Thriller writer Lawrence Sanders died on February 7th, aged 78. Best known for his novels The Anderson Tapes and The First Deadly Sin (filmed in 1972 and 1980, respectively), he also wrote such borderline-SF titles as The Tomorrow File and The Passion of Molly T, plus the fantasy Dark Summer under the pseudonym “Mark Upton”.
Fantasy and science fiction writer (Patricia) Jo Clayton died of multiple myeloma on February 13th, two days before her 59th birthday. Despite being hospitalized for more than a year and a half and suffering from advanced bone cancer, she completed the second volume (Drum Calls) and part of the third book in her “Drums” trilogy, along with a number of short stories. Among her thirty-five published novels are Diadem from the Stars (1977), Moongather, Drinker of Souls, Skeen’s Leap, Shadowplay, Wild Magic, Dancer’s Rise, Fire in the Sky and Drum Warning.
Games designer and fantasy novelist Sean A. Moore was killed in a single-car accident in the early evening hours of February 23rd. The creator of the bestselling computer game,Ultimate Wizard, he was 33 and had recently quit his job to become a full-time writer. His books included Conan the Hunter, Conan and the Shaman’s Curse, Conan and the Grim Gray God and the novelisation of the 1997 movie Kull the Conqueror (he also worked uncredited on the script).
Cuban-born cartoonist Antonio Prohias, who drew the “Spy vs. Spy” strip for Mad magazine from 1961 until he retired in 1991, died from cancer on February 24th in Florida. He was 77.
Rockin’ Sidney Simien, who won a Grammy Award in 1985 for his zydeco hit “(Don’t Mess With) My Toot Toot”, died of lung cancer on February 25th, aged 59.
Beat poet Jack Micheline, a close friend of Jack Kerouac, Gregory Corso and Bob Kaufman, who published more than twenty books of poetry, died in San Francisco on February 27th, aged 68.
Comics writer and editor Archie Goodwin (Archibald Goodwin) died on March 1st after a long battle with cancer. He was 60. In 1965 he entered the comics field as a writer and Editor-in-Chief of Warren Publication’s Creepy and Eerie titles. He later worked at both Marvel and DC Comics, and scripted such newspaper strips as Star Wars and Secret Agent X-9.
43-year-old MS sufferer Robert James Leake, the seven-foot tall “professional monster” who appeared in numerous commercials and television shows as Dracula, the Frankenstein Monster and Darth Vader, died the same day, after entering hospital with a chest infection. He joined The Dracula Society in 1974 and held a variety of positions, including Honorary Secretary, archivist, media consultant and editor of the society’s newsletter, Voices from the Vaults.
Following treatment for a series of aneurysms, playwright and screenwriter Beverley Cross, who was married to actress Dame Maggie Smith, died on March 20th, aged 66. His credits include the Ray Harryhausen fantasy adventures Jason and the Argonauts, Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger and Clash of the Titans.
Rozz Williams, the songwriter and musician who founded Gothic rock group Christian Death, hanged himself on April 1st at his home in West Hollywood. He was 34.
Puerto Rico-born science fiction illustrator Alex Schomburg died on April 7th, aged 92. His career spanned seven decades and included the covers of Hugo Gernsback’s science magazines in the 1920s, superhero titles from the Golden Age of comics, and pulp and digest SF magazine covers during the 1950s and 60s. Croma: The Art of Alex Schomburg was published in 1986, and he received a special Lifetime Achievement Award in SF Art at the 1989 World Science Fiction Convention.
Comic strip artist Lee Elias died at a nursing home on April 8th, aged 77. From 1952–55 he collaborated with Jack Williamson on the daily newspaper strip Beyond Mars. He also worked on Terry and the Pirates for many years.
Singer, photographer and vegetarian Linda McCartney died from breast cancer on April 17th, aged 56. Along with her husband Paul (whom she married in 1969) she was in the group Wings, and her photo of Clive Barker appeared on the dust jacket of Weaveworld.
American Gothic novelist and essayist Wright Morris died on April 25th, aged 88.
Carlos Castaneda, the author of a series of mystical novels about Yaqui Indian shaman Don Juan, died of liver cancer on April 27th. His age was uncertain, but he was somewhere between 68 and 74.
Veteran short story author and screenwriter (Drexel) Jerome (Lewis) Bixby died on April 28th from a heart attack after complications following quadruple bypass surgery. He was 75. The author of more than a thousand short stories, Bixby’s first sale was to the pulp magazine Planet Stories in 1949, which he also edited from 1950–1 along with the first three issues of its companion title, Two Complete Science-Adventure Books. After working as an associate editor forGalaxy, Thrilling Wonder Stories and Startling Stories, he sold a number of screenplays to Hollywood, including It! The Terror from Beyond Space, The Lost Missile and Curse of the Faceless Man. His story “It’s a Good Life” was adapted for TV’s Twilight Zone and again for the 1983 movie, he wrote the original story for what later became Fantastic Voyage, and his Star Trek scripts include “Mirror Mirror” and “Day of the Dove”. Some of his best fiction is collected in Space by the Table and The Devil’s Scrapbook.
Prolific children’s author Mabel Esther Allan died on May 14th, aged 83. Among her 180 books were the short ghost novel, A Chill in the Lane, The Haunted Valley and Other Poems andA Strange Enchantment.
British author and actor Ivan Butler, the last surviving cast member of the first commercial London stage production of Dracula, died on May 17th, aged 89. In 1929, Butler played Lord Godalming and then understudied the part of Dracula in Hamilton Deane’s dramatization of Bram Stoker’s novel. He went on to play every male part in the play, including the Count, and produced Dracula on the stage many times. In the early 1950s he had several plays presented on television by the BBC and in later years he was the author of such books as The Horror Film, The Cinema of Roman Polanski and Cinema in Britain.
Alan D. Williams, who edited half a dozen novels and the collection Different Seasons by Stephen King while at Viking Penguin, died of cancer the same day. He was 72.
Novelist, playwright and screenwriter Wolf Mankowitz died in County Cork, Ireland, on May 20th from cancer, aged 73. His screenplays include Hammer’s The Two Faces of Dr Jekyll (aka House of Fright), The Day the Earth Caught Fire and Casino Royale. Among his books are the fantasies A Kid for Two Farthings and A Night With Casanova, the vampire novel The Devil in Texas (illustrated by Ralph Steadman), plus the biography The Extraordinary Mr Poe.