Stephen Jones - Best New Horror #26

Tony Award-winning stage and screen actress Marian[Hall] Seldesdied on October 6, aged 86. In a busy career, she appeared in episodes of TV’s Shirley Temple’s Storybook , Alfred Hitchcock Presents and Murder She Wrote (‘The Witch’s Curse’), along with the movie The Haunting (1999), based on the novel The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson. Seldes, who was married to writer and director Garson Kanin, is in the Guinness Book of World Records for appearing on Broadway in 1,809 performances of Deathtrap from 1978 until late 1982 without ever missing a show.

Italian character actor Fedrico Boido(aka “Rico Boido”) died on October 7, aged 74. His credits include the peplums Hercules and the Treasure of the Incas and Maciste il vendicatore dei Maya , Mario Bava’s Planet of the Vampires and Danger: Diabolik , Spirits of the Dead and numerous spaghetti Westerns. Boido also regularly appeared in many of the Killing / Satanik / Sadistik photo-novels.

American actor Paul Lukatherdied on October 9, aged 88. In the early 1960s he starred in Dinosaurus! and Hands of a Stranger , and later appeard in Shock Treatment (1964) and Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter . Lukather was also on TV in episodes of Science Fiction Theatre , The Outer Limits , The Man from U.N.C.L.E. , Get Smart , The Invaders and Gemini Man , and he was a voice actor in numerous videogames (including “Vorador”, the vampire elder of the Blood Omen series).

American actress and comedian Jan Hooks(Janet Vivian Hooks), who appeared on TV’s Saturday Night Live from 1986-91, died of throat cancer the same day, aged 57. She appeared in the movies Pee-wee’s Big Adventure , Batman Returns and Coneheads , and played recurring characters on TV’s 3rd Rock from the Sun and The Simpsons .

Veteran American stuntman Gary McLarty, who was stunt co-ordinator and Vic Morrow’s stunt double on the ill-fated Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983) when the actor was killed, died in a traffic accident along with fellow stuntman Bob Orrison on October 11. McLarty, who was 73, testified at the Robert Blake murder trial in 2005 that the actor had offered him $10,000 to murder his wife, who Blake was accused of shooting to death four years earlier. Orrison, who was 86, was the stunt double for Leonard Nimoy and DeForrest Kelley on the original Star Trek TV series.

55-year-old Cuban-American actress Elizabeth[Maria] Peña died of liver cirrhosis due to alcohol abuse on October 14. Her movie credits include *batteries not included , Vibes , Blue Steel , Jacob’s Ladder , The Invaders (1995), It Came from Outer Space II , Strangeland and Dragon Wars: D-War . She was also in episodes of TV’s The Outer Limits (1995) and Ghost Whisperer .

Irish-born Canadian actor Gerard Parkes(aka “Gerry Parks”), who played inventor “Doc” on Jim Henson’s Fraggle Rock (1983-87), died October 19, aged 90. He was in the movies The Pyx , Spasms (aka Death Bite ), A Muppet Family Christmas and Short Circuit 2 . On TV, Parkes appeared in episodes of The Twilight Zone (1988), War of the Worlds , Friday the 13th: The Series (aka Friday’s Curse ), The Ray Bradbury Theatre and Storm of the Century .

Canadian-born British actress Lynda BellinghamOBE (Meredith Lee Hughes) died in London the same day, after a very public battle with colon cancer. She was 66. Best known for appearing on a series of gravy commercials during the 1980s and ‘90s, Bellingham also appeared in episodes of TV’s Blakes 7 , Doctor Who and Robin Hood (2007).

American tough-guy character actor William Bonner(Pierre Maurice Prenatt) died on October 23. His many movies, often for director Al Adamson, include the Edward D. Wood-scripted Orgy of the Dead , Psych-Out , Satan’s Sadists , The Mighty Gorga , Hell’s Bloody Devils , Bigfoot (1970), The Incredible 2-Headed Transplant , The Female Bunch , Dracula vs. Frankenstein and Psychic Killer . Following an on-set accident, he was in a wheelchair for nearly forty years.

American actress Marcia Strassmandied of breast cancer on October 24, aged 66. Her movie credits include Brenda Starr (1976), Brave New World , Haunted by Her Past , Honey I Shrunk the Kids , Honey I Blew Up the Kid , Earth Minus Zero and Reeker . On TV she was a regular on Tremors (2003) and appeared in episodes of Fantasy Island , Time Express (with Vincent Price), Shadow Chasers , Amazing Stories , Touched by an Angel and Highlander .

British actress Renée Asherson(Dorothy Renée Ascherson) died on October 30, aged 99. She was in the films The Day the Earth Caught Fire , Hammer’s Rasputin: The Mad Monk (with Christopher Lee), Theatre of Blood (with Vincent Price) and The Others , along with episodes of TV’s The Strange Report and Tom’s Midnight Garden . She was married to actor Robert Donat from 1953 until his death in 1958.

American comedy actor Richard Schaaldied on November 4, aged 86. A member of Chicago’s Second City troupe, he appeared in the movies Slaughterhouse-Five , A Knife for the Ladies , Song of the Succubus , Americathon and Once Bitten , along with episodes of TV’s I Dream of Jeannie , The Wide World of Mystery and Shadow Chasers . Schaal also co-starred with his second wife, Valerie Harper, in the CBS series Rhoda (1974-76).

American character actress Carol Ann Susi, best known as the voice of the unseen “Mrs. Wolowitz” in TV’s The Big Bang Theory , died of cancer on November 11, aged 62. She was working as a waitress in a restaurant when she met Darren McGavin and his wife, and the actor offered her the role of his secretary, Monique Marmelstein, in three episodes of ABC-TV’s Kolchak: Night Stalker . She also appeared in Donor , Death Becomes Her , Cats & Dogs and Red Velvet (with Forrest J Ackerman), along with episodes of TV’s Sabrina the Teenage Witch and Journeyman .

British leading man Richard[Edward] PascoCBE, who was in Hammer’s The Gorgon and Rasputin: The Mad Monk (both with Christopher Lee), died on November 12, aged 88. His other credits include Disney’s The Watcher in the Woods and an episode of TV’s Out of This World (hosted by Boris Karloff).

British actor Warren Clarke(Alan James Clarke) died in his sleep the same day, aged 67. He began acting in his late teens, and his credits include Stanley Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange (as “Dim”), O Lucky Man! , The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1976, as “Quasimodo”), The Tempest (1980, as “Caliban”), Hawk the Slayer , Firefox , The Case of the Frightened Lady (1983), The Cold Room , Top Secret! , Hands of a Murderer and Angels (1992). On TV Clarke appeared in episodes of The Avengers (‘Invasion of the Earth Men’), Hammer House of Horror (‘The Thirteenth Reunion’), Tales of the Unexpected and Worlds Beyond .