American actress Bettye Ackerman [Jaffe] died of complications from Alzheimer’s disease on November 1st, aged 82. The widow of actor Sam Jaffe (who died in 1984 and was more than thirty years her senior), her film credits include Face of Fire and Prehysteria! 2, plus episodes of TV’s Alfred Hitchcock Presents (“Speciality of the House”), The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, The Sixth Sense, Wonder Woman and Tales of the Unexpected.
40-year-old independent New York film actress Adrienne Shelly (Adrienne Levine) was found hanged in her office the same day. A 19-year-old construction worker was arrested several days later and charged with second-degree murder in connection with her death (apparently the result of an argument over noise). Shelly wrote and directed the 1994 horror film Urban Legend.
Trinidad-born Hollywood actress Marian Marsh [Henderson] (Violet Ethelred Krauth) died on November 9th, aged 93. Best known as the teenage Trilby O’Farrell under the mesmeric influence of John Barrymore in the 1931 Svengali, based on George du Maurier’s 1894 novel, her other credits include The Mad Genius (again with Barrymore), The Black Room (with Boris Karloff), Crime and Punishment (with Peter Lorre), The Man Who Lived Twice and Murder by Invitation. After retiring in the late 1950s, she married her second husband, pioneer aviator Clifford Henderson, who founded the California community of Palm Desert in the 1940s.
Academy Award-winning “tough guy” actor Jack Palance (Vladimir Palahniuk, aka “Walter Jack Palance”) died on November 10th, aged 87. Best known for his Westerns (including the classic Shane), Palance’s more than 125 film appearances also included Man in the Attic (as Jack the Ripper), The Silver Chalice, Amicus’ Torture Garden, Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1968), Jess Franco’s Justine (aka Deadly Sanctuary), Craze, Dracula (1973, as the Count), Welcome to Blood City, H. G. Wells’ The Shape of Things to Come, Hawk the Slayer, Without Warning, Evil Stalks This House (aka Tales of the Haunted), Alone in the Dark, Gor and Outlaws of Gor, Batman (1989), Solar Crisis, Cyborg 2, Twilight Zone: Rod Serling’s Lost Classics, The Swan Princess, Ebenezer, The Incredible Adventures of Marco Polo and Living With the Dead (aka Talking to Heaven). On TV he hosted the documentary series Unknown Powers (1978) and ABC’s Ripley’s Believe It or Not! (1980–85), the 1997 special Monster Mania, and narrated The Omen Legacy (2001). Palance also appeared in episodes of TV’s Lights Out, Suspense, The Man from U.N.C.L.E., Buck Rogers in the 25th Century and Night Visions.
76-year-old British character actress Diana Coupland died the same day after failing to recover from heart surgery. Her first husband was composer Monty Norman and, in 1962, she supplied the voice for Ursula Andress’ Honey Ryder singing “Underneath the Mango Tree” in the first James Bond movie, Dr. No.
R&B singer Gerald Levert, son of The O’Jays’ lead singer Eddie Levert, died on November 10th, aged 40. He suffered from a heart condition and died from an apparently accidental mixture of over-the counter and prescription drugs.
British character actor Ronnie Stevens died on November 12th, aged 81. For the 1963 puppet TV series Space Patrol (aka Planet Patrol) he voiced the characters Slim, Husky and Professor Hag-garty. Other television work included narrating the children’s series Noggin the Nog and appearing in episodes of The Avengers, Tales of the Unexpected and Goodnight Sweetheart. Stevens also appeared in the movies Some Girls Do and Morons from Outer Space.
Busy British character actor John [William Francis] Hallam died on November 14th, aged 65. Best known as the tyrannical 19th-century squire Thomas Mallen in the 1979 TV series of Catherine Cookson’s The Mallens, he also appeared in the films Quest for Love, Trial by Combat (aka Dirty Knight’s Work), The People That Time Forgot, Flash Gordon (1980), Dragonslayer, Lifeforce, Santa Glaus, Kull the Conqueror and The Incredible Adventures of Marco Polo. His role as PC McTaggart in the opening scenes of The Wicker Man (1973) were cut from the original theatrical release of the cult movie. Hallam’s TV credits include The Chronicles of Narnia (1989), The 10th Kingdom, Arabian Knights and episodes of Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased), Moonbase 3, Doctor Who (“Ghost Light”) and She-Wolf of London.
R&B singer Ruth Brown died of complications from a stroke and heart attack on November 17th, aged 78. Between 1949 and 1961 she had more than two dozen hits, including “(Mama) He Treats Your Daughter Mean”. Brown also appeared in such films as Under the Rainbow and Hairspray (1988).
80-year-old American character actor Jeremy Slate died of complications following oesophageal cancer surgery on November 19th. His many films include Hitchcock’s North by Northwest (uncre-dited), Born Losers, Hell’s Angels ’69 (he also wrote the original story), Hell’s Belles, the obscure Curse of the Moon Child, Wes Craven’s Stranger in Our House (aka Summer of Fear), The Dead Pit and The Lawnmower Man. He also appeared in episodes of TV’s Men Into Space, One Step Beyond, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, The Man from U.N.C.L.E., The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, Bewitched, Tarzan, Ghost Story, Wonder Woman and Starman.
South African-born Vonne Shelley, who as a teenager appeared in a small number of films under the name “Yvonne Severn”, including Tower of London (1939), died on November 22nd, aged 79.
76-year-old French actor Philippe Noiret died on November 23rd after a long battle with cancer. The two-time Cesar Award-winner’s more than 125 film credits include The Night of the Generals, Hitchcock’s Topaz and the supernatural comedy Fantome avec chauffeur.
Veteran American jazz and big-band vocalist Anita O’Day (Anita Belle Colton) died of cardiac arrest the same day, aged 87. She recorded around thirty albums and wrote candidly of her battles with heroin addiction and alcoholism in her 1981 biography, Hard Times, Hard Times.
British actor Anthony Jackson, who played the ghostly Fred Mumford in the children’s TV series Rentaghost (1976–78), died on November 26th, aged 62. As a voice artist, he contributed to Labyrinth and Watership Down.
“Greetings, pop-pickers!” After being diagnosed with arthritis in 1991, Australian-born British disc jockey Alan “Fluff” [Leslie] Freeman MBE died on November 27th, aged 79. He was a pioneering presenter for BBC Radio since the early 1960s and, later, TV’s Top of the Pops. In 1965 he starred in the carnivorous vine episode of the anthology film Dr Terror’s House of Horrors and appeared as God in two episodes of TV’s The Young Ones (1984). “Not arf!”