Actress turned screenwriter Margaret DePriest , 94, died in her Greenwich Village home on Sept. 29. The Oklahoma-born DePriest started her career hosting local TV shows, acting Off-Broadway (including in The Crucible ’s premiere). She was also seen in such 1950s-60s TV series as True Story, The Catholic Hour , and The Doctors . After her acting career petered out, DePriest turned to writing, eventually becoming head writer (and winning several Daytime Emmys for) such soaps as

Five monkeys used for medical testing were killed by Mississippi police after they escaped from a crashed van on Oct. 28 (I assume the monkeys had hijacked the van and were on the run from the law). The monkeys were infected with COVID, herpes, and hepatitis C, and were described by Jasper County Sheriff Randy Johnson as "aggravated" and "aggressive"—heck, I am aggravated and aggressive, and I have not even been infected with COVID, herpes, or hepatitis C! Adding to the B-mov

Dennis “Denny” Devine , real-estate developer and son of B-lister Andy Devine, 86, died on Sept. 6. Denny and his brother Tad appeared in their father’s Canyon Passage  (1946), and Denny had a small role in 1958’s Lafayette Escadrille . He also appeared in his father’s 1955 This Is Your Life episode, and in a 1957 You Bet Your Life . But Devine did not follow his father into acting—he became a successful California real-estate developer (he also enjoying flying, riding motor

Sci-fi writer Lynn Venable , 97, died on March 31. Venable wrote the 1953 short story "Time Enough at Last,” which first appeared in If  magazine and in 1959 became one of the most famous Twilight Zone  episodes. She also wrote for such magazines as Galaxy Science Fiction, Other Worlds , Weird Tales , Mystic Magazine , Authentic Science Fiction , and Fantastic Universe. “ I don’t scare myself. I scare other people,” Venable told The Mercury News  in 2012. She also made ends m

British comic actress Prunella Scales  ( Fawlty Towers ), 93, died on Oct. 27. She got her first break in the 1960s sitcom The Marriage Lines , and her most famous role, as John Cleese’s bossy wife Sybil on Fawlty Towers  (which only ran 12 episodes, but became a cult favorite in reruns). Scales went on to costar in such series as Mapp & Lucia  (as Elizabeth Mapp), After Henry, Searching , and The Big Knights , and in such movies as Escape from the Dark , The Hound of the Bas

Welsh-born actor Tony Adams , 84, died on Oct. 26. Adams costarred in the TV series Crossroads , and played Dr. Neville Bywaters in the British soap General Hospital . From the 1950s through an appearance as himself in 2023’s Nolly (a fictionalization of his Crossroads  costar Noele Gordon) Adams was seen in 30-some movies and TV series (including Doctor Who, Crown Court , and The Two Ronnies ). He also appeared onstage, notably on the West End in The Boy Friend  and Chitty-C

Swedish actor Björn Andrésen , 70, died on Oct. 25. Andrésen played the young love object of creepy old Dirk Bogarde in Visconti’s Death in Venice  (1971). He was a child model and actor when Visconti shot him to stardom; Andrésen became a pop star in Japan, a touring musician, and acted in more than 30 movies and TV series. He was also the subject of a 2021 documentary, The Most Beautiful Boy in the World . Andrésen told Variety  in 2021, “I can separate Visconti from the ar

Peerless TV mom ( Lassie, Lost in Space ) June Lockhart , 100, died on Oct. 23. Daughter of performers Gene and Kathleen Lockhart, she was a promising starlet ( A Christmas Carol —her 1938 movie debut— All This and Heaven Too, Sergeant York, The White Cliffs of Dover, Meet Me in St. Louis ) before becoming a steadily working presence on TV in the 1950s. As warm, nurturing moms Ruth Martin ( Lassie ) and Maureen Robinson (the wonderfully camp Lost in Space ), she found small-s

A whole passel of foreign actors and actresses have just now died, none of whom I had previously heard of! Italian actor Mauro Di Francesco , 74, died on Oct. 25. He started his career as a child actor, then became a stand-up comic, and appeared in several teen comedies. He also was seen on TV and onstage. Cuban actress Miram Learra , 88, died on Oct. 25. Although she acted in films and on TV, Learra was best known for her stage work, primarily with the Teatro Estudio and the

British rock musician Dave Ball  (“Tainted Love”), 66, died on Oct. 22 after years of ill health. Ball (instrumentals) and Marc Almond (vocals) formed the synth-pop duo Soft Cell in 1978, and besides their 1981 hit “Tainted Love,” had such successful singles as “Torch," "Say Hello, Wave Goodbye,” "What,” and "Bedsitter.” “Tainted Love” had originally been sung by Gloria Jones in 1965, but Soft Cell ‘80s’d it up. The group broke up in 1984, occasionally reuniting for concerts.

Actress Isabelle “Izzy” Tate , 23, died of Charcot-Marie-Tooth, a neuromuscular disease, on Oct. 19. Tate, who was confined to a wheelchair, appeared in the pilot episode of 9-1-1 Nashville , aired this month. The Nashville native, her family wrote, “was full of fire, a fighter, never once making excuses for the fact that she might have a disability relative to others. She was also quite musically inclined, often spending hours writing and recording songs with friends and eve

After paving over the Rose Garden and spray-painting the Oval Office Gold, “That Man in the White House” (as my grandparents used to call FDR) has demolished the East Wing of the White House  to put up a 90,000-square-foot ballroom that will look like Cecil B. DeMille’s idea of God’s bathroom. The East Wing started out as a terrace in the early 1800s, rebuilt by Teddy Roosevelt in 1902 and constructed as the East Wing in 1942 by his nephew Franklin (he, too, came under critic

French actress Martine Brochard , 81, died on Oct. 18. Born in German-occupied France, she appeared in Is Paris Burning? and Truffaut’s Stolen Kisses . Working in both Italy and France, Brochard starred in naughty comedies, thrillers, and numerous TV-movies and series; she costarred in the series Face aux Lancaster, Investigatori d'Italia, Vento di Ponente , and Il Peccato e la Vergogna , and the mini-series Bel-Ami . Later in life, Brochard took to writing, publishing two ch

Actor, magician, and singer Scott Baker  died on Oct. 3; he was 77. Baker appeared on Broadway in Oh Calcutta!,  and Off-Broadway in Geek Circus, Home of the Great Pecan, Dead End Dummy , and his one-man show, Curse of John Wilkes Booth . He was also seen on TV ( Girls, You Can’t Go Home Again, Law & Order ), and and was, in the words of Trav S.D., “a sideshow Renaissance man.” I’ll hand it over to Trav ( travsd.wordpress.com ), who directed Dead End Dummy  and who writes, “S

Limp Bizkit guitarist and singer Sam Rivers , 48, died on Oct. 18. Rivers was with Limp Bizkit from 1994 till he had to leave because of liver disease (he was a heavy drinker) in 2015. Rivers went on to produce for other bands, and reteamed with Limp Bizkit for reunion shows. Rivers—not to be confused with the jazz musician of the same name—told interviewer Darren Paltrowitz, “Today is a great time to be a part of music. Whether you are a musician, a band and especially a fan

British actress Samantha Eggar , 86, died on Oct. 15 in Los Angeles. She started her career as a successful Shakespearean actress onstage, and by the early 1960s was working her way up as a starlet (most notably in Rob Roy and Dr. Crippen —in the last, as the killer’s accomplice, Ethel Le Neve). Eggar was discovered by William Wyler and cast as a kidnap victim in The Collector (1965), which earned her an Oscar nomination. She went on to appear in Psyche 59 , the gawdawful D

Kiss lead guitarist, songer, and songwriter Paul Daniel "Ace" Frehley , 74, died on Oct. 16 due to brain injuries after a fall. Frehley played with Kiss—in his “spaceman” makeup—from 1973-82, though he later joined in at reunions. He also played solo, and with his group Frehley's Comet. Frehley told interviewer Mark Dean, “I like commercial success. I want to be played on the radio. I want to be current.” Of the new crop of musicians, he said, “I don’t get too excited about n

Actor Ed Williams ( Police Squad! ), 98, died on Oct. 2. For most of his professional life, Williams taught broadcasting and speech at Los Angeles City College and at the The Don Martin School of Radio and Television Arts and Sciences (where I guess he taught students how to go “ Shtoink! ” when they walked). He also acted in L.A. stage productions, and in the 1980s abandoned “teaching” for “doing.” His first role was his best: as kindly but kinky and sadistic Dr. Ted Olsen

Stage, screen and movie actress Penelope Milford , 77, died on Oct. 14. She had supporting roles in such films as Coming Home  (which earned her an Oscar nomination), Take This Job and Shove It, Endless Love , and Heathers , and also showed up on TV in The Blue Knight, The Burning Bed, The Oldest Living Graduate , and The Hitchhiker . The cute, slightly bucktoothed (in a Meredith Baxter kind of way) actress appeared on Broadway in Lenny  and Shenandoah , and Off-Broadway in L

Grammy-winning R&B singer and songwriter Michael Eugene Archer , who recorded as D’Angelo , died of cancer on Oct. 14. He was 51. The Virginia native began playing piano at age three, and was signed to his first record contract at 17. He wrote his first hit, "U Will Know,” in 1994, and went on to write and/or record “Brown Sugar,” “Cruisin’,” “Lady,” “Left & Right,” “Really Love, and “Unshaken,” among others. “I’m just like a sponge, you know, just trying to soak everything i