Christopher Fowler - The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror. Volume 10

The same day saw the death in a nursing home of 50-year-old David-Allen “Chico” Ryan,who sang and played bass with 1950s revival group Sha Na Na. He also appeared in the hit movie Grease.

44-year-old Canadian stuntman Marc Akerstreamwas killed on August 14th when a special effects explosion went wrong on the TV series The Crow: Stairway to Heaven. A piece of debris thrown into the air by the blast struck Akerstream on the head and he later died in hospital. The show is based on the 1994 movie The Crow, during the filming of which star Brandon Lee was killed in a freak firearms accident.

Stand-up comic and character actor Phil Leedsdied on August 16th of pneumonia, aged 82. His film credits include Rosemary’s Baby and Ghost, and he appeared in numerous TV sit-coms such as Dream On, Ellen and Ally McBeal.

49-year-old Indian actress Persis Khambatta,who starred as bald-headed navigator Lieutenant Ilia in Star Trek the Motion Picture, died of an apparent heart attack in a Bombay hospital on August 18th. However, some reports claimed that the 1965 Miss India had no history of heart trouble (despite having undergone a bypass operation in 1983) and that she had been murdered. Her other films include The Man With the Power, Megaforce, Night-hawks, Warriors of the Lost World and First Strike.

American actor E.(Edda) G.(Gunnar) Marshalldied on August 24th after a short illness. He was 88, and his many film and TV appearances include Vampire, Superman II, The Phoenix, Creepshow, Two Evil Eyes, The Tommyknockers, Under Siege, Lights Out (with John Carradine), Inner Sanctum, Studio One: “Donovan’s Brain”, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Moment of Fear, Night Gallery and Tales from the Darkside. He won two Emmys for his role as attorney Lawrence Preston in The Defenders (1961–65), and in 1988 the liberal actor formed the environmentalist Preservation Party to support anti-development candidates in New York.

Stage actor Jerome Dempsey,who won a Drama Desk Award for his performance as Van Helsing opposite Frank Langella in the 1977 Broadway production of Dracula, died of heart failure on August 26th, aged 69.

Russian-born character actor Leonid Kinskey, who played Sascha, the bartender of Rick’s Cafe in Casablanca, died of a stroke on September 8th, aged 95. He also appeared in such TV shows as The Man from U.N.C.L.E. and the pilot of Hogan’s Heroes.

American tough-guy actor of the 1940s and ‘50s Dane Clark(Bernard Zanville) died on September 11th, aged 85.

CNN correspondent John Holliman, who appeared as himself in the 1997 movie Contact, was killed in a car crash in Atlanta, Georgia, on September 12th. He was 49.

British character actress Patricia Hayesdied on September 19th, aged 88. Her films include The Neverending Story, The Terrornauts, Fragment of Fear and Willow, and she appeared on TV in Hammer House of Mystery and Suspense and The Tomorrow People.

American TV actress Mary Frann, who portrayed Bob New-hart’s wife in the CBS series Newhart (1982–90), died of a heart attack on September 23rd, aged 55.

British leading man Marius Goring, C.B.E. died of cancer on September 30th, aged 86. Best remembered for his roles in the Powell and Pressburger classics A Matter of Life and Death (aka Stairway to Heaven) and The Red Shoes, he also appeared in The Case of the Frightened Lady and starred in the BBC-TV series The Expert (1970–75). In 1929 he was a founding member of the actor’s union Equity.

Singing cowboy Gene Autrydied of lymphoma on October 2nd, three days after his 91st birthday. He made his movie debut in 1934, and appeared in ninety-five movies, usually with his horse Champion, including the SF serial The Phantom Empire, Mystery Mountain and Gold Town Ghost Riders. He also recorded 635 songs, most notably “Back in the Saddle Again” and “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer’ and co-wrote ‘Here Comes Santa Claus”. A clever businessman, he produced his own TV show (1950–56) and others, eventually creating a half-billion-dollar investment portfolio which included oil wells, hotels, television stations and the Anaheim Angels baseball team. He opened the Gene Autry Western Heritage Museum in Los Angeles’ Griffith Park in 1988.

Lon Clark, who portrayed Nick Carter, Master Detective on radio from 1943–55, died the same day, aged 86.

70-year-old British-born actor and photographer Roddy McDowalldied of cancer in his Los Angeles home on October 3rd, only two weeks after word of his terminal illness became public. A former child star, he moved to Hollywood in 1940 where his later roles tended towards the bizarre or psychotic. Best remembered as the star of the Planet of the Apes film and TV series (playing various intelligent simians), he also portrayed ham horror host Peter Vincent in Fright Night and Fright Night Part 2. His many other credits include Macbeth (1948) , Midnight Lace (1960), Shock Treatment (1964), The Loved One, It ! the Night Gallery pilot, Tam Lin (which he also directed) , Laserblast, A Taste of Evil, The Legend of Hell House, Arnold, The Cat from Outer Space, Embryo, The Silent Flute (aka Circle of Iron), Charlie Chan and the Curse of the Dragon Queen, The Thief of Baghdad (1978), The Black Hole, The Martian Chronicles, Class of 1984, Dead of Winter, Doin’ Time on Planet Earth, Mirror Mirror 2: Raven Dance, Cutting Class, Heads, The Alien Within and A Bug’s Life. He co-starred with Boris Karloff in TV’s Playhouse 90: “Heart of Darkness” (1958), portrayed the untrustworthy Jonathan Willoway on Fantastic Journey, played the villainous Bookworm on Batman, was the voice of The Mad Hatter on Batman: The Animated Series, and guested on such shows as The Twilight Zone, Alfred Hitchcock Hour, The Invaders, Journey to the Unknown, The Snoop Sisters, Nightmare Classics: “Carmilla” and Fantasy Island (as the Devil).

Another original singing cowboy star, Robert “Tex” Allen, died on October 9th, aged 92. In Hollywood since the 1930s, his films include Crime and Punishment (with Peter Lorre) and The Phantom Stallion, and he had his own TV series, Frontier Doctor, in 1952.

Radio and TV announcer Tony Marvin, who was the official “voice” of the 1939 New York World’s Fair, died in Florida on October 10th, aged 86. He was also the original voice of Tony the Tiger in the Kellogg’s cereal commercials.

American leading man Richard Denning(Louis A. Denninger) died of cardiac arrest after a long battle with emphysema on October 11th, aged 85. His films include The Creature from the Black Lagoon, Her Jungle Love, Unknown Island, Target Earth! The Creature With the Atom Brain, Roger Corman’s The Day the World Ended and The Black Scorpion. He co-starred with Vincent Price in Twice Told Tales and played Governor Philip Grey on TV’s Hawaii Five-O (1968–79). He was married to actress Evelyn Ankers, who died in 1985.

Silent screen star Molly O’Day, who began her career in Our Gang films and worked with Laurel and Hardy, died on October 15th, aged 88.