Stephen Jones - Best New Horror #26

Hollywood actress Lauren Bacall(Betty Joan Perske) died of a stroke on August 12, aged 89. Best known for her co-starring roles with future husband Humphrey Bogart in such classic 1940s movies as To Have and Have Not , The Big Sleep , Dark Passage and Key Largo , she also appeared in Blithe Spirit (1956), Shock Treatment (1964), The Fan , Misery (based on the novel by Stephen King), Presence of Mind (based on Henry James’ The Turn of the Screw ) and Birth . Bacall also voiced witches in both Howl’s Moving Castle (based on the novel by Diana Wynne Jones) and Scooby-Doo and the Goblin King . She was awarded an Honorary Oscar in 2010, and her second husband was actor Jason Robards.

American actress Arlene Martel(Arlene Greta Sax, aka “Tasha Martel”), who played Spock’s Vulcan bride “T’Pring” in the classic Star Trek episode ‘Amok Time’ (1967), died of complications from heart bypass surgery and breast cancer the same day, aged 78. Her other credits include Angels from Hell , Conspiracy of Terror , the softcore Chatterbox! , Dracula’s Dog and Star Trek: Of Gods and Men , plus episodes of TV’s Twilight Zone , The Outer Limits (Harlan Ellison’s ‘Demon with a Glass Hand’), The Man from U.N.C.L.E. , My Favorite Martian , I Dream of Jeannie , The Wild Wild West , The Flying Nun , The Monkees (‘Monstrous Monkee Mash’), Bewitched , The Six Million Dollar Man and the original series of Battlestar Galactica .

Actress Columba Domínguez[Alarid], who starred in the influential Mexican horror film Ladrón de cadáveres (1957), died on August 13, aged 85. She also appeared in La loba , Adventura al centro de la tierra and the 1962 TV series Las momias de Guanajuato .

Maltese-born Madeleine Collinson, who co-starred with her identical twin sister Mary and Peter Cushing in Hammer’s Twins of Evil (1971), died on August 14, aged 62. The former October 1970 Playboy Playmate of the Month also appeared in a few sexploitation films before her short-lived acting career was over.

American character actor Stephen Leedied of a heart attack the same day, aged 58. He appeared in WarGames , Dolls , RoboCop 2 , The Pit and the Pendulum (1991), Ghoulies Go to College , Prehysteria! , Black Scorpion (1995), Victim of the Haunt (aka The Uninvited ), Carnosaur 3: Primal Species and Black Scorpion II: Aftershock , plus episodes of TV’s Amazing Stories , Hard Time on Planet Earth , Quantum Leap , Star Trek: The Next Generation , Babylon 5 , Dark Angel , Invasion , Threshold , Fear Itself (Peter Crowther’s ‘Eater’) and Ghost Whisperer .

American radio and TV announcer Don Pardo(Dominick George Pardo), best known for his work on such shows as Jeopardy! and Saturday Night Live , died on August 18, aged 96. In the 1940s he was the announcer for the radio series Dimension X and X Minus One .

British character actor, producer and Oscar-winning director Sir Richard[Samuel] Attenboroughdied on August 24, aged 90. He appeared in A Matter of Life and Death (aka Stairway to Heaven ), Brighton Rock (as the psychopathic “Pinkie”), Seance on a Wet Afternoon , Doctor Dolittle , The Magic Christian , 10 Rillington Place (as real-life murderer John Christie), Ten Little Indians (1974), Miracle on 34th Street (1994), Hamlet (1996), Jack and the Beanstalk: The Real Story , and Steven Spielberg’s Jurassic Park and The Lost World: Jurassic Park . As a director Attenborough’s credits include Magic (based on the novel by William Goldman) and Shadowlands (the biography of C.S. Lewis). He was married to actress Sheila Sim since 1945.

American character actor John[Edward] Brandondied on August 25, aged 85. In 1966, he played the first victim of the Cybermen in the initial episode of the Doctor Who serial ‘The Tenth Planet’. His other credits include Battle Beneath the Earth , Billion Dollar Brain , Star Hunter , The Lake and The Adventures of Rocky & Bullwinkle , along with episodes of TV’s Wonder Woman , The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries , The Bionic Woman , Fantasy Island , The Greatest American Hero , Goliath Awaits , Knight Rider , Voyagers! , Tales from the Darkside and Charmed .

South African-born character actor and comedian Bill Kerr(William Henry Kerr) died in Australia on August 28, aged 92. For many years he worked in Britain, where he became one of Tony Hancock’s regular radio sidekicks. He also appeared in episodes of TV’s Adam Adamant Lives! and Doctor Who , plus the movies The Night My Number Came Up , Tiffany Jones , House of Mortal Sin (aka The Confessional ), Razorback and Peter Pan (2003).

German actor Gottfried John, who played Russian general Arkady Grigorovich Ourumov in the James Bond film GoldenEye (1995), died of cancer on September 1, aged 72. He was also in the short-lived SF series Space Rangers (1993-94), an episode of Millennium , and the TV movies Flood and Rumplestilzchen .

Acerbic American comedian Joan Rivers(Joan Alexandra Molinsky) died of anoxic encephalopathy on September 4, following throat surgery a week earlier. She was 81. Rivers’ movie credits include The Muppets Take Manhattan , Spaceballs (and the subsequent animated TV series), Shrek 2 , The Smurfs , Iron Man 3 and R.L. Stine’s Mostly Ghostly: Have You Met My Ghoulfriend?

Lithuanian actor Donatas[Juozas] Banionis, who co-starred in Andrei Tarkovsky’s Solaris (1972), died of heart problems the same day, aged 90. He was also in The Vampire , a 1991 version of Aleksei Tolstoy’s often-filmed novel, and portrayed Rex Stout’s detective “Nero Wolfe” in Poka ya ne umer (2001).

Memorable American character actor Stefan Gieraschdied on September 6, aged 88. He appeared in High Plains Drifter , Carrie (1976), Blue Sunshine , Blood Beach , Spellbinder , Megaville and Legend of the Phantom Rider , along with episodes of TV’s Play of the Week (‘The Dybbuk’), The Alfred Hitchcock Hour , Holmes and Yo-Yo , Lucan , Fantasy Island , The Incredible Hulk , The Greatest American Hero , Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1985), The Twilight Zone (1986), Werewolf , Tales from the Crypt , Dark Shadows (1991, as “Joshua Collins”), Star Trek: The Next Generation , Touched by an Angel and Brimstone . Gierasch portrayed Hollywood director Michael Curtiz in the 1985 TV biopic My Wicked Wicked Ways: The Legend of Errol Flynn .

American character acator Don(ald) [Hood] Keeferdied on September 7, aged 98. He appeared in Woody Allen’s Sleeper , The Car , Mirrors , Creepshow and Liar Liar . On TV, Keefer was in episodes of One Step Beyond , Alfred Hitchcock Presents , ‘Way Out , Twilight Zone (‘It’s a Good Life’), My Favorite Martian , The Munsters , Bewitched , Star Trek (‘Assignment: Earth’), Night Gallery , The Incredible Hulk , Time Express (with Vincent Price), Highway to Heaven and Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman .