenberry’s first choice to play “Mr. Spock” on Star Trek, but turned the role down. In the mid-1980s, Landau portrayed the title role in a troubled national tour of the Broadway production of Dracula.

  British character actor William Hoyland died the same day, aged 73. He appeared in Assault (aka In the Devil’s Garden), the Bond film For Your Eyes Only and Hellboy, along with episodes of TV’s Thriller (1975), Invasion: Earth and Life on Mars.

  British character actor and playwright Trevor Baxter, who played “Professor George Litefoot” in the 1977 Doctor Who serial ‘The Talons of Weng-Chang’, died on July 16, aged 84. The actor also appeared in The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1997) and Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, along with a 1961 BBC Schools series of Doctor Faustus and episodes of Adam Adamant Lives!, Mystery and Imagination (‘The Body Snatcher’ and ‘Feet Foremost’), Thriller (1975), The New Avengers (‘The Eagle’s Nest’ with Peter Cushing), The Dark Side of the Sun, Maelstrom and the 1988 mini-series Jack the Ripper. Baxter later reprised his role of Professor Litefoot in the audio dramas Doctor Who: The Companion Chronicles: The Mahogany Murderers and the series Jago & Litefoot (with Christopher Benjamin), and in 2003 he adapted Oscar Wilde’s novella The Picture of Dorian Gray for a touring stage production.

  Canadian character actor Harvey Atkin, a regular on TV’s Cagney & Lacey (1981-88), died of cancer on July 17, aged 74. His movie credits include Cries in the Night (aka Funeral Home), The Last Chase, The Incubus, Visiting Hours, Mindfield, Around the World in Eighty Days (1990) and Back to the Beanstalk, while on TV he appeared in episodes of The New Avengers, Seeing Things, Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1989), My Secret Identity, RoboCop, Goosebumps and Big Wolf on Campus. The voice of “King Koopa” in the Super Mario Bros. cartoons, Atkin was also a voice artist on such animated shows as A.L.F., Swamp Thing, Beetlejuice, Little Shop, Wish Kid, The Adventures of Tintin (1992), Tales from the Cryptkeeper, The NeverEnding Story and The Ripping Friends, amongst many others.

  American actor, stuntman and songwriter Red West (Robert Gene West) died of an aortic aneurysm on July 18, aged 81. A friend and former bodyguard to Elvis Presley and a member of the singer’s inner circle “Memphis Mafia”, West appeared in small, often uncredited roles in Journey to the Center of the Earth (1959), Shock Treatment (1964), The Navy vs. the Night Monsters, The Wild Wild West Revisited, Raw Nerve, Natural Born Killers, The P.A.C.K., I Still Know What You Did Last Summer and Vampires Anonymous, along with episodes of TV’s Get Smart, The Six Million Dollar Man, Battlestar Galactica (1978), Knight Rider, The Greatest American Hero and The Twilight Zone (1986). West also appeared and performed stunts in the CBS series The Wild Wild West, and his son, John Boyd West, played him in the 1993 Quantum Leap episode ‘Memphis Melody—July 3, 1954’.

  Likeable French actor Claude Rich died on July 20, aged 88. His many credits include The Burning Court (based on the novel by John Dickson Carr), Le vampire de Bougival, François Truffaut’s The Bride Wore Black, Alain Renais’ Je t’aime je t’aime, Asterix and Obelix Meet Cleopatra and The Mystery of the Yellow Room (2003, based on the novel by Gaston Leroux).

  71-year-old American actor John [Matthew] Heard [Jr.] was found dead from a heart attack in a California hotel on July 21. He was recovering from minor back surgery at the time. Heard appeared in the remake of Cat People (1982), C.H.U.D., Too Scared to Scream, The Milagro Beanfield War, The Seventh Sign, Big, Locusts, The Legends of Nethiah, Sharknado and Living Among Us. O
n TV he was in episodes of Tales from the Darkside, Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1985), American Masters (‘Edgar Allan Poe: Terror of the Soul’), The Outer Limits (1995), Touched by an Angel, Battlestar Galactica (2006), Cavemen, Tim and Eric’s Bedtime Stories, The Lizzie Borden Chronicles and Elementary. The actor was married to Margot Kidder for six days in 1979.

  British actress Deborah Watling, best remembered as companion “Victoria Waterfield” in the BBC’s Doctor Who (1967-68), died after a short battle with lung cancer the same day, aged 69. As a child, she co-starred as “Sally Wilson” in the TV series H.G. Wells’ The Invisible Man (1958-59), and she was also in episodes of The Wednesday Play (‘Alice’) and Out of the Unknown, and the 50th anniversary spoof The Five(ish) Doctors Reboot. The actress appeared with her father, character actor Jack Watling, in the Doctor Who serials ‘The Abominable Snowman’ and ‘The Web of Fear’.

  American character actor and Texas cattle rancher Jimmy Clem (James Melvin Clem) died on July 22, aged 84. He appeared in a number of regional films written and directed by Charles B. Pierce, including The Town That Dreaded Sundown, The Evictors and Boggy Creek II and the Legend Continues…

  Welsh actor Hywel [Thomas] Bennett, who portrayed the murderous “Mr. Croup” in the BBC series of Neil Gaiman’s Neverwhere (1996), died on July 25, aged 73. He retired from acting in 2007 after being diagnosed with a congenital heart defect. Bennett co-starred with Hayley Mills in the psycho-thriller Twisted Nerve and the Agatha Christie adaptation Endless Night, and his other film credits include Percy, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1972), Artemis 81, Murder Elite, A Mind to Kill and Deadly Advice (as “Dr. Crippen”). On TV, he made his acting debut in the 1965 Doctor Who episode ‘The Death of Time’, and went on to appear in episodes of The Twilight Zone (1986), Virtual Murder, Cold Lazarus and the revival of Randall & Hopkirk (Deceased). Bennett’s first wife (1970-88) was Ready, Steady, Go! presenter Cathy McGowan.