The Best New Horror 2 (76 page)

Cinematographer
Karl Brown
died March 25th, aged 93. He created double printing, first used in D.W. Griffith’s
Intolerance
(1916) and helped develop the minature projection system used for
King Kong
(1933). During the late ’30s and early ’40s Brown wrote several low budget films featuring Boris Karloff as a mad scientist, including
The Man They Could Not Hang, The Man With Nine Lives
and
Before I Hang
.

Milton S. Gelman,
producer and chief writer on NBC-TV’s
The Man from UNCLE
for nearly four years, died on May 2nd following heart surgery. He was 70.

British film designer
Tony Masters,
aged 70, died in May in the South of France. Married to actress Heather Sears, he entered the film industry in 1946 and was production designer on more than 60 movies including
2001: A Space Odyssey
, for which he won a BAFTA Award and was nominated for an Oscar.

Puppeteer and creator of the Muppets,
Jim Henson,
died of a bacterial infection on May 17th, aged 53. After working in television during the late 1950s and early ’60s, his career took off with
Sesame Street
and
The Muppet Show
. Later television shows included
Fraggle Rock, The Ghosts of Faffner Hall
and
The Storyteller
, while his movie credits boasted
The Muppet Movie, The Great Muppet Caper, The Muppets Take Manhatten, The Dark Crystal, Labyrinth, Dreamchild, The Witches
and
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
.

Early special effects expert
Theodore J. Lydecker
died from cancer on May 25th, aged 81. Best known for his work with his brother Howard (who died in 1969) on the Republic serials of the 1930s–’50s, his credits include
Dick Tracy
(1937),
The Adventures of Captain Marvel, Captain America, The Lady and the Monster, The Catman of Paris, Valley of the Zombies, King of the Rocket Men, The Invisible Monster, Zombies of the Stratosphere, Tobor the Great
and
Panther Girl of the Congo
, amongst numerous others.

Sir James Carreras,
who headed Hammer Films from 1949–1980, died on June 9th. He was 81. Carreras built Hammer during the post-war years, but it was the release of
The Quatermass Experiment
(aka
The Creeping Unknown
) in 1955 that gave the company its direction
and success, finally resulting in the Queens Award to Industry during the late ’60s.

Veteran Disney art director
Al Roelofs
died on July 2nd from a stroke. He was 83, and his many credits include
The Island At the Top of the World, Charley and the Angel, Escape from Witch Mountain, The Black Hole, Tron
etc.

Still photographer/montage expert
Robert Coburn
died on July 3rd, aged 90. He worked on
King Kong
(1933).

TV director
Philip Leacock
died on July 14th from collapsed lungs, aged 73. His numerous credits include
Baffled, When Michael Calls, Dying Room Only, The Curse of King Tut’s Tomb
and
Three Sovereigns for Sarah
.

Pioneer special effects cameraman
Bud Thackery
died on July 15th. He was 87, and directed the process photography on
King Kong
(1933) as well as working on
Noah’s Ark
(1928),
The Jazz Singer, The Most Dangerous Game, Scarface, The Phantom Empire
and many other movies.

Alan Clarke,
who directed
Billy the Kid and the Green Baize Vampire
, died on July 24th, aged 54.

Best known as a major western director and creator of TV’s
Gunsmoke
, writer/producer
Charles Marquis Warren
died on August 11th of heart aneurysm. He was 77, and his film credits include
Back from the Dead
and
The Unknown Terror
.

Manly P. Hall,
who hypnotized Bela Lugosi on the set of
Black Friday
(1941) for his dramatic death scene, died August 29th, aged 89. He also performed the wedding ceremony for Lugosi’s fifth and final wedding.

Top 1930s dancer/choreographer
Hermes Pan
died from an apparent stroke on September 19th, aged 80. Amongst the films he worked on are
Top Hat, Swing Time, Shall We Dance, Kiss Me Kate, Finian’s Rainbow
and
Lost Horizon
(1973).

Special effects director
Scott Bartlett
died on September 29th from complications following a kidney-liver transplant. He was 47, and his credits include
Starman, The Jupiter Menace, Altered States
and
Sheena
.

Veteran animator
Grim Natwick
died on October 7th from pneumonia-heart disease. He was 100 years old. Besides creating cartoon character Betty Boop, he worked on such movies as
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Gulliver’s Travels, Raggedy Ann and Andy, The Thief and the Cobbler
, and with Popeye, Crusader Rabbit, Mr Magoo and Woody Woodpecker.

3-D expert and cinematographer
Howard Schwartz
died on October 25th from a heart attack, aged 71. His films include
Bwana Devil
and
House of Wax
.

French film-maker
Jacques Demy
died from leukaemia on October 27th. He was 59 and directed
The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, Donkey Skin
and
The Pied Piper
, amongst others.

British director
Don Chaffey
died on November 13th from heart disease, aged 72. His movie credits include
The 3 Lives of Thomasina, Jason and the Argonauts, One Million Years B.C., Creatures the World Forgot, Persecution
(aka
The Terror of Sheba
) and
Pete’s Dragon
.

Italian screenwriter and director
Sergio Corbucci
died on December 2nd from a heart attack. He was 80. His many credits include
Duel of the Titans, The Son of Spartacus, Goliath and the Vampires, Django
and the 1965 remake of
The Man Who Laughs
.

Film and TV writer/director
Richard Benner
died the same day from AIDS, aged 47. He wrote and directed
Outrageous
and
Outrageous Too
, both of which starred female impersonator Craig Russell (who died of AIDS on October 30th) as well as several episodes of TV’s
Tales From the Darkside
.

TV director
Richard Irving
died following heart surgery on December 30th, aged 73. Amongst his many credits were the pilot film for
The Six Million Dollar Man
and
Exoman
.