British pop star Craig Douglas, 85, died on Sept. 4. Douglas started his career as a milkman, thus being dubbed “The Singing Milkman” when he was discovered in the late 1950s. He had hits with the British covers of such American songs as “Only Sixteen,” “A Teenager in Love,” “Pretty Blue Eyes,” “A Hundred Pounds of Clay,” and "Oh, Lonesome Me,” till The Beatles and their fellow ‘60s rockers put an end to his ascent. Craig starred in the 1962 rock film It's Trad, Dad! (release

British child actor turned TV star Richard O'Sullivan, 82, died on Sept. 4. O’Sullivan was best known for playing Robin Tripp in the ‘70s Britcoms Man About the House and Robin’s Nest (later translated in the US to the John Ritter vehicles Three’s Company and Three’s a Crowd). He started his career as a child, in such movies and TV shows as The Stranger’s Hand, It’s Great to Be Young, Little Lord Fauntleroy, Dangerous Exile (as the French Dauphin), Carry On Teacher, Cleopatra

Mexican keyboardist and vocalist for the group Camilo Séptimo, Jonathan Meléndez, 38, was shot and killed on Sept. 1, along with his pregnant wife, their 3-year-old daughter, and their nanny, along with their dog. A 6-year-old boy was found unharmed on the scene. Two suspects have been taken into custody. Meléndez played keyboards for the trio Camilo Séptimo, a group that mixed jazz, pop and rock; they have performed throughout Mexico and Europe, and released four studio albu

British writer, actor, comic and convicted sex creep Chris Langham, 77, died on June 24. The son of director Michael Langham and actress Helen Burns, he wrote for numerous comedy series, including The Muppet Show, Not the Nine O’Clock News, Spitting Image, Kiss Me Kate, and Help, and acted in Monty Python’s Life of Brian, The Gaffer, Silas Marner, Jackanory, Married…With Children, Carry On Columbus, The Thick of It, People Like Us, and many other vehicles. In 2007, Langham wa

I know Gloria Steinem—who died on Sept. 2, at age 92—is not “show biz,” but I did want to cover her anyway, as her whole life was a kind of performance art. Beginning with her stint as an undercover Playboy Bunny for Show magazine, Steinem championed a kind of “lipstick feminism,” showing that we can be feminists and hot patooties at the same time. She also wrote for That Was the Week That Was, appeared as herself in several movies and TV shows, and of course co-founded Ms. m

Actress Carla Jeffery, 33, died on Sept. 1; no cause of death has been determined. The twin sister of actor Carlon Jeffery, Carla appeared in neatly 40 TV series and movies from 2006 through 2024’s Zombies: The Re-Animated Series; she’d played cheerleader Bree in Disney’s Zombies franchise, beginning with the 2018 TV-movie. She made her debut with Phat Girlz, and appeared in the films Teacher of the Year, Girl on the Edge, Exchange, and Puzzled, and was in several high-profil

Pie-throwing provocateur Noël Godin, 80, died on Aug. 23. The Belgian comedian, writer, critic, and actor started life being thrown out of church for inventing horrific confessions, then being thrown out of the University of Liège for dumping a glue pot over the head of a professor. He published the magazine Friends of Film, in which he invented both films and film makers (according to Wikipedia, these included “The Vegetables of Good Will, in which Claudia Cardinale played a

Canadian-born voice actor Peter Cullen, 85, died on Aug. 26. Cullen most famously voiced the heroic Optimus Prime in the Transformers franchise. Starting on radio, he costarred in the Canadian comedy Funny You Should Say That. He was the announcer for The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, and was part of the troupe of players on The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour and the cringe-making The Hudson Brothers Razzle Dazzle Show. But his pay-the-rent work was in voice-overs: he growled fo

Actor Samuel Monroe, Jr., 52, died of meningitis on Aug. 27 (he had been hospitalized since April). The L.A. native appeared in such TV shows as Southland, Out All Night, The Lyon's Den, The Steve Harvey Show, Smart Guy, NYPD Blue, and Murder One, and in the films Menace II Society (and its parody, Don't Be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood), Set It Off, The Players Club, Tales from the Hood, Choices 2, The Lick, and Behind the Pole. He also prod

Delightfully naughty British actor Tim Curry, 80, died after a long illness on Aug. 25. Curry is best known as Dr. Frank N. Furter in the stage and movie versions of The Rocky Horror Show, but I have never been much of a fan of either, so I prefer his work in such films as Clue, Annie, The Hunt for Red October, and TV’s It (though I prefer the Elinor Glyn version). Curry started his career onstage, on the West End and Broadway (in The Pirates of Penzance, Spamalot, Amadeus, M

Singer, actress, and game show panelist Jaye P. Morgan, 94, died on Aug. 24. Born Margaret Morgan, she got the “Jaye P.” nickname while serving as high school class treasurer. She and her brothers Duke, Bob, Dick, and Charlie were singing professionally by the 1950s, and Morgan signed with RCA and MGM, making a number of successful records in the 1950s and becoming a regular on TV variety shows. She also acted (My Three Sons, the Jack Benny, Joey Bishop, and Danny Thomas show

National treasure Dolly Parton, 80, died on Aug. 25. The singer, songwriter and actress, dubbed “the Queen of Country,” wrote (and usually sang) such hits as “9 to 5,” “Jolene,” “Coat of Many Colors,” “I Will Always Love You,” and “Here You Come Again,” among many others. She worked her way up from a Tennessee log cabin to singing with Porter Wagoner in the ’60s. She went solo, and by the 1980s had become a cross-over star, her image morphing into a less scary Mae West ("It's

Porn star Christian Styles, 29, died on Aug. 20; no cause of death has been revealed. The Michigan native started in the industry in 2021, also working as a “content creator,” whatever that means. I love nothing more than looking up porn-movie titles, but in Styles’s case, I had no luck—there is no way I am going onto some of those sites, and a search for his credits only included the non-porn The Legend of the Makwa. A search for “Christian Styles movie titles” only turned u

Actor and stuntman James Lew, 73, has died, it was announced on Aug. 24. The L.A. native was trained in martial arts as a teenager, making his acting debut in Kung Fu, in 1977. He went on to play small or supporting roles in The Fall Guy, Three’s a Crowd, General Hospital, Big Trouble in Little China, Action Jackson, Beauty and the Beast, Falcon Crest, Murder She Wrote, Hot Shots!, Time Cop, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Frasier, and nearly 200 other films and TV shows. Lew also

TV star Shelley Fabares, 82, died on Aug. 22. Fabares (a niece of Nanette Fabray) starred as daughter Mary on The Donna Reed Show, Ann’s business rival on One Day at a Time, and Christine Armstrong on Coach. Fabares started acting early, having increasingly large roles in The Bad Seed, Annie Oakley, Captain Midnight, Rock Pretty Baby, Summer Love, The Twilight Zone (romancing a juvenile delinquent alien), and others, before being cast as Mary Stone in 1958. She was also an El

My friends at The Hollywood Reporter (hi, Mike!) have just broken the news that actress Leslie Parrish, 90, died late last year. The blonde glamour girl starred as Daisy Mae in the movie version of Li’l Abner (Edie Adams played her on Broadway) and was unintentionally hilarious The Manchurian Candidate (not her fault, but I burst into peals of gay laughter when she turned up in that card costume). From the 1950s-70s, Parrish turned up in The Girl in the Red Velvet Swing, Mis

Sad synchronicity—I was just about to email Emily Leider on the 100th anniversary of Rudolph Valentino’s death, when I discovered that Emily herself died on July 16, age 88. Emily wrote biographies of Myrna Loy, Mae West, and Gertrude Atherton, as well as several books of poetry, but to me her greatest work was her 2003 book Dark Lover: The Life and Death of Rudolph Valentino. You know what a tough audience I am, but I think this is the best bio of Valentino, and I am happy t

Character actress Bunny Levine, 97, died on Aug. 20. Levine worked most of her life as a school librarian, and turned to acting after her retirement. Then, like Judith Lowry and Ruth McDevitt before her, Levine began filling all those little-old-lady roles that sow biz has to offer: she was seen in more than 100 films and TV shows, including Cadillac Man, As the World Turns, Chapelle’s Show, Gilmore Girls, Everybody Loves Raymond, Ugly Betty, You Don’t Mess with the Zohan, Co

Actor Michael Wright, 70, has died, it was announced on Aug. 22. Wright had recurring roles in V and Oz, and supporting roles in the movies The Wanderers, The Five Heartbeats, Streamers, Sugar Hill, and Black Lightning. From the 1970s through last year, he turned up in such movies and TV shows as Miami Vice, Nash Bridges, Confessions of a Hitman, Point Blank, Rage, The Gift, Diminished Capacity, Jesse, and, most recently, last year’s Dope King. “The greatest sin an actor can

British movie and TV director John Irvin, 86, died on Aug. 11. Irvin started his career with British Movietone News, making documentaries during the Vietnam War (which led to his 1987 film Hamburger Hill). He directed many TV projects (notably Hard Times and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy) before moving into films in the 1980s. Besides Hamburger Hill, Irvin helmed The Dogs of War, Ghost Story, Champions, Turtle Diary, Robin Hood, Widows’ Peak, Freefall, and, most recently, Mandela