Writer and director Zalman King died February 3, aged 69, following a lengthy battle with cancer. Although he used his script credit on 9 1/2 Weeks to launch a successful career in movies and cable tv, King began as an actor, his genre appearances including Blue Sunshine (1978), Galaxy of Terror (1981), and TV shows such as The Munsters and The Man From U.N.C.L.E. He also appeared in the Alfred Hitchcock Presents episode “Memo From Purgatory,” written by Harlan Ellison and co-starring James Caan and Star Trek’s Walter Koenig. And Ellison later praised King’s performance in The Young Lawyers (1969-71) in his tv column The Glass Teat.

[Thanks to Steve Green and Andrew Porter for the story.]