Stephen Jones - The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror. Volume 23

American agent, editor and publisher Glenn[Richard] Lord, best known for his work as agent for the Robert E. Howard Estate, died on 31 December, aged eighty. He edited The Howard Collector magazine from 1961–73, and the 1979 compilation The Howard Collector: By and About Robert E. Howard . His non-fiction volumes include the still-indispensable The Last Celt: A Bio-Bibliography of Robert Ervin Howard and two volumes of Robert E. Howard: Selected Letters . Lord received a World Fantasy Special Convention Award in 1978.

PERFORMERS/PERSONALITIES

Dependable British character actor Pete PostlethwaiteOBE (Peter William Postlethwaite) died in his sleep after a long battle with cancer on 2 January, aged sixty-four. A former drama teacher, his credits include Split Second (1992), Alien 3, The Usual Suspects, James and the Giant Peach, DragonHeart, The Lost World: Jurassic Park, Alice in Wonderland (1999), Animal Farm (1999), Dark Water (2005), Æon Flux, The Omen (2006), Lamberto Bava’s Ghost Son, Solomon Kane, Clash of the Titans (2010) and Inception .

Hollywood leading lady Anne[Lloyd] Francis, who memorably starred as “Altaira” in the SF classic Forbidden Planet (1956), died of pancreatic cancer the same day, aged eighty. A former child model, she also appeared in the films Portrait of Jennie (uncredited), The Satan Bug, Brainstorm and the TV movies Haunts of the Very Rich and Mazes and Monsters . From 1965– 66 Francis portrayed the sexy private detective with a pet ocelot in ABC’s Honey West (a spin-off series from Burke’s Law ) and she also appeared in episodes of Suspense, Lights Out, Climax! The Twilight Zone, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, The Man from U.N.C.L.E ., The Invaders, Search Control, Wonder Woman, Fantasy Island (both the original series and 1990s revival) and Conan .

Early American talkies star Mirian Seegaralso died on 2 January. She was 103 years old. Seegar’s credits include RKO’s 1929 version of Seven Keys to Baldpate . In the early 1930s she married director Tim Whelan and retired from the screen.

British-born actress [Valeria] Jill Haworthdied in her sleep at her apartment in Manhattan on 3 January, aged sixty-five. The first actress to portray “Sally Bowles” in Cabaret on the Broadway stage, during the late 1960s and early ’70s she appeared in the British horror films It! The Haunted House of Horror (aka Horror House ), Tower of Evil (aka Horror on Snape Island / Beyond the Fog ) and The Mutations (aka The Freakmaker ). Haworth was also in episodes of The Outer Limits (“The Sixth Finger”) and The Most Deadly Game (“Witches’ Sabbath”), along with the TV movie Home For the Holidays .

American actor Aron Kincaid(Norman Neale Williams II), who was in a number of “Beach Party” movies during the 1960s, died of heart-related complications on 6 January, aged seventy. He also appeared in Roger Corman’s The Wasp Woman, Dr Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine (with Vincent Price), The Ghost in the Invisible Bikini (with Boris Karloff and Basil Rathbone), Creature of Destruction, Planet Earth, Brave New World, Silent Night Deadly Night and The Golden Child , along with episodes of TV’s Thriller, Get Smart, The New People, The Immortal and Mr Merlin . His voice-work in cartoons included playing “Killer Croc” on Batman: The Animated Series and “Sky Lynx” on Transformers . In later years Kincaid became a model and artist.

American TV actor John[Carroll] Dye, who starred as the celestial “Andrew” in CBS’ Touched by an Angel (1994–2003), died of a heart attack on 10 January, aged forty-seven. He was also in the fantasy TV movies Once Upon a Christmas and Twice Upon a Christmas .

American actor [Horace] Paul Picerni, a regular on TV’s The Untouchables (1959–63), died of a heart attack on 12 January, aged eighty-eight. He appeared in House of Wax (with Vincent Price), only the trailer for The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms , the last “Bomba the Jungle Boy” movie, Lord of the Jungle , and Capricorn One , along with episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Men Into Space, Batman, The Immortal, The Sixth Sense, Ghost Story, Kolchak: The Night Stalker, Project U.F.O ., Fantasy Island, The Incredible Hulk and The Powers of Matthew Star .

Susannah York(Susannah Yolande Fletcher) died on 14 January after a long battle with bone marrow cancer. She was seventy-two. The British actress and author starred in Jane Eyre (1970), Robert Altman’s Images (based on her own children’s book, In Search of Unicorns ), The Shout, Superman (1978) and sequels II and IV (as the Man of Steel’s mother “Lara”), The Golden Gate Murders, The Awakening (based on The Jewel of Seven Stars by Bram Stoker), A Christmas Carol (1984), Daemon, Mio in the Land of Faraway (with Christopher Lee), Visitors and Franklyn . On TV she appeared in episodes of ITV Play of the Week (“The Crucible” with Sean Connery), Mystery and Imagination (“The Fall of the House of Usher” as “Madeleine Usher”), Orson Welles’ Great Mysteries (with Peter Cushing) and The Ray Bradbury Theatre .

Sixty-nine-year-old TV horror host Dr Creep(Barry Lee Hobart, aka “Dr Death”) died the same day, following a series of strokes. He hosted Shock Theater on Dayton, Ohio’s WKEF from 1972–85, and later on public-access TV between 1999–2005. The character also appeared in the shorts Joe Nosferatu: Homeless Vampire and Casting Bruce Campbell , along with the direct-to-DVD movie Necrophagia: Through Eyes of the Dead , and he was featured in the 2006 documentary American Scary . Hobart was the nephew of horror film make-up artist and stuntman Doug Hobart.

American actress Patti Gilbert(Patti Friedman) died on 15 January, aged seventy-nine. She played the wife of Victor Buono’s villainous “King Tut” in a 1967 episode of TV’s Batman , appeared in a couple of episodes of Get Smart and voiced “Princess of Sweet Rhyme” in The Phantom Tollbooth (1970).

Gruff American character actor Bruce Gordon, another regular on TV’s The Untouchables , died on 20 January, aged ninety-four. His credits include Roger Corman’s Curse of the Undead and Tower of London (1962), Hello Down There, Piranha (1978) and Timerider: The Adventure of Lyle Swann , along with episodes of One Step Beyond, The Man from U.N.C.L.E ., The Girl from U.N.C.L.E . (“The Mother Muffin Affair” with Boris Karloff), The Flying Nun, Get Smart and Tarzan (1968). Gordon also appeared alongside Karloff in the long-running Broadway play Arsenic and Old Lace (1941–44).

American physical fitness guru Jack LaLanne(François Henri LaLanne) died of respiratory failure and pneumonia on 23 January, aged ninety-six. Along with his own TV show (1951– 85), he appeared in More Wild Wild West, Repossessed, The Year Without Santa Claus (as “Hercules”), and episodes of such 1960s TV shows as Mr Ed, The Addams Family and Batman .