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

Seventy-two-year-old Indian-born British character actor Badi Uzzaman(Mohammed Badji Uzzaman Azmi) died of a lung infection on 14 June in Pakistan. He appeared in The Sign of Four (1987), Stephen Gallagher’s Chimera , and Gulliver’s Travels (1996), along with episodes of The Singing Detective, Screen One (“Frankenstein’s Baby”) and Torchwood .

Thirty-four-year-old stuntman Ryan[Matthew] Dunn, best known as one of the moronic Jackass team on MTV, died on 20 June when he crashed the Porsche he was driving drunk at 3 a.m., killing himself and his passenger, twenty-nine-year-old Zachary Hartwell. The car had been travelling at speeds of up to 140 mph and the crash turned the vehicle into a fireball. Dunn also had small roles in Invader and Welcome to the Bates Motel .

Just one more thing. veteran Hollywood actor Peter[Michael] Falk, best known for his Emmy Award-winning role as the wily raincoat-wearing, cigar-smoking police Lieutenant in NBC-TV’s Columbo (1971–2003), died on 23 June, aged eighty-three. He had been suffering from Alzheimer’s disease and dementia. Falk’s movie credits include Brigadoon (1966), Castle Keep, Murder by Death, The Great Muppet Caper, Wings of Desire (1987), The Princess Bride, Vibes, The Lost World (2001), Shark Tale, When Angels Come to Town and Next . He also appeared in episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents, The Twilight Zone and The Alfred Hitchcock Hour . Falk’s right eye was surgically removed at the age of three because of cancer.

British stage and screen actress Margaret[Maud] TyzackCBE died of cancer on 25 June, aged seventy-nine. Her credits include 2001: A Space Odyssey, A Clockwork Orange, The Legacy, Quatermass (aka The Quatermass Conclusion ), Until Death and The Thief Lord , along with episodes of TV’s The Indian Tales of Rudyard Kipling and The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles .

Indian-born British leading man Michael Latimer, who starred in Hammer’s Slave Girls (aka Prehistoric Women ), died the same day, aged sixty-nine. He also appeared in episodes of the TV series Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, The Avengers (“A Touch of Brimstone”), Sexton Blake, The New Avengers and Hammer House of Horror , along with Gene Roddenberry’s TV pilot movie Spectre and the SF film Project: Alien (aka Fatal Sky ).

American child actress Edith[Marilyn] Fellowsdied on 26 June, aged eighty-eight. She had made around thirty films by the age of thirteen and was the subject of a high-profile custody case in 1936. Her credits include Jane Eyre (1934), Lilith and The Hills Have Eyes Part II (1985), and she also appeared in four episodes of TV’s Tales of Tomorrow .

Eighty-one-year-old Hollywood actress Elaine Stewart(Elsy H. Steinberg) died after a long illness on 27 June. A former 1950s Playboy pin-up turned TV hostess, she starred opposite Gene Kelly in MGM’s Brigadoon (1954) and her other movie credits include The Adventures of Hajji Baba and Most Dangerous Man Alive .

British actress Anna[Raymond] MasseyOBE died of cancer on 2 July, aged seventy-three. The daughter of actor Raymond Massey and the younger sister of Daniel Massey, she appeared in Peeping Tom, ITV Play of the Week (“A Midsummer Night’s Dream”), Bunny Lake is Missing, De Sade , Alfred Hitchcock’s Frenzy, The Vault of Horror (based on the EC comics), Rebecca (1979), Around the World in 80 Days (1989) and Haunted (based on the novel by James Herbert), as well as episodes of TV’s Dead of Night, Tales of the Unexpected, Mistress of Suspense, The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles and Strange . She was married to actor Jeremy Brett from 1958 to 1962, and her godfather was director John Ford.

American character actor, poet and playwright Roberts[Scott] Blossom, who memorably played psychopathic backwoods killer “Ezra Cobb” in Deranged (1974), died on 8 July, aged eighty-seven. He was also in Slaughterhouse-Five, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Resurrection, Christine (based on the novel by Stephen King) and Always , along with episodes of Amazing Stories, Tales from the Darkside and the 1980s The Twilight Zone series.

Indian-born British actress Googie Withers(Georgette Lizette Withers) CBE died in Australia on 15 July, aged ninety-four. Her credits include Alfred Hitchcock’s The Lady Vanishes (1938), Dead of Night (1945) and Miranda .

Eighty-nine-year-old British character actress Sheila[Mary] Burrelldied on 19 July, after a long illness following a serious stroke two years earlier. Sir Laurence Olivier’s cousin and a long-standing member of the Royal Shakespeare Company, she appeared in such films as Hammer’s Man in Black and Paranoiac, Afraid of the Dark and Jane Eyre (1996), plus episodes of Colonel March of Scotland Yard (starring Boris Karloff), Adam Adamant Lives! Out of the Unknown, The Avengers, Spooky, Tales of the Unexpected and The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles . Burrell was married to actor Laurence Payne from 1944 to 1951.

Mexican-born actress Linda Christian(Blanca Rosa Welter), described as “The Anatomic Bomb” by Life magazine, died of colon cancer on 22 July in California, aged eighty-seven. A former beauty contest winner, her credits include Tarzan and the Mermaids and The Devil’s Hand (with her younger sister Ariadna Welter), along with episodes of Climax! (“Casino Royale”, the first James Bond adaptation) and The Alfred Hitchcock Hour . Best known for her various romantic liaisons with wealthy playboys, racing drivers and bullfighters, she married and divorced actors Tyrone Power and Edmund Purdom.

A former corporate lawyer, independent oil producer, cattle rancher and local politician before he became a character actor, G.(Gervase) D.(Duan) Spradlindied on 24 July, aged ninety. He appeared (usually as authority figures) in Hell’s Angels ’69, Zabriskie Point, Maneaters Are Loose! Apocalypse Now, The Formula, Intruders, Ed Wood (as “Reverend Lemon”) and episodes of TV’s Search Control, Kung Fu, The Greatest American Hero and Dark Skies .

Dukes of Hazzard star Christopher Mayer(George Charles Mayer III, aka “Chip Mayer”) died the same day, aged fifty-seven. He also appeared in episodes of TV’s Weird Science, Xena: Warrior Princess, Sliders, Silk Stalkings and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine .

Val Warren(Valmore Warren), who won a National Horror Makeup Contest in Famous Monsters of Filmland magazine to play a teenage werewolf in the AIP film Bikini Beach (1964), died of complications from cancer on 25 July, aged sixty-nine. An author, illustrator and musician, he edited the early 1960s fantasy film fanzine Kaleidoscope and wrote the 1979 book Lost Lands, Mythical Kingdoms and Unknown Worlds . Warren was also an authority on Buddy Holly and the Crickets.

Welsh-born character actor Richard[de Pearsall] Pearsondied on 2 August, aged ninety-three. His films include Scrooge (1951), Svengali (1954), How I Won the War, Macbeth (1971), Alice Through the Looking Glass (1973), Disney’s One of Our Dinosaurs is Missing, The Blue Bird (1976), Whoops Apocalypse and Men in Black II (as the voice of “Gordy”), and he appeared in episodes of Stranger from Space, The Mystery of Edwin Drood (1960), Mystery and Imagination (M. R. James’ “Lost Hearts”), Sherlock Holmes (1968), Out of the Unknown, The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes, Hammer House of Horror (“The Thirteenth Reunion”) and Tales of the Unexpected . Pearson was also the voice of “Mole” in The Wind in the Willows (1983–88) and Oh! Mr Toad (1989–90).