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

American actor and playwright Jason Miller, who won a Pulitzer Prize and a Tony Award for his 1973 play That Championship Season and was nominated for an Oscar for his portrayal of Father Damien Karras in The Exorcist, died of heart failure in Pennsylvania on May 13th, aged 62. His other credits include The Ninth Configuration, The Exorcist III and such TV movies as The Dain Curse, Vampire (1979) and The Henderson Monster.

British leading man of the stage and screen, Jack Watling, died on May 22nd, aged 78. His credits include Meet Mr Lucifer, Hammer’s The Nanny, 11 Harrowhouse and TV’s Invisible Man and Doctor Who (both opposite his daughter, Deborah).

Veteran TV character actor Harry Townesdied in Alabama on May 23rd, aged 86. He played Dr Greenwood in the 1958 movie of Fredric Brown’s The Screaming Mimi and appeared in episodes of Inner Sanctum, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Climax! One Step Beyond, The Twilight Zone, Thriller, The Outer Limits, Star Trek, Night Gallery, The Sixth Sense and numerous others. He semi-retired from acting thirty years ago to become an Episcopalian priest in his home town of Huntsville.

French actor Jean Champion, whose many credits include TV’s Belphegor, died the same day, aged 87.

American actress and TV personality Arlene Francis(Arlene Kazanjian), best known as a panellist on the quiz show What’s My Line? died of cancer on May 31st, aged 93. Her occasional film appearances include Murders in the Rue Morgue opposite Bela Lugosi.

British film journalist and arts administrator David Protherocommitted suicide in the summer. He contributed to Shivers, The Dark Side, Scapegoat and Kim Newman’s The BFI Companion to Horror as well as publishing his own magazine, Bloody Hell.

Stuntman Russell Saundersdied on June 1st, aged 86. His numerous credits include The Thing (1951), Earthquake, The Poseidon Adventure and Logan’s Run.

Comedienne-actress Imogene Cocadied on June 2nd, aged 92. Best known for her TV appearances, with guest spots on Bewitched, Fantasy Island, Night Gallery and Monsters, she also had roles in several films, including Alice in Wonderland (1985). A former Broadway dancer, she was married to her second husband, actor King Donovan, from 1960 until his death in 1987.

Mexican-born Hollywood star and former boxer Anthony Quinn(Anthony Rudolph Oaxaca) died in a Boston hospital on June 3rd, aged 86. Best known for his 1964 film Zorba the Greek, he also appeared in Bulldog Drummond in Africa, Television Spy, The Ghost Breakers, Road to Morocco, Sinbad the Sailor, Ulysses (1955), The Hunchback of Notre-Dame (1956, as Quasimodo), The Shoes of the Fisherman, The Magus, Ghosts Can’t Do It and Last Action Hero. On television he was in a 1951 episode of Lights Out and portrayed Zeus in five Hercules The Legendary Journeys TV movies in 1994. Married three times (once to Cecil B. DeMille’s daughter Katherine), he had at least thirteen children by five different women.

76-year-old stage, film and TV actor Carroll O’Connor, best remembered for his Emmy Award-winning portrayal of Archie Bunker on the CBS-TV sitcom All in the Family (1971–79), died of a heart attack brought on by complications from diabetes on June 21st. He also appeared in the TV movie Fear No Evil (1969), and such series as The Outer Limits, The Man from U.N.C.L.E., Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, Time Tunnel and The Wild Wild West.

French-born actress Corinne Calvet(Corinne Dibos) died of a cerebral haemorrhage in Los Angeles on June 23rd, aged 75. Her film credits include Bluebeard’s Ten Honeymoons, Dr Heckle and Mr Hype, The Sword and the Sorcerer and the TV movie The Phantom of Hollywood. Actor John Bromfield was one of her five husbands, and she once filed a $1 million slander suit against Zsa Zsa Gabor for alleging that she was not French.

Hollywood star Jack Lemmon(John Uhler Lemmon III) died of a cancer-related illness on June 27th, aged 76. The two-time Academy Award winner, best known for his long screen partnership with Walter Matthau (who died almost exactly a year earlier), appeared in such early TV series as Suspense and the movies Bell Book and Candle, How to Murder Your Wife, Airport 77, The China Syndrome, JFK, Hamlet (1996) and, uncredited, in The Legend of Bagger Vance (which he also narrated).

71-year-old British character actress Joan Simsdied the same day after a long illness and years of heavy drinking and depression. Best known as the star of twenty-four Carry On comedies (including Carry On Screaming), she also appeared in Colonel March Investigates (with Boris Karloff), Meet Mr Lucifer, Disney’s One of Our Dinosaurs is Missing and The Canterville Ghost (1996), and was a regular on TV’s Worzel Gummidge (1979–81).

British actress Patricia Hilliard, who appeared in The Ghost Goes West (1936) and had a role in Things to Come (1936), died in mid-June, aged 85.

British character actor Jack Gwillimdied on July 2nd, aged 91. Best known for his royal roles on stage, his films include Circus of Horrors, Jason and the Argonauts (1963, as King Aeetes), Hammer’s Curse of the Mummy’s Tomb, Kiss the Girls and Make Them Die, Clash of the Titans and as Van Helsing in The Monster Squad. On TV his career ranged from A for Andromeda to Conan.

British stage and screen actress Eleanor Summerfielddied on July 13th, aged 80. Her film credits include Scrooge (1951) and Disney’s The Watcher in the Woods.

Hollywood actress Molly Lamont, who appeared in Scared to Death (with Bela Lugosi), Devil Bat’s Daughter and Jungle Princess, died on July 15th, aged 91.

‘England’s Premier Ventriloquist’, Arthur Worsley, died on July 19th, aged 80. With his cheeky dummy Charlie Brown he worked with such acts as Laurel and Hardy, Elvis Presley and The Beatles.

Stage and TV actor Steve Barton, who played Raoul in both the original London and Broadway productions of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s The Phantom of the Opera, died of heart failure in Germany on July 21st, aged 47. He also played the Beast in an Austrian production of Disney’s Beauty and the Beast, appeared in the short-lived 1993 Broadway musical The Red Shoes, and originated the role of Count von Krolock in Jim Steinman’s stage adaptation of Dance of the Vampires in Vienna in 1997.

American actor Alex Nicoldied on July 28th, aged 85. He appeared in The Clones, The Night God Screamed, A *P *E and The Screaming Skull. He also directed the latter, along with Point of Terror.

British-born actor Christopher Hewettdied of complications due to diabetes in Los Angeles on August 3rd, aged 80. Best known for the role of Mr Belvedere on TV from 1985–90, he also appeared in such films as The Producers, Massarati and the Brain and Ratboy. For the final season of Fantasy Island (1983–84) he played Mr Roarke’s new sidekick Lawrence, after Herve Ville-chaize left the show.

64-year-old TV scriptwriter, producer and cartoon voice Lorenzo Music(Gerald David Music), who played Carlton the Doorman in Rhoda (1974–78), which he co-created, and Garfield the Cat on the Saturday morning series, died of cancer on August 4th. He won an Emmy in 1969 as a writer on The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour.