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

British film and TV actress Jennifer Jayne(Jennifer Jones) died on April 23rd, aged 73. She appeared in The Trollenberg Terror (aka The Crawling Eye ), Hammer’s Hysteria, Dr Terror’s House of Horrors, They Came from Beyond Space and The Medusa Touch , as well as episodes of TV’s Invisible Man and Adam Adamant Lives! Under the pseudonym “Jay Fairbank” she reportedly scripted the anthology movie Tales That Witness Madness and the offbeat musical Son of Dracula (1974). Her last screen appearance was as a barmaid in The Doctor and the Devils .

Elma G. “Pem” Farnsworth,reputedly the first person to appear on television, died in Utah on April 27th, aged 98. Often called “The Mother of Television”, she was the wife of Philo T. Farnsworth and part of the technical team when he demonstrated his invention in San Francisco on September 7th, 1927.

Actress Alberta Nelsondied of cancer on April 29th, aged 68. She was cast as the leather-clad blonde biker girlfriend of Eric Von Zipper (Harvey Lembeck) in a number of AIP’s “Beach Party” movies in the 1960s, including How to Stuff a Wild Bikini, Dr Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine and The Ghost in the Invisible Bikini . Nelson also appeared in an episode of Thriller before retiring from the screen in the early 1970s.

British magician Billy McComb,who appeared in Clive Barker’s Lord of Illusions , died on April 30th, aged 84.

American “B” movie actress Betsy Jones-Morelanddied of cancer after a long illness on May 1st, aged 76. She is best known for her roles in Roger Corman’s The Saga of the Viking Women and Their Voyage to the Waters of the Great Sea Serpent, Last Woman on Earth and Creature from the Haunted Sea . She was also in the “Lizard’s Leg and Owlet’s Wing” episode of TV’s Route 66 which teamed Boris Karloff, Lon Chaney, Jr and Peter Lorre, and her other credits include TV’s My Favorite Martian, The Outer Limits and The Ghost and Mrs Muir .

Test pilot and NASA engineer Bruce A. Petersondied the same day, aged 72. In 1967, he survived a plane crash at the Dryden Flight Research Center thanks to extensive surgery. He became the model for TV’s The Six Million Dollar Man (1973–78), the opening credits of which featured the crash of Peterson’s wingless M2-F2 test aircraft.

Pro-football player turned actor Michael“Bear” Taliferro,who played with the Washington Redskins in the NFL, died of a stroke on May 10th, aged 45. His film credits include Witch Hunt and Armageddon .

Colombian-American singer Sorayadied of breast cancer the same day, aged 37. She won a Latin Grammy Award for female album in 2004.

Frankie Thomas, Jr(Frank M. Thomas), who starred on live TV from 1950–55 as Tom Corbett, Space Cadet , died of respiratory failure following a stroke on May 11th, aged 85. A juvenile actor on stage and screen since the 1930s, he appeared in the serial Tim Tyler’s Luck , and played Nancy Drew’s boyfriend Ted Nickerson in the series of films made between 1938–39. He later became a recreational bridge instructor and the author of a string of mystery novels, including Sherlock Holmes Bridge Detective, Sherlock Holmes and the Golden Bird and Sherlock Holmes and the Masquerade Murders . Thomas was set to be a special guest at the 2006 World Science Fiction Convention in Los Angeles and, according to his wishes, he was buried in his Tom Corbett dress uniform on May 16th.

Prolific American character actor Byron Morrowdied the same day, aged 94. Often cast as a military officer, police chief and other authority figures, he appeared in The Mysterians, Atlantis the Lost Continent (uncredited), Panic in Year Zero!, King Kong vs. Godzilla, Black Zoo, The Strangler, Cyborg 2087, The Wrecking Crew (uncredited), Disney’s The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes (uncredited), Colossus: The Forbin Project, Johnny Got His Gun, The Resurrection ofZachary Wheeler, The Ghost of Flight 401, Fantasy Island, The Golden Gate Murders, Dark Mansions and episodes of TV’s Men Into Space, The Twilight Zone, The Man from U.N.C.L.E., I Dream of Jeannie, Get Smart, The Invaders, Lost in Space, Bewitched, Star Trek, The Wild Wild West, Night Gallery, Search, Kolchak: The Night Stalker, The Bionic Woman, The Greatest American Hero, Other-world, Highway to Heaven and Beauty and the Beast .

Actor Paul Marco,whose most famous role was Kelton the Cop in Edward D. Wood, Jr’s infamous Plan 9 from Outer Space and Night of the Ghouls , died on May 14th. He was believed to have been around 80. A former child performer alongside Shirley Temple, Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney, Marco also appeared in Wood’s Bride of the Monster and he was played by actor Max Casella in Tim Burton’s biopic Ed Wood . Marco also contributed to such documentaries as Flying Saucers Over Hollywood: The Plan 9 Companion and The Haunted World of Edward D. Wood, Jr , and more recently he recreated his Patrolman Kelton character for the direct-to-DVD movie Kelton’s Dark Corner .

Music arranger and composer Lew Anderson, who was the third person to play silent sidekick Clarabell the Clown on the popular 1950s children’s TV show Howdy Doody , died of prostate cancer the same day, aged 84.

62-year-old Norwegian-born actress Eva Norvind(Eva Johanne Chegodayeva Sakonskaya), who appeared in a number of Mexican films during the 1960s, including Facto de Sangre and Santo versus the Martian Invasion , drowned on May 14th off the coast of Zipolite, Oaxaca, when she was dragged under by a wave and thrown against the rocks. After a controversial statement over birth control ended her film career in Mexico in the late 1960s, she relocated to New York in the 1980s and developed the persona of dominatrix “Ava Taurel” in a number of short films and erotic role-playing documentaries. Her daughter, Naqilea Norvind, is an actress in Mexico.

69-year-old former milkman Freddie Garrity,lead singer with the 1960s Manchester group Freddie & the Dreamers, died in Wales of complications from emphysema on May 19th. The band’s hits include “I’m Telling You Now”, “You Were Made for Me” and “If You Gotta Make a Fool of Somebody”.

Zoë Rae(Zoë Rae Bech), one of the earliest child stars of the silent film era, died on May 20th, aged 95. She made her screen debut at the age of three in 1914, and two years later Carl Laemmle signed her to a five-year contract at Universal for $100.00 per week. Billed as “Little Zoë, the Universal Baby”, she worked with John Ford, Rupert Julian and Lon Chaney ( The Kaiser: The Beast of Berlin , 1918). “I was just fascinated by him,” she later recalled. “He was a very pleasant gentleman, in my eyes, and very dedicated.”

64-year-old Jamaican ska and reggae singer Desmond Dekker(Desmond Adolphus Dacres) died of a heart attack on May 25th in Surrey, England. As Desmond Dekker and the Aces he had such hits in the 1960s as “Israelites” and “It Mek”.

American actor Paul Gleason,usually seen in supporting roles as authority figures, died of a rare form of lung cancer on May 27th, aged 67. He had only been diagnosed three weeks earlier. A former professional baseball player and drinking companion of writer Jack Kerouac, Gleason’s many credits include Doc Savage: The Man of Bronze, He Knows You’re Alone, Arthur, Ghost Chase, Maniac Cop 3: Badge of Silence, Abominable , the 1985 Star Wars spin-off Ewoks: The Battle for Endor , and episodes of TV’s The Green Hornet (“Alias the Scarf”, with John Carradine), Beauty and the Beast, Tales from the Crypt (“The Reluctant Vampire”), Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman and Dark Skies .