American actor and singer Herb Jeffries (Umberto Alejandro Ballentino) died of heart failure on May 25, aged 100. During the late 1930s and early ‘40s he starred as Herbert Jeffrey, “The Sepia Singing Cowboy”, in a handful of low-budget black Westerns with titles like The Bronze Buckaroo and Harlem Rides the Range. Jeffries went on to appear in an episode of I Dream of Jeannie and he wrote and directed the 1967 sex-murder mystery Mundo depravados starring his then-wife, legendary stripper Tempest Storm (Annie Blanche Banks). He was also the last surviving member of The Great Duke Ellington Orchestra.
German-Austrian actor Karlheinz Böhm (aka “Karl Boehm”), who starred in Michael Powell’s Peeping Tom (1960) under the name “Carl Boehm”, died of Alzheimer’s disease on May 29, aged 86. He was also in Alraune (aka Mandragore, 1952), The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm and The Venetian Affair (with Boris Karloff). Since the early 1980s he was involved with charitable work in Ethiopa and was made an honorary Ethiopian citizen in 2001.
Hong Kong-born American actress Joan Lorring (Madeline Ellis) died in Sleepy Hollow, New York, on May 30, aged 88. Nominated for an Oscar for her supporting role in The Corn is Green (1945), she also appeared in Three Strangers and The Verdict (both with Sydney Greenstreet and Peter Lorre), The Lost Moment and an episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents (as Lizzie Borden’s sister).
American actress Martha Hyer died on May 31, aged 89. She made her movie debut in 1946, and amongst her credits are Abbott and Costello Go to Mars, Riders to the Stars, Francis in the Navy, Mistress of the World, Pyro, First Men in the Moon, Bikini Beach, Picture Mommy Dead and House of 1,000 Dolls (with Vincent Price), along with episodes of TV’s The Alfred Hitchcock Hour and Bewitched. Her second husband was film producer Hal B. Wallis.
American stuntman Tap Canutt (Edward Clay Canutt), the son of legendary stuntman Yakima Canutt, died on June 2, aged 81. His credits include The War Lord, Planet of the Apes, Beneath the Planet of the Apes and The Omega Man, all starring Charlton Heston, and the TV movie Planet Earth.
American supporting actress Marjorie Stapp, who worked as a receptionist for mobster Bugsy Siegel before his murder in 1947, died the same day, aged 92. She had small roles in Port Sinister, Indestructible Man (with Lon Chaney, Jr.), The Werewolf (1956), Kronos, The Monster That Challenged the World, Daughter of Dr. Jekyll and an episode of TV’s Quantum Leap. Stapp retired from acting in 1991.
Romanian-born actress Veronica Lazar died in Rome on June 8, aged 75. She was in Dario Argento’s Inferno and The Stendhal Syndrome, and Lucio Fulci’s The Beyond. She was married to actor Adolfo Celi from 1966 until his death twenty years later.
British actor and comedian Rick Mayall (Richard Michael Mayall), best remembered for his anarchic TV series The Young Ones (1982-84), The Comic Strip Presents…(1983-2012), The New Statesman (1987-94) and Bottom (1991-95), died on June 9, aged 56. The cause may have been an acute cardiac event after Mayall had been for a morning run earlier. He was also in such TV shows as Whoops Apocalypse (and the spin-off movie), Murder Rooms: The Dark Beginnings of Sherlock Holmes and Jonathan Creek. Mayall also appeared in the films An American Werewolf in London, Shock Treatment (1981), Drop Dead Fred, The Canterville Ghost (1997), Merlin: The Return, The Legend of Harrow Woods, Evil Calls, Eldorado (aka Highway to Hell) and Errors of the Human Body. His role as “Peeves the Poltergeist” in Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone was cut out before release.
American actress and activist Ruby Dee (Ruby Ann Wallace) died on June 11, aged 91. She was in the remake of Cat People (1982), A Simple Wish and the 1994 TV mini-series of Stephen King’s The Stand (alongside her husband Ossie Davis).
Former ballet dancer Ken Tyllssen died the same day, aged 75. During the 1960s he appeared as various aliens, including a Sensorite, a Mechanoid and a Dalek, in episodes of Doctor Who opposite William Hartnell and Patrick Troughton’s Time Lords.
Carla Laemmle (Rebekah Isabelle Laemmle), the niece of Universal Studios founder Carl Laemmle, died on June 12, aged 104. She appeared in small roles in The Phantom of the Opera (1925), Dracula (1931) and Mystery of Edwin Drood (1935). Decades later, Laemmle had cameos in such direct-to-video titles as The Vampire Hunters Club and Mansion of Blood, tying with Mickey Rooney for the longest career in movie history (eighty-nine years).
Likeable British leading man Francis [Joseph] Matthews died on June 14, aged 86. Best known for playing the title character in Paul Temple (1969-71), the first colour series on BBC TV, he also appeared in episodes of The New Adventures of Charlie Chan, The Avengers, Out of the Unknown and Jonathan Creek. Matthews’ film credits include Hammer’s The Revenge of Frankenstein (with Peter Cushing), Dracula Prince of Darkness and Rasputin: The Mad Monk (both with Christopher Lee), Corridors of Blood (with Boris Karloff and Lee), The Hellfire Club (again with Cushing) and Five Women for the Killer. He was also the voice of “Captain Scarlet” (which he based on Cary Grant) in Gerry Anderson’s puppet TV series Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons (1967-68). Matthews was married to actress Angela Browne from 1963 until her death in 2001.
French-born Underground celebrity and artist Ultra Violet (Isabelle Collin Dufresne) died of cancer in New York City the same day, aged 78. Having spent the 1960s hanging out with the likes of Andy Warhol and Salvador Dali, she appeared in a few movies, including Simon King of the Witches, Curse of the Headless Horseman and James Ivory’s Savages. Reportedly exorcised in her early teens by a Catholic priest when she rebelled against her religious upbringing, in the 1980s she rejected her experiences as part of Warhol’s “Factory” and became a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.