Bob Trow, who for thirty years appeared as the gibberish-talking Robert Troll, Bob Dog and occasionally as himself on the children’s TV show Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood, died of a heart attack on November 2nd, aged 72.
American actress Martha O’Driscoll, who starred in House of Dracula, Crazy House and The Ghost Catchers for Universal, died on November 3rd, aged 76. For the last fifty years of her life, she was married to wealthy Chicago businessman Arthur Apple-ton after promising to give up show business for ever.
Japanese actress Momoko Kochi, who starred in the 1954 Godzilla King of the Monsters, died of intestinal cancer on November 5th, aged 66. Her other films include Half Human, The Mysterians and the 1995 Godzilla vs. Destroyer.
After a long illness, French leading man Jean Marais (Jean Marais-Villain) died in Cannes of pulmonary disease on November 8th, aged 84. A protégé of surrealist artist Jean Cocteau, he is best remembered for his role in Cocteau’s La Belle et la Bete and as the super-criminal Fantomas in three 1960s movies. He also appeared in L’Eternel Retour, Orphee, Le Testament d’Orphee, Donkey Skin and Amour de Poche.
British actress Mary Millar died of cancer on November 10th, aged 62. She appeared in the London stage musical of The Phantom of the Opera as the original Madame Giry, but is probably best known as Rose in the BBC-TV sit-com Keeping Up Appearances.
British actress Valerie Hobson died of a heart attack in London on November 13th, aged 81. She appeared in Bride of Frankenstein, WereWolf of London, The Great Impersonation, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, Q Planes, Great Expectations (1946), Kind Hearts and Coronets and The Rocking Horse Winner before retiring as an actress. She married her second husband, Conservative MP John Profumo, in 1954. In 1963 he was forced to resign in disgrace as Secretary of State for War over an affair with call girl Christine Keeler, who was also involved with a Soviet military attaché.
American character actor Dick O’Neill died of heart failure on November 17th, aged 70. He appeared in added American footage for the Japanese film Gammera and was decapitated in Wolfen. Other credits include Pretty Poison, The UFO Incident, It Happened One Christmas and Chiller.
TV comedian Flip Wilson (Clerow Wilson) died of liver cancer on November 25th, aged 64. He had his own Emmy Award-winning variety show on NBC-TV in the early 1970s and often guest-hosted The Tonight Show. In 1976 he appeared in a TV movie ofPinocchio.
Silent film actress Ruth Clifford died on November 30th, aged 98. She starred in the SF film The Invisible Ray (1920) and later became a character actress in such films as Dante’s Inferno, The Searchers and Sunset Blvd.
British actor Michael Craze died on December 7th, aged 56. He played Ben Jackson on TV’s Doctor Who (1966–67), and also appeared in such films as Neither the Sea Nor the Sand, Satan’s Slave and Terror.
American character actor Norman Fell, best known for his role as irritable landlord Stanley Roper in the 1970s TV sit-coms Three’s Company and The Ropers, died of multiple myeloma on December 14th, aged 74. His other credits include the movies C.H. U. D. II Bud the Chud, The Boneyard, Hexed, Transylvania 6–5000, Stripped to Kill and such TV shows as Alfred Hitchcock Hour, The Wild Wild West, The Man from U.N.C.L.E., The Invaders, The Bionic Woman and Bewitched.
Hollywood leading lady Irene Hervey (Irene Herwick) died of heart failure on December 20th, aged 89. She appeared in House of Fear (1939), Night Monster (with Bela Lugosi and Lionel Atwill), Gang Busters, Mr Peabody and the Mermaid, Play Misty for Me, Goliath Awaits and the 1965 TV series Honey West.
Canadian-born leading man David Manners (Rauff de Ryther Duan Acklom), who was a cousin to Arthur Conan Doyle and claimed to be descended from William the Conqueror, died in a Santa Barbara nursing home on December 23rd. He was 98. In the 1930s he portrayed the hero in Dracula, The Mummy, The Death Kiss, The Black Cat, The Moonstone and Mystery of Edwin Drood before retiring from the screen. He successfully invested in property and also wrote several novels and two works of philosophy.
American actor (William Rukard) Hurd Hatfield died in Monktown, Ireland, on December 25th, aged 80. Best known for his starring role in the 1945 movie The Picture of Dorian Gray, he also portrayed Dracula on stage in America and appeared in Tarzan and the Slave Girl, Mickey One, The Boston Strangler, The Norliss Tapes, The House and the Brain and such TV series as Lights Out, Suspense, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, The Wild Wild West, Search, Blacke’s Magic and Knight Rider.
Italian director Carlo Ludovico Bragaglia, whose films include The Loves of Hercules (with Jayne Mansfield and Mickey Hargitay), died on January 4th following an operation for a broken hip. He was 103.
Production executive Gary Nardino died of a stroke on January 22nd, aged 62. His credits include Star Trek II The Wrath of Khan and Star Trek III The Search for Spock, plus such TV shows as Mork & Mindy and Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventures.
British producer, scriptwriter and former editor Sidney Cole died on January 25th, aged 89. He edited the 1940 Gaslight, was supervising editor for Ealing Studios’ ghost story Halfway House, associate produced their horror classic Dead of Night and The Man in the White Suit, and scripted the fantasy The Angel Who Pawned Her Harp.
Production designer Jack T. Collis, who worked on Voodoo Island, Frankenstein 1970 and Macabre during the late 1950s, died on February 1st, aged 75. His other credits include Splash, Cocoon, The Running Man and Star Trek IV The Voyage Home.
Script supervisor Peggy Robertson died on February 6th, aged 81. For many years she was Alfred Hitchcock’s personal assistant and worked with the director on Vertigo, Psycho and The Birds, amongst other films, as well as the TV series Alfred Hitchcock Presents.
Cinematographer Richard C. Glouner, whose credits include the H. P. Lovecraft movie The Dunwich Horror and TV series Logan’s Run and V, died on February 9th, aged 66.
Leonard Ho, co-founder of Hong Kong studios Golden Harvest, died of a heart attack on February 16th.
TV director John Nicolella, who made his movie debut with Kull the Conqueror in 1997, died on February 21st, aged 52.