British character actor Brook [Richard] Williams, who played the doctor hero in Hammer’s Plague of the Zombies, died on April 29th, aged 67. His other credits include Hammersmith is Out, The Medusa Touch and TV’s The Avengers. The son of Emlyn Williams, he was mentored as an actor by family friend Richard Burton and one of his godparents was Noël Coward.
21-year-old adult film actress Britney Madison was killed in a car accident on May 2nd.
American character actress Elisabeth Fraser [Jonker], who played Sgt. Bilko’s girlfriend “Sgt Joan Hogan” on TV’s The Phil Silvers Show, died of congestive heart failure on May 5th, aged 85. She also appeared in episodes of The Addams Family, Bewitched, The Monkees and The Man from U.N.C.L.E., while her film credits include The Hidden Hand and Seconds.
Actress June Lang (aka “June Vlasek”) died on May 16th, aged 90. She was featured in Chandu the Magician (with Bela Lugosi), Nancy Steele is Missing!, Ali Baba Goes to Town and Flesh and Fantasy before her marriage to reputed mobster Johnny Roselli ended her career in the mid-1940s.
American actor and impersonator Frank Gorshin died from lung cancer, emphysema and pneumonia on May 17th, aged 72. Best known for his Emmy Award-winning role as “The Riddler” in the 1966–68 TV series Batman and the 1966 spin-off film, he was nominated for another Emmy as Commander Bele in the original Star Trek episode “Let That Be Your Last Battlefield” and also appeared in such films as Hot Rod Girl, Dragstrip Girl, Invasion of the Saucer Men, Death Car on the Freeway, Goliath Awakes, Beverly Hills Bodysnatchers, Midnight, Meteor Man, Twelve Monkeys, Back to the Batcave: The Misadventures of Adam and Burt and The Creature of the Sunny Side Up Trailer Park. Gorshin was on the Ed Sullivan Show the night the Beatles made their American TV debut in 1964, and his final appearance was in Quentin Tarantino’s CSI: Crime Scene Investigation fifth season finale, “Grave Danger”, aired two days after his death.
British musician and composer Keith Miller died of a brain haemorrhage the same day, aged 58. In 1966 he appeared as a guitarist with soul band St Louis Union in The Ghost Goes Gear. After establishing his own studio in London he worked on Star Wars and TV’s Blakes 7 and Red Dwarf.
Canadian-born actor Henry Corden, whose credits include The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, The Black Castle and Abbott and Costello Meet Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (all with Boris Karloff), died of emphysema on May 19th, aged 85. Corden also appeared in episodes of Superman, Thriller, Twilight Zone, My Favorite Martian, I Dream of Jeannie and Land of the Giants, and in 1977 he took over as the voice of cartoon character Fred Flintstone from Alan Reed.
American-born character actress Harriet White Medin died after a long battle with Parkinson’s disease on May 20th, aged 91. After World War II she moved to Italy, where she worked as a dialogue coach and appeared in numerous films (often as a creepy housekeeper), including The Horrible Dr. Hichcock, The Ghost, Black Sabbath, The Whip and the Body, Blood and Black Lace and The Murder Clinic. She returned to the US in the 1960s, where her credits include Schlock (under the pseudonym “Enrica Blankey”), Season of the Witch (aka Hungry Wives), Death Race 2000, The Bermuda Triangle, Blood Beach, The Terminator and The Witches of Eastwick.
American actor J. D. Cannon, best known as Sam McCloud’s irascible boss “Chief Peter B. Clifford” in the NBC-TV movie series McCloud (1970–77), died the same day, aged 83. His credits include McCloud Meets Dracula (1977), Disney’s Beyond Witch Mountain, and Raise the Titanic, along with episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Hour, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, The Wild Wild West, The Invaders, The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries, Fantasy Island, Blake’s Magic and The Highwayman.
Comedy actor and TV director Howard Morris died of a heart ailment on May 21st, aged 85. Best remembered for his role as hillbilly “Ernest T. Bass” on The Andy Griffith Show, he also appeared in The Nutty Professor (1963), Way . . . Way Out, High Anxiety, Splash, The Munsters’ Revenge, Transylvania Twist, It Came from Outer Space II and The Wonderful Ice Cream Suit, along with episodes of Thriller, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Twilight Zone and Fantasy Island. Morris also directed the pilot episode of Mel Brooks’ Get Smart and provided the voice for such animated characters as Atom Ant, Beetle Bailey, “Dr. Sivana” in Legends of the Superheroes and all the young monsters in The Groovy Goolies.
Thurl Ravenscroft, the voice of Kelloggs’ “Tony the Tiger” Frosties ads and various Disney characters, died of prostate cancer on May 22nd, aged 91. His voice was also used in Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas (“You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch”), The Hobbit (1977) and The Brave Little Toaster and its sequels.
Veteran American screen and radio actor Eddie Albert (Edward Albert Heimberger), best known for the TV series Green Acres (1965–71) and Switch (1975–76), died of pneumonia on May 26th, aged 99. A leading environmental conservationist and recipient of the Bronze Star for rescuing 142 Marines during World War II, he was one of the first actors to ever appear on television, in an experimental 1936 transmission for NBC. During his seventy-five-year career in Hollywood, his numerous film credits include Disney’s Escape to Witch Mountain, The Devil’s Rain, Dreamscape, Brenda Starr, Terminal Entry and TV’s The Borrowers (1973), The Word, The Demon Murder Case, Goliath Awaits, The Girl From Mars, Beyond Witch Mountain and The Barefoot Executive (1996). He also played “Winston Smith” on a Studio One adaptation of 1984 in 1953, and was the voice of “The Vulture” on the animated Spider-Man TV series. In 1946, Albert produced the controversial sex education films Human Beginnings and Human Growth for US schoolchildren. He married Mexican actress Margo (Maria Marguerita Guadelupe Boldao y Castilla) in 1945 (she died in 1985), and his son Edward is also an actor.
Irish-born stage and film leading man Geoffrey Toone died on June 1st, aged 94. His film credits include Hammer’s Terror of the Tongs, Dr. Crippen, Captain Sinbad and Dr. Who and the Daleks, and he appeared in episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Matinee Theatre (“The Invisible Man”), One Step Beyond, Doctor Who and The New Avengers.
Austrian-born character actor Leon Askin (Leo Aschkenasy) died in Vienna, Austria, on June 3rd, aged 97. After fleeing persecution by the Nazis and serving with the US Army during World War II, he appeared in such films as Road to Bali, Son of Sinbad, The Terror of Doctor Mabuse, Sherlock Holmes and the Deadly Necklace, The Maltese Bippy, Hammersmith is Out, Dr. Death Seeker of Souls, The World’s Greatest Athlete, Genesis II, Young Frankenstein and The Horror Star. A regular on Hogan’s Heroes (as “General Albert Burkhalter”) his other TV credits include episodes of Superman, The Outer Limits, My Favorite Martian, It’s About Time, The Man from U.N.C.L.E., The Monkees and The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries: “The Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew Meet Dracula”. Askin became a resident of Vienna in 1994, and he was decorated with one of the city’s most distinguished prizes, the Gold Medal of Honour.
British film and TV actor Michael Billington died of cancer the same day, aged 63. From 1972–73 he played “Colonel Paul Foster” on TV’s U.F.O. and as Soviet assassin “Sergei Barsov” he tried to kill Roger Moore’s James Bond in The Spy Who Loved Me. Billington, who reputedly screen-tested for the role of James Bond more often than any other actor, also appeared in episodes of The Prisoner, The Greatest American Hero, Fantasy Island and The Quest (as regular “Cardinay”).
71-year-old actor Terry Doyle died of a heart attack during a stage performance of Disney’s Beauty and the Beast on June 3rd. He also appeared in Prom Night III and Teenage Psycho Killer.
American character actress Lorna Thayer, best known as the waitress in the chicken-salad sandwich scene with Jack Nicholson in Five Easy Pieces, died on June 4th, aged 86. She also appeared in Roger Corman’s Beast with a Million Eyes, The Andromeda Strain, Rhinoceros and the TV movie The Aliens Are Coming.
29-year-old adult film star Chloe Jones died of liver failure the same day while awaiting a transplant.
Oscar- and two-time Tony Award-winning actress Anne Bancroft (Anna Maria Louise Italiano, aka “Anne Marno”) died of uterine cancer on June 6th,
aged 73. Best known for her iconic role as Mrs Robinson in The Graduate (1967), her credits also include the 3-D Gorilla at Large (1954), Lipstick, The Elephant Man, Love Potion No.9 and Antz. She married actor/director Mel Brooks in 1964 and had a cameo as a gypsy in his 1995 comedy, Dracula Dead and Loving It.
American character actor Dana Elcar died of complications from pneumonia the same day, aged 77. His numerous credits include Fail Safe, The Fool Killer, The Boston Strangler, The Maltese Bippy, The Nude Bomb (as “Chief”), Disney’s Condorman, All of Me and 2010, as well as such TV movies as Richard Matheson’s Dying Room Only and The Gemini Man. He was a regular on Dark Shadows (1966–71, as “Sheriff Patterson”) and as spy boss “Peter Thornton” on ABC TV’s MacGyver. Elcar also appeared in episodes of Way Out, The Invaders, Get Smart, The Sixth Sense, The Six Million Dollar Man, The Incredible Hulk, Galactica 1980, Voyagers!, Knight Rider and the revived Dark Shadows.
American-born leading man Ed(ward) Bishop (George Victor Bishop) died of a virus caught in an English hospital on June 8th, aged 72. Best known for his role as “Commander Ed Straker” in twenty-six episodes of Gerry Anderson’s TV series U.F.O., for which he dyed his dark hair blond, he also provided the voice of “Captain Blue” in Anderson’s 1967 puppet series Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons. Bishop’s film credits include The Mouse on the Moon, The Bedford Incident, Battle Beneath the Earth, Doppelgänger (aka Journey to the Far Side of the Sun), the James Bond adventures Diamonds Are Forever and You Only Live Twice, Saturn 3, Twilight’s Last Gleaming, Whoops Apocalypse, The Fifth Missile, Young Indiana Jones and the Curse of the Jackal and 2001: A Space Odyssey, although most of his performance as a Pan Am shuttle pilot in the latter was cut.
Actress Trude Marlen, who appeared in Sherlock Holmes and the Grey Lady (1937) died on June 9th, aged 92.
Dependable “B” movie actor Robert Clarke died of complications from diabetes on June 11th, aged 85. Best known as the star, writer and producer of The Hideous Sun Demon (1959), his numerous other credits include The Enchanted Cottage, The Body Snatcher (with Karloff and Lugosi), Zombies on Broadway, Bedlam, A Game of Death, Genius at Work, Dick Tracy Meets Gruesome, The Man from Planet X, Captive Women, The Astounding She-Monster, The Incredible Petrified World (with John Carradine), From the Earth to the Moon, Beyond the Time Barrier (which he also produced), Terror of the Bloodhunters, The Brotherhood of the Bell, Frankenstein Island, Midnight Movie Massacre, Alienator, Haunting Fear and The Naked Monster. Clarke appeared on TV in episodes of Science Fiction Theater, Men Into Space, Kolchak: The Night Stalker, Fantasy Island and Knight Rider. His 1996 autobiography (written with Tom Weaver) was entitled To “B” or Not to “B”: A Film Actor’s Odyssey.
Australian-born actor Ron Randell died of complications from a stroke in Alabama the same day, aged 86. He made his Hollywood film debut in 1947, and his film credits include Monogram’s Bulldog Drummond at Bay and Bulldog Drummond Strikes Back (as the eponymous hero), Captive Women, The She-Creature (1956), The Most Dangerous Man Alive, Kiss Me Quick and the TV movie Mandrake. He also appeared in episodes of One Step Beyond, The Outer Limits, Alfred Hitchcock Hour, Betwitched and Wild Wild West, and starred in Sherlock Holmes on Broadway.
Britain’s original 1960s rock chick, Krissie Wood, was found dead of a suspected drug overdose in a West London bedsit in early June, aged 57. She had apparently been suffering from depression. She reportedly had affairs with Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page, George Harrison and John Lennon, and from 1964–78 she was married to Small Faces and Rolling Stones guitarist Ronnie Wood.
69-year-old American character actor Lane Smith, who played Daily Planet editor Perry White on Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman (1993–97), died on June 13th of complications from ALS or Lou Gehrig’s disease. He also appeared in such films as Man on a Swing, Red Dawn and Prison, the TV movies Dark Night of the Scarecrow, Bridge Across Time, Duplicates, Alien Nation: The Udara Legacy and WW3, and he was a regular on V (1984–85, as “Nathan Bates”) and Good & Evil (1991, as “Harlan Shell”).
British actor Jonathan Adams, best remembered for his role as the uptight “Dr Everett Scott” in The Rocky Horror Picture Show, died the same day of a stroke, aged 74. He had played the Narrator in the original London Stage production of Richard O’Brien’s horror-musical at the Royal Court’s Theatre Upstairs. His other credits include the 1989 stage production of Metropolis, the 1990 horror film Two Evil Eyes, Eskimo Nell and TV’s The Invisible Man (1984) and Star Cop (as regular “Alexander Krivenko”).
Singer and voice actress Robie Lester died of cancer on June 14th, aged 75. A Disneyland Story Reader on a number of record sets, she performed the title song of The Three Lives of Thomasina and was the singing voice for Eva Gabor in The Aristocats and The Rescuers. Lester also appeared in Sword of Ali Baba and sung on the 1966 Sandpipers’ hit “Guantanamera”.
American actress Cay Forrester died of pneumonia on June 18th, aged 83. She appeared in Brenda Starr, Reporter (1945), Strange Impersonation, Queen of the Amazons and the psycho-thriller Door-to-Door Maniac (starring Johnny Cash), that she also scripted.
Tatsuo Matsumura, who appeared in The Human Vapor, Secret of the Telegian and King Kong vs. Godzilla, died of heart failure the same day, aged 90.
British character actress Imogen Claire, who appeared in a number of films for director Ken Russell, died on June 24th, aged 58. Her credits include Tommy, The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Lisztomania, Flash Gordon (1980), Shock Treatment, Salome and The Lair of the White Worm.
Eddie (Edward) Smith, co-founder of the Black Stuntman’s Association in 1967, died after a long illness the same day, aged 81. He worked on the Planet of the Apes sequels, the Bond film Live and Let Die, Earthquake, Dr. Black Mr. Hyde, The Sword and the Sorcerer, Predator 2 and the 1996 remake of The Nutty Professor.
American character actor Jack Kosslyn died on June 24th of complications from a stroke, aged 84. His many credits include The Amazing Colossal Man, Attack of the Puppet People, Earth vs. the Spider, War of the Colossal Beast, The Magic Sword, High Plains Drifter, Play Misty for Me and Empire of the Ants.
Ventriloquist and voice artist Paul Winchell (Paul Wilchen) died in his sleep the same day, aged 82. Best known as the Grammy-winning voice of Walt Disney’s bouncing Tigger in the Winnie-the-Pooh cartoons, he also voiced Dick Dastardly in Wacky Races, Fleagle in Banana Splits, Gargamel in The Smurfs, The Chinese Cat in The Aristocats and Boomer in The Fox and the Hound. Amongst other inventions, Winchell patented an artificial heart in 1963, a disposable razor, a flameless cigarette lighter and an invisible garter belt.
American character actor John Fiedler, who was the voice of Piglet in Disney’s Pooh films from 1968 until 2005, died of cancer the following day, aged 80. His other credits include The Deathmaster, Mystery in Dracula’s Castle, The Shaggy D.A., The Rescuers, The Fox and the Hound and episodes of Tom Corbett Space Cadet (as semi-regular “Cadet Alfie Higgins”), Twilight Zone, Thriller, The Munsters, Bewitched, Star Trek (as the Jack the Ripper character in “Wolf in the Fold”), Kolchak: The Night Stalker (as regular “Gordy Spangler”), Fantasy Island, Amazing Stories and Tales from the Darkside.
R&B singer Luther [Ronzoni] Vandross died on July 1st, aged 54. After struggling with weight problems, diabetes and hypertension for many years, he suffered a stroke in April 2003, from which he never fully recovered. A former back-up singer for David Bowie, Barbra Streisand, Bette Midler and others, his hits include “Here and Now”, “The Best Things in Life Are Free” (with Janet Jackson) and “Power of Love”, and his most recent studio album, Dance with My Father, won a number of Grammy Awards. Vandross had a small role in the 1993 comedy The Meteor Man and also had a cameo on TV’s Touched by an Angel.
69-year-old singer Renaldo “Obie” Benson, a member of the legendary Motown R&B group the Four Tops for five decades (“Standing in the Shadows of Love”, “Reach Out [I’ll Be There]”), died the same day of lung cancer. Benson wrote many of the group’s hits and is also credit
ed as the writer of Marvin Gaye’s 1971 classic “What’s Going On”.
American character actor Harrison Young, who appeared as “Palmer Harper” on the daytime TV soap opera Passions in 2001, died on July 3rd, aged 75. His many credits include Waxwork II: Lost in Time, Children of the Corn IV: The Gathering, Humanoids from the Deep (1996), Reptilian, The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle, Crocodile, Starforce, Bubba Ho-tep and House of 1000 Corpses.
Veteran TV actor Kevin Hagen, best known as “Doc Baker” in Little House on the Prairie, died of oesophageal cancer on July 9th, aged 77. A semi-regular on Land of the Giants (as “Inspector Kobick”), he also appeared in episodes of Twilight Zone, Thriller, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, Lost in Space, Time Tunnel, The Man from U.N.C.L.E., The Wild Wild West, Amazing Stories and Fantasy Island.
Actress Ann Loring died on July 10th, aged 90. Her credits include TV’s Tales of Tomorrow, and she later became an author. Among her books is the horror novel The Mark of Satan.
British actor Derek Aylward died the same day, aged 82. He appeared in The Ghost of St. Michael’s, The House in Marsh Road and TV’s The Adventures of Charlie Chan and Quatermass II. Aylward later became the star of such British porn films as The Playbirds, Cool it Carol and School for Sex.
British character actress Gretchen Franklin, best-known as “Ethel Skinner” in the long-running BBC-TV soap opera Eastenders, died on July 11th, aged 94. Her many film credits include Help! with the Beatles, Monster of Terror (aka Die! Monster, Die!) with Boris Karloff, Twisted Nerve and The Night Visitor. She also appeared in “The Beckoning Fair One” episode on Journey to the Unknown, Quatermass (aka The Quatermass Conclusion) and the BBC’s 1980 version of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.
Irish-born stage and screen actress Geraldine Fitzgerald, who was nominated for an Academy Award for her role as “Isabella Linton” in Wuthering Heights (1939), died of Alzheimer’s disease on July 17th, aged 91. Her later credits include Bye Bye Monkey, Lovespell, Diary of the Dead, The Link, Poltergeist II The Other Side and episodes of Suspense and Alfred Hitchcock’s TV series. After spurning the advances of British author Patrick Hamilton, he reputedly portrayed her as murder victim “Netta Longdon” in his 1939 novel Hangover Square.
The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror 17 Page 67