Character actor Philip Abbott, whose film credits include The Invisible Boy, Hangar 18 and The First Power, died of cancer on February 22nd, aged 73. He played assistant director Arthur Ward on the ABC-TV series col1_0 (1965–74).
“The King of the One-Liners”, comedian Henny Youngman died of pneumonia on February 24th, aged 92. The man who coined the phrase “Take my wife. please!” appeared in Herschell Gordon Lewis’ The Gore Gore Girls, History of the World Part 1 and Amazon Women on the Moon.
Hard-working supporting actor J. T. Walsh died of a heart attack while on vacation on February 27th, aged 54. He appeared in adaptations of Stephen King’s Misery and Needful Things, The Last Seduction, Miracle on 34th Street (1994), Outbreak, Breakdown and Pleasantville, and starred as Colonel Frank Back in the 1996–97 TV series Dark Skies.
American actor Donald Woods died on March 5th, aged 88. He starred in William Castle’s 13 Ghosts and also appeared in The Lost Volcano, The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms and Dimension 5. On TV his credits include Lights Out, Inner Sanctum, Men Into Space, Thriller and The Wild Wild West.
Hollywood leading man Lloyd (Vernet) Bridges, the father of actors Jeff and Beau, died of complications from a heart condition at his home in Los Angeles on May 10th, aged 85. His many credits include The Crime Doctor’s Strangest Case, Here Comes Mr Jordan, Strange Confession and High Noon (both with Lon Chaney, Jr.), Rocketship X-M, The Deadly Dream, Haunts of the Very Rich, Airplane and Airplane II, Honey, I Blew up the Kid and numerous TV shows, including the series Sea Hunt (1958–61). In the early 1950s he admitted to being a former member of the Communist Party and was a key witness before the House of Representatives Un-American Activities Committee.
American leading lady Helen Westcott died of cancer on March 17th, aged 70. She starred in Abbott and Costello Meet Dr. Jekyll and Mr Hyde (with Boris Karloff), Whirlpool, Invisible Avenger and Monster on the Campus.
American actress Ramsay Ames, who portrayed the reincarnated love of Lon Chaney, Jr’s Kharis in The Mummy’s Ghost (1944), died of lung cancer on March 21st, aged 78. She also co-starred with Chaney in Calling Dr. Death the previous year.
British actor Daniel Massey, the son of Raymond Massey and brother of Anna, died on March 25th of Hodgkin’s Disease after a long illness. He was 64, and his credits include Sabu and the Magic Ring, Fragment of Fear, Vault of Horror, Warlords of Atlantis, The Cat and the Canary (1977) and the TV series Sherlock Holmes and The Casebook of Sherlock Holmes.
American character actor Gene Evans died of complications from heart disease on April 1st, aged 75. He starred in Donovan’s Brain, Behemoth the Sea Monster (aka The Giant Behemoth), Shock Corridor, A Knife for the Ladies, Devil Times Five (aka Peopletoys) and was a regular on TV’s Matt Helm (1975–76).
Country singer Tammy Wynette (Virginia Wynette Pugh) died from a blood clot in the lung on April 6th, aged 55. She had ten consecutive No. 1 hits in America (out of a total of twenty), the best-known being “Stand by Your Man”. A year after her death, her body was exhumed and an autopsy performed at the request of her fifth husband, George Richey, after three of the singer’s daughters filed a $50 million lawsuit for wrongful death, claiming she died because he did not seek medical attention for her.
Punk singer with The Plasmatics, Wendy O. Williams committed suicide the same day. She was 48, and appeared in the cult 1986 movie Reform School Girls.
Actor Liam Sullivan, who portrayed the villainous Sir Branton in the 1961 fantasy The Magic Sword, died of a heart attack on April 19th, aged 74. He also played a telepathic alien in the 1968 Star Trek episode “Plato’s Stepchildren”.
Variety performer Peter Lind Hayes died in a Las Vegas hospice on April 21st, aged 82. With his wife Mary Healy he starred in The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T in 1953.
American actor Frederic Downs, whose credits include Terror from the Year 5000, died on April 24th, aged 81. For ten years he appeared on the sit-com Days of Our Lives.
Character actress Maidie Norman, who portrayed the maid in What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? died of lung cancer on May 2nd, aged 85. Her other credits include Airport ‘77 and TV’s Kung Fu.
Child stage star and leading man of the 1930s Gene Raymond (Raymond Guion) died from pneumonia in a Hollywood hospital on May 3rd, aged 89. His films include Zoo in Budapest, 7 Keys to Baldpate and Five Bloody Graves. He was married to Jeanette MacDonald.
American leading lady and a former singer with Rudy Vallee’s band, Alice Faye (Ann Leppert) died on May 9th, aged 83. She appeared in such films as Sing Baby Sing, In Old Chicago, Hello Frisco Hello, Hollywood Cavalcade and Alexander’s Ragtime Band, before retiring from the screen in the mid-1940s. She remained active in radio with her husband, band leader Phil Harris, and returned to movies in 1976 with Won Ton Ton, the Dog Who Saved Hollywood.
“OP Blue Eyes”, “The Chairman of the Board” and the leader of the “Rat Pack”, singer and actor Frank Sinatra died of a heart attack on May 14th, aged 82. A former band singer and teenage heart-throb, he received twenty-five gold albums and appeared in such films as The Manchurian Candidate, Suddenly, Around the World in Eighty Days, Road to Hong Kong and The First Deadly Sin, winning the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role as Maggio in From Here to Eternity. His long-time friend Joey Bishop subsequently revealed that Sinatra paid for the funeral of Bela Lugosi, who died broke.
Veteran American character actor Douglas V. Fowley died on May 21st, aged 86. His numerous film appearances include The Thin Man, Charlie Chan on Broadway, Docks of New Orleans, Night Life of the Gods, Charlie Chan at Treasure Island, Scared to Death (with Bela Lugosi), Mighty Joe Young, Tarzan’s Peril, Singin’ in the Rain, The Naked Jungle, Cat Women of the Moon, 7 Faces of Dr. Lao, Homebodies and The White Buffalo. In 1960 he produced and directed Macumba Love and regularly guested on such TV shows as Topper, Kolchak: The Night Stalker, Kung Fu, Quark and Fantasy Island.