Japanese anime director Noboru Ishiguro (b.1938) died on March 20 from a lung infection. Ishiguro directed Space Battleship Yamato, The Super Dimension Fortress Macross, The Super Dimension Century Orguss, and Legend of the Galactic Heroes, among others.
Author Gene DeWeese (b.1931 as Thomas Eugene DeWeese) died on March 19. DeWeese, who also published using the pseudonym Jean DeWeese and the collaborative names Thomas Stratton and Victoria Thomas, had been suffering Lewy body dementia. active in fandom, he broke into writing with Man from U.N.C.L.E. novelizations co-written with Buck Coulson. He has written novels set in the Star Trek, Lost in Space, and Ravenloft universes as well as many original works, including The Adventures of a Two-Minute Werewolf and Charles Fort Never Mentioned Wombats, the latter with Coulson. His last story may have been “The World of Null-T,” published in 2010.
Linguist, author, and game-designer M.A.R. Barker (b.1926 as Philip Barker) died on March 16. Barker created the role playing game Empire of the Petal Throne, which was published by TSR in 1975. Additional games and novels based on his world of Tekumel followed, including the games Swords and Glory, Gardásiyal, and Tékumel: Empire of the Petal Throne. As with Tolkien, Barker was a linguist who used his knowledge of languages to sculpt a complex world.
Australian fan Alicia Johnson died on March 11. Johnson was the wife of Robin Johnson, who was the fan guest of honor at Aussiecon IV. Johnson had been suffering from cancer and entered palliative care a couple of days before her death.
Fan Don Markstein (b.1947) died on March 11. Markstein was a founder of the comics APA Apatoons and the founding editor of NOSFAn. Markstein was a member of the New Orleans SF Association and the Southern Fandom Press Alliance. He co-chaired DeepSouthCon in 1968 and 1973 and in 1978 he was honored with the Rebel Award. In the internet era, he gained widespread fame as the founder of Toonpedia, an on-line resource for all things cartoon.
Actor Leonardo Cimino (b.1917) died on March 3 Cimino, who feared his distinctive appearance would work against him as an actor, appeared in Dune, The Seventh Sign, Amityville II: The Possession, Waterworld, and Rappaccini’s Daughter. His acting career was launched when he took a dance class with José Ferrer, who championed him as an actor and frequently arranged for him to be cast in films in which Ferrer was appearing.
Artist Moebius (b.1938, born Jean Giraud) died on March 10. Moebius is best known for his work in the comic Heavy Metal and also worked on numerous films, including Alien, Tron, The Fifth Element, Space Jam, and The Abyss. He did work for Marvel Comics and did the concept art work for Alejandro Jodorowsky’s unproduced film version of Dune Giraud also used the pseudonym Gir for some of his work. In 2011, he was inducted into the Science Fiction Hall of Fame.
Screenwriter Richard Carpenter (b.1933) died on February 26. Carpenter, who began his career as an actor in 1957 and appeared in The Black Arrow, Out of the Unknown, and The Terrornauts. Beginning in 1967, he began to write for television, including episodes of The Borrowers, Robin Hood, The Ghosts of Motley Hall, and Catweazle. In 1994, he produced the fantasy film Stanley’s Dragon.
French actor Pierre Tornade (b.1930) died on March 7. Tornade provided the voice of Obélix in several Asterisk films from 1985 to 1994 and before that provided other voices in the series. He also appeared in a television adaptation of Le passe-muraille.
Actress Joan Taylor (b.1929 as Rose Marie Emma) died on March 4. Taylor starred in the science fiction films 20 Million Miles to Earth and Earth vs. the Flying Saucers. She was a regular on The Rifleman and appeared in episodes of Men Into Space and Lights Out. Her husband, Leonard Freeman, produced Hawaii 5-0, and after his death in 1974, she produced the show until it was cancelled in 1980.