More 2008

Sci-fi's grand old man, Forrest J Ackerman, dies Associated Press Writer John Rogers, Associated Press Writer –LOS ANGELES – Forrest J Ackerman, the sometime actor, literary agent, magazine editor and full-time bon vivant who discovered author Ray Bradbury and was widely credited with coining the term "sci-fi," has died. He was 92.

Ackerman died Thursday of heart failure at his Los Angeles home, said Kevin Burns, head of Prometheus Entertainment and a trustee of Ackerman's estate.Although only marginally known to readers of mainstream literature, Ackerman was legendary in science-fiction circles as the founding editor of the pulp magazine Famous Monsters of Filmland.

He was also the owner of a huge private collection of science-fiction movie and literary memorabilia that for years filled every nook and cranny of a hillside mansion overlooking Los Angeles."He became the Pied Piper, the spiritual leader, of everything science fiction, fantasy and horror," Burns said Friday.

Every Saturday morning that he was home, Ackerman would open up the house to anyone who wanted to view his treasures. He sold some pieces and gave others away when he moved to a smaller house in 2002, but he continued to let people visit him every Saturday for as long as his health permitted."My wife used to say, 'How can you let strangers into our home?' But what's the point of having a collection like this if you can't let people enjoy it?" an exuberant Ackerman told The Associated Press as he conducted a spirited tour of the mansion on his 85th birthday.

His collection once included more than 50,000 books, thousands of science-fiction magazines and such items as Bela Lugosi's cape from the 1931 film "Dracula."His greatest achievement, however, was likely discovering Bradbury, author of the literary classics "Fahrenheit 451" and "The Martian Chronicles." Ackerman had placed a flyer in a Los Angeles bookstore for a science-fiction club he was founding and a teenage Bradbury showed up.Later, Ackerman gave Bradbury the money to start his own science-fiction magazine, Futuria Fantasia, and paid the author's way to New York for an authors meeting that Bradbury said helped launch his career."I hadn't published yet, and I met a lot of these people who encouraged me and helped me get my career started, and that was all because of Forry Ackerman," the author told the AP in 2005.

Later, as a literary agent, Ackerman represented Bradbury, Isaac Asimov and numerous other science-fiction writers.He said the term "sci-fi" came to him in 1954 when he was listening to a car radio and heard an announcer mention the word "hi-fi.""My dear wife said, 'Forget it, Forry, it will never catch on,'" he recalled.

Soon he was using it in Famous Monsters of Filmland, the magazine he helped found in 1958 and edited for 25 years.Ackerman himself appeared in numerous films over the years, usually in bit parts. His credits include "Queen of Blood," "Dracula vs. Frankenstein," "Amazon Women on the Moon," "Vampirella," "Transylvania Twist," "The Howling" and the Michael Jackson "Thriller" video. More recently, he appeared in 2007's "The Dead Undead" and 2006's "The Boneyard Collection."

Ackerman returned briefly to Famous Monsters of Filmland in the 1990s, but he quickly fell out with the publisher over creative differences. He sued and was awarded a judgment of more than $375,000.

Forrest James Ackerman was born in Los Angeles on Nov. 24, 1916. He fell in love with science-fiction, he once said, when he was 9 years old and saw a magazine called Amazing Stories. He would hold onto that publication for the rest of his life.Ackerman, who had no children, was preceded in death by his wife, Wendayne.

Robert Tronson, who died on November 27 aged 84, was a television director with dozens of popular programmes to his credit, including Rumpole of the Bailey and Hetty Wainthropp Investigates.

He also directed episodes of The Avengers, The Saint, Public Enemy, Callan, The Baron, Randall And Hopkirk Deceased, Bergerac, Boon and Dempsey and Makepeace.

Former Classics IV singer Dennis Yost dies at 65-AP CINCINNATI – Dennis Yost, lead singer of the 1960s group the Classics IV, has died in an Ohio hospital. He was 65.

Yost died Sunday at Fort Hamilton Hospital in Hamilton, about 30 miles northwest of Cincinnati. He died of respiratory failure, said hospital spokeswoman Marielou Vierling.The Classics IV's hits included "Spooky," "Stormy" and "Traces of Love."

Yost had been in nursing homes since suffering a brain injury sustained in a 2005 fall, said the singer's friend and biographer Joe Glickman.The Classics IV got their start in Jacksonville, Fla., where Yost, a native of Detroit, was raised, Glickman said. Their hit recordings were produced in Atlanta under the supervision of producer Buddy Buie and Bill Lowery, founder of Lowery Music Inc.

The group performed together for about five years.

Buie, who was a co-writer of the group's songs with the group's guitarist, J.R. Cobb, said: "Dennis had an incredible voice — just a great voice for love songs."

The 67-year-old Buie, who's retired and living in Eufaula, Ala., added: "I am deeply saddened by his passing."Cobb, 65, said he and Yost grew up in Jacksonville and rode motorcycles together before they were in the band. Cobb, who later performed with the Atlanta Rhythm Section and with the Highwaymen — a country group that included Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, Kris Kristofferson and Willie Nelson — is retired and lives in Monticello, Ga."Dennis was a friend as well as a fellow musician," said Cobb. "I always thought he had a very distinctive voice, and I think we had some of the hits we had because of him and his ability as a singer."

Jon "Bowzer" Bauman, a vocalist with the former rock and comedy group Sha Na Na, held a benefit concert last year to help with Yost's increasing medical costs, Glickman said."He was a tremendous talent who did an enormous amount of the work for that group," said Bauman, who works against copycat performers as chairman of Truth in Music, based at the Vocal Group Hall of Fame Foundation in Sharon, Pa.

"Paradoxically, I came to know Dennis better in the later years, in which he was involved in a massive struggle to retain his own musical identity, which was one of the saddest and most difficult cases of someone losing the name of their own group, when he had pretty much been the group," Bauman said.Bauman said truth in music legislation has been adopted in 26 states, and a bill was expected to make it through the legislature and to the governor's desk next week in Yost's home state of Ohio.

Yost is survived by his wife, Linda Yost, of suburban Hamilton. A message seeking comment was left at her home Monday.

Film historian Tom Weaver tells me that the Writers Guild has confirmed the passing of "Creature from the Black Lagoon" scripter Arthur Ross on November 11, 2008.