Dick Tufeld Passes Away

Dick Tufeld, one of the most influential voices in the history of science fiction, died January 21 at the age of 85.

His most famous role was the Robot from Lost In Space, uttering the iconic line “Danger, Will Robinson!” He performed this role again in the movie and an episode of The Simpsons.

Prior to that he earned science fiction immortality as the narrator of Space Patrol on radio where he opened the show saying:

Space Patrol! High adventure in the wild vast reaches of space … missions of daring in the name of interplanetary justice. Travel into the future with Buzz Corry … commander-in-chief of … the Space Patrol!

Tufeld also served as the announcer on other Irwin Allen TV shows like Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea and The Time Tunnel. He introduced Disney’s prime-time anthology series, and its Zorro series.

Other credits included Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends,The Fantastic Four and many non-genre programs.

Patton Oswalt Invades Ellison Interview

Harlan Ellison and Patton Oswalt

At the second Cinefamily Harlan Ellison event, January 19, Patton Oswalt crashed the interview and took the mike from Josh Olson. An 8-minute video clip is here. (And a much better still of the pair at work is here — one that resists ordinary URL image quoting.)

Oswalt is a veteran comedian, storyteller and actor, who is also a noted writer. He paid tribute to Harlan Ellison’s influence in ”The Book That Changed My Life” for GQ. Oswalt’s encounter with Ellison’s “A Boy and His Dog” revealed previously unsuspected possibilities:  

Ellison didn’t change my life so much as he changed my reading habits, revealing a dozen branching paths and side alleys where before there seemed to be an orderly road to adulthood. He brought rawness and confusion and awe and real terror, and I’m forever indebted.

Ellison appreciates Oswalt, too, and wrote this blurb for Oswalt’s 2011 book Zombie Spaceship Wasteland:

I have impeccable taste, and I only converse with the following three: God, the Devil, and Patton Oswalt. All three have opened for me. This book is a funny tragedy. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll convert to Pattonism. If you do not love this book, remember, I know where you live in your mother’s basement.

[Thanks to Andrew Porter for the story.]

Shatner Goes Down in Flames

Shatner Priceline

William Shatner’s franchise characters always have a good, long run. He played Captain Kirk in four different decades before Kirk’s heroic demise in Star Trek Generations. Now Shatner’s Priceline Negotiator has suffered a fiery ending to what proved a literal five-year mission. (This was the most recent iteration of Shatner’s role as Priceline’s public face over the past 14 years.)  

The Negotiator is gone because Priceline is adopting a new fixed-price business model.

Shatner’s character meets his demise in a fiery tourist bus explosion possibly inspired by the unresolved predicament that closes the 1969 version of The Italian Job, with a bus teetering over the edge of a cliff, but in the Priceline commercial taken to the worst possible outcome.

A video of the commercial is available at this link.

Gerhartsreiter To Be Tried For Murder

The judge agreed there was enough evidence to try Christian Gerhartsreiter on charges of murdering John Sohus in 1985 after a week-long hearing where prosecutors called 23 witnesses.

Among the last to be questioned was Mihoko Manabe. She knew Gerhartsreiter by his alias Christopher Crowe and during his transformation to Clark Rockefeller. They dated and lived together until about 1994, after meeting while working at a NYC securities firm. The LA Times reports:

In 1988, Mihoko Manabe received a call at her New York apartment from a Connecticut detective looking for her live-in boyfriend, a man she knew by the name Christopher Crowe. She took a message and hung up.

When she gave Crowe the message, their lives were turned upside down, Manabe recalled in court Tuesday. The boyfriend told her that the person who called wasn’t with the police, but a bad guy who was after him. He dyed his hair and eyebrows blond, grew a beard, and insisted they shred documents. They began using P.O. boxes for their mail, threw away their garbage at public shopping malls and walked on opposite sides of the street.

Some months after, Manabe testified, he began using the name that would later gain national notoriety — Clark Rockefeller.

Gerhartsreiter will next appear February 9 in Alhambra Superior Court.

Hertz Tells the Truth

By John Hertz: John DeChancie corrected me.  I reported that at Loscon XXXVIII, where he was Author and I was Fan Guest of Honor, he said he’d never heard of fanzines until Marty Cantor sent him Holier Than Thou.  This was a misstatement by one or both of us.  In fact DeChancie knew of fanzines; he was then given a stack by no less than Bob Leman; he wrote Thou a letter of comment; the return copy was the first specifically addressed to him.  I like this version better, not only because it’s truer, and shows a fine fannish pro hipper sooner, but also because it shows him looking around.  Be bigger than your immediate adventure.

Reporting on the new LASFS (Los Angeles S-F Society) clubhouse I said it had no patio.  Other members later pointed out a door I hadn’t seen.   It opened onto the 14th Chorp Dimension and there I was.

Cantor also reminds me DeChancie is in both APA-L (Amateur Press Ass’n – LASFS, LASFS being the host though not the sponsor of L) and LASFAPA (L.A. Scientifiction Fans’ Am. Pr. Ass’n).  Cantor, who is the Official Collator of L, and the Little Tin God of LASFAPA, will not let either of his children be slighted even for the sake of the other.  In fact he’s a man whose deeds are better than his words.  Cantor – what do you mean I’ve ruined your – put that blaster down – augh

2012 Oscar Nominees

The 2012 Academy Award nominations show there are still some sf/fantasy stars in the cinema firmament, even if they are not in the prestigious Best Picture or acting categories. (Unless we appropriate Hugo, the 3-D movie about the man who invented special effects — I haven’t seen it, you tell me.)

The genre dominates the Visual Effects category, as is often the case:

Visual Effects
Rise of the Planet of the Apes
Real Steel
Hugo
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2
Transformers: Dark of the Moon

Unlike last year, when the Short Film (Animated) category was highlighted by the work of recent Worldcon GoH Shaun Tan, there is no comparable standout in 2012, although a couple of these might be claimed as examples of sf/fantasy (links have been added to the trailers I viewed while drafting this post):

Short Film (Animated)
Dimanche/Sunday
The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore
La Luna
A Morning Stroll
Wild Life

In the Animated Feature Film category, the story of greatest interest to me is about the contender not nominated.

Having reported Steven Paul Leiva’s argument against allowing The Adventures of Tintin as an Oscar contender in the animation category, I was interested to find Spielberg’s movie did, indeed, fail to make the cut. Even after the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences had announced in July 2010 that “motion-capture films are no longer considered eligible for the Best Animated Feature Film category,” Paramount had continued to urge on voters the view that Tintin isn’t a just a performance capture film. Academy voters evidently felt differently.

Animated Feature Film
A Cat in Paris, Alain Gagnol and Jean-Loup Felicioli
Chico & Rita, Fernando Trueba and Javier Mariscal
Kung Fu Panda 2, Jennifer Yuh Nelson
Puss in Boots,” Chris Miller
Rango, Gore Verbinski

About the animated films that are up for an Oscar the NY Times observed:

The animation voters this year skewed European and hand-drawn, choosing “”A Cat in Paris,” a French film, and “Chico & Rita,” made by a Spanish director and designers, over more high-profile, high-tech hopefuls like “The Adventures of Tintin,” “Arthur Christmas” and Pixar’s “Cars 2.” (It is only the third time since Pixar was founded a decade ago that its name did not pop up in the best animated feature selections, though it did garner a nod for its short, “La Luna.”)

2012 FAAn Nominations Open

Fans may now submit nominations for the 2012 Fan Activity Achievement Awards. These awards honor the best in fan writing, drawing, publishing and posting for the calendar year 2011. The winners will be announced at the Corflu Banquet on April 22.

Click the link for a copy of the 2012 Ballot (PDF file).

Andy Hooper is the awards Administrator and he has compiled a helpful list of 2011 fanzines, noting the award category (genzine, perzine or special publication) that suits it best. Hooper invites fanzine editors to visit the Corflu site, look at their entry and send corrections as needed.

Votes may be cast electronically or by snail mail. See the instructions on the ballot. Mailed votes must reach Andy by March 1. Email votes must be submitted by Noon PST on March 1, 2012.

Gerhartsreiter Hearings, Days 3 and 4

On the third day of hearings to determine whether Christian Gerhartsreiter will stand trial for the 1985 slaying of John Sohus – Friday, January 21 – an LA Times reporter interpreted the defense attorneys’ questions as an indication their strategy may be to raise doubt by blaming Linda Sohus, the murder victim’s missing wife.

Brad Bailey, a lawyer for Gerhartsreiter, questioned witnesses about tension between Sohus and his wife. Friends said the newlyweds shared a love of science fiction but had money problems and struggled with the possibility of moving out of Sohus’ mother’s home. Linda Sohus’ remains have never been found, however, authorities presume she is dead.

Patrick Rayermann, a former Army colonel who said he had known Sohus since the sixth grade, testified that he last saw John and Linda Sohus in January 1985, when the three met for dinner. Bailey asked Rayermann about the difference in stature between the newlywed couple.

“She was the larger of the couple,” Rayermann replied, saying she was 6 or 7 inches taller and about 50 pounds heavier. “It was noticeable,” he said.

Ravermann said Linda appeared to have had disagreements with John’s mother.

“John was torn between his loyalty to his mother and his desire to continue to help her in her more older years, and his desire to establish his own independent household with Linda,” Rayermann said.

Lydia Marano, who employed Linda at Dangerous Visions bookstore in Sherman Oaks bookstore, was called as a witness. A Boston Globe story says:

Several times a week, John would visit Linda at the Sherman Oaks book store where she worked. There, the couple would snuggle, kiss, and hold hands, Lydia Marano, the store owner, said in court. “It made the rest of us smile,’’ she said.

Linda was generally upbeat but living with Didi wore on her, Marano said….

The last time Marano spoke to Linda, it was to tell her she planned to be away for a long weekend and to ask if Linda would open the bookstore for her. Linda agreed, but when Marano came by the shop that Sunday, it was closed. Linda had not come by at all, Marano said, something that was uncharacteristic of her employee. “She was the most trustworthy person I had working for me,’’ Marano said….

But months after they disappeared, the couple’s clothing was still strewn about their room, testified Didi Sohus’s grandson, Harry Sherwood, who visited San Marino in 1985. Linda’s paintings and art supplies remained. In the bathroom was a brand-new box of insulin that belonged to John, a diabetic.

“It just looked like someone was gone for the day, and not gone forever,’’ Sherwood said.

That year, Marano received a postcard from Paris. “Not quite New York, but not bad,’’ the message said. It was signed by the couple.

Marano, who never heard Linda talk about going to New York or Paris, said she had no idea what the message meant.

Also, a forensic scientist testified about four bloodstains found in the guesthouse on Didi Sohus’ property, where Gerhartsreiter lived as a tenant. She also testified that a T-shirt found with the skeleton had several cuts that appeared to have been made by a sharp object.

The fourth day of hearings — Monday, January 23 —  brought testimony from an elderly couple who identified Gerhartsreiter as the man who tried to sell them a blood-stained rug, and also the person who received John Sohus’ white pickup truck from Gerhartsreiter. The LA Times reports:

…A man who knew Gerhartsreiter in Connecticut around 1988, then by the name Christopher Crowe, testified that the man gave him a white pickup truck that he later learned was linked to a missing person’s investigation in California.

Christopher Bishop, an Episcopal priest who was at the time a struggling film student, said Gerhartsreiter, who claimed to be a film producer, gave him a truck he said he had used in a movie production and no longer needed.

Authorities have said the truck belonged to John Sohus, who abruptly went missing along with his wife, Linda, around the time Gerhartsreiter left San Marino.

The Pasadena Star-News story, here, gives additional details of the fourth day of testimony.

Deadline for Hugo Nominating Rights is 1/31

People who join Chicon 7 by January 31 will be eligible to cast nominating ballots for this year’s Hugo Awards.

So will those who have joined LoneStarCon 3 by the deadline, and so already are all who held supporting or attending memberships in last year’s Worldcon, Renovation. 

Eligible voters have until Sunday, March 11, 2012, 23:59 PDT to submit nominations.

The full press release follows the jump.

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