Tag Archives: Gerry Anderson

Gerry Anderson Dies

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Thunderbirds creator Gerry Anderson died December 26 at the age of 83. He was diagnosed with mixed dementia two years ago and his condition “worsened dramatically over the past six months” said his son to Time Magazine.

Anderson was a guest of honor at Intersection, the 1995 Worldcon in Glasgow.

He was famous for “supermarionation,” using puppets to act out science fiction TV adventures, and it was an affectionately bestowed, enduring fame — just last year the Royal Mail set FAB: The Genius of Gerry Anderson as the theme of its first issue of 2011, featuring his shows Stingray, Joe 90, and Captain Scarlett on postage stamps.

Anderson was also notable for Space: 1999, a live action sci-fi adventure that reportedly was the most expensive tv show made up to that time. Its not-especially-scientific premise was that the Moon had been hurtled into interstellar space by a thermonuclear explosion of nuclear waste dumped on the lunar surface. It starred Mission: Impossible vets Martin Landau and Barbara Bain.

Gerry Anderson was made a Member of the Order of the British Empire in 2001.

Gerry Anderson Goes Postal

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The Royal Mail has made FAB: The Genius of Gerry Anderson the theme of its first stamp issue of 2011.  

Stingray, Joe 90, and Captain Scarlett are among the Sixties television shows featured on stamps.

The stamps went on sale January 11.

Gerry Anderson is a past Worldcon Guest of Honor (1995).

Maybe I will be lucky and Langford will use one of the new stamps when he sends my copy of Ansible. That’s one of the fringe benefits of continuing to trade paper editions of our fanzines. I still have the envelope from his November issue with a stamp bearing a drawing of Pooh and Eeyore.

I must remember to return the favor by using some colorful commemoratives next time I mail him File 770. Which means I better publish another issue, so I will have something to put in the envelope.

But dang, I see I missed the Royal Mail’s Christmas 2010 issue of Wallace and Gromit stamps. Of course, who would mail such lovely things?

[Thanks to Andrew Porter for the story.]