ANN MUFFLY - Star of George Romero's "Season of the Witch"

Actress Ann Muffly died in Providence Point, Pennsylvania, on August 15, 2011.  She was 85.  She was born Ann Little in West Virgina on May 23, 1926.  She began her career on stage in the Pittsburgh area, where she worked in radio and locakl television.  She was featured as Shirley Randolph in George Romero’s 1972 film “Season of the Witch” (aka “Hungry Wives”). She was also seen in Romero’s “Knightriders” (1981), and was the voice of Lenora Castonmeyer in the “They’re Creeping Up On You” segment of “Creepshow”(1982).

 TOM HENNESY - Actor and Stuntman Featured as the Gill Man on Land in "Revenge of the Creature"

Actor and stuntman Tom Hennesy died in Malibu, California, on May 23, 2011.  He was 87.  Hennesy was born in Los Angeles on August 4, 1923.  He worked primarily as a stuntman in the 1950s and 1960s on such films as “Jack and the Beanstalk” (1952), “The High and the Mighty” (1954), “It Should Happen To You” (1954), “The Caine Mutiny” (1954), “Prince of Players” (1955), “The Road to Denver” (1955), “The Long Gray Line” (1955), the 1955 sequel to "Creature from the Black Lagoon", “Revenge of the Creature”, “Blood Alley” (1955), “The Ten Commandments” (1956), “The Buccaneer” (1958), “North to Alaska” (1960), “The Man Who Shot Liberty Vallance” (1962), "Stagecoach” (1966), “The War Wagon” (1967), and “The Green Berets” (1968).  Hennesy performed stunts in many films with actor John Wayne and had his largest role in as the gentle giant, Mr. Sweet, in 1971’s “Big Jake”.  He also appeared on television as Clint Walker’s stunt double for the western series “Cheyenne” in the 1950s.   His other television credits include episodes of  “The Further Adventures of the Spin and Marty”, “26 Men”, "Gunsmoke", and Boris Karloff's “Thriller” as the spectral figure in the episode “The Return of Andrew Bentley”.               

NOEL COLLINS - British Character Actor

British actor Noel Collins died in England after a long battle with lung cancer on August 15, 2011.  He was 74.  Collins appeared frequently on television from the late 1960s, with roles in “New Scotland Yard”, “When the Boat Comes In”, “Within These Walls”, “Enemy at the Door”, “Pennies From Heaven”, “Accident”, and “A Question of Guilt”.  He starred as Sergeant George Parrish in the BBC police series “Juliet Bravo” from 1980 to 1985, and was landlord Pat Rowlinson in the “Battlefield” segment of “Doctor Who” in 1989.  He was featured in a handful of films, including Andy Millgan's “The Rats Are Coming! The Werewolves Are Here!” (1972) and “Never Never Land” (1980).

SYBIL JASON - Child Star of the 1930s

Sybil Jason, a leading child actress in the 1930s, died of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in Northridge, California, on August 23, 2011.  She was 83.  She was born Sybil Jacobson in Cape Town, South Africa, on November 23, 1929.  She learned to play the piano by the age of 2, and was soon performing before audiences.  She moved to England as a child, where she appeared regularly at nightclubs in London.  She made her film debut in 1935’s “Barnacle Bill”, and was subsequently signed to a Hollywood contract with Warner Bros., as a possible rival to Shirley Temple.  She was featured in the films “Little Big Shot” (1935), “I Found Stella Parish” (1935), “The Singing Kid” (1936) with Al Jolson, “The Great O’Malley” (1937) with Pat O’ Brien and Humphrey Bogart, and “Comet Over Broadway” (1938).  Warner declined to renew her contract and her final films were at 20th-Century Fox in supporting roles to Shirley Temple.  She was Becky in 1939’s “The Little Princess” and was Angela Berlingot in the 1940 fantasy “The Blue Bird”. Jason penned her autobiography, “My Fifteen Minutes: An Autobiography of a Child Star of the Golden Era of Hollywood”, in 2005.

MICHAEL SHOWERS - Star of HBO's "Treme" - Found Dead in Mississippi River

Actor Michael Showers was found dead in the Mississippi river near New Orleans on August 24, 2011.  He had been missing for two days, after going to New Orleans’ French Quarter with a friend.  Shower was best known for his role as Captain John Guidry on the HBO cable series “Treme” in 2011.  He was also seen in the films “Blink” (2007), “Immortally Yours” (aka "Kiss of the Vampire") (2009), “The Collector” (2009), “Tekken” (2010), “The Resident” (2011), “The Tree of Life” (2011),  and “Colombiana” (2011).  Showers was also featured in episodes of “The Vampire Diaries” and “Breaking Bad”. 

REZA BADIYI - Prolific Television Director

Iranian-American television director Reza Badiyi died in a Los Angeles hospital on August 20, 2011.  He was 81.  Badiyi was born in Arak, Iran, on April 17, 1930.  He trained at the Iranian Academy of Drama, and came to the United States in 1955 to work in film.  He worked as a camaraman for such directors as Robert Altman and Sam Pekinpah, and was assistant director on the films “The Delinquents” (1957) and “Carnival of Souls” (1962).  He made his directorial debut with the 1963 short “Censorship: A Question of Judgement?”.  He was a prolific television director from the 1960s, helming episodes of “Get Smart”, “Mission: Impossible”, “Mod Squad”, “The Magician”, “The Six Million Dollar Man”, “Man from Atlantis”, “Holmes and Yoyo”,  “Cliffhangers: Stop Susan Williams”, “The Incredible Hulk”, “The Phoenix”, “Bring ‘Em Back Alive”, “The

Adventures of Superboy”, “Dinosaurs”, “Dark Justice”, “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine”, “Nowhere Man”, “Viper”, “Baywatch Nights”, “Buffy the Vampire Slayer”, “La Femme Nikita”, “Mortal Kombat: Conquest”, “Sliders”, “Early Edition”, and “She Spies”.  Badiyi also directed the tele-films “The Eyes of Charles Sand” (1972), “The Girl Who Saved the World” (1979), and “Eye of the Stalker” (1995).   He was credited by the Director’s Guild of America for directing the most hours of television.

LESLIE BROOKS - 1940s Leading Lady

Actress Leslie Brooks, who appeared in numerous films in the 1940s, died in Sherman Oaks, California, on July 1, 2011. She was 88. She was born Virginia Leslie Gettman in Lincoln, Nebraska, on July 13, 1922.  She began her career in the films in the early 1940s, with small roles in “Ziegfeld Girl” (1941), “The Body Disappears” (1941), “The Man Who Came to Dinner” (1942), and “Yankee Doodle Dandy" (1942), “The Talk of the Town” (1942).  She graduated to more substantial roles playing second leads and femme fatales in the “You Were Never Lovelier” (1942), “Underground Agent” (1942), “The Man Who Dared” (1946), “The Secret of The Whistler” (1946), “The Corpse Came C.O.D.” (1947), and “The Cobra Strikes” (1948) before retiring from the screen.