British actress Renée Asherson (Dorothy Renée Ascherson) died on October 30, aged 99. She was in the films The Day the Earth Caught Fire, Hammer’s Rasputin: The Mad Monk (with Christopher Lee), Theatre of Blood (with Vincent Price) and The Others, along with episodes of TV’s The Strange Report and Tom’s Midnight Garden. She was married to actor Robert Donat from 1953 until his death in 1958.
American comedy actor Richard Schaal died on November 4, aged 86. A member of Chicago’s Second City troupe, he appeared in the movies Slaughterhouse-Five, A Knife for the Ladies, Song of the Succubus, Americathon and Once Bitten, along with episodes of TV’s I Dream of Jeannie, The Wide World of Mystery and Shadow Chasers. Schaal also co-starred with his second wife, Valerie Harper, in the CBS series Rhoda (1974-76).
American character actress Carol Ann Susi, best known as the voice of the unseen “Mrs. Wolowitz” in TV’s The Big Bang Theory, died of cancer on November 11, aged 62. She was working as a waitress in a restaurant when she met Darren McGavin and his wife, and the actor offered her the role of his secretary, Monique Marmelstein, in three episodes of ABC-TV’s Kolchak: Night Stalker. She also appeared in Donor, Death Becomes Her, Cats & Dogs and Red Velvet (with Forrest J Ackerman), along with episodes of TV’s Sabrina the Teenage Witch and Journeyman.
British leading man Richard [Edward] Pasco CBE, who was in Hammer’s The Gorgon and Rasputin: The Mad Monk (both with Christopher Lee), died on November 12, aged 88. His other credits include Disney’s The Watcher in the Woods and an episode of TV’s Out of This World (hosted by Boris Karloff).
British actor Warren Clarke (Alan James Clarke) died in his sleep the same day, aged 67. He began acting in his late teens, and his credits include Stanley Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange (as “Dim”), O Lucky Man!, The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1976, as “Quasimodo”), The Tempest (1980, as “Caliban”), Hawk the Slayer, Firefox, The Case of the Frightened Lady (1983), The Cold Room, Top Secret!, Hands of a Murderer and Angels (1992). On TV Clarke appeared in episodes of The Avengers (‘Invasion of the Earth Men’), Hammer House of Horror (‘The Thirteenth Reunion’), Tales of the Unexpected and Worlds Beyond.
British actress and painter Joanna [Elizabeth] Dunham, the wife of actor, playwright and author Reggie Oliver, died after a long illness on November 25, aged 78. Marilyn Monroe recommended her to director George Stevens for the role of “Mary Magdalene” in The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965), and her other film credits include Amicus’ The House That Dripped Blood (with Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing). On TV she appeared in episodes of H.G. Wells’ Invisible Man (1959), A Choice of Coward (‘Blithe Spirit’, as the ghostly “Elvira”), Thriller (1973), Space: 1999, ITV Playhouse (M.R. James’ ‘Casting the Runes’, 1979) and the Gerry Anderson pilot The Day After Tomorrow (aka Into Infinity).
Japanese actor Bunta Sugawara died on November 28, aged 81. He appeared in the movies Girl Diver of Spook Mansion, The Bloody Sword of the 99th Virgin and The Cursed Pond. As a voice actor, Sugawara contributed to the animated productions Spirited Away and Tales from Earthsea.
American actor Loren Ewing (William Russell Ewing) died on December 2, aged 77. He had roles in The Last of the Secret Agents? and Frankenstein’s Castle of Freaks (as “Goliath”), and played The Archer’s henchman “Big John” in a two-part episode of TV’s Batman. His acting career ended after he suffered a serious head injury while filming a Western in the late 1970s.
Former American child actor Ken Weatherwax (Kenneth Patrick Weatherwax), who played “Pugsley” in the original ABC-TV series The Addams Family (1964-66) and the 1973 animated show, died of a heart attack on December 7, aged 59. Weatherwax also appeared in the 1977 TV movie Halloween with the New Addams Family, and he later became a camera grip at Universal Studios.
30-year-old Canadian-born actress and dancer Stephanie [Elyse] Moseley was shot to death in a murder-suicide in Los Angeles on December 8. Her rapper husband Earl Hayes believed she had cheated on him before turning the gun on himself. Moseley appeared in Catwoman, The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1, Mirror Mirror and Girl vs. Monster.
American actress and former Miss America Mary Ann Mobley died after a long battle with breast cancer on December 9, aged 77. She played “April Dancer”, the original “Girl from U.N.C.L.E.”, in a 1966 episode of The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (‘The Moonglow Affair’) but was later replaced by Stefanie Powers, and she was originally cast as “Batgirl” in Batman, but the role eventually went to Yvonne Craig. Mobley also appeared in episodes of TV’s The Smothers Brothers Show (‘The Ghost is Clear’), Search, The Sixth Sense, The Fantastic Journey and Fantasy Island, and she co-starred with Elvis Presley in the movies Girl Happy and Harum Scarum. She was married to actor Gary Collins from 1967 until his death in 2012.
British leading man Tom Adams (Anthony Frederick Charles Adams) died of prostate cancer on December 11, aged 76. He starred as “Charles Vine” in the 1960s James Bond spoofs Licensed to Kill (aka The 2nd Best Secret Agent in the Whole Wide World), Where the Bullets Fly and Somebody’s Stolen Our Russian Spy, and his other movie credits include The House That Dripped Blood (alongside Joanna Dunham, who died sixteen days earlier). On TV, Adams appeared in episodes of The Avengers, Hammer’s Journey to the Unknown (Robert Bloch’s ‘The Indian Spirit Guide’), Strange Report, UFO, Doctor Who (‘Warriors of the Deep’) and Hammer House of Mystery and Suspense (‘Mark of the Devil’).
British character actor Gerald [Grant] Sim, the brother-in-law of Richard Attenborough, died the same day, aged 89. Best known for his role in Hammer’s Dr Jekyll & Sister Hyde (1971), he also appeared in Seance on a Wet Afternoon, The Man Who Haunted Himself, Alfred Hitchcock’s Frenzy, Dr. Phibes Rises Again (with Vincent Price), The Slipper and the Rose: The Story of Cinderella, Jack the Ripper (1988) and Shadowlands, along with episodes of TV’s The Avengers, It’s Dark Outside (‘Wake the Dead’), Adam Adamant Lives!, Out of the Unknown, Hammer’s Journey to the Unknown, Doomwatch, Thriller (1974), The Wide World of Mystery, The New Avengers and Hammer House of Mystery and Suspense.