Actor Reggie Bannister, best known for playing Reggie in the Phantasm films, died on Aug 9. He was 80. The Vietnam vet was a struggling actor when his friend, director Don Coscarelli, crated the Reggie character (an everyman hero) in Phantasm (a film which scared the wee out of me when I first saw it in 1979). He went on to play the same role in the four follow-ups, the latest released in 2016. Bannister stayed active (mostly in horror) till falling ill with dementia and Park

Stage and TV actor Jon Cypher, 94, died on Aug. 3. Cypher’s Broadway credits were impressive, including The Night of the Iguana, Jennie, Man of La Mancha, The Great White Hope, 1776, Coco, and Big. On TV, he costarred as Chief Daniels in Hill Street Blues, Dick Maurier in Dynasty, Driscoll in the 1960s soap Our Five Daughters, Max Van Stadt in General Hospital, Dr. Donnelly in Santa Barbara, and General Craig in Major Dad; he also turned up in one-shots on countless other ser

Arkansas-born “whittlin’ fidder” Violet Hensley died on Aug. 7 at the utterly ridiculous age of 109. She was the daughter of George Washington (ha—not that one; another Arkansas musician), and eventually took up both playing and carving her own fiddles (which made her a “luthier”—you learn something new every day!). A 1970 National Geographic article on her put Hensley on the map, and she eventually recorded three albums. She turned up on TV in The Art Linkletter Show, Captai

Canadian actress Tedde Moore—who played Ralphie’s schoolteacher in A Christmas Story—died on Aug. 5. She was 79. The daughter of actor Mavor Moore, granddaughter of actress Dora Mavor and great-granddaughter of famed economist James Mavor, Tedde was a RADA grad, who was acting onstage by the late 1960s, and in films and TV by the ‘70s. She appeared in such vehicles as Police Surgeon, Side Street, The Amatuer, Rolling Vengeance, T and T, Avonlea, The Man in the Attic, Gotti, U

Actor turned politician Ben Jones, 84, died on Aug. 9. Jones is best known for playing Cooter on The Dukes of Hazzard (Cooter was basically the Goober of Hazzard). Despite his TV fame, most of Jones’s work was onstage, at the Kennedy Center, the Berkshire Theatre Festival, and numerous Atlanta-based theaters. Beginning in the 1960s, he was acting on TV and in the movies: The Bingo Long Traveling All-Stars & Motor Kings, Smokey and the Bandit, They Went That-A-Way & That-A-Way

Dutch stage, screen and TV actor Peter Faber, 82, died on Aug. 6. Faber was best known in the US for playing Capt. Bestebreurtje in A Bridge Too Far, and for costarring in Paul Verhoeven’s Soldier of Orange. Faber was born in Germany during WWII, and raised in Amsterdam. Onstage, he cofounded the Het Werkteater, also appearing in a one-man show, Caveman, and as Captain Hook in Peter Pan. From the 1960s through last year, he was a regular on Dutch movie and TV screens, includi

Actress Joan Blackman, 87, died on March 16, it was just announced. Blackman costarred with Elvis Presley (Blue Hawaii, Kid Galahad), Dean Martin (Career), Jerry Lewis (Visit to a Small Planet), Tony Curtis (The Imposter), and Fred MacMurray (Good Day for a Hanging), and appeared on TV in Perry Mason, Bonanza, I Spy, Gunsmoke, Peyton Place, and Run for Your Life. She pretty much retired from acting after filming Macon County Line and Moonrunners in the 1970s. Blackman was an

Singer and actress Abbe Lane, 93, died on April 25, it was just announced. Lane was a 15-year-old chorus girl when noted chicken-hawk bandleader Xavier Cugat, 48, married her in 1952 (they split in 1964, and she later married producer Perry Leff). Lane went on to became a popular singer, dubbed “the swingingest sexpot in show business.” Besides recording and touring, Lane performed in numerous Italian films and TV shows, and turned up in the US on both the small and big scree

Gossip columnist Flo Anthony, 74, died on Aug. 6. Anthony started her career as a sports publicist, and went on to write for such publications as The New York Post, The New York Amsterdam News, The Philadelphia Sun and The National Examiner. As a talking head, she showed up on just about every gossip and talk show there is: Inside Edition, Entertainment Tonight, The Insider, Geraldo, Joan Rivers, Ricki Lake, and was a regular on E!, Court TV, MSNBC (I just cannot call it MS N

British stage, film and television actress Jean Lodge, 99, died on Aug. 5. Lodge appeared on the West End in Lord Arthur Savile's Crime and The Manor of Northstead, and in the films Dick Barton Strikes Back, Dr. Morelle: The Case of the Missing Heiress, The Black Knight (a medieval drama, not a Batman movie), Brandy for the Parson, White Corridors, Final Appointment, Accidental Death, The Eyes of Annie Jones, and The Masque of the Red Death. She started her TV career in 1949

Canadian actor Scott Hylands, 83, died of leukemia on July 29. Hylands was best known in the US for playing Detective Kevin “O.B.” O’Brien in the 1980s Canadian TV show Night Heat; he also costarred in the sci-fi series V. Born in Vancouver, Hylands started his career Off-Broadway and with San Francisco’s American Conservatory Theater (he also acted at the Mark Taper Forum and the Los Angeles Shakespeare Festival, and continued to act onstage for the rest of his life). He ent

Tough-guy actor Vincent Pastore (“Big Pussy” in The Sopranos) was found dead at his Bronx home on August 1. He was 80. The native New Yorker was a US Navy vet, who was already in his 40s when he got into acting. His best-known vehicles—often as a mobster—included Gotti, Goodfellas, Carlito’s Way, Mickey Blue Eyes, Riding in Cars with Boys, Shark Tale, and Revolver; he was ubiquitous in both films and TV (most recently last year’s Yellowjackets), appearing in more than 180 (an

Singer and lyricist Arlene Smith, of the Chantels, died on July 29. She was 84. Smith was the group’s lead singer, backed by Sonia Goring Wilson, Renée Minus White, Jackie Landry Jackson, and Lois Harris. Smith was a classically-trained singer and performer by the time the girls got together in high school to form the group; they were signed in 1957 and had their first hits (“Maybe” and “He’s Gone”) that same year. Smith left the group to perform solo by 1959; eventually she

Irish singer and songwriter Glen Hansard died on July 29 in a motorcycle crash (doctors don’t call those things “organ donor delivery systems” for nothing). He was 56. Hansard was the frontman of the hit Irish rock group The Frames; he was also one-half of the folk-duo The Swell Season, with pianist Markéta Irglová, and performed a solo act as well. Hansard was a singer, also playing the guitar, piano and mandolin; starting his career busking, he formed The Frames in 1990, ev

British TV actor Tom Chadbon, 80, has died, it was announced on July 28. Chadbon was ubiquitous on British TV, starring in Crown Prosecutor, and having recurring roles in The Flight of the Heron, The Liver Birds, Jackanory, The Brack Report, Dr. Who, Paradise Postponed, Chancer, Devices and Desires, Wire in the Blood, Where the Heart Is, The Bill, and Casualty, also popping up in one-shots on other series. On the big screen, Chadbon was seen in The Beast Must Die, Tess, Dance

Character actor Kent Broadhurst, 86, died on May 20. Broadhurst appeared on Broadway in The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial and A Doll’s House, also appearing Off-Broadway; he wrote the plays They’re Coming to Make It Brighter, Lemons, The Eye of the Beholder and The Habitual Acceptance of the Near Enough, and displayed his artwork at his own Broadhurst Gallery in Pine Plains, New York. He had small or supporting roles in such films as Brubaker, The Verdict, Lovesick, Silkwood, Si

Perky blonde musical-comedy actress E.J. Peaker, 82, died on May 16. I remember her best as Robert Morse’s costar on the experimental 1960s musical-comedy show That’s Life; she also played Minnie Faye in the movie version of Hello, Dolly! Peaker (her birth name was Edra Jean, but “E.J.” fit the required 1960s kookiness) appeared on Broadway in Barefoot in the Park, and did a lot of Off-Broadway and regional shows as well. From the 1960s-90s she was ubiquitous on TV, whenever

Actress, dancer and choreographer Hope Clark, 85, died on July 23. Clark danced with the Katherine Dunham and Alvin Ailey companies, and appeared on Broadway in West Side Story, Hallelujah Baby, Purlie, Don’t Bother Me, I Can’t Cope, Jelly’s Last Jam, The Tempest, Caroline or Change, and A Free Man of Color, among other shows. She also choreographed Jelly’s Last Jam, and a production of Porgy and Bess at the Houston Grand Opera, as well as choreographing shows for The Colored

Director Charles “Chuck” Russell, 74, died on July 22. Russell directed The Mask, featuring one of Jim Carrey’s most annoying performances (and that’s up against some pretty stiff competition). His other vehicles included A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors, The Blob, Eraser, The Scorpion King, and, most recently, 2024’s Witchboard. Russell started his career as a production assistant and assistant director (Girls Just Want to Have Fun, Hell Night, Back to School), wo

Set designer Mary Kate Golding (The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Gotham, Goosebumps) was found stabbed to death in her Astoria, Queens, home on July 21. She was 34. Her husband, Joseph Azzaretto, was found dead in nearby Astoria Park, and the crime is being treated as a murder/suicide. Golding most famously designed the mid-century modern and old-world Brooklyn sets of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. An NYU grad, she also designed for The Big Sick, Hawkeye, Extrapolations, Marry Me, Ful