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

American character actor S. John Launerdied the same day, aged 86. He began his film career in Creature with the Atom Brain (1955) and went on to appear in The Werewolf, I Was a Teenage Werewolf and Jailhouse Rock (uncredited, as the judge who sends Elvis to prison), along with episodes of TV’s The Twilight Zone, The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, The Wild Wild West and Batman . He retired in the late 1970s.

Herbert Rudley,who co-starred with Basil Rathbone, Lon Cha-ney, Jr, Bela Lugosi, John Carradine, Akim Tamiroff and Tor Johnson in The Black Sleep (1956), died of a heart attack on September 9th, aged 96. He also played Ira Gershwin in Rhapsody in Blue (1945), and his TV credits include episodes of Lights Out, Science Fiction Theater, Suspicion, Men Into Space, Thriller, My Favorite Martian, My Living Doll, The Munsters, I Dream ofjeannie and Project UFO .

20-year-old Daniel Smith,the son of former Playboy model Anna Nicole Smith, died in Nassau, Bahamas, on September 10th. He had been visiting his mother in hospital after she had given birth to a daughter three days earlier. A pathologist later attributed his death to a heart attack caused by drugs.

American-born singer Peter Tevisdied of Parkinson’s disease on September 13th, aged 69. Tevis spent most of his early career in Italy, where he was instrumental in creating the distinctive themes for Spaghetti Westerns. After returning to America in the late 1960s, he was credited as music producer on Flesh Gordon (1974).

Hungarian-born champion bodybuilder turned actor Mickey Hargitay(Miklós Hargitay), the father of Emmy Award-winning actress Mariska, died after a long illness on September 14th, aged 80. Inspired by a magazine cover of muscleman Steve Reeves, Hargitay won the “Mr. Universe”, “Mr America” and “Mr Olympia” contests in 1955 and went on to become an ensemble cast member of Mae West’s night-club stage show. He was married to actress Jayne Mansfield from 1958 until three years before her untimely death in a car crash in 1967. The couple appeared together in Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?, Promises! Promises! and the Italian films The Loves of Hercules and Primitive Love . Hargitay’s other European movies include Revenge of the Gladiators, Lady Frankenstein, Delirium, The Reincarnation of Isabel and, most famously, as the “Crimson Executioner” in Bloody Pit of Horror . On TV he appeared in an episode of The Wild Wild West , and Arnold Schwarzenegger played Hargitay in the 1982 TV movie The Jayne Mansfield Story .

Senegal-born British actor Johnny Sekka(Lamine Secka) died of lung cancer in California the same day, aged 72. After stowing away on a ship to Europe in the 1950s, he initially worked on the British stage before appearing in such films and TV shows as Incense for the Damned (aka Bloodsuckers), Charlie Chan and the Curse of the Dragon Queen, Babylon 5: The Gathering, The Avengers, The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries (“Voodoo Doll”) and Tales of the Gold Monkey .

Saxophone player Danny Flores(aka “Chuck Rio”), who shouted the word “Tequila!” on the Champs’ 1958 hit song of the same name (which he wrote), died of pneumonia on September 19th, aged 77. A heavy drinker during the early days of the band, he reportedly signed away US royalties to the song (which was featured in such films as Pee-wee’s Big Adventure ) for a pittance.

59-year-old actor and voice-over artist Tim(Timothy) [Hayes] Rooney, the son of veteran Mickey Rooney, died on September 21st after a five-year battle with the muscle disease dermatomyositis. His credits include Riot of Sunset Strip, Village of the Giants and episodes of TV’s Bewitched and The Jetsons .

Christopher Crawford,the second child adopted by film star Joan Crawford, died of cancer on September 22nd, aged 62. He apparently supported his adoptive sister Christina’s account of their upbringing in her 1979 memoir Mommy Dearest .

American leading man Edward[Laurence] Albert(Jr), the only son of actor Eddie Albert (who died in 2005) and Mexican actress/dancer Margo, died of lung cancer the same day, aged 55 . His credits include The Fool Killer (at the age of eleven), Killer Bees, Death Cruise, When Time Ran Out . . ., Galaxy of Terror, The House Where Evil Dwells, Accidents, The Girl from Mars, Demon Keeper, Sorceress (aka Temptress II), Space Marines, Stageghost, Mimic 2 and Sea of Fear . He voiced Daredevil/Matt Murdock on the 1996 Spider-Man cartoon series and the Silver Surfer on Fantastic Four the same year. His other TV credits include episodes of Orson Welles’ Great Mysteries (“A Terribly Strange Bed”), Tales of the Unexpected, The Hitchhiker, Star Trek Deep Space Nine, Time Trax, Profiler, The Sentinel, Conan, Extreme Ghostbusters, Sabrina the Teenage Witch, Invasion America and She Spies . He had recurring roles as Elliot Burch on Beauty and the Beast , Bennett Devlin in the supernatural soap opera Port Charles and Mr. Collins on Power Rangers: Time Force . Albert was married to British-born actress Katherine Woodville. A dedicated environmentalist, like his father, Malibu’s Escondido Canyon was renamed in his honour as the Edward Albert Escondido Trail & Waterfalls.

Influential blues guitarist Etta Baker,who recorded with Taj-Mahal, died on September 23rd, aged 93. She worked in a textile mill for twenty-six years before starting her professional career in the late 1950s.

Prolific Japanese actor Tetsuro Tamba(Shozaburo Tanba), who portrayed Tiger Tanaka in the James Bond movie You Only Live Twice , died of pneumonia on September 24th, aged 84. His more than 300 credits (he reportedly never turned down a role) include The Depths, Kwaidan, Japan Sinks (both 1973 and 2006 versions), The Last Days of Planet Earth, Message from Space, Peking Man (1997), Jigoku, Blind Beast vs. Dwarf, The Happiness of the Kata-kuris, Gozu and the popular anime The Cat Returns . He later became a spiritual cult leader in Japan.

Iva Toguri D’Aquino,who may have been better known as World War II propagandist “Tokyo Rose”, died in Chicago on September 26th, aged 90. An American citizen, D’Aquino had been visiting relatives in Japan when war broke out and she reportedly began broadcasting anti-American propaganda to US troops in the Pacific. She was convicted of treason and jailed for six years in 1949 but, after doubts about guilt, she was pardoned by President Gerald Ford in 1977.

British-born actor, scriptwriter and author Alan Caillou(Alan Lyle-Smythe) died in Arizona on October 1st, aged 92. Following World War II, he worked as a police chief in Ethiopa and a district officer in Somalia before moving to Canada and then the United States. Usually cast a British “major” types in Hollywood, Caillou appeared in the 1959 Journey to the Center the Earth (uncredited), Five Weeks in a Balloon, Sole Survivor, The Hound of the Baskervilles (1972, as Inspector Lestrade), Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex” “And Were Afraid to Ask, The Questor Tapes, Herbie Goes to Monte Carlo, Beyond Evil, The Sword and the Sorcerer and Ice Pirates , along with episodes of TV’s One Step Beyond, Thriller, Tarzan, The Man from U.N.C.L.E . and The Girl from U.N.C.L.E . He also had a recurring role as “The Head” in the SF comedy series Quark (1977–78). Among Caillou’s scripting credits are the movies Village of the Giants and Kingdom the Spiders , plus episodes of Thriller, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, The Man from U.N.C.L.E . and The Six Million Dollar Man .