American-born actress Yolande Donlan (aka “Yolande Mollot”), who appeared with Bela Lugosi in Monogram’s The Devil Bat (1940), died in London the same day. She was 94. Donlan’s other movies included Turnabout (based on the novel by Thorne Smith), Mister Drake’s Duck, Tarzan and the Lost Safari and Expresso Bongo. Her second husband was Val Guest, who directed many of her films.
German-born Luise Rainer, the first actress to win back-to-back Oscars in 1937 and 1938, also died in London on December 30, aged 104. In 1954 she appeared in an episode of TV’s Suspense with fellow German émigré Martin Kosleck.
American actor Edward [Kirk] Herrmann, who played “Herman Munster” in the 1995 TV movie Here Come the Munsters, died of brain cancer on December 31, aged 71. He was also in The Day of the Dolphin, Ray Bradbury’s The Electric Grandmother, Death Valley, Woody Allen’s The Purple Rose of Cairo, The Lost Boys, My Boyfriend’s Back, The Shaft, The Skeptic and the 2014 remake of The Town That Dreaded Sundown, along with a 1987 episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents and the 2011 pilot for Wonder Woman.
American movie producer Bernard Glasser died on January 2, aged 89. A former high school teacher, during the 1950s and ‘60s he produced Space Master X-7, Return of the Fly (starring Vincent Price), The Day of the Triffids (1963, uncredited) and Crack in the World.
Mike Vraney, a former comic bookstore-owner, convention organiser and founder of video distributor Something Weird Video (SWV), died of lung cancer the same day, aged 56. He was also an associate producer on Herschell Gordon Lewis’ belated sequel Blood Feat 2: All U Can Eat (2002).
Chinese movie producer and philanthropist Sir Run Run Shaw (Ren-leng Shao) died on January 7, aged 106. During a prolific career that began in the mid-1950s, he produced or executive produced numerous films with his elder brother Runme Shaw (who died in 1985), including Hammer’s The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires (with Peter Cushing as “Van Helsing”), Cleopatra Jones and the Casino of Gold, The Oily Maniac, The Web of Death, Lady Exterminator, Meteor (1979), Blood Beach, Hex vs. Witchcraft and Blade Runner. The Shaw Brothers are credited for bringing kung fu movies into popular culture.
American animation director Hal Sutherland died on January 16, aged 85. After working at Walt Disney on such films as Peter Pan, Lady and the Tramp and Sleeping Beauty, Sutherland founded Filmation Studios with Lou Scheimer and Norm Prescott, which produced countless hours of TV cartoons from 1960s to the 1980s, including such shows as The New Adventures of Superman, The Superman/Aquaman Hour of Adventure, Journey to the Center of the Earth, The Batman/Superman Hour, Fantastic Voyage, Sabrina and the Groovie Goolies, Sabrina the Teenage Witch, My Favorite Martians, Star Trek: The Animated Series, The Fat Albert Halloween Special, Space Sentinels, Flash Gordon, Gilligan’s Planet and He-Man and the Masters of the Universe. Sutherland also directed the animated movies Journey Back to Oz (1974) and Pinocchio and the Emperor of the Night (1987).
German-born film director Gordon Hessler, best known for his inventive horror films for AIP in the late 1960s and early ‘70s, died on January 19 in London, aged 88. His movies include three collaborations with actor Vincent Price: The Oblong Box (also featuring Christopher Lee), Scream and Scream Again (with Lee again, and Peter Cushing) and Cry of the Banshee, along with Catacombs (aka The Woman Who Wouldn’t Die), De Sade (uncredited), Murders in the Rue Morgue (1971), Medusa, Scream Pretty Peggy, The Golden Voyage of Sinbad, The Strange Possession of Mrs. Oliver, KISS Meets the Phantom of the Park, Evil Stalks This House (aka Tales of the Haunted) and The Girl in a Swing (based on the novel by Richard Adams). Between 1964-65, Hessler was an associate producer on TV’s The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, and he directed episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Kolchak: The Night Stalker, Wonder Woman (‘Gault’s Brain’, featuring John Carradine) and Tales of the Unexpected.
American animator, director and producer Michael Sporn died the same day, aged 67. His many cartoons for children include The Trolls and the Christmas Express, The Red Shoes (1990), The Emperor’s New Clothes, ‘Twas the Night and Poe (2013).
Adult film-maker Tony Lovett (aka “Johnny Jump-Up” and “Antonio Passolini”) died on January 26, aged 55. Beginning his career as a publicist and production manager at VCA, he scripted The Devil in Miss Jones 3 and 4, Dr. Penetration, Latex, Shock and the mondo Inhumanities 2: Modern Atrocities. As a director, Lovett’s credits include Cafe Flesh 2 and 3, The Devil in Miss Jones 6 and New Wave Hookers 6. With Matt Maranian he co-authored the books L.A. Bizarro! The Insider’s Guide to the Obscure, the Absurd and the Perverse in Los Angeles and L.A. Bizarre: The All-New Insider’s Guide to the Obscure, the Absurd and the Perverse in Los Angeles.
American animation producer and director Arthur [Gardner] Rankin, Jr. died in Bermuda on January 30, aged 89. His numerous credits include such perennial holiday specials as Rudolf the Red-Nosed Reindeer (1964) and Frosty the Snowman (1969), along with Return to Oz (1964), Willie McBean and His Magic Machine, The Daydreamer and Mad Monster Party? (both featuring the voice of Boris Karloff), The Wacky World of Mother Goose, Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town, ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas, J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit (1977) and The Return of the King (1980), The Flight of the Dragons, Peter S. Beagle’s The Last Unicorn (with the voice of Christopher Lee) and the cartoon TV series The New Adventures of Pinnochio, Tales of the Wizard of Oz, King Kong (1966) and Thundercats, amongst many others. Rankin, Jr. was also a producer on the live-action movies King Kong Escapes, The Last Dinosaur, The Bermuda Depths and The Sins of Dorian Gray.