Stephen Jones - Best New Horror #26

American character actor Eli[Herschel] Wallachdied on June 24, aged 98. Best remembered for his role as “Tuco” the bandit in The Good, the Bad and the Ugly , he was also in the movies The Angel Levine , A Cold Night’s Death , The Sentinel (with John Carradine) and Circle of Iron (with Christopher Lee). On TV, Wallach appeared in episodes of Lights Out (‘Rappaccini’s Daughter’), Shirley Temple’s Storybook , Batman (as “Mr. Freeze”), Orson Welles’ Great Mysteries , Tales of the Unexpected , Worlds Beyond , Highway to Heaven , Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1988) and Veritas: The Quest . He was also the reader of the audio book of Stephen King’s Insomnia . Wallach was married to actress Anne Jackson and received an honorary Academy Award in 2010.

Norma McCarty, who was briefly married to film-maker Edward D. Wood, Jr. from 1955-56, died on June 27, aged 93. She appeared as “Edith” the stewardess in Wood’s infamous Plan 9 from Outer Space (1959) and was featured in such documentaries about the cross-dressing director as The Incredibly Strange Film Show , The Haunted World of Edward D. Wood, Jr. and E! Mysteries & Scandals .

American actor Meshach Taylor, a regular on the CBS-TV sitcom Designing Women (1986-93), died of cancer on June 28, aged 67. He appeared in the movies Damien: Omen II , The Howling , The Beast Within , Explorers , Warning Sign , Mannequin , Ultra Warrior , Mannequin On the Move , Double Double Toil and Trouble , Virtual Seduction and Hyenas . Taylor was also in episodes of TV’s The Incredible Hulk and ALF , while on Broadway he played “Lumiere” in the stage production of Disney’s Beauty and the Beast .

American actor Don Matheson, who starred as “Mark Wilson” in Irwin Allen’s TV series Land of the Giants (1968-70), died of lung cancer on June 29, aged 84. A former Detroit policeman and Korean war veteran, he also appeared in The Alfred Hitchcock Hour and Allen’s Lost in Space , Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea and Alice in Wonderland (1985), along with the 1990 movie Dragonfight . His second wife was his Land of the Giants co-star Deanna Lund.

American character actor Bob Hastings(Robert Francis Hastings), a regular on TV’s McHale’s Navy (1962-66), died of prostate cancer on June 30, aged 89. He appeared in the 1950s science fiction TV shows Captain Video and His Video Rangers , Atom Squad and Tom Corbett Space Cadet , along with episodes of Twilight Zone (‘I Dream of Genie’), Batman , I Dream of Jeanie , The Flying Nun , Kolchak: The Night Stalker (‘The Werewolf’), The Amazing Spider-Man , Wonder Woman , The Incredible Hulk and The Greatest American Hero . Hastings began his career as the voice of “Archie Andrews” on the radio show based on the Archie comic books. He was also the voice of “The Raven” in The Munsters (1964-66) and, for ten years, the voice of “Commissioner James Gordon” in various animated Batman TV shows and video games. The actor was also in the movies The Bamboo Saucer , Disney’s The Strange Monster of Strawberry Cove and Charlie and the Angel , The Billion Dollar Threat and The Munsters’ Revenge (as the “Phantom of the Opera”). Hastings made a point of never charging fans for his autograph at nostalgia conventions, saying: “I am pleased that people remember the shows I did”.

The body of 50-year-old British actor, wrestler and cage fighter Dave Legenowas discovered at Zabriskie Point, in California’s remote Death Valley, on July 6. He had apparently died of heat exhaustion while hiking. Best known for playing werewolf “Fenrir Greyback” in the films and video games Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 and Part 2 , he was also in Batman Begins , Stormbreaker , The Cottage , Dead Cert , Asylum Blackout , The Raven (2012) and Snow White and the Huntsman .

Former child actor Dickie Jones(Richard Percy Jones), who was the uncredited voice of the wooden puppet in Walt Disney’s Pinnocchio (1940), died on July 7, aged 87. He appeared in Babes in Toyland (1934), Life Returns , Queen of the Jungle , On Borrowed Time and Beware Spooks! before retiring from acting in the mid-1960s.

Italian-born actress, writer, poet and inventor Vanna[Marie] Bontadied in Los Angeles on July 8, aged 56. She had a small role as Zed’s mother in The Beastmaster (1982), and her other credits include Time Walker and voice work for Disney’s Beauty and the Beast , An American Tail: Fievel Goes West , Demolition Man and the TV series Revelations . Bonta also made two uncredited appearances in the 2002 series of The Twilight Zone , and she wrote the controversial 1995 book Flight: A Quantum Fiction Novel .

American actor James Mathersdied of cancer on July 11, aged 77. He starred as “Dr. Henry Jekyll” in Dr. Jekyll’s Dungeon of Death (1979), which he also scripted, and he was in an episode of TV’s SeaQuest 2032 .

British TV actor Ray Lonnen(Raymond Stanley Lonnen) died of cancer the same day, aged 74. He was in episodes of TV’s Menace , The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes , Doctor Who , Hammer House of Horror (‘The Guardian of the Abyss’), Tales of the Unexpected , Johnny and the Dead (based on the book by Terry Pratchett), Crime Traveller and Starhunter .

American stage and screen actress Elaine Stritchdied of stomach cancer on July 17, aged 89. She began her acting career in the late 1940s, and her credits include the movies The Spiral Staircase (1975), Christmas Spirits , Cocoon: The Return and ParaNorman , along with episodes of Tales of the Unexpected and 3rd Rock from the Sun .

American leading man James Garner(James Scott Bumgarner), who starred in the TV series Maverick (1957-62) and The Rockford Files (1974-80), died of acute myocardial infarction on July 19, aged 86. Garner also appeared in the movies The Fan , Fire in the Sky and Space Cowboys , and he was a voice performer in Disney’s Atlantis: The Lost Empire , The Land Before Time X: The Great Longneck Migration and Battle for Terra , as well as such TV shows as God the Devil and Bob (as “God”) and DC Showcase (as “Shazam”).

21-year-old American actress Skye McCole Bartusiakdied the same day of an accidental drug overdose. She had recently been suffering from epileptic seizures. Bartusiak made her acting debut in the 1999 mini-series of Stephen King’s Storm of the Century , and her other credits include the movies The Darkling , Firestarter 2: Rekindled , Boogeyman and Sick Boy , plus episodes of TV’s Touched by an Angel and Lost .

Spanish comedian Álex Angulo(Alejandro Angulo León) was killed in a car accident on July 20, aged 61. He had roles in Acción mutante and Pan’s Labyrinth .