Oscar-winning German film producer Franz Seitz died after a long illness on January 19th, aged 84. In 1979 he directed a version of Thomas Mann’s Doctor Faustus.
Austrian-Hungarian-born film and TV director Otto Lang died of complications from heart disease on January 30th, aged 98. Arriving in America in the mid-1930s, he worked on such TV series as World of Giants (which he also produced), Men Into Space and The Man from U.N.C.L.E.
Polish-born film director, animator, sculptor and photographer Walerian Borowczyk died in Paris on February 3rd, aged 82. His 1974 film Immoral Tales featured Paloma Picasso as Countess Bathory bathing in the blood of virgins, The Beast (1975) was an erotic retelling of “Beauty and the Beast”, and Bloodlust (aka Dr Jekyll and His Women, 1979) marked the final screen appearance of actor Patrick Magee.
Writer, television director and drama professor Luther James died on February 5th, aged 76. He directed episodes of Bewitched and was a production executive on such CBS-TV shows as Mission Impossible, The Wild Wild West, The Man from U.N.C.L.E. and The Girl from U.N.C.L.E.
British animator Eddie (Edric) Radage died in early February. His many credits include Animal Farm (1954), Yellow Submarine, Watership Down, The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe (1979), The Snowman and the 1967 TV series The Beatles.
Scriptwriter, producer and director Frank Q. Dobbs died of cancer on February 15th, aged 66. Although best-known for his many Western TV series, his credits also include Enter the Devil and the recent mini-series of King Solomon’s Mines, Mysterious Island and The Poseidon Adventure.
Australian-born film director Peter Sykes died on March 1st, aged around 66. In the early 1970s he brought some class to a flagging Hammer Films with Demons of the Mind and To the Devil a Daughter. His other credits include Venom (aka The Legend of Spider Forest), the Frankie Howerd comedy The House on Nightmare Park and several episodes of TV’s The Avengers and Orson Welles’ Great Mysteries.
Canadian-born director Lindsay Shonteff died in England on March 11th, aged 70. In the 1960s he filmed two low budget British horrors, Devil Doll and Curse ofSimba (aka Curse of the Voodoo). His other credits include Licensed to Kill (aka The Second Best Secret Agent in the Whole Wide World), The Million Eyes of Sumuru, Night After Night After Night (as “Lewis J. Force”), No.l of the Secret Service and Licensed to Love and Kill.
Animation director Brad Case died on March 19th, aged 93. He began his career as an animator on Disney’s Bambi and also worked on Song of the South and Make Mine Music. In the 1960s he moved to television, where he directed episodes of The Dick Tracy Show, The Pink Panther and Friends and The Fantastic Four. His other credits include Frankenstein Jr and the Impossibles, Birdman and the Galaxy Trio, Goober and the Ghost-Chasers, Shinbone Alley and Daffy Duck’s Movie: Fantastic Island.
66-year-old Spanish film director and scriptwriter Eloy German de la Iglesia died on March 23rd, following an operation for renal cancer. His films include Fantasia . . . 3, Cannibal Man, Clockwork Terror and No One Heard the Scream.
Australian film producer Barbi Taylor died on March 24th, aged 59. Her credits in various production capacities include Patrick, Snapshot, Thirst, Road Games, Frog Dreaming and Jackie Chan’s First Strike.
Veteran Hollywood director Richard Fleischer died on March 25th, aged 89. The son of 1930s animator Max Fleischer, his numerous films include Disney’s classic 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, The Vikings, Fantastic Voyage, Doctor Dolittle (1967), The Boston Strangler, Blind Terror (aka See No Evil), 10 Rillington Place, Soylent Green, Amityville 3-D, Conan the Destroyer and Red Sonja.
Emmy Award-winning producer-director Dan Curtis died of brain cancer on March 27th, aged 77. Creator of the Gothic daytime soap opera Dark Shadows (1966–71 and 1991), which initially ran for 1,225 episodes on ABC-TV, his movies and TV films include The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1968), House of Dark Shadows and Night of Dark Shadows, The Night Stalker and The Night Strangler, The Norliss Tapes, The Picture of Dorian Gray (1973), Dracula (1973), The Turn of the Screw, Scream of the Wolf, Trilogy of Terror, Burnt Offerings, Curse of the Black Widow, Dead of Night (1977) and Intruders (1992). His wife Norma died of heart failure two weeks earlier.
Mechanical special effects technician Gerald Endler died the same day, aged 94. His many films include Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, Silent Running, Battle for the Planet of the Apes, Sleeper, The Towering Inferno, Apocalypse Now and episodes of TV’s The Ghost and Mrs. Muir, Lost in Space, Land of the Giants and Time Tunnel.
Gloria Monty, who executive produced ABC-TV’s daytime soap opera General Hospital for more than a decade, died of cancer on March 30th, aged 84. She took over the struggling show in 1978, introducing more fantasy-orientated plots to attract a new audience. More recently, Monty produced a number of TV movies based on books by Mary Higgins Clark, including Remember Me, While My Pretty One Sleeps and Let Me Call You Sweetheart.
American cinematographer Paul Hipp, who began his career working on such exploitation films as Sweet Trash and Trader Hornee, died on April 10th, aged 68. His other credits include Blood and Lace, The Incredible 2-Headed Transplant, Garden of the Dead, Grave of the Vampire, Psycho from Texas, Hanger 18, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow (1980), Earthbound, The Boogens and The Fall of the House of Usher (1982).
Korean director Shin Sang-Ok died in Seoul on April 11th, aged 79. In the 1970s, both he and his actress wife were separately abducted and transported to North Korea, where they completed seven films before seeking asylum in the West in 1986. His 1985 socialist monster movie Pulgasari featured a metal-eating creature, while the horror film The Gardener (1998), directed under the name “Simon Sheen”, starred Malcolm McDowell, Angle Everhart and Olivia Hussey.
50-year-old TV producer and director Scott Brazil died of respiratory failure due to complications from Lou Gehrig’s disease (ALS) and lyme disease on April 17th. He directed episodes of TV’s Strange Luck, The Burning Zone and Buffy the Vampire Slayer and served as a producer on the series Space Rangers and the 1993 TV movie Lifepod.