British children's fantasist Joan Aiken (b.1924) died January 4. Aiken sold her first story, "The Dreamers" when she was 18. She took a job with the BBC when World War II broke out, and the company broadcast some of her stories. Following the war, her career took off and she also began working for Argosy magazine. Aiken is best known for her series of children's books which began with The Wolves of Willoughby Chase.

Jeff Nuttell (b.1933), who contributed to the 1969 sf poetry anthology "Holding Your Eight Hands" died on January 4.

Texas fan Lori Wolf, who worked at Adventures in Crime and Space Bookstore in Austin, died on January 6. In 1997, Ms. Wolf was the Hugo Awards Ceremony Manager at LoneStarCon II. She served as the vice president of F.A.C.T. (the Fandom Association of Central Texas).

Actor Philip Gilbert (b.1931) died on January 6. Gilbert appeared in "The Avengers" and "Superman III." In "The Tomorrow People," he provided the voice for TIM, the computer.

Australian author Norman Talbot (b.1936) died on January 8 from an heart attack. Born in England, Talbot moved to Australia in 1963 and published many short stories, most recently "The Latest Dream I Ever Dreamed." In 1992, his book Four Zoas of Australia was shortlisted for the Australian National Book Award. Talbot was also one of the founders of Nimrod Productions, a publisher which produced scholarly works about sf.

Nebula Award-winning author Jack Cady (b.1932) died on January 14 from complications of bladder cancer. Cady turned to writing after careers as a truck driver, warehouse worker, and landscaper. He won the Nebula, Stoker, SF Chronicle, and HOMer Award for his story "The Night We Buried Road Dog" and the World Fantasy Award for his collection The Sons of Noah and Other Stories. In 1992, Cady received a $20,000 creative writing fellowship from the NEA.

Hollywood Producer Ray Stark (b.1914) died on January 17. Stark produced the film "Somewhere in Time," based on Richard Matheson's World Fantasy Award- winning novel Bid Time Return. He also produced the Richard Pryor film "The Toy," "Robin and Marion" and "Murder by Death."

Cartoonist George Woodbridge (b.1930) died of emphysema on January 20. Woodbridge drew for Mad Magazine over a fifty-year period. Woodbridge was known for his knowledge of history and his use of detail in the magazine. In addition to his work for Mad, Woodbridge illustrated military history books.

Horror author William Relling, Jr. (b.1954) died unexpectedly January 22, 2004, at the age of 49. Relling's novels included Brujo, New Moon and Silent Moon. He also published several short stories. In addition to writing horror, Relling was a musician and an avid baseball fan.

Chicago fan Patti Lonehawk died on January 24 following a lengthy series of illnesses. Lonehawk was a member of the Star Trek fan club Queen to Queen's Three and before her illness curtailed her activities, could often be seen behind their dealer's table at Chicago-area cons.

Baltimore fan Patrick Kelly, Jr. was found dead on January 27. He apparently suffered an heart attack while retrieving wood from his backyard for the fireplace. Kelly was a founding member of the Baltimore Science Fiction Society and served as Chair of Balticon 16 in 1982. At the time of his death, he was a member of the BSFS Board of Directors. Kelly was the founder and president emeritus of the Baltimore Metro Chapter of the National Space Society.

Filmmaker Andrew J. Kuehn (b.1938) died on January 29. Although his name was not well-known, Kuehn created trailers for such genre films as "E.T.: The Extraterrestrial," the Indiana Jones films, "Jurassic Park: The Lost World," "Star Wars" and "Aliens." Kuehn may have been best known for coining the phrase "Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water" for the film "Jaws 2."

Author M.M. Kaye (b.1908) died on January 29. Although best known for her book The Far Pavilions, Kaye also wrote a children's fantasy novel, The Ordinary Princess.

Brazilian SF author Fausto Cunha (b.1923) died on January 30. Cunha was an important voice in Brazilian SF and criticism during the last fifty years and in 1965 attempted to set up a Brazilian SF magazine, but failed to find a publisher. In the 70s and 80s, Cunha became the editor of major sf and horror lines.

Author Donald Barr (b. 1921) died on February 5 from a lung infection while in the hospital in preparation for quadruple heart bypass. Barr published stories in the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction in 1989 and 2002.

Julius Schwartz (b.1915) died on February 8, 2004. Mr. Schwartz was most closely associated with DC Comics and Superman, but he also co-edited the early fanzine The Time Traveller (sic) and was the first literary agent to specialize in science fiction. He helped organize the first World Science Fiction Convention in 1939. While working for DC in the 1950s, he reintroduced many of the Golden Age heroes who had fallen out of favor, including Flash and Green Lantern. Mr. Schwartz had recently been injured in a fall.

Author Martin Booth (b.1944) died on February 12 from a brain tumor. Booth wrote in many genres, including science fiction. Among his genre work was Doctor Illuminatus and Toys of Glass.

Comic book letterer Bill Oakley died of cancer around February 17. Oakley has worked on titles including the JLA, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, and Transformers.

Mel Hunter (b.1929) died on February 20 of bone cancer. Hunter was an artist whose work appeared on magazine covers beginning in 1953. He produced a series of robot covers for the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction.

Samuel Edward Konkin III (b.1947) died on February 23. Konkin was a member of the New York University Science Fiction Club and a founder of apa-nu. A proponent of libertarianism, he published the fanzine New Libertarian Notes after he moved to California.

Collector Bradford Day (b.1917) died on February 25. In 1951, Day founded Science Fiction and Fantasy Publications and began publishing bibliographies through it which he updated and republished many times. In the 1950s, he also opened a mail-order SF book dealer and eventually added a storefront which sold more general titles. He briefly ran a bookstore in Berkeley in the late 1960s.

Comic Book inker Rudy Lapick died on February 27. Lapick inked numerous Archie and Marvel Comics in the 1950s.

SF Bibliographer Keith Justice (b.1949) was killed when his car was hit from behind on February 27. Justice published a short story in 1977, but was best known for his bibliographic work. At the time of his death, he was completing work on a bibliography of Robert Silverberg, which is daughter plans to have published. Justice's wife, Hilda, was also killed in the crash.

Playright Jerome Lawrence (b.1915) died on February 29. Lawrence was the co-author of the play "Inherit the Wind," based on the Scopes Monkey Trial of 1925. The play focused on the debate between science and religion in its examination of the teaching of evolution. The play was adapted for multiple television and film productions. Lawrence also wrote the play "Auntie Mame," which was turned into the film "Mame." Lawrence helped found Armed Forces Radio when he served during World War II.

British fan and author Peter Garratt (b.1949) died on March 2 after collapsing during a meal. Garratt published several short stories in Interzone and also published in Asimov's and Odyssey.

Actress Mercedes McCambridge (b.1918) died of natural causes on March 2. McCambridge did voice work in "The Exorcist" and "Amazing Stories" as well as guest appearances on "Lost in Space" and "Bewitched." She got her start as a radio performer before making her screen debut in 1949 as Sadie Burke in "All the King's Men," for which she received a Best Supporting Actress Oscar. She received a second nomination in that category in 1957 for Giant.

Actor Paul Winfield (b.1941) died of an heart attack on March 7. Winfield appeared in the film "Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan," "The Terminator," and "Mars Attacks!" and did voice work for the television series "Spider-Man" and "Gargoyles."

Fan Dee Willis died on March 8. Willis chaired the 2003 World Horror Convention in Kansas City. During her time as chair, she suffered from a massive coronary and hospital stays.

Jon White (b.1946) died from a cerebral hemorrhage on March 12. White published the fanzine Inside beginning in 1962, taking over the fanzine from Ron Smith. White also co-edited the Riverside Quarterly with Leland Sapiro. In more recent years, he worked as a bookseller.

Danish Chemist and author Johan Springborg (b.1946) died on March 13. Springborg published two science fiction novels, Hjernehallen and its sequel Kopien, in the 1990s. When not writing, he taught at the Royal Veterinary and Agricultural University in Denmark and published numerous chemical papers.

Computer programmer John W. Seybold (b.1915) died on March 14. Seybold was a pioneer in computerized typesetting and is credited with firs applying the term "What You See Is What You Get," later WYSIWYG to computerized layouts. Before Seybold's work, page and line breaks, as well as other typesetting features, needed to be added manually.

Film director Rene Laloux (b.1929) died on March 14. Laloux was perhaps best known for the SF film "La Planete sauvage."

William H. Pickering (b.1910) died on March 15 of pneumonia. Pickering spent 22 years as head of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. He oversaw the launch of Explorer I, the USA's first satellite, as well as the Mariner flybys of Venus and Mars. He was also in charge of the Ranger lunar landers. Pickering was born in Wellington, New Zealand.

Astronomer Janet Akyüz Mattei (b.1943) died on March 22 from acute myolehenous leukemia. Mattei coordinated an international club to keep track of variable stars and served as the Director of American Association of Variable Star Observers since 1973. Ms. Mattei was born in Turkey and came to the US to study in 1962.

Fred Karlin (b.1932) died on March 26 from cancer. Karlin was an Oscar and emmy Award-winning composer who did the music for the genre film "Futureworld" and the television series "The Man from Atlantis."

Author Katherine Lawrence, who was reported missing to Tucson police last week, was found dead by a group of hikers along the San Pedro River on March 27. Police place the time of death around sunset on March 25. Lawrence was the chairwoman of the Nebula Novel Jury in 2003. In addition to writing science fiction short stories, Lawrence wrote for the television show "Hypernauts," "Conan the Adventurer," the "Dungeons and Dragons" animated series, and many other series. Prior to 1990, Lawrence wrote under the name Kathy Selbert.

Actress Jan Sterling (b.1921) died on March 26. Sterling got her start in the film Tycoon in 1947. Nine years later, she portrayed Julia in the original film version of George Orwell's "1984." She received an Academy Award nomination in 1955 for her role in "The High and the Mighty."

Peter Diamond (b.1929) died on March 27. Diamond was a British actor and stunt arranger who choreographed the light saber duels for the original Star Wars trilogy. He also worked on "Raiders of the Lost Ark," "The Princess Bride," and "Highlander."

Robert Merle (b.1908) died on March 27 in Paris. Merle was the author of Malevil, which was the co-winner of the John W. Campbell Memorial Award in 1974. He also wrote the book Un Animal Doué de Raison, which was later filmed as "The Day of the Dolphins." Merle was a professor at various universities, including Rennes, Toulouse, and Paris-Nanterre.

Actor Sir Peter Ustinov (b.1921) died in Switzerland of heart failure on March 28. Although best known for his non-genre work in such historical epics as "Quo Vadis" and "Spartacus," Ustinov also appeared in "Logan's Run," "Blackbeard's Ghost" and "Around the World in Eighty Days." He provided the voice for Prince John and King Richard in Disney's animated "Robin Hood." He received a knighthood in 1990 and served as Chancellor of the University of Durham since 1992. He also served as an ambassador for UNICEF.

British actor Hubert Gregg (b.1914) died on March 29 at his home. Gregg portrayed Prince John in the 1952 film "The Story of Robin Hood and His Merrie Men" and went on the reprise the role in the 1955 television series "The Adventures of Robin Hood." In 2002, he received an MBE and in his later years worked as a radio announcer for BBC Radio 2 on the show "Thanks for the Memory" since 1972. He composed several songs and published two novels.

Fan Dave Gipe died of an heart attack while walking with his wife, Tish. Gipe was active in the SCA and ran a LARP for several years.

SCA member Maggie Warner has died. Warner, known as Gwendolyn of the Copper Beaches, was from the Oklahoma City area.

Egyptologist Miriam Lichtheim, probably best known for her three-volume Ancient Egyptian Literature first published in the 1970s, died in late March in Ganei Omer, Israel.

Record producer Ward Botsford (b.1938) died on April 1. Botsford published the short story "The Needle of Space" in 1950 and had books dedicated to him by several authors, including Asimov, Clarke, Heinlein and Herbert. Botsford won Grammy Awards for Grammys for "Ages of Man" with Sir John Gielgud, "The Grapes of Wrath" with Henry Fonda and "Gertrude Stein, Gertrude Stein, Gertrude Stein" with Pat Carroll. He produced the audio versions of Asimov's "Foundation" narrated by William Shatner, Bradbury's "The Martin Chronicles" narrated by Leonard Nimoy, and "2010" and "2061" Arthur C. Clarke. Botsford also created the Classical Music Guide.

Indian SF author Dilip M. Salwi (b.1952) died of an heart attack on April 2. He published more than fifty science books and more than a thousand science articles as well as several science fiction stories. His SF novel Fire on the Moon sold more than 300,000 copies.

Roger D. Alcock (b.1914) died on April 5. Alcock wrote science fiction under the name Roger Dee, beginning in 1949 with the story "The Wheel of Death." Although best known for his historical novel All Roads to Rome, Alcock wrote more than fifty science fiction stories and published "An Earth Gone Mad" as half of an Ace Double. During World War II, he served in the U.S. Signal Corps. After the war, he worked as a postal carrier and wrote for the local paper in addition to his science fiction writing.

Atlanta fan Jerry Burge died on April 6. Burge was a founding member of the Atlanta Science Fiction Organization in the 1950s. Along with Carson Jacks, he published the first edition of Sam Mosowitz's The Immortal Storm in hardcover in 1954. Berg helped start the Southern Fan Press Association and was the art director of the short-lived "Witchcraft and Sorcery." Burge was diagnosed with congestive heart failure in December 2003 and in January, he underwent surgery to repair a heart valve.

Bookstore owner Virgil Wilhite (b.1942) died on April 11. Wilhite was also a small press publisher specializing in the early works of L. Ron Hubbard and uncovered many of Hubbard's early pseudonyms.

Star Trek fan Shirley Maiewski (b.1920) died on April 13, 2004 due to complications with her heart. In 1976, Maiewski published the short story "Mind-Sifter" in the anthology Star Trek: The New Voyages. For many years, she ran the Star Trek Wellcomittee. In 1998, Maiewski was the winner of the SF/Media Fan Fund and traveled to MediaWest*Con 18 in Lansing, Michigan.

Animator Harry Holt (b.1914) died on April 14. After joining Walt Disney in 1936, Holt designed scenes for the Disney films "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" and "Lady and the Tramp." Holt also served as the principal designer of Disneyworld, with his sculptures used in the Pirates of the Caribbean and Haunted Mansion rides. Holt also did animation of the Hanna Barbera cartoons and the Flintstones.

Chicago fan Linda Sugar, died at home unexpectedly on April 17. Sugar had been in poor health for quite some time and suffered from bronchitis and emphysema. She had been an active writer for APA-69 for several years.

Olga Druce (b.1911) died on April 18. Druce was the producer and director of Captain Video from 1949 to 1956. Druce also produced the Superman radio series.

Norwegian fan Johannes H. Berg (b.1956) died of cancer on April 29. Berg was diagnosed with cancer in November last year. He entered fandom in the early 1970s and became a conrunner and fanzine editor. He helped found the Oslo science fiction club Aniara in the 70s. From 1991, he published the monthly fanzine Kretsen. In 1998, he was the fan guest of honor at InterContact. Berg was serving as the Norwegian agent for Interaction.

Mitsuteru Yokoyama (b.1934), the creator of the Ironman 28 Manga comic (Gigantor in the US) as well as Little Witch Sally, has died of severe burns following a house fire in Tokyo. Police believe the fire was started by a lit cigarette next to Yokoyama's bed.

Screenwriter Nelson Gidding (b.1919) died on May 1 of congestive heart failure. Gidding wrote the screenplay for the 1963 version of "The Haunting." He went on to script "The Andromeda Strain" and "The Mummy Lives"

Author Robyn Herrington (b.1961) died on May 3 following a multi-year battle with cancer. Herrington's short stories have appeared in On Spec, Talebones, and Adventures in Sword and Sorcery. Her first story appeared in the anthology Return of the Dinosaurs and her final story was in New Voices in Science Fiction. Herrington worked as an acquisitions editor for Edge Science Fiction and Fantasy, working to publish Australian author K. A. Bedford's Orbital Burn.

Author Basil Wells (b.1912) died on May 3. Wells began publishing in 1941 and published nearly forty short stories over his career. His last story, "The Imprtobably Vandals" appeared in Space and Time in 1992. Wells also published under the pseudonym Gene Ellerman.

Actor Anthony Ainley (b.1937) best known to fans for his role on "Doctor Who" as the Master opposite Tom Baker, Peter Davison, Colin Baker, and Sylvester McCoy, died on May 3. Ainley has suffered from poor health for some time. Ainley also appeared in the film "The Land that Time Forgot.

Fan Ken Uhland died in the afternoon of Saturday, May 8, 2004. Ken has been fighting cancer for a while and entered hospice about a month ago. In addition to being a volunteer on the convention scene for many years, Uhland also was active in coordinating MENSA events in the San Francisco bay area.

Comedian Alan King (b.1927) died of lung cancer on May 9 in Manhattan. King, who served as the Abbot of the New York Friar's Club, is best known for his stand-up comedy, but has also appeared in numerous films, in both comedic and straight roles. He provided the voice for the Supreme Commander in the animated film "The Brave Little Toaster Goes to Mars," based on the characters of Thomas M. Disch.

Sid Hoff (b.1913), the author of the child's classic Danny and the Dinosaur, died on May 12. Hoff also was an illustrator for the New Yorker and published more than 60 children's books.

Author Brian McNaughton (b.1935) died on May 13. McNaughton received the World Fantasy Award in 1998 for his collection The Throne of Bones. McNaughton's novels include Satan's Love Child, Gemini Rising, and Guilty Until Proven Guilty. McNaughton had been in ill health for some time.

Gil Fox (b.1915) died on May 15. Fox was a comic artist, editor and writer who produced the covers for Police Comics in the 1940s that featured Plastic Man. Fox also wrote scripts for Will Eisner's "The Spirit."

Marjorie Courtenay-Latimer (b.1907) died on May 17 following a long illness. In 1938, Ms. Courtenay-Latimer a self-trained naturalist, was called to identify a strange fish caught in the Chalumna River. She identified the fish as a coelacanth, an ancient fish long believed to have been extinct. Since then, about 200 coelacanths have been discovered.

Actor Tony Randall (b.1920) died on May 18. Randall, best known for the role of Felix Unger on television's "The Odd Couple," played the title role in "The 7 Faces of Dr. Lao," based on the story by Charles Beaumont. Randall also provided the voice for one of the gremlins in the film "Gremlins 2: The New Batch."

Actor Lincoln Kilpatrick (b.1947) died on May 18 from lung cancer. Kilpatrick appeared as Father Paul in the film "Soylent Green," based on Harry Harrison's novel Make Room, Make Room.

Author Rex Miller (b.1939) died on May 21. Miller began publishing in the 1980s with short stories and went on to write horror mysteries. His first novel was Slob and was a finalist for the Bram Stoker Award. He stopped writing in 1998 when he became disabled and entered a nursing home.

Actor Richard Biggs (b.1961), who appeared on Babylon 5 as Dr. Stephen Franklin and who was active on the science fiction convention circuit, died on May 22. Biggs has also appeared on several soap operas and was currently filming the television series "Tremors" as Roger Garret. Initial indications are that he suffered from either an aneurysm or a massive stroke.

British SF agent Rod Hall (b.1951) was found dead in his London flat with multiple stab wounds on May 23. Among his clients were Brian W. Aldiss and Christopher Priest. On May 29, a twenty-year old student was charged with his murder.

Scholar Edward Wagenknecht (b.1900) died on May 24. An English professor, Wagenknecht publishing anthologies including Six Novels of Supernatural Horror, as well as a biography of Edgar Allan Poe and a collection of the letters of James Branch Cabell.

Artist Raymond Bayless died on May 25. Bayless created numerous fantasy paintings and has a strong affinity for the works of H.P. Lovecraft. Throughout his career, he was encouraged by Ray Bradbury.

Scots fan Kay Allen (b.1915) died on May 29. Allan attended numerous conventions over the years, including European worldcons, and never missed a Glasgow convention until she was laid low by a stroke in 1996.

Author Alfred Coppel (b.1921) died on May 30. Coppel began publishing in 1952 with the story "The First Man on the Moon" and went on to published several stories and novels under his own name and the pseudonyms Robert Chan Gilman and A.C. Marin. In the 1990s, he published the Glory trilogy.

Australian fan and publisher Peter McNamara (b.1947) died on June 1. McNamara was the force behind Aphelion Publishing, which was founded following Aussiecon 2. Their first project was Aphelion Magazine, which ran for five issues between 1985 and 1987. In 1989, Aphelion began publishing trade paperbacks. The McNamara Award was established in his honor in 2002 by Altair Publishing.

Fan David B. Heath, Jr. (b.1952) died on June 8. Heath was a long-time active member of N3F and served as President, Art Director, and Editor for the club. He published the fanzine "No Sex."

Screenwriter Robert Lees (b.1913) was murdered on June 13 in his home in Hollywood. Lees, who wrote the screenplays for "Abbot and Costello Meet Frankenstein" and "Abbot and Costello Meet the Invisible Man," was beheaded in his home by a homeless man who then murdered Lees's neighbor. The assailant has been arrested. Lees also wrote the screenplay for "The Invisible Woman." He was blacklisted during the McCarthy period and went on to write for "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" and "Land of the Giants" under the name J.E. Selby.

Voice actor Danny Dark (b.1925) died on June 13. Dark was best known for providing the announcer's voice in the Starkist Tuna commercials but also the voice of Superman in the Super Friends cartoon. He worked as a facilities coordinator on the film "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets." He was born Daniel Melville Croskery in Oklahoma City.

Film producer Max Rosenberg (b.1914) died on June 14 following a brief illness. Rosenberg began his career in 1956 and the following year was producing genre work including "The Curse of Frankenstein." In 1965 and 1966, he produced the two Peter Cushing Dr. Who films and continued to produce horror and science fiction films through 1988, among them three films based on Edgar Rice Burroughs Pellucidar series and "Tales from the Crypt."

Japanese director Noraki Yuasa (b.1933) died on June 14 from a stroke. Yuasa was the director of numerous genre films, including Gamara and many of its sequels.

Film director Seymour Robbie (b.1920) died on June 17. Robbie directed episodes of "Wonder Woman," "Kolchak," "The Green Hornet," and "Lost in Space." He died of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (Lou Gehrig's Disease).

Computer developer Bob Bemer (b.1920) died on June 22. Bemer was involved in the invention of ASCII, which allows computers to read binary coding as letters. He also called attention to the potential Y2K problem in the early 1970s.

Los Angeles area fan Allan Rothstein (b.1941) died on June 24. Rothstein was a founding member of SCIFI and served on the Board of Directors for LASFS. Active in con-running, he worked for Loscon, Westercon, NASFiC and LA Cons. In 1991, he was the fan guest of honor at Loscon 18. He won the Laurel/Wordsworth Award for Poetry in 1990.

Author Hugh B. Cave (b.1910) died on June 27. Cave's first professional sale was "The Pool of Death" in the July 1929 issue of Brief Stories. He had stories published as recently at 2002. Cave won the World Fantasy Award for his collection Murgunstrumm and Others. He also won the Bram Stoker Life Achievement Award and the World Fantasy Life Achievement Award. The IHG named him a living legend in 1997.

French SF editor and translator Monique Lebailly (b.1929) died on June 28. She began translating science fiction in the 1970s and in 1989 edited the book La Science Fiction avant la SF.

Comic writer Kate Worley died in June following a battle with cancer. Worley, who wrote "Omaha: the Cat Dancer," was married to Reed Waller and later Jim Vance.

Actor Marlon Brando (b.1924), best known for his role as Vito Corleone in "The Godfather" and Stanley Kowalski in "A Streetcar Named Desire" died on July 1. Brando, who had a reputation for being difficult, was lured out of retirement in 1978 to play the role of Jor-El in the film "Superman," for which he earned $4 million. Brando won two Oscars, for his work in "On the Waterfront" and "The Godfather," although he refused to accept the latter award.

Artist John Cullen Murphy (b.1919) died on July 2. Murphy is best known as the illustrator of the Prince Valiant comic strip, which he began to illustrate in 1970. Beginning in 1979, his son wrote the scripts. Murphy retired in March and turned the illustration over to Gary Gianni of Chicago. He became interested in illustration when his neighbor, Norman Rockwell, asked him to model for a cover of the Saturday Evening Post when Murphy was 15.

Actor John Barron (b.1920) died on July 3. Barron appeared in "The Day the Earth Caught Fire" and "The Midas Plague."

Paula Danziger (b.1944) suffered an heart attack in June and died on July 8. Danziger wrote numerous children's novels, including the science fiction book This Place Has No Atmosphere. She began publishing with the novel The Cat Ate My Gymsuit.

Actress Isabel Sanford (b.1917) died on July 8 of natural causes after being hospitalized on July 4. Sanford played the role of a judge in the vampire spoof "Love at First Bite," but got her start in "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner." She received her greatest fame playing Louise Jefferson on "The Jeffersons" and in 1981 became the first African American woman to win an Emmy for that role.

Artist Sam McKim (b.1925) died on July 9. Although McKim auditioned for the role of Pinocchio in the 1930s and lost the part, he was hired by Disney as an artist in 1954 and drew the first maps of Disneyland as well as preliminary sketches for many of the other Disney parks and the four World's Fair exhibits Disney produced in 1964-5.

Author Roxanne Hutton (b.1954) died on July 16 due to brain cancer. Hutton sold three science fiction stories during her brief career, two to Artemis and one (as yet unpublished) to Writers of the Future, for which she won second prize. Hutton worked as a columnist and was a graduate of the Odyssey Writers Workshop.

Actor Pat Roach (b.1943) died on July 17. Roach was a wrestler before entering films. He is perhaps best known as the Nazi who was killed by a propeller in "Raiders of the Lost Ark." Roach also appeared in "Conan the Destroyer," and "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom." His first film role was as the milkbar bouncer in "A Clockwork Orange."

Director Irvin S. Yeaworth, Jr. (b.1926) died on July 19. Yeaworth directed the film "The Blob," which starred Steve McQueen, in 1958. The following year, he directed "4D Man" and in 1960 "Dinosaurus!"

Composer Jerry Goldsmith (b.1929) died on July 21. Goldsmith composed scores for Hollywood dating back to the 1940s, including many science fiction and fantasy films. Some of his work included "The Twilight Zone," "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea," the original "Planet of the Apes," "Logan's Run," "Alien" and Star Trek: Nemesis," among others. Goldsmith died of cancer.

Fan Otto Pfeifer died on July 23 at Avanere hospice in Shoreline, Washington. Pfeifer was a fan humorist whose greatest activity occurred in the pages of SAPS over four decades. For the last few years, Pfeifer was suffering from Alzheimer's Disease.

Nobel-winning scientist Francis Crick (b.1916) died in San Diego died on July 28. Crick, along with James Watson, discovered the structure of DNA in 1953. In addition to Crick and Watson, the discovery was based on the work of Rosalind Franklin, who died in 1958 and was not eligible for the Nobel Prize awarded to Crick and Watson in 1962. Crick recently described the discovery as "a series of blunders where we gradually found what the mistakes were."

Author Michael Elder (b.1931) died on July 28. Although best known as an actor, Elder wrote fourteen science fiction novels, including Mindslip, Nowhere on Earth, and The Alien Earth.

Announcer Jackson Beck (b.1912) died on July 29. Beck is best known for being the voice who proclaimed "Faster than a speeding bullet. More powerful than a locomotive. Able to leap tall buildings in a single bound." on the Superman radio show. He later provided the voice of Perry White and Lex Luthor in a variety of Superman cartoons, beginning in 1941 until the late 1960s. In addition, he voiced Bluto in numerous Popeye cartoons.

Actress Fay Wray (b.1907) died on August 8. Although Wray had a career spanning decades, she is best known for her role as Ann Darrow in the 1933 film King Kong. She began her acting career in 1923 in "Gasoline Love" and most recently appeared in 1980 in "Gideon's Trumpet." In 1936, she appeared as Lady Rowena in "When Knights Were Bold." In addition to "King Kong," she appeared in ten other films in 1933, many of them fantasy or horror films.

Fan Peter Graham (b.1939) died on August 12 after a long battle with lymphoma. Graham is credited with coining the phrase "the golden age of science fiction is 12." He joined the San Francisco Futurian Club in 1950 and went on to edit several fanzines, including Looking Backward and Void.

Actor Peter Woodthorpe (b.1931), died on August 12. Woodthorpe provided the voice of Gollum in both the BBC Radio adaptaion of "The Lord of the Rings" and the Ralph Bakshi animated versions. In the 1990s, he appeared in the television films "Merlin" and "The Odyssey."

Cinematographer Neal Fredericks (b.1969) died on August 14 in a plane crash while filming over the Dry Tortugas. The pilot and rest of the crew were rescued by the Coast Guard. Fredericks shot to fame with his second film, "The Blair Witch Project" in 1999 and went on to work on thirty films, many of which had a fantastic or horrific element.

Fan and computer maven Iain O'Cain (b.1967) committed suicide sometime between August 11 and August 17. O'Cain, an Edmonton fan, was involved in gaming and had previously lived in the Ann Arbor area.

Actress Burnu Acquanetta (b.1921) died on August 16 in Ahwatukee, Arizona. She made her debut in the 1942 version of "The Arabian Nights" in the role of Ishya and went on to appear in "Jungle Women," "Tarzan and the Leopard Woman," and "Lost Continent." She was frequently cast in the role of beast women. Part Cherokee, she has been suffering from Alzheimer's.

Director and Actor Charles Rome Smith (b.1927) died on August 16. Smith worked closely with Ray Bradbury on many projects and co-founded Ray Bradbury's Pandemonium Theatre Company. He helped stage more than 35 of Bradbury's works.

Composer Elmer Bernstein (b.1922), best known for the score to "The Magnificent Seven" died at his home on August 18. Bernstein was also active in writing film scores for genre work, including "Saturn 3," "Being John Malkovich," and "An American Werewolf in London." His music was used in more than 250 films dating back to 1951 In 1968, he won an Oscar for Best Original Music Score for "Thoroughly Modern Millie."

Jack Hunter Davies, Jr. (b.1962) died on August 22. Davies was a songwriter and collector who enjoyed collecting pulps. Davies played in a band called "Exotic Ones." Davies's interested were many and varied, from Edgar Rice Burroughs to aviation.

Director Daniel Petrie (b.1920) died from cancer on August 22. Petrie made a name for himself directing television shows like "Marcus Welby" and "Studio One" in th e50s and 60s. He went on to direct science fiction films "The Neptune Factor" and "Cocoon: The Return." Petrie won eight Emmy Awards.

Actress Suzanne Kaaren (b.1912) died on August 27 of complications from pneumonia. Kaaren appeared in numerous films, including "The Devil Bat" (1940).

Actress Susan Peretz (b.1945) died on August 27 from breast cancer. Peretz played the daughter in "Poltergeist II," and also appeared in "Oh, God! You Devil."

Screenwriter Robert Lewin (b.1920) died on August 28 from lung cancer. Lewin wrote several first season episodes of "Star Trek: The Next Generation" and also worked on the show "The Man from Atlantis." He served as a producer for "Star Trek: The Next Generation," including the premier episode, "Encounter at Farpoint."

Fan George Flynn (b.1936) died on August 29 after being in rehabilitation for twin surgeries since late June. Flynn was a fellow of NESFA and served as an officer of the WSFS throughout the eighties and nineties. He co-chaired Ditto 11 in 1998 and wrote for numerous APAs. In recent years, he was very active doing proof-reading for NESFA Press. One of his many reprinted articles about Hugo voting can be found on-line at http://www.nesfa.org/fanzines/votehist.html.

Dr. Fred Whipple (b.1907) died on August 30. Whipple coined the term "dirty snowball" to describe a comet and spent more than fifty years studying comets. He first suggested that comet nuclei were a mixture of ice, rock and dust in 1950, but his theory wasn't proven until 1986 when the ESA probe Giotto flew by Halley's Comet.

British fan Doug Webster died near the end of August. Webster was active in fandom in the pre-war years and helped keep British fandom alive after the SFA folded. He worked cutting stencils for Futurian War Digest and became the publisher of Fantast when Sam Youd was called up for service.

Author Harvey Wheeler (b.1919) died from cancer on September 6. Wheeler was the co-author, with Eugene Burdick, of the cold war thriller Fail-Safe, which was made into a film in 1964 starring Henry Fonda, Walter Mathau and Fritz Weaver. It was re-made in 2000 in a live television broadcast by George Clooney. Most of Wheeler's books were non-fiction political science books.

Animator Frank Thomas (b.1912) died on September 8 from a cerebral hemorrhage. Thomas was one of the classic Disney animators and worked on such classic films as "Lady and the Tramp," "Mary Poppins," and Bambi. He began working at Disney in 1934 on the first feature length animated film, "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs." In 1995, a documentary about Thomas and his long-time associate Ollie Johnston, entitled "Frank and Ollie" was made by Thomas's son. Although he retired from animation after "The Fox and the Hound" in 1981, he provided vocal talent for the animated film "The Iron Giant" in 1999.

Brooklyn fan John Vanible, Jr, who suffered a massive stroke on September 11, died on September 27. Vanible served as a logistics assistant at MilPhil in 2001. He also worked logistics at Lunacon for several years. A funeral will be held in New York on October 2 and Vanible will eventually be buried in Jackson, Mississippi.

Swedish fan George Tage Valentin Sjöberg (b.1930) died on September 11. Sjöberg published the fanzine Star SF Fanzine from 1955 to 1957 and then Fhan for the next three years. He was a founder of Stockholm's Scandinavian SF Society and launched the country's first mail order sf book business.

Fan Konstantinos "Gus" Dallas (b.1929) died on September 22. Active in both SF fandom and Sherlock Holmes fandom, Dallas published the story "The Ones That Got Away" in Fantastic in 1979. He also worked as a journalist, publishing in the Cleveland Plain Dealer, Newsday, and other mainstream newspapers.

Actor Tim Choate (b.1954) was killed in a motorcycle accident on September 24. Choate appeared in several episodes of "Babylon 5" as Zaythras and as Polix in "Crusade." In 2004, he appeared in the video release "CreepTales."

Australian fan Lyn Smith (b.1944), the widow of Bob Smith, died from Leukemia on September 24.

Harvard professor and UFO expert John E. Mack (b.1929) was killed in England on September 27 when he was struck by a car. Mack published two books about UFO abduction, Abduction (1994) and Passport to the Cosmos (1999). He won a Pulitzer Prize for A Prince of Disorder (1977), a biography of T.E. Lawrence.

Rhode Island fan Sue Anderson (b.1946) died from a kidney and liver infection on October 3. She lapsed into a coma before dying. Anderson was a member of the APA Apaloosa in the 1970s and wrote several science fictional musicals with Mark Keller, including "Mik Ado About Nothing" and "The Decomposers." These musicals were collected in book form by NESFA Press in 2003. Anderson also published a couple of stories in the small press 'zine Threads.

Actress Janet Leigh (b.1927) died on October 3. Leigh is best known for her Oscar-nominated performance as Marion Crane in "Psycho." Leigh also appeared in genre films "Angels in the Outfield" and "Halloween H20: 20 Years Later." In the latter film, she costarred with her daughter, Jaime Lee Curtis.

Leroy Gordon Cooper, Jr. (b.1927) died on October 4. Cooper was one of the original seven Mercury astronauts and the last to fly on a Mercury mission, "Faith 7." After the Mercury project ended, Cooper stayed with NASA and flew on the Gemini 5 mission as Command Pilot with Charles "Pete" Conrad. He was backup pilot for Gemini 12 and Apollo 10. He retired from NASA in 1970. Cooper died on the same day the X Prize was won by SpaceShipOne and on the 47th anniversary of the launch of Sputnik.

Chicago area fan Bill Krucek (b.1955) died on October 6. Krucek has worked on Windycon for a quarter of a century, much of the time heading logistics and operations. For Chicon 2000, Krucek was the director of Convention Services. Shortly after Chicon, he was diagnosed with diabetes and has health problems ever since. He slipped into a coma in late September and was removed from a ventilator on October 6.

British fan Edward Hughes died on October 8 from an heart attack. Hughes was an active letter writer to fanzines including Terry Jeeves' Erg.

Philosopher Jacques Derrida (b.1930) died of pancreatic cancer on October 8. Derrida's theories on deconstructionism have influenced authors and critics for decades. Many science fiction authors have paid tribute to Derrida's theories.

NASA engineer Max Faget (b.1921) died on October 9. Faget was one of the original 35 engineers selected to work on Mercury in 1958 and conceived and designed the Mercury capsule. He has worked on every manned American spacecraft up through the shuttle fleet. Faget left NASA in 1981 to found one of the first private space companies, Space Industries, Inc.

Actor Christopher Reeve (b.1952) died of heart failure on October 10. Reeve burst on the scene in 1978 with his portrayal of Superman/Clark Kent in the film "Superman" and went on to reprise the role in three additional films. He went on to star in other genre films, including "Somewhere in Time," based on Richard Matheson's World Fantasy Award winning novel Bid Time Return, and "Village of the Damned." In 1995, he was thrown from a horse and suffered paralysis. He turned his attention to health activism and had tremendous personal achievements of his own. He recently appeared on the Superman-based television show "Smallville."

Tetsuo Yano (b.1923) died on October 13. Yano was a Japanese author whose story "The Legend of the Paper Spaceship" was first published in English in 1984. He translated nearly off of Robert Heinlein's work into Japanese and worked to introduce American and British science fiction to Japan. Yano was the first internationally known Japanese fan and attended the 1953 Worldcon in Philadelphia. Last November, Yano underwent surgery for a cancerous intestine.

Comics artist Irv Novick (b.1916) died of complications from a fall on October 15. He began drawing comics in 1940, working on Archie. He drew the premiere for The Shield and was the lead superhero artist for MLJ. He later moved to DC and spent most of the rest of his career there. From the 1960s to the 1980s, he drew Batman and also did work on Flash.

Betty Hill (b.1919) died on October 17 following a battle with lung cancer. Hill gained international notoriety in 1961 when she and her husband Barney claimed they were abducted by a UFO for two hours on September 19. In addition to promoting UFO awareness, Hill was active in the NAACP and adoption.

Fanzine publisher Greg Shaw (b.1949) died on October 19 of heart failure. Shaw published hundreds of fanzines, including Entmoot, one of the first Tolkien fanzines. HE went on to be instrumental in the music magazine industry, and published many underground music zines in the 60s and 70s.

Actress Katherine Victor (b.1923) died on October 22 following a stroke. Victor began acting in the early 1950s under the name Katina Vea, as the Spider Woman in "Mesa of Lost Women." She went on to appear in other SF films, including "Teenage Zombies," "The Cape Canaveral Monsters," and "Superguy: Behind the Cape." In addition to acting, she also worked as an animation checker for Filmation, Hanna-Barbera, Disney, and others.

Actor Don Briscoe (b.1940) died on October 31 from heart disease. Briscoe was best known for his role on "Dark Shadows," where he portrayed Tom Jennings, Chris Jennings, Tim Shaw, Chris Collins, and Todd Blake. He also appeared on the soap opera "Days of our Lives" and as a guest star on "I Dream of Jeannie." He left Hollywood in the early seventies after suffering a breakdown, although he continued to act in local theatre until the 1980s.

Author William J. Widder (b.1926) died in the middle of October. Widder was the author of The Fiction of L. Ron Hubbard: A Comprehensive Bibliography and Reference Guide to Published and Selected Unpublished Works and Master Storyteller: An Illustrated Tour of the Fiction of L. Ron Hubbard. The latter work was nominated this year for the Hugo Award for Best Related Work.

Actor Howard Keel (b.1919) died on November 7 of colon cancer. Although Keel was best known for his roles in such musicals as "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers," "Kiss Me Kate," and "Show Boat," he also starred in the 1962 science fiction film "The Day of the Triffids," based on the novel of the same name by John Wyndham.

Actor Ed Kemmer (b.1920) died on November 9. Kemmer portrayed Commander Buzz Corry on the 1950s children's science-fiction television program "Space Patrol." Within months of its debut, there was also a radio version of "Space Patrol." Kemmer appeared in several other B-science fiction films. A pilot during World War II, Kemmer was shot down over Germany and captured. He escaped froma POW camp, but was recaptured within two weeks. Kemmer suffered a stroke on November 5.

Swedish fan Stieg Larsson (b.1954) died on November 9 from an heart attack. Larsson was a fanzine publisher and former chairman of SFSF. Shortly before his death, he sold a series of crime novels.

Elizabeth Chater (b.1910) died on November 10. Chater began reading science fiction with the first issue of Amazing stories. In 1971, she taught the first course in science fiction at San Diego State College. Chater wrote fantasies as well as romances.

Harry Lampert (b.1916) died on November 13. Lampert drew the first five stories about the Flash usingwriter Gardner Fox's scripts. His Flash, wearing Mercury's winged helmet, debuted in 1940 and was the original version of the character, later reworked as the Golden Age Flash or Earth-2 Flash. Lampert also worked on Betty Boop and did paste-up and panel work for the first Superman story.

Futurist W. Warren Wagar (b.1932) died on November 16. Wagar was known in the field for his studies of H.G. Wells, the most recent of which, H.G. Wells: Traversing Time, was published this year. In 1989, he published A Short History of the Future, which was a narrative account of the imagined events of the next 200 years. In the mid-1980s, he published about eight stories in IASFM, F&SF, and Synergy.

Illustrator Trina Schart Hyman (b.1939) died on November 19. Hyman illustrated more than 150 children's books, including many of genre interest. She was a Caldecott Award winner.

Children's author Willo Davis Roberts (b.1928) died on November 19. Roberts wrote several mysteries and adventures stories, many of which had elements of the fantastic in them. Three of her books have been awarded the Edgar Allen Poe Award.

Comic book artist Bob Haney (b.1926) died on November 25. Haney was a veteran comic book writer from the Silver Age. Starting in 1948, he worked for a seres of publishers, eventually tying in to DC Comics in 1956. Haney created the original Teen Titans, the Doom Patrol and Metamorpho the Element Man and also wrote numerous scripts for The Brave and the Bold.

Irwin Donnenfeld (b.1926) died on November 29. Donnefeld's father founded DC Comics and he took over the firm after his father's death in 1965, serving first as editorial director and later as publisher. He oversaw DC's move from Golden Age to Silver Age and the institution of the Comics Code at the publishing house.

Canadian author and broadcaster Pierre Berton (b.1920) died on November 30 of congestive heart failure and diabetes. Berton is best known for writing histories, but also wrote the fantasy novel The Secret World of Og, which was illustrated by his daughter. An award for Canadian history has been named in Berton's honor.

Director/Producer Larry Buchanan (b.1923) died on December 2 following complications from a collapsed lung. Perhaps best known for his low-budget conspiracy films such as "The Trial of Lee Harvey Oswald," and "Goodbye, Norma Jean," he also made several genre films, including "Mars Needs Woman," "Curse of the Swamp Creature," and "Zontar, the Thing from Venus." At the time of his death, he was in post-production on the film "The Copper Scroll of Mary Magdelene."

Kansas City fan Michael Smalley died on the night of December 4/5. Smalley was active in Kansas City fandom, frequently working as a con security guard at local conventions, although he did not attend many cons outside of the Kansas City area. He was actived in KaSFF.

Fan Michael Brocha died on December 5. Brocha has been battling cancer. He is perhaps best known for his work on the Norwescon program books.

Thomas Scott Winnett (b.1962) died on December 12 in Corpus Christi, Texas of pneumonia. Winnett was a book reviewer for Locus from 1989 to 1994.

Scots bookdealer and SF collector Douglas Mason (b.1941) died on December 13 following a long illness and a brain tumor. Mason was a Conservative politician who is seen as responsible for the UK poll tax. His collection has been acquired by the London Fantasy Centre.

Chicago fan Paulette DeRock died on December 21. DeRock was a longtime fixture in logistics and operations at Windycon and worked with volunteers at Chicon 2000.

Actor Jerry Orbach (b.1935) died on December 28. Orbach had a long career on Broadway, Hollywood and on television. He provided the voice of Lumiere, the candelabra, in the Disney film "Beauty and the Beast" and subsequent cartoons. He also appeared in "A Gnome Named Gnorm" and a voice in the "Galaxy Rangers" television series. Earlier this year, he was diagnosed with prostate cancer.

Los Angeles fan Michael Mason (b.1960) died unexpectedly near the end of 2004. He was found on the evening of January 3 when friends entered his apartment after growing concerned over him. Mason served as the librarian for LASFS and chaired Loscon in 2002.