Reggie Bannister, 1945 – 2026

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 Parkinson's, appearing in such terrifically titled films as The Mangler Reborn, Sigma Die! (my personal favorite), Spring Break Massacre, Satan Hates You, Carnies, and Bloody Bloody Bible Camp. Bannister said that horror movies “tickle something dark in people's imaginations. They deal with death—and that's the great unanswerable question. The people I've known as fans are extremely bright, intelligent, creative. And both on an intellectual level and on a social level, they're wonderful folks. I just love 'em. Every time I go to anything, and they come up to me and talk to me, I go, ‘jeez, this could be a friend.’”