Ubiquitous sitcom actor Ronnie Schell, 94, died on June 12. Schell started his career as a successful stand-up comic, moving into films and TV by the early 1960s. He could equally well play amiable pals and devious scoundrels, and had continuing supporting roles in Good Morning World, Gomer Pyle, and Santa Barbara, and appeared in more than 100 shows (including The Patty Duke Show, That Girl, Arnie, Losta Luck!, Happy Days, Sanford and Son, Charlie’s Angels, Madame’s Place, T

Actress Margaret Kerry, 97, died on June 11. Kerry—a trained dancer—modeled for Disney animators creating Tinker Bell for the 1953’s Peter Pan. She started her career as a bit player in such 1930s films as Teacher’s Beau, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer; by the 1940s she was doubling for Elizabeth Taylor in National Velvet. She also played small roles in If You Knew Susie, Canon City, The Andy Griffith Show, and The Lone Ranger, and did voice-overs

Model and actor Anthony Guidera, 65, died on June 6; he had been in the hospital since suffering an apparent heart attack at his home on May 11. Guidera had worked as a successful model and TV-commercial actor throughout Europe, and eventually started acting in the theater, in both Paris and the US. His impressive build and good looks got him jobs in such movies and TV shows as The Godfather Part III, Baywatch, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Hope & Gloria, The Rock, Nash Bridges

Film historian Jerry Vermilye, 94, died on May 29. Like me, he started his career acting, then segued into writing (unlike me, he got back into acting after he retired). Vermilye wrote several of those “The Films of . . .” books which movie geeks like me collected: Marlene Dietrich, Audrey Hepburn, Elizabeth Taylor, Charles Bronson, Laurence Olivier. He also wrote several of those terrific pocket-sized “Pyramid Illustrated History of the Movies” volumes, which were always a t

What is with all the British actors and actresses dying this week? The latest is Patrick Godfrey, 93, on June 4. The stage, radio, screen, and TV actor appeared in such Big Period Films as The Remains of the Day, A Room with a View, Maurice, The Duchess, and The Count of Monte Cristo, as well as countless TV series and movies (among them Dr. Who, The Six Wives of Henry VIII, Inspector Morse, Casualty, Foyle’s War, and Z-Cars). Samuel West, who directed Godfrey in 2003’s Les L

British actor Anthony Head, 72, died on June 5. He was best known in the US as Rupert Giles in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the Prime Minister in Little Britain, Uther Pendragon in Merlin, and Rupert Mannion in Ted Lasso; not having seen any of those, I remember him in those soap opera-esque Nescafe commercials (Sharon Maughan was his leading lady). The son of actress Helen Shingler and writer Seafield Head and brother of actor Murray Head, Anthony appeared onstage in Godspell,

TV and movie actor James Handy, 81, was found stabbed to death in Los Angeles on June 3; the son of Handy’s girlfriend was taken into custody. A native New Yorker, Handy had recurring roles in the TV series Alias, Profiler, Melrose Place, and NYPD Blue, and appeared in such films as Taps, Who Is Julia?, Burglar, Bird, K-9, Arachnophobia, The Rocketeer, Guarding Tess, Jumanji, Unbreakable, and Logan. A Vietnam War veteran (he fought with the 196th Lightning Brigade), Handy bec

British voice actress Sally Grace, 74, has died, her family announced on June 4. A great impressionist (as in Rich Little, not Claude Monet—The Guardian called her Margaret Thatcher "more terrifying than the real thing"). Grace was a regular in the radio shows Week Ending, Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency, and The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul. She was also a regular voice on the animated shows Mr. Bean: The Animated Series (I hate Mr. Bean as much as I love Black Add

British TV actress Angela Morant, 85, has died, her family announced on June 4. The daughter of actor Philip Morant, she played Augustus’s sister Octavia in the marvelous TV version of I, Claudius, and costarred in the series Brookside. For some 50 years, she played small or supporting roles in such series and TV-movies as Dixon of Dock Green, Nana, Coronation Street, Armchair Thriller, Crown Court, Inspector Morse, and The Bill. Morant was married to actor Ben Kingsley from

Stage, screen and TV actor Robert Kya-Hill, 95, died on May 31. After serving in the Korean War, Kya-Hill attended the New York College of Music, and performed in New York clubs as a singer and guitarist. He appeared in numerous stage productions, notably as Othello, and as Purlie in Purlie Victorious (his other vehicles included Lost in the Stars, The Glass Menagerie, The Trials of Brother Jero, and The Trial; he also wrote and directed several plays). Although primarily a s

Welsh ator Owain Rhys Davies, 44, died on May 28. His family wrote that “While there are still questions that remain unanswered regarding the circumstances of his death, our understanding at this stage is that Owain passed suddenly, naturally, and peacefully.” Rhys Davies played on the West End in Mamma Mia!, The Wizard of Oz, By Jeeves, and A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, and appeared in regional productions of The Lion King, Something Rotten, Imagine This,

Actor and playwright Andy Halliday, 73, died of Parkinson’s disease on May 5. Halliday costarred in Charles Busch's high-camp 1980s shows Vampire Lesbians of Sodom, Theodora, She Bitch of Byzantium, Psycho Beach Party, Pardon My Inquisition, or, Kiss the Blood off My Castanet, and The Lady in Question, and wrote the more recent shows Nothing but Trash, Up the Rabbit Hole, and Those Musclebound Cowboys from Snakepit Gulch. He also appeared in the TV shows Law & Order, Gossip G

Theater, film, and TV actress Caitlin O’Heaney, 73, died on May 18. The Julliard grad appeared Off-Broadway in Hot House, Yentl, Gogol, and A Christmas Carol, also acting onstage in many regional theaters. She appeared in a handful of films (He Knows You're Alone, Wolfen, A Midsummer Night's Sex Comedy, Zelig, The Purple Rose of Cairo, Three O'Clock High), but was busiest on TV. O’Heaney costarred in the 1980s series Tales of the Gold Monkey and appeared as Snow White in The

Actress Kelly Curtis, 69, died on May 30. No details are yet available on cause of death. The daughter of Tony Curtis and Janet Leigh, and older sister of Jamie Lee Curtis, she costarred in the 1996 TV series The Sentinel. She made her film debut as a child in her father’s The Vikings, and later appeared in such films as Trading Places, Checkpoint, Magic Sticks, The Sect, Ex-Cop, and Mixed Blessings. She was also busy on TV, in The Renegades, The Equalizer, Hunter, Silk Stalk

Oscar-winning film editor (Star Wars) Marcia Lucas, 80, died on May 27. Lucas started her career editing promotional films and trailers, but after her marriage (from 1969-83) to director George Lucas, she began working on his films. She edited Lucas’s films THX 1138, American Graffiti, and three Star Wars films (A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back, and Return of the Jedi); she also edited Martin Scorsese’s Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore. She said of her working relationship

TV producer Jay Daniel, 82, died on May 27. Daniel produced such TV shows as Moonlighting (one of my favorites!), Roseanne, and Cybill. Daniel studied acting at UCLA and first set out to be a performer before turning to producing. He worked on numerous TV-movies before making his first film, Clean and Sober, with future Moonlighting creator Glenn Gordon Caron. He became famed for calming the trouble waters of many a show, even luring Cybill Shepherd back to TV for her own sit

Busy stage, screen and TV character actor Charles Cioffi, 90, died on May 22. Cioffi appeared on Broadway in King Lear, In the Matter of J. Robert Oppenheimer, 1776, Antigone, Hamlet, and several other plays; his films included Klute (stalking Jane Fonda), Shaft, The Thief Who Came to Dinner, All the Right Moves (as Tom Cruise’s father), The Other Side of Midnight, Time After Time, Missing, Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins, Newsies, and Used People. But he was busiest on T

French actor Pierre Deny (Emily in Paris), died of ALS on May 25. He was 69. Deny played fashion boss Louis de Léon in Emily in Paris, his only major US-released role. From the 1970s through last year, he appeared in nearly 70 French films and TV shows, and was best-known as Dr. Renaud Dumaze on the soap Demain Nous Appartient.

Comedian turned director Howard Storm, 94, died on May 24. The son of comic Jack Sobel, he started his career in burlesque, but by the 1950s was acting in movies and TV: The Untouchables, Love American Style, That Girl, Funny Face, Sanford and Son, Rhoda, American Hot Wax, Broadway Danny Rose (as himself). Like so many sitcom actors, he segued into sitcom directing (“I felt my career as a comic would not go very far. I thought I would be an opening act for a singer for the re

Award-winning theatrical and movie costume designer Albert Wolsky, 95, died on May 23. Wolsky was born in Paris, and during WWII he and his family were lucky enough to escape to New York. He began working as an assistant costume designer, and by 1964 was working on Broadway; his shows included Fiddler On the Roof, The Odd Couple, Illya Darling, The Sunshine Boys, They Knew What They Wanted, and The Heiress. Wolsky was working in films and TV by the 1960s, and eventually won O