Tag Archives: Steve Green

Suzanna Leigh (1945-2017)

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By Steve Green: Suzanna Leigh, British actress, died December 12, aged 72. God-daughter of Vivien Leigh, from whom she gained her stage surname. Genre appearances included Tom Thumb (1963), It Happened Like This (one episode, 1963), The Deadly Bees (1966), The Lost Continent (1968), Journey to the Unknown (one episode, 1968), Lust for a Vampire (1971), Beware My Brethren (1972), Son of Dracula (1974).

Rance Howard (1928-2017)

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Rance Howard in Ed Wood (1994).

By Steve Green: Rance Howard, US actor and screenwriter, died November 25, aged 89. Father of actor Clint and actor/director Ron.

Appearances of genre interest include Night Gallery (one episode, 1971), Battlestar Galactica (one episode, 1978), Mork & Mindy (one episode, 1981), Innerspace (1987), Superboy (one episode, 1989), Quantum Leap (one episode, 1991), Universal Soldier (1992), Ed and His Dead Mother (1993), Ed Wood (1994), Tales from the Crypt (one episode, 1994), Bigfoot: The Unforgettable Encounter (1994), Children of the Corn III: Urban Harvest (1995), Independence Day, Mars Attacks! (both 1996), Babylon 5 (three episodes, 1996-97), Baywatch Nights (one episode, 1997 — from the ‘supernatural’ second season), The Sender, Small Soldiers, Psycho (all 1998), Angel (one episode, 2001), Ghost Whisperer (one episode, 2005), Sasquatch Mountain, Harrison Bergeron (both 2006), The X-Files (one episode, 2016), 40 Nights (2016). Co-wrote the screenplay for The Time Crystal (1981).

Ray Lovelock (1950-2017)

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By Steve Green: Ray Lovelock (1950-2017): British-Italian actor; died November 10, aged 67. Best known for his role in The Living Dead at Manchester Morgue (aka Let Sleeping Corpses Lie and Don’t Open the Window, 1974), his other genre roles include Queens of Evil (1970), Autopsy (1975), House of Shadows (2013).

Karin Dor (1938-2017)

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Karin Dor

By Steve Green: German actress Karin Dor died November 6, aged 79. She starred in the James Bond movie You Only Live Twice and the Alfred Hitchcock movie Topaz.  Genre roles include The Invisible Dr Mabuse (1962), The Strangler of Blackmoor Castle (1963), The Face of Fu Manchu (1965), Die Nibelungen (two-part movie, 1966/67), The Torture Chamber of Dr Sadism (1967), The Monsters of Terror (1970).

Dudley Simpson (1922-2017)

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By Steve Green: Dudley Simpson (1922-2017): Australian composer / conductor, died November 4, aged 95. Spent many years in the UK, where his work appeared in such productions as Out of the Unknown (two episodes, 1965-66), The Tomorrow People (68 episodes, 1973-79), Blake’s 7 (Simpson provided the incidental music for 50 of the 52 episodes that were broadcast from 1978 to 1981, including the theme music), The Legend of King Arthur (eight episodes, 1979), Doctor Who (205 episodes, 1964-80). Simpson had a cameo in the Doctor Who serial ‘The Talons of Weng-Chiang’ (1977), appropriately conducting a theatre orchestra.

Robert Guillaume (1927–2017)

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By Steve Green: Robert Guillaume, US actor and director, died October 24, aged 89. Best-known for the sitcom Soap (50 episodes, 1977-80) and its spin-off Benson (159 episodes, 1979-86), his genre appearances include The Kid with the Broken Halo (1982), John Grin’s Christmas (1986), Fish Police (six episodes, 1992), The Meteor Man (1993), The Addams Family (one episode, 1993), Captain Planet and the Planeteers (one episode, 1994), Cosmic Slop (1994), Happily Ever After: Fairy Tales for Every Child (36 episodes, 1995-2000), Crystal Cave, Alchemy (both 1996), Touched by an Angel (one episode, 1997), Merry Christmas George Bailey (1997), The Outer Limits (one episode, 1998), 13th Child (2002), Century City (one episode, 2004), as well as a number of fantasy-themed video games.

Umberto Lenzi (1931-2017)

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Umberto Lenzi in 2008.

By Steve Green: Umberto Lenzi (1931-2017): Italian film director, screenwriter and novelist, died  October 19, aged 84. Genre work includes Messalina Vs the Son of Hercules (1964), Spasmo (1974), Eaten Alive!, Nightmare City (both 1980), Cannibal Ferox (1981), Ironmaster (1983), Ghosthouse (1988), The House of Witchcraft, House of Lost Souls, The Hell’s Gate, Nightmare Beach (all 1989), Black Demons (1991).

Robert Hardy (1925-2017)

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Cornelius Fudge and Dumbledore

By Steve Green: Robert Hardy (1925-2017): British actor, died August 3, aged 91, best known to fans as Cornelius Fudge in the Harry Potter movies.

Genre appearances include The Adventures of Sir Lancelot (one episode, 1957), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1959), Mystery and Imagination (one episode, 1966), Demons of the Mind (1972), Dark Places, Gawain and the Green Knight (both 1973), Supernatural (one episode, 1977), Buck Rogers in the 25th Century (one episode, 1979), The Pied Piper of Hamelin (1981, narrator), Shades of Darkness (one episode, 1986), Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (1994), Testament: The Bible in Animation, (one episode, 1996, voice), Gulliver’s Travels (both episodes of miniseries, 1996), The 10th Kingdom (seven episodes, 2000), The Lost World (2001), Thunderpants (2002), Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002), Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004), Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005), Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007), Joseph’s Reel (2015).

Actor Michael Parks (1940-2017)

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By Steve Green: Michael Parks (1940-2017): American actor, died May 10, aged 77. Genre roles included The Bible: In the Beginning… (1963, as Adam), The Savage Bees (1976), Night Cries (1978), Fantasy Island (one episode, 1979), War of the Worlds (one episode, 1989), Nightmare Beach (1989), Twin Peaks (five episodes, 1990-91), SeaQuest 2032 (one episode, 1993), Sorceress (1995), From Dusk Till Dawn (1996), From Dusk Till Dawn 3: The Hangman’s Daughter (1999, in a different role), Planet Terror (2007), We Are What We Are (2013). He was to have appeared in The Summoning, currently in early pre-production.

Richard Hatch (1945-2017)

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By Steve Green: Richard Hatch: actor, died February 7, aged 71. Genre appearances include The Sixth Sense (one episode, 1972), Prisoners of the Lost Universe (1983), InAlienable (2008), Season of Darkness (2012), and its higher-budget remake Asylum of Darkness (2017).

Most famous for playing Captain Apollo in the original Battlestar Galactica (1978-9), which he campaigned to bring back (writing and directing a 1999 short, Battlestar Galactica: The Second Coming, and co-writing several novels set in that universe with Brad Linaweaver); his contribution was rewarded with a recurring role in the show’s reboot (2005-9, 22 episodes).