Senegal-born British actor Johnny Sekka (Lamine Secka) died of lung cancer in California the same day, aged 72. After stowing away on a ship to Europe in the 1950s, he initially worked on the British stage before appearing in such films and TV shows as Incense for the Damned (aka Bloodsuckers), Charlie Chan and the Curse of the Dragon Queen, Babylon 5: The Gathering, The Avengers, The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries (“Voodoo Doll”) and Tales of the Gold Monkey.
Saxophone player Danny Flores (aka “Chuck Rio”), who shouted the word “Tequila!” on the Champs’ 1958 hit song of the same name (which he wrote), died of pneumonia on September 19th, aged 77. A heavy drinker during the early days of the band, he reportedly signed away US royalties to the song (which was featured in such films as Pee-wee’s Big Adventure) for a pittance.
59-year-old actor and voice-over artist Tim (Timothy) [Hayes] Rooney, the son of veteran Mickey Rooney, died on September 21st after a five-year battle with the muscle disease dermatomyositis. His credits include Riot of Sunset Strip, Village of the Giants and episodes of TV’s Bewitched and The Jetsons.
Christopher Crawford, the second child adopted by film star Joan Crawford, died of cancer on September 22nd, aged 62. He apparently supported his adoptive sister Christina’s account of their upbringing in her 1979 memoir Mommy Dearest.
American leading man Edward [Laurence] Albert (Jr), the only son of actor Eddie Albert (who died in 2005) and Mexican actress/dancer Margo, died of lung cancer the same day, aged 55. His credits include The Fool Killer (at the age of eleven), Killer Bees, Death Cruise, When Time Ran Out . . ., Galaxy of Terror, The House Where Evil Dwells, Accidents, The Girl from Mars, Demon Keeper, Sorceress (aka Temptress II), Space Marines, Stageghost, Mimic 2 and Sea of Fear. He voiced Daredevil/Matt Murdock on the 1996 Spider-Man cartoon series and the Silver Surfer on Fantastic Four the same year. His other TV credits include episodes of Orson Welles’ Great Mysteries (“A Terribly Strange Bed”), Tales of the Unexpected, The Hitchhiker, Star Trek Deep Space Nine, Time Trax, Profiler, The Sentinel, Conan, Extreme Ghostbusters, Sabrina the Teenage Witch, Invasion America and She Spies. He had recurring roles as Elliot Burch on Beauty and the Beast, Bennett Devlin in the supernatural soap opera Port Charles and Mr. Collins on Power Rangers: Time Force. Albert was married to British-born actress Katherine Woodville. A dedicated environmentalist, like his father, Malibu’s Escondido Canyon was renamed in his honour as the Edward Albert Escondido Trail & Waterfalls.
Influential blues guitarist Etta Baker, who recorded with Taj-Mahal, died on September 23rd, aged 93. She worked in a textile mill for twenty-six years before starting her professional career in the late 1950s.
Prolific Japanese actor Tetsuro Tamba (Shozaburo Tanba), who portrayed Tiger Tanaka in the James Bond movie You Only Live Twice, died of pneumonia on September 24th, aged 84. His more than 300 credits (he reportedly never turned down a role) include The Depths, Kwaidan, Japan Sinks (both 1973 and 2006 versions), The Last Days of Planet Earth, Message from Space, Peking Man (1997), Jigoku, Blind Beast vs. Dwarf, The Happiness of the Kata-kuris, Gozu and the popular anime The Cat Returns. He later became a spiritual cult leader in Japan.
Iva Toguri D’Aquino, who may have been better known as World War II propagandist “Tokyo Rose”, died in Chicago on September 26th, aged 90. An American citizen, D’Aquino had been visiting relatives in Japan when war broke out and she reportedly began broadcasting anti-American propaganda to US troops in the Pacific. She was convicted of treason and jailed for six years in 1949 but, after doubts about guilt, she was pardoned by President Gerald Ford in 1977.
British-born actor, scriptwriter and author Alan Caillou (Alan Lyle-Smythe) died in Arizona on October 1st, aged 92. Following World War II, he worked as a police chief in Ethiopa and a district officer in Somalia before moving to Canada and then the United States. Usually cast a British “major” types in Hollywood, Caillou appeared in the 1959 Journey to the Center the Earth (uncredited), Five Weeks in a Balloon, Sole Survivor, The Hound of the Baskervilles (1972, as Inspector Lestrade), Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex” “And Were Afraid to Ask, The Questor Tapes, Herbie Goes to Monte Carlo, Beyond Evil, The Sword and the Sorcerer and Ice Pirates, along with episodes of TV’s One Step Beyond, Thriller, Tarzan, The Man from U.N.C.L.E. and The Girl from U.N.C.L.E. He also had a recurring role as “The Head” in the SF comedy series Quark (1977–78). Among Caillou’s scripting credits are the movies Village of the Giants and Kingdom the Spiders, plus episodes of Thriller, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, The Man from U.N.C.L.E. and The Six Million Dollar Man.
Six-foot, two-inch tall fashion model-turned-actress Tamara Dobson died of complications from pneumonia and multiple sclerosis on October 2nd, aged 59. In the 1970s she portrayed the eponymous kung-fu fighting government agent in Cleopatra Jones and its sequel, Cleopatra Jones and the Casino of Gold. Listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the tallest leading actress in films, her other credits include Chained Heat and the TV movie Amazons. She appeared in an episode of Buck Rogers in the 25th Century (“Happy Birthday, Buck”) and played “Samantha” on the 1980–81 season of Jason of Star Command.
Actress and former model Frances Bergen (Frances Westerman), the widow of ventriloquist Edgar Bergen (who died in 1978) and mother of Candice Bergen, died after a long illness the same day, aged 84.
British character actor Tom Bell died after a short illness on October 4th, aged 73. Best known for his recurring role in the Prime Suspect TV movies, in an acting career dating back to 1948 his other credits include Quest for Love (based on a short SF story by John Wyndham), Hammer’s Straight on Till Morning, an adaptation of Angela Carter’s The Magic Toyshop, Prospero’s Books, Angels, Long Time Dead and episodes of TV’s The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles (“Young Indiana Jones and the Phantom Train of Doom”) and Dr Terrible’s House of Horrible (“Voodoo Feet of Death”).
69-year-old Mexican-American singer Freddy Fender died of lung cancer at his home in Texas on October 14th. He had suffered numerous health problems for years due to drug and alcohol abuse. After recording a Spanish-language version of Elvis Presley’s “Don’t Be Cruel” in the 1950s, he later had hits with “Before the Next Teardrop Falls” and “Wasted Days and Wasted Nights” following a three-year prison sentence for possession of marijuana.