Stephen Jones - The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror. Volume 13

American actress Peggy Converse, who starred in The Thing That Couldn’t Die, died on March 2nd, aged 95.

TV actor Louis Edmonds, who portrayed various members of the Collins family in the daytime soap opera Dark Shadows (1966–71) and the movie House of Dark Shadows, died of respiratory failure on March 3rd, aged 77.

Edward Winter, who starred as Captain Ben Ryan in the TV series col1_0 (1978–79), died of Parkinson’s disease on March 8th, aged 63.

Obnoxious talkshow host and chain-smoker [Sean] Morton Downey, Jr. died of lung cancer and other respiratory problems on March 12th, aged 68. After composing such hit surf-rock numbers as ‘Pipeline’ and ‘Wipeout’ in the early 1960s, his syndicated TV series The Morton Downey Jr. Show debuted in the New York City area in 1987. He also appeared in more than twenty movies and TV shows, including Predator 2 and episodes of Monsters and Tales from the Crypt.

Calypso singer Sir Lancelot(Lancelot Victor Pinard), whose credits include Val Lewton’s I Walked With a Zombie, The Ghost Ship and Curse of the Cat People, plus Zombies on Broadway and The Unknown Terror, died the same day, aged 97.

Hollywood actress and light comedienne Ann Sothern(Harriette Lake) died of heart failure on March 15th, aged 92. Her many films include Super-Sleuth, Lady in a Cage, Golden Needles and The Manitou, and she was the voice of the car in the TV fantasy sitcom My Mother the Car (1965–66). Sothern was nominated for an Academy Award for her role in The Whales of August (with Vincent Price). Her daughter, designer Tisha Sterling, was also an actress.

Voice actress Norma MacMillan, who was the voice of Casper, The Friendly Ghost in the 1950s Paramount cartoon series, died in Canada on March 16th, aged 79. She also voiced Gumby in the Claymation series Pokey and Gumby and Sweet Polly Purebread in Underdog.

British leading man of the 1950s Anthony [Maitland] Steeldied on March 21st, his 81st birthday. His credits include Helter Skelter (1948) and West of Zanzibar (1954). Later in his career he appeared in The Story of O (1975) and portrayed film producer Lintom Busotsky (a role originally intended for Peter Cushing) in the 1980 R. Chetwynd-Hayes adaptation, The Monster Club. He was briefly married to Anita Ekberg.

American stage and screen actor Anthony Dexter(Walter Fleischmann) died on March 27th, aged 82. After being cast as Rudolph Valentino in the 1951 biopic, his career never recovered and he found himself in such films as Fire Maidens from Outer Space, The Story of Mankind, 12 to the Moon and Phantom Planet.

Alleged serial killer Henry Lee Lucas, who confessed to more than 300 homicides and was the inspiration for Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer, also died in March. He was apparently the only man whose death sentence was commuted by Governor George W. Bush of Texas.

British stage, screen and television actress Jean Andersondied on April 1st, aged 93. Her occasional film credits include Disney’s The Three Lives of Thomasina, The Night Digger and Scream-time.

German-born stage and screen actor Brother Theodore(Theodore Gottlieb) died of pneumonia in New York City on April 5th, aged 94. A survivor of Dachau concentration camp, his film credits include Orson Welles’s The Stranger, Nocturna, the 1976 porno spoof Gums, The Invisible Kid and Joe Dante’s The ‘burbs. He also narrated A1 Adamson’s Horror of the Blood Monsters and voiced Gollum in the animated TV movies The Hobbit and The Return of the King. Brother Theodore’s Chamber of Horrors was a 1975 paperback anthology co-edited with Marvin Kaye.

Oscar-winning American actress Beatrice Straight, who played the paranormal investigator in Poltergeist, died of pneumonia on April 7th, aged 86. She also won a Tony Award as Best Supporting Actress in the 1953 Broadway production of Arthur Miller’s The Crucible and was nominated for an Emmy for her role in the 1978 mini-series The Dain Curse. She had a recurring role as the Queen of the Amazons in the 1977 TV series Wonder Woman.

American TV and film actor David Graf, best known for his recurring role in the Police Academy movies, died of a heart attack on the same day, aged 50. His other credits include Burnin’ Love and Skeleton.

Jerome Barr, estranged from his daughter Roseanne after she publicly accused him in 1991 of molesting her as a child, died of a heart attack on April 9th, aged 71. Barr, who had always denied the allegations, won a casino jackpot just days before his death.

New Zealand-born actress Nyree (Ngaire) Dawn Porterdied suddenly in London on April 10th, aged 61. In Britain since 1960, she made her name as Irene in the 1967 BBC serial The Forsyte Saga and as the co-star of The Protectors (1972–74), and appeared in such films as AIP’s Jane Eyre (1970), the Amicus productions The House That Dripped Blood and From Beyond the Grave, and in the 1980 TV mini-series of Ray Bradbury’s The Martian Chronicles.

Welsh-born comedian and singer Sir Harry [Donald] Secombedied of prostate cancer on April 11th, aged 79. From 1951–60 Secombe co-starred in the surreal BBC radio programme The Goon Show (as Neddie Seagoon) along with Michael Bentine, Spike Milligan and Peter Sellers. His film appearances include Helter Skelter (1948), Down Among the Z Men, Svengali (1954) and The Bed Sitting Room.

British stage and screen actor Paul Danemandied on April 28th, aged 75. His film credits include Richard Lester’s surreal How I Won the War (1967).

Argentine actress Mabel Karrdied in a Madrid hospital from complications from an infection on May 1st, aged 66. She starred in Jesus Franco’s The Diabolical Dr Z and The Killer Tongue.

Actress and singer Deborah Walley, who starred in Gidget Goes Hawaiian, Beach Blanket Bingo, Ski Party, Dr Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine, The Ghost in the Invisible Bikini, Sergeant Deadhead the Astronaut, It’s a Bikini World, the 3-D The Bubble and The Severed Arm, died of oesophageal cancer on May 10th, aged 57. She had been diagnosed in February and was given just six months to live. Her other film credits include Spinout (with Elvis Presley). She also wrote children’s books and divorced actor John Ashley in 1966.

The same day, actress turned pot dealer Jennifer Stahl, who had a small role in Necropolis and appeared as a dancer in Dirty Dancing, was one of three people found shot to death in a drug deal that went wrong in a sixth-floor apartment above Manhattan’s Carnegie Deli.

87-year-old Italian-American crooner and former barber Perry Como(Pierino Roland Como, aka Nick Perido) died at his home in Florida on May 12th after suffering from Alzheimer’s disease for two years. He appeared in a small number of films during the 1940s, and by the late 1950s was America’s highest-paid TV performer. With record sales of more than 100 million, his laid-back hits include ‘Catch a Falling Star’, ‘Magic Moments’ and ‘It’s Impossible’.