Yet another British actor gone: Marcus Gilbert , 67, died of cancer on Jan. 11. Gilbert was a founder member of the Odyssey Theatre Company, which toured schools throughout London. He also acted with the Dundee Repertory Theatre and the Library Theatre, in Manchester. He ran the company, Touch the Sky Productions, and was seen in many commercials, most notably for Lee Jeans. The tall, handsome actor appeared in such films and TV shows as Dr. Who, Biggles: Adventures in Time,

Successful but controversial cartoonist Scott Adams  ( Dilbert ) died of cancer on Jan. 13. He was 68. While working as an office drone, Adams created Dilbert  in 1989—the strip was a smart, funny look at the horrors of office work, which most of us could identify with. The strip was carried by some 800 newspapers, released in collection form, and inspired a terrible TV show. He wrote several books, including the best-selling Dilbert Principle , and hosted the online talk sho

Lots of British people dying lately! Today it’s comic actress and singer Sheila Bernette , who died on Jan. 12, age 94. Bernette was a regular on the comedy/sketch shows The Black and White Minstrel Show  (which ran till 1978 and was just as horrifying as you think it was), The Saturday Crowd , the British version of Candid Camera  (never liked that show, it just struck me as mean), and The Good Old Days ; she also had continuing roles in the shows Coronation Street  and Hote

British actor Trevor a Toussaint (sometimes billed as Trevor A. Toussaint ) died on Jan. 11. He was 65. He costarred in the soap Hollyoaks , as the father of two of the leading characters, appearing on the show from 2018-22. Toussaint was also seen in such films and TV shows as Death in Paradise, Nine Nights, Sulfur and White , and Dreaming Whilst Black . His Hollyoaks costar Kéllé Bryan wrote that “He wore his waist-length dreads with pride for over 10 year’s fighting again

Erich von Däniken , author of the chuckle-headed best-seller Chariots of the Gods?,  died on Jan. 10. He was 90. The Swiss-born von Däniken wrote Chariots of the Gods?  while working as a hotel manager in Davos (he served a year in jail for embezzling from the hotel, and wrote his second book, Gods from Outer Space , while in stir). Chariots was rewritten by a former Nazi author, and became a surprise hit amongst the nincompoop crowd. Von Däniken claimed that ancient peoples

British stuntman turned actor Derek Martin , 92, died on Jan. 10. Martin is best known for playing patriarch Charley Slater on EastEnders , till he was axed in 2016, in an attempt to bring more youth to the show (“youthanizing it?”). Born in London and possessing a marketable cockney accent, Martin worked as a stuntman till a broken collarbone convinced him to seque into acting. He appeared in over 100 movies and TV shows, including recurring roles in It’s Square World, Adam

Singer, songwriter and guitarist Bob Weir —a founder of The Grateful Dead—died on Jan. 10. He was 78. He met Jerry Garcia in 1963, and they formed the Dead two years later, along with Phil Lesh, Bill Kreutzmann, and Ron "Pigpen" McKernan. How to describe the band? Not being a Deadhead, I will leave that to whomever wrote their Wikipedia entry: “Known for their eclectic style that fused elements of blues, jazz, folk, country, bluegrass, rock and roll, gospel, reggae, and world

Actor Thomas Kent (“T.K.”) Carter , 69, died at his Calif. home on Jan. 9. Carter had good (mostly comic) supporting roles in The Thing, Good Times, Corvette Summer, The Jeffersons, Seems Like Old Times, Southern Comfort, Dr. Detroit, Runaway Train, Amazon Women on the Moon, A Rage in Harlem, Moesha , and The Nanny ; he also had continuing roles on TV’s Punky Brewster, Just Our Luck, Jem, Good Morning Miss Bliss, The Sinbad Show, The Corner, Dave, and The Company You Keep . C

British actress turned director Tina Packer , 87, has died, her family announced on Jan. 10. Packer began her career as an actress, most famously costarring in the 1966 mini-series David Copperfield  (she was Dora to Ian McKellen’s David). She was also seen in films and on TV in Dr. Who, The Avengers, No Hiding Place, Boy Meets Girl, Crime of Passion , and a handful of other vehicles. But she left acting for directing in the 1970s, moving to the US and forming Shakespeare & C

Historian Mark Masek , 68, died on Dec. 31. A former L.A. Times reporter, he was the author of numerous cemetery guidebooks (including Hollywood Remains to Be Seen: A Guide to the Movie Stars' Final Homes ), and wrote and spoke about the kind of stuff I count as a guilty pleasure: celebrity graves and disaster sites (as well as the LAPD End of Watch project, documenting the memorials for officers killed in the line of duty). I’ll let our mutual friend Scott Michaels take it

1960s TV and movie actor Roger Ewing , 83, died on Dec. 18. Ewing is best remembered as Thad Greenwood on Gunsmoke —he was hired to scare James Arness into signing up for more seasons, and after that was summarily dumped from the show (he was seen in 52 episodes, from 1965-67). The tall, blond L.A. native was also seen in the films Ensign Pulver, None but the Brave, Smith!,  and Play It as It Lays , and on TV in The Mothers-in-Law, Bewitched, The Baileys of Balboa, Rawhide ,

Boyishly cute character actor Richard Dimitri , 83, died on Dec. 18. Dimitri is best known as twins Bertram and Renaldo on TV’s When Things Were Rotten , and for Johnny Dangerously . Dimitri (also billed as Dmitri) appeared on Broadway in Zorba, The Guide , and Lysistrata , and also worked as a stand-up comic. In films and on TV, Dimitri played in Th e World’s Greatest Lover , Starsky & Hutch , Welcome Back Kotter , Hawaii Five-O , Tracey Takes On …,  and Hearts Afire . He pr

Broadway actor John Cunningham , 93, died on Jan. 6. Between 1963 and 2002, Cunningham appeared on Broadway in such shows as Hot Spot  (the second veteran of that doomed show to die recently), Cabaret  (as Cliff, replacing Bert Convy), Zorba, 1776, Company  (as Peter, and replacing Dean Jones as Bobby), California Suite, The Sisters Rosensweig, Titanic , and Anything Goes , among others. He also turned up on the big and small screens in Another World, Search for Tomorrow, Mat

Stage, screen and TV actress Marcia Rodd , 87, died on Dec. 27. The Kansas-born Rodd moved to New York in the 1960s, and appeared in such on- and off-Broadway shows as The Mad Show,   Oh, What a Lovely War , Love in E Flat , The Last of the Red Hot Lovers , I’m Not Rappaport , and Shelter . Rodd had Jessica Walter/Elizabeth Ashley sharp, dark good looks, and found much work on TV: she was the original Carol to Bea Arthur’s Maude , also showing up on Medical Center , Phyllis ,

“Little Rascals curse,” my eye and Betty Martin— Sidney Kibrick , who played Woim in 20-some Little Rascals  (aka Our Gang ) shorts, died at the age of 97 on Jan. 3. Kibrick made his debut in 1933’s Out All Night , starring ZaSu Pitts and Slim Summerville; besides his many Little Rascals films, he also appeared in The Bowery, Kid Millions, The Great O’Malley, Nothing Sacred, The Affairs of Annabel, Jesse James , and Little Men . Kibrick told interviewer Nick Thomas, “I was Bu

Bodybuilder and actress Jayne Trcka , 62, died on Dec. 12. No cause of death has yet been determined. Trcka was a competitive bodybuilder and trainer; she also paid the rent by working as a Realtor. She made her film debut as the insultingly named gym teacher Miss Mann in 2000’s Scary Movie  (she turns out to be a trans Nazi—Jesus Christ , people), and from then on pretty much was cast as a human punchline, in such films and TV shows as The Black Magic, Cattle Call, Hot Packa

Playwright Robert Heide , 91, died on Dec. 17.  Beginning in the mid-1960s, he wrote numerous Off-Off-Broadway plays, including Hector, West of the Moon, Why Tuesday Never has a Blue Monday, At War with the Mongols, Suburban Tremens,  and Crisis of Identity ; his The Bed  was filmed by Andy Warhol. As a writer, Heide became the Henri Murger of the new Bohemians of 1960s-70s Greenwich Village, writing books and articles on the playwrights, novelists, artists, performers, and c

Character actor Jon Korkes , 80, died on Jan. 3. Korkes got his start Off-Broadway in Jules Feiffer’s Little Murders , and appeared on the Main Stem in Unlikely Heroes, Conversations with My Father , and The Penny Wars . He was ubiquitous on the big and small screens, in All in the Family, Maude, The Front Page, The Day of the Dolphin, Two-Minute Warning, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Getting Away with Murder, Starsky & Hutch, Riding in Cars with Boys, Catch-22, The Larry Sander

Actor Bret Hanna-Shuford , 46, died of cancer on Jan. 3. He appeared on Broadway in Beauty and the Beast, Wicked, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, The Little Mermaid , and Amazing Grace , among other shows. His films and TV shows include The Wolf of Wall Street, Law & Order , and Only Murders in the Building . Hanna-Shuford recalled that “I fell in love with movie musicals before I even hit kindergarten. When I was five, my mom took me to our local library to see a performance by The

British actor Gregory de Polnay  (Det. Sgt. Brewer on TV’s Dixon of Dock Green ) died on Jan. 1. He was 82. The son of novelist Peter de Polnay, Gregory was popular onstage as well as in radio, TV and films; he worked as a voice and acting coach, and worked on the West End and with the Royal Shakespeare Company. He was Director of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art Shakespeare Certificate Scheme, and directed many Jacobean and Restoration plays for RADA. Besides his most famou