Stephen (ed.) - The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror 18

Scriptwriter, producer and director David Peckinpah,the nephew of film director Sam Peckinpah, died of a heart attack on April 23rd, aged 54. He scripted episodes of Beauty and the Beast and Farscape , produced Silk Stalkings , and produced and directed episodes of Sliders .

Screenwriter, dramatist and novelist Jay Presson Allen(Jacqueline Presson) died of a stroke on May 1st, aged 84. She adapted Mamie for Alfred Hitchcock, scripted the 1973 TV film The Borrowers and also wrote the screenplay for Ira Levin’s Deathtrap .

47-year-old American fantasy author Lisa A.(Anne) Barnettdied in her sleep of a brain tumor caused by metastatic breast cancer on May 2nd. She collaborated with her partner, Melissa Scott, on the novels Point of Hopes, Point of Dreams and The Armor of Light , while their novella “The Carmen Miranda Gambit” appeared in Carmen Miranda’s Ghost is Haunting Space Station Three .

Music composer and conductor Andre Brummerdied of pneumonia on May 6th, aged 89. His many credits include Roger Corman’s Monster from the Ocean Floor, Love Slaves of the Amazon, Eegah!, The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies!!?, Rat Pfink and Boo Boo, Sinthia the Devil’s Doll and The Hollywood Strangler Meets the Skid Row Slasher .

British editor and ghost story author Elizabeth M.(Margaret) Walterdied on May 8th. Although she refused to divulge her age, she was believed to be around 78 or 79. Her stories are collected in Snowfall and Other Chilling Events, The Sin-Eater and Other Scientific Impossibilities, Davy Jones’s Tale and Other Supernatural Stories, Come and Get Me and Other Uncanny Invitations and The Dead Woman and Other Haunting Experiences . James Turner compiled some of her best tales for the 1979 Arkham House collection In the Mist and Other Uncanny Encounters . Her story “The Spider” was filmed as “A Fear of Spiders” for Rod Serling’s Night Gallery , and she also contributed to the 1972–73 TV series Ghost Story . Between 1961–93 Walter was chief editor of the Collins Crime Club at publisher William Collins.

George Lutz,whose claims in 1975 that his Long Island home was possessed by evil spirits became the basis of The Amityville Horror , died of heart disease the same day, aged 59. When the family moved out of their house after twenty-eight days following numerous bizarre occurrences, Lutz and his then wife Kathy (who died in 2004) collaborated with author Jay Anson on the 1977 best-seller. The story was filmed in 1977 and 2005, and inspired various sequels and spin-offs.

Russian philosopher and author Alexander Zinovievdied of cancer on May 10th, aged 83. His 1976 novel The Yawning Heights is a dystopian satire on the USSR.

American mathematics teacher and author Arthur Porgesdied after a long illness on May 12th, a couple of months short of his 91st birthday. He began his fiction career in the early 1950s, selling consistently to The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction , and within a few years he had branched out with sales to Galaxy, Amazing Stories, Startling Stories, Fantastic Universe and other SF digests. By the late 1960s Porges had moved into the mystery genre, with many memorable tales appearing in Alfred Hitchcock’s, Ellery Queen’s and Mike Shayne’s magazines. A collection of horror stories, The Mirror and Other Strange Reflections , was edited by Mike Ashley and published by Ash-Tree Press in 2002.

44-year-old Bay Area fan, folk singer and author Leigh Ann Husseywas killed in a motorcycle accident on May 16th. She had stories in the anthologies Werewolves and Vampires , both edited by Jane Yolen and Martin H. Greenberg, and was a regular contributor to Marion Zimmer Bradley’s Fantasy Magazine .

Tony Award-winning Broadway producer, director and composer Cy Feuerdied on May 17th, aged 95. During the late 1930s he began working at Republic Pictures as a composer and head of the studio’s music department. Over the next two decades he worked on Fighting Devil Dogs, Hawk of the Wilderness, S.O.S. Tidal Wave, Daredevils of the Red Circle, Zorro’s Fighting Legion, Drums of Fu Manchu, Mysterious Doctor Satan, Adventures of Captain Marvel, Dick Tracy vs. Crime Inc., Spy Smasher and The Crimson Ghost . He later produced such hit stage musicals as The Boy Friend, Can-Can and Silk Stockings .

British folk-singer Gytha Northdied of cancer on May 24th, aged 55 . Terry Pratchett borrowed her name for his character Gytha (Nanny) Ogg, the witch in the popular “Discworld” novels.

American comics artist Alex(Alexander) Tothdied at his drawing board on May 27th, aged 77. He joined DC Comics in 1947, where he illustrated such characters as Dr Mid-Nite, the Atom and Green Lantern for $30 per page. He went on to work on a number of Dell comics based on popular TV shows ( Zorro, Twilight Zone etc.), as well as titles for Archie, Charlton, Marvel and Warren’s horror and war magazines. A year after art directing the animated TV series Space Angels in 1964, Toth joined Hanna-Barbera Studios, where he designed many cartoon series, including Jonny Quest, Battle of the Planets, Challenge of the Superfriends, The Herculoids, Shazzam, Birdman and the Galaxy Trio, The Fantastic Four, Scooby-Doo and Space Ghost . He was also a storyboard artist on the SF film Angry Red Planet and worked as a sequence production designer on Project X .

Television writer Robert Bielak,who was supervising producer for Hercules: The Legendary Journeys , died on May 30th, aged 85. He also scripted episodes of MacGyver and Rung Fu: The Legend Continues .

“Seamus Cullen”,the pseudonymous American-born author of the erotic 1976 novel Astra and Flondrix and other fantasies, including A Noose of Light and Sultan’s Turret , was reported to have died of cancer when mail to his address in Ireland was returned in May marked “Deceased”.

British playwright, novelist and prolific TV scriptwriter Allan Priordied on June 1st, aged 84. In the 1970s he scripted five episodes of BBC-TV’s makes 7 .

George Kashdan,who worked as an editor and writer at DC Comics from 1946 until 1968, died of complications from a stroke on June 3rd, aged 78. Among the characters he worked on were Green Arrow, Congo Bill and Johnny Quick. He wrote and often edited such titles as House of Mystery, House of Secrets, Secrets of Haunted House, Tales of the Unexpected, Rip Hunter Time Master, Aquaman, Teen Titans, Metamorpho, Ghosts, Bomba the Jungle Boy, Hawkman, Weird War Tales and Blackhawk (where he turned the World War II heroes into superheroes in the mid-1960s). After leaving DC, Kashdan moved to Dell/Gold Key, where he contributed to Boris Karloff Tales of Mystery, Grimm’s Ghost Stories, Flash Gordon, Star Trek and Twilight Zone .

Former CIA intelligence agent and author Karl T. Pflock,whose 2001 book Roswell: Inconvenient Facts and the Will to Believe debunked the UFO conspiracy theory, died of Lou Gehrig’s disease (ALS) on June 5th, aged 63.

67-year-old American fantasy artist Tim Hildebrandt(Timothy Allen Mark Hildebrant), one-half of the successful Brothers Hildebrandt team, died of complications from diabetes on June 11th. With his identical twin brother Greg he created the original Star Wars poster, a series of J. R. R. Tolkien calendars and numerous book covers, posters and collectibles. Since 1981 the two brothers had worked separately until they were reconciled in the early 1990s. Tim Hildebrandt executive produced and appeared in the 1983 film Return of the Aliens: The Deadly Spawn , which starred his son, Charles George Hildebrandt. With his wife Rita, he wrote the 1983 novel Merlin and the Dragons of Atlantis and the non-fiction Fantasy Cookbook . In 1992 he won a World Fantasy Award for Best Artist.