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Ron Miller's DARK CORRIDORS VOL. 11, No. 3 |
 JOSEPH WISEMAN ...as Dr. No, James Bond's No. 1 villain Wiseman died this year at age 91. |
Six who walked in dark corridors died in 2009
of TheColumnists.com
So many icons of mystery, horror and suspense have left us early in the 21st century that it may be time to wonder who will take their place in the genres covered by our special section on this website that we call DARK CORRIDORS.
The grest writer Sir John Mortimer is a fine example. Mortimer was a unique individual who somehow wound up in the mystery genre because his English lawyer character Horace Rumpole became one of the most beloved of all TV chracters in the long-running courtroom series "Rumpole of the Bailey," which was a mainstay of PBS' "Mystery!" television series.
Yes, Rumpole was more a comic chaaracter than anything else, but he did get in there are somehow solve legal mysteries each week while delighting us with his fractured view of the legal system, marriage and English society. Mortimer was a fantastic individual that I had the privilege of getting to know while writing the companion book to the "Mystery!" TV series in the 1990s. He was a major figure in English legal affairs, being a Queen's Counsel as well as a best-selling author and TV writer. He was such a combination of greatness that he'll never be replaced.
Mortimer is dealt with in my earlier column about him, reprinted in this edition, but this separate column will devote itself to six other figures who will be sorely missed in the realm of Dark Corridors: Dick Durock, the actor and stunt man who became the comic book character "Swamp Thing" on the screen; Paul Naschy, the so-called "Lon Chaney of Spain," an expert in horror roles embraced by Latin American moviegoers; Dan O'Bannon, the writer, director and occasional actor whose greatest contribution was the script for Ridley Scott's original "Alien," first of the series of films about the interstellar monster; Robert Quarry, whose most memorable role was "Count Yorga, Vampire"; Bob Wilkins, the whimsical TV horror movie host San Francisco Bay Area horror movie fans will never forget, and Joseph Wiseman, the first and most lethal of all the villains who faced Sean Connery's James Bond--the evil Dr. No.
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Died Sept. 17, age 72  DICK DUROCK as "SWAMP THING" |
DICK DUROCK was a big, strapping stunt man who turned actor and, before his death, of pancreatic cancer had appeared in more than 80 feature films and 700-plus TV episodes. His greatest, most acclaimed role was as the man who became the half-human, half-plant creature known as "Swamp Thing" in the first two feature films based on the comic book series and in the subsequent "Swamp Thing" TV series. He also played a "hulk-like" villain who challenged The Incredible Hulk in the TV series about that comic book superhero. |
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Died Nov. 30, age 75  |
PAUL NASCHY was really Jacino Molina, a Spanish actor who specialized in horror roles that earned him the nickname "the Lon Chaney of Spain." He is best known for his "Hombre Lobo" series of 12 films in which he played the werewolf Waldemar Daninsky, starting with "Mark of the Wolf Man" (1967). His other famous Spanish horror films: "Hunchback of the Morgue" (1972), "Count Dracula's Great Love" (1972), "Horror Rises From the Tomb" (1972), "The Mummy's Revenge" (1973). He died of pancreatic cancer.
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Died Dec. 17, age 63  |
DAN O'BANNON was launched into the world of Dark Corridors while a student at USC film school in the late 1960s. He teamed up with fellow student John Carpenter to make a short sci-fi film called "Dark Star," which they later expanded into a low budget feature film released in 1974. He worked briefly as a computer animator for George Lucas on "Star Wars," then worked on special effects for the aborted version of Frank Herbert's "Dune" to be directed by Alejandro Jodorowsky. Broke, he collaborated with Ronald Shusett on the original storyline for the film that became Ridley Scott's "Alien," the blockbuster sci-fi film that launched a series. He wrote scripts for "Heavy Metal," Blue Thunder," "Lifeforce" and Tobe Hooper's remake of "Invaders From Mars" before directing his first feature, "Return of the Living Dead" (1985). His last big success was co-authoring "Total Recall" (1990), based on a Philip Dick short story. He died from Crohn's disease. |
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Died Feb. 20, age 83.  |
ROBERT QUARRY hadn't made much of a splash in Hollywood until he landed the title role in the exploitive 1970 "drive-in" horror movie "Count Yorga, Vampire." Its box office success led to a sequel starring Quarry in 1971 -- "TheReturn of Count Yorga." That put him on a lower rung of the Hollywood horror ladder, co-starring with Vincent Price in "Dr. Phibes Rises Again" (1972) and "Madhouse" (1974). He was disfigured in an auto accident, but the damage to his face didn't deeply disturb his already-flagging career as a horror player. His career from then on was spent largley in low grade B movies. He died at the Motion Picture Country Home in Woodland Hills, where he had been living. |
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Died Jan. 7, age 76  BOB WILKINS on the set of "Creature Features" |
Regular readers of John Stanley's columns on this website will be quite familiar with BOB WILKINS, who was John's friend and his mentor as a TV horror movie host. The soft-spoken, dry-witted Wilkins was a TV phenomenon in the San Francisco Bay Area, where his horror movie showcase on independent station KTVU often out-rated network shows. Well-liked by virtually everyone who knew him, Wilkins left the show to John Stanley, who continued its long run. He suffered from Alzheimer's disease, which finally ended his life in Reno, Nevada. |
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Oct. 19, age 91.  JOSEPH WISEMAN in his most famous role as "Dr. No" |
Canadian actor Joseph Wiseman earned his lofty place among the great screen villains by playing the evil Dr. No in the first James Bond film "Dr. No" in 1962. Villainy already was his established speciality in his earlier films, including "Detective Story" (1951) and "Viva Zapata!" (1952). He was a highly regarded stage actor before turning to movies and starred in the original Broadway production of Maxwell Anderson's "Joan of Lorraine." He continued to act in television and made his last appearance on a 1996 episode of "Law & Order." Wiseman died at his home in Manhattan after a long illness. |
©2010 by Ron Miller. This column first posted Jan. 4, 2010.
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