calliopes_pen

Nehemiah Persoff passed away yesterday at the age of 102. May he rest in peace.

I briefly wondered why I believed that he had died in 2016, before I realized I was just mixing him up with Frank Finlay. As it is, the first thing I think of when I hear Persoff’s name is the Purple Playhouse production of Dracula from 1973, which I finally tracked down thanks to it getting leaked to Youtube back in 2017. He was a great Van Helsing. I also loved his episode of Columbo.

I went through his filmography to see if I knew him from anything else. I had forgotten that he was also in The Girl Who Knew Too Much (1969); when I was going through a giallo phase, it was one of the better ones. Thanks to Heroes And Icons, I have seen his episode of The High Chaparrel. He was also in three episodes of Barney Miller, as two different characters, and five episodes of The Untouchables (as four different characters).

Later today, I will watch Voyage of the Damned (1976), since I spotted that one on Tubi just a few days ago.

I’m going in the order in which these five died or were announced. I ran out of space in the post title, or I would have included all of them up there, too.

Rest in peace, Dr. Elizabeth Miller. She passed away peacefully on January 2nd, at the age of 82. She will be missed. If you haven’t heard of her, she was into the academic side of everything that involved Dracula, as well as Bram Stoker. I hunted down and devoured her published works back in the late 90’s and very early 2000s, and was thrilled by the fact she wrote the foreword for Lord of the Vampires, by Jeanne Kalogridis, back in 1996.

She won two Lord Ruthven awards for her work, and was given a Lifetime Achievement Award by the Dracula Society in 2012.

Via Vampires.com, which was quoting her obituary: “Between 1997 and 2012 she wrote or edited and published seven books on Dracula, the latter, entitled The Lost Journal of Bram Stoker, on which her co-editor was Dacre Stoker, grand-nephew of Bram Stoker. She was also the impetus behind 20-plus articles on aspects of Stoker and Dracula; she delivered lectures at universities, learned studies, conferences, ballet productions and private functions, as well as becoming involved in several television documentaries and scores of newspaper and magazine articles on the two.”

Sidney Poitier passed away on January 6th, at the age of 94. May he rest in peace. Unfortunately, I am not acquainted with any of his works, so I’ll need to rectify that shortly. Tubi has They Call Me Mr. Tibbs, as well as Lilies of the Field, so I’ll start there with his filmography.

Peter Bogdanovich passed away on January 6th, at the age of 82, due to complications from Parkinson’s disease May he rest in peace. I was previously only familiar with his work thanks to him directing Targets (1968), which was one of Boris Karloff’s final films. However, last night I watched The Cat’s Meow (2001) on Tubi.

Dwayne Hickman passed away yesterday, at the age of 87, due to complications from Parkinson’s disease. I used to watch so much of The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis, when the series was rerun on Nick At Nite back in the 1980’s. Thanks to the presence of Vincent Price, I had actually already seen him in Dr. Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine (1965). Until I consulted his filmography, though, I wasn’t aware that he had directed three episodes of Designing Women, too.

Bob Saget has passed away at the age of 65. May he rest in peace. I loved America’s Funniest Home Videos back when it was first starting out, probably when I was around the age of 8 or 9. I drifted away from it, though I did also watch Full House for a very brief period of time.

Looking through his filmography, I had forgotten that he was in an episode of The Greatest American Hero, back in 1983; I watched that particular episode a few weeks back on Heroes And Icons. He was also the voice of the future Ted in How I Met Your Mother, throughout the duration of the series.

Denise Nickerson has passed away, at the age of 62, after being removed from life support. May she rest in peace. I had been following the news of her stroke and accompanying issues via Vampires.com since shortly after they began discussing her declining health.

A lot of people remember her fondly for her role as Violet Beauregarde in Willy Wonka And The Chocolate Factory. I was never a fan of that, and preferred her roles as Amy Jennings, Amy Collins (the parallel time version of Amy Jennings), and Nora Collins on the original Dark Shadows.

Freddie Jones has passed away as well, at the age of 91, following a short illness. May he rest in peace. I didn’t think I had heard of him before, until I started reading his IMDB filmography. He was in the Granada Sherlock Holmes series—in particular, the episodes of The Last Vampyre and Wisteria Lodge. He was in the film Young Sherlock Holmes, as Chester Craigwitch; he was Professor Julian Keeley in The Satanic Rites of Dracula (1973); and he was Ynyr, The Old One, in Krull (1983).

I Hear Of Sherlock Everywhere remembers him here.

I also spotted that he was in three episodes of Mystery And Imagination back in the 60’s. Two of them have been lost to time; the third, Sweeney Todd, I have on my external hard drive thanks to thisbluespirit. I had not yet gotten around to watching it, so I’ll be doing that later.

Maria Rohm passed away on June 18th, at the age of 72. May she rest in peace. I remember her best as Mina Harker in Count Dracula (1970). I only found out yesterday by spotting a screencap of her over here with a note of the year of her death, so I’ll see about watching the movie again later today.

I may need to track down And Then There Were None (1974). So far, I haven’t found much in the way of English obituaries for her aside from Satellite News.

I don't have any icons from that particular Dracula movie, so have one of a different Mina.

Edit: And here’s a video of various clips from Count Dracula (1970). Rohm, as Mina, sees Dracula attacking Lucy after she follows her, starting around 1:33, with Dracula vanishing at 2:11. Van Helsing meets Dracula and protects Mina around 2:37. Get ready for a lot of zoom shots, if anyone out there watches the whole movie.

(DailyMotion and Vimeo have it in its entirety.)

I ended up receiving a story for the Chocolate Box ficathon after all. It was for Horror of Dracula (1958), and I love it.

Blood Between Us (4966 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 3/3
Fandom: Horror of Dracula (1958), Dracula & Related Fandoms
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Dracula/Jonathan Harker (Horror of Dracula), Dracula/Lucy Holmwood (Horror of Dracula), Jonathan Harker/Lucy Holmwood (Horror of Dracula)
Characters: Dracula, Jonathan Harker, Dracula (Horror of Dracula), Jonathan Harker (Horror of Dracula), Lucy Holmwood (Horror of Dracula)
Additional Tags: Vampires, Blood, Blood Drinking, Voyeurism, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, hammer horror, Jealousy, Kissing, Masturbation, Manual stimulation
Summary:

Freshly turned, Jonathan Harker has surrendered his unlife to Dracula, but the Count has not forgotten the librarian’s attempt to destroy him. Dracula expels Harker from the safety of Klausenberg and plumbs Harker’s past for another way to make him suffer. In Lucy’s boudoir in Holmwood Hall, Harker discovers a new, sensual form of punishment.

As I don’t have any Horror of Dracula (1958) icons, I hit random icon and gained Lucy’s neck, in Dracula (1968). That fits marvelously, given what happens in the story.

Suzan Farmer passed away on September 17th, at the age of 75, after she lost her battle with cancer. May she rest in peace. I already knew that she played Diana Kent in Dracula: Prince of Darkness (1966) for Hammer Studios. That might be one of the few Dracula ones in the Hammer catalog that I haven’t seen, though I have watched several clips with her from that particular film. Earlier today, I located a copy, so I can watch that today or tomorrow.

She also starred (again with Christopher Lee) in Rasputin The Mad Monk (1966). She was in Die, Monster, Die! (1965) alongside Boris Karloff, which I have seen thanks to Comet TV airing it a lot a few months ago. For Sherlock Holmes fans, she appeared in one episode of the Peter Cushing series back in 1965--The Beryl Coronet, where she played Mary.

From what I’ve read about the Peter Cushing series, large chunks are currently missing. However, The Beryl Coronet appears to have survived.

1, Brian Aldiss passed away in his sleep, after celebrating his 92nd birthday. May he rest in peace. He wrote “more than 80 books and was editor of 40 anthologies.”

Unfortunately, I have never read anything of his. I have always meant to read Frankenstein Unbound, since I enjoyed the 1990 adaptation. So I’ll have to try to do that sometime soon. He also wrote Dracula Unbound, which I was never certain about reading, having not heard the best reviews--but it’s on my list, too, now.

2. Today is Fanfic Writers’ Appreciation Day.

3. wyld_dandelyon is doing a tarot card reading, and the first card is free.

4. Whedonesque is shutting down after 15 years. I think I’ve followed that site via feed (first on LJ, and then here on Dreamwidth via whedonesque_feed; I’ll unsubscribe to it shortly) for at least a decade, if not longer.

Were it not for the Buffyverse, I never would have ventured into writing, in both fanfic and RPG's (I think Willow was the first character I wrote for in any RPG).

Peter Sallis has passed away at the age of 96. May he rest in peace. While he was loved for being the voice of Wallace in Wallace & Gromit, I’ve barely heard of that in passing. However, after checking IMDB, I do remember him in the role of Samuel Paxton in Taste The Blood of Dracula (1970). I haven’t seen the film since I was probably 12. So at some point, I really need to rewatch that one. I recently watched The Curse of the Werewolf (1961) (he played a character named Don Enrique) for the first time, courtesy of Svengoolie airing it.

It appears Sallis was also in an episode of Mystery And Imagination in 1970, for an adaptation of Sweeney Todd, as Brogden/Mundel/Hopkins; from what I can determine, this might be one of the few episodes to have survived (along with Dracula 1968), although I haven’t been fortunate enough to locate it.

For Doctor Who fans, he played Penley in the Second Doctor era story The Ice Warriors in 1967. He was also in Frankenstein: The True Story (1973) as a priest; Tom Baker and Agnes Moorehead appear in it, too, so I need to locate and watch it. Even if is 3 hours long.

Don’t worry, there won’t be any spoilers for yesterday’s episode of Doctor Who. Well, today’s for me, since I had a severe migraine (and accompanying nausea related extras*) at the time it was streaming yesterday, and onwards through when it would have aired on BBC America.

I kept thinking that David Suchet looked very familiar, and that it wasn’t just due to the role as Hercule Poirot (which I’ve never seen, aside from the occasional promo on either KET or PBS). It turns out he played Van Helsing in Dracula (2006).

While it isn't a particularly good adaptation, it had one of the better castings I've seen for Lucy Westenra in Sophia Myles. I watched it for the first time a couple months ago.

*I would have posted a 'this community is open' for hidden_passages yesterday, if not for the migraine. I'll get on that now. I'm torn between three layouts for it, but I'm currently going with Amaranth in Librarian's Dream (the other two are Touch in Dusty Foot, and Pigeon Blue in Librarian's Dream).

So as promised, I read Powers of Darkness, by Valdimar Ásmundsson, and translated by Hans De Roos (which he accomplished with the help of many, many others, based on the credited people in the end of the book) and basically catalogued all the differences I could catch between what was formerly known as Makt Myrkranna, and the Stoker version.

( Beneath the cut, you will find the long list of differences, and little things I noticed. )

I thought I had linked to this already, but apparently I hadn’t. For Yuletide Madness, lost_spook wrote the fantastic Night Falls for me, for Dracula (1968). I recommend reading it.

Night Falls (8535 words) by lost_spook
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Dracula (TV 1968)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Count Dracula/Jonathan Harker, John Seward/Lucy Weston
Characters: Jonathan Harker, Dracula, John Seward, Mrs Hoskins (Dracula TV 1968), Mrs Weston, Lucy Weston, Mina Harker, Abraham Van Helsing
Additional Tags: Mental Institutions, Mental Disintegration, Victorian, Victorian Attitudes, Pre-Canon, Period Typical Attitudes to Mental Illness, Mind Control, Vampires
Summary:

Something unknown and sinister is coming for them all…

In other Dracula related news, I just now ordered Powers of Darkness: The Lost Version of Dracula. It’s the Icelandic version, which was originally published/translated into that in 1900, and now finally translated into English--with extra characters and a few other differences in the plot from the original novel, from all I’ve heard. I’ll finally get to see how different it is.

Lupita Tovar has passed away at the age of 106. May she rest in peace. If you don’t recognize the name, she played the character of Eva in Dracula (1931)’s Spanish version. It was filmed at night on the same sets as the English language version. I always preferred her version of Eva/Mina over the English version’s. She was also in the Spanish language remake of The Cat and the Canary, which I have never seen.

I will be rewatching the Spanish version of Dracula (1931) tonight in her honor. I had planned to watch it anyway, so this is a good excuse for it. The DVD has a quick bit with her in The Road To Dracula, too.

Tony Neyman has also passed away, at the age of 80. May he rest in peace. MST3K fans and bad movie fans will remember him as the Master in Manos: The Hands of Fate. It’s the 50th anniversary of Manos this year, and Neyman reprised his role for the upcoming follow-up film Manos Returns prior to his death.

Arthur Rankin, Jr. has passed away at the age of 89. May he rest in peace. He was consulting and executive producer on the 80’s version of Thundercats, producer and director for The Last Unicorn, as well as half of Rankin and Bass. Lord of the Rings fans may remember that he produced The Hobbit and The Return of the King in the 70’s.

Maximilian Schell has passed away at the age of 83, as a result of “a sudden and serious illness.” May he rest in peace. I mostly remember him from The Black Hole (1979), and his role of Hamlet--since the latter aired on MST3K.

John Cacavas has passed away at the age of 83. May he rest in peace. He was a film and tv composer. Among his work was the theme for Kojak, which I’ve been watching every Sunday evening lately, courtesy of Me-TV. I haven’t seen the movies he did that MST3K showed. The only films he did composition for which I have seen appear to be The Satanic Rites of Dracula, and Horror Express.