2005 continued

Prolific low budget movie music composer Jaime Mendoza-Nava died May 31 at the age of 79 in Los Angeles of complications from diabetes. A child prodigy who led a children's orchestra when he was 11 years old, he was born in La Paz, Bolivia and when he was only in his 20's led The National Symphony.

He migrated to the US in 1953 and worked for Walt Disney Studios writing music for THE MICKEY MOUSE CLUB and ZORRO. Soon after he began writing musical scores for a variety of films including ORGY OF THE DEAD (script by Ed Wood), TV Mikels' THE BLACK KLANSMEN, Al Adamson's THE FEMALE BUNCH, THE CUT-THROATS, THE WITCHMAKER, BLOOD LEGACY, THE BROTHERHOOD OF SATAN, THE LEGEND OF BOGGY CREEK, THUNDER COUNTRY,GRAVE OF THE VAMPIRE, GARDEN OF THE DEAD, ALOHA BOBBY & ROSE, A BOY & HIS DOG, THE TOWN THAT DREADED SUNDOWN, THE BOYS IN COMPANY C, VAMPIRE HOOKERS, THE LEGEND OF ALFRED PACKER, PSYCHO FROM TEXAS and many others. He also wrote the US/Korea Martial Arts co-production LOS ANGELES STREETFIGHTER.

The greatest ventriloquist of all time PAUL WINCHELL died this past Friday June 24th at the age of 82. He voiced two of the most famous "dummies" Jerry Mahoney & Knuckle Head Smiff. He was also the voice of "Tigger" in Winnie The Pooh cartoons from 1968 to 1999. He appeared on TV as early as 1947 and hosted several of his own shows including the children's show "Winchell-Mahoney Time". He also occasionally acted in straight roles but more impoirtantly he held 30 patents as inventor including one for the artificial heart.Originally from New York City, Winchell donated both of his original Mahoney and Sniff dummies to The Smithsonian Institude.

LORNA THAYER-June 4-(86)-was an actress best known as the waitress in the chicken salad scene with Jack Nicolson in FIVE EASY PIECES. She had roles in the Roger Corman produced THE BEAST WITH A MILLION EYES, WOMAN'S PRISON, I WANT TO LIVE!, THE TRAVELLING EXECUTIONER, THE ANDROMEDA STRAIN, DEAD MAN TELL NO TALES, CISCO PIKE, SKYJACKED, RHINOCEROUS, REVENGE OF THE CHERRLEADERS, THE ALIENS ARE COMING, BUDDY BUDDY, NOTHING IN COMMON and FRANKIE & JOHNNY, her last in 1991. Many of her movie appearances were uncredited. She also acted on the stage and guested on many TV shows.

ROBERT CLARKE-June 11-(85)-produced,directed and starred in the low budget horror movie THE HIDEOUS SUN DEMON. He began his career as a contract player for RKO. Some early roles were in THE FALCON IN HOLLYWOOD, THE ENCHANTED COTTAGE, ZOMBIES ON BROADWAY, THE BODY SNATCHER, BEDLAM, SAN QUENTIN, BAND OF ANGELS and OUTRAGE. By the early '50's he was appearing in low budget features (or un-billed in bigger faetures) like Edgar Ulmer's THE MAN FROM PLANET X, HARD FAST & BEAUTIFUL, CAPTIVE WOMEN, Jerry Warren's THE INCREDIBLE PETRIFIED WORLD, THE ASTOUNDING SHE-MONSTER and others. In 1959, frustrated by his roles he made SUN DEMON and earned himself a place in "bad movie history". In the 60's he appeared on the soap opera GENERAL HOSPITAL and DRAGNET and kept appearing in junk like TERROR OF THE BLOODHUNTERS, SECRET FILE HOLLYWOOD and FRANKENSTEIN'S ISLAND (again for Warren). He married one of the singing King Sisters and was a featured player on their long running TV show in the 1960's. HIs last few movies in the '90's were for Fred Olen Ray. In 1996 he published his autobiography "To B or Not To Be". I've worn a "Hideous Sun Demon" t-shirt for many years and had it on just a week before Clarke passed away....