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.

Arte Johnson has passed away at the age of 90, “of heart failure following a three-year battle with bladder and prostate cancer.” May he rest in peace.

While he is likely best known for his role in Laugh-In, I will always actually remember him best as Renfield from Love At First Bite (1979). He perfectly replicated Dwight Frye’s particular laugh for the role. He was also The Dormouse in Alice In Wonderland (1985). And until I read his IMDB filmography, I didn’t realize that he was the voice of Weerd in The 13 Ghosts of Scooby Doo (granted, at the time I was watching for Vincent Price).

In a little while, I’ll rewatch Love At First Bite, since I spotted that someone had uploaded it in its entirety to Youtube.

(While I don’t have an icon of Johnson as Renfield, it feels appropriate that I use one that includes Frye’s incarnation, given the homage.)

Earle Hyman has passed away at the age of 91. May he rest in peace. Most seem to have known him as Russell on The Cosby Show, which I never watched. However, I will always remember him best as the voice of Panthro from Thundercats.

June Foray has passed away at the age of 99, just two months before what would have been her 100th birthday. May she rest in peace. She is likely best known as the voice of Rocky The Flying Squirrel and Natasha on The Rocky And Bullwinkle Show. I think Nickelodeon played that quite a bit back in the 80’s.

After I looked through her IMDB filmography, I saw that she basically did voice work on a lot of the shows of my childhood. She was the voice of various characters in Denver The Last Dinosaur, The Smurfs, The Incredible Hulk (the 1982 cartoon, narrated by Stan Lee), and The Real Ghostbusters. She was the voice of Aunt May in Spider-Man And His Amazing Friends. Mrs. Featherby in both the Ducktales series, as well as Ducktales The Movie: Treasure of the Lost Lamp (1990).

She was the voice of the Talky Tina doll in an episode of The Twilight Zone.

She was in Rikki-Tikki-Tavi (1975) as the voices of Nagaina the Cobra, Wife of Nag; Teddy's Mother; and Darzee's Wife. I think that, and The Cricket In Times Square (1973) were on Nickelodeon a lot, too. She was the voice of the Hag in Faeries (1981), which I watched when I was likely only a year old--2 at the most...however old I was, a moment where a shadow is stabbed and starts bleeding left an impression, for I searched for it for decades before finding the title.

From The Nostalgia Critic: The Weirdest Jack And The Beanstalk. It’s just a bit over 15 minutes, without all the usual skits that he's done lately with his reviews.

I watched that movie when I was 2 or 3 in the 1980’s; I'm just surprised someone else knows about it, since very few people I have encountered ever have. Right around that same time, I discovered both Unico movies. And around that same time was The Little Mermaid (also anime; this one, not another from the same time frame) and The Last Unicorn (which wasn’t as surreal as the others). Is it any wonder I am the way I am, and go for the darker (and possibly on the weirder side) fairy tale stuff?

(It explains a lot. Granted, back then I sort of liked the evil Hecuba from that version of Jack And The Beanstalk, and found Jack to be the weird one.)

Meanwhile, checking on the poll in the previous locked (only on Dreamwidth) post: So far, it’s at a tie between people just wanting to vote, and people in favor of a Gothic Horror/Romance community; second place is do both. I forgot to mention that the poll will continue through Saturday evening.

Sir John Hurt has passed away, at the age of 77, following a long battle with pancreatic cancer. May he rest in peace; he died five days after his birthday. I mostly recognized him from his role as The War Doctor on Doctor Who, but apparently he was also the voice of the dragon on Merlin (which I watched for a couple seasons, and then jumped ship).

He is perhaps most famous for his role as Gilbert Kane in Alien (1979). His death scene is one that I unfortunately watched first at the age of 5, when it was suddenly shown in the middle of Terror In The Aisles (suspense films, stuff from the 40’s in black and white, sudden unexpected--well, to me--chestburster scene followed as the show talked about bloodier horror; I think that is how that went, and then gory then on out). I didn’t know that was him when I watched Spaceballs many years later.

He was The Horned King in The Black Cauldron (1985), and Aragorn in Lord of the Rings (the Ralph Bakshi version from 1978).

And when it comes to horror films, I remember him from Frankenstein Unbound (1990), and The Skeleton Key (2005). I haven’t seen The Ghoul (1975), so I need to watch that at some point, along with Perfume: The Story of a Murderer (it also stars the late Alan Rickman) and Whistle And I’ll Come To You (2010).

(I don't have an icon of The War Doctor, so here's one of the Brigadier.)

Bernard Fox has passed away at the age of 89, as a result of heart failure. May he rest in peace.

I remember him best as Dr. Bombay from Bewitched. He was one of my favorite characters, when I watched it in reruns on Nick At Nite as a child. He appeared as the same character in the spin-off Tabitha, and decades later (in a cameo) in the soap opera Passions. I loved his small role in The Mummy (1999). Me-TV recently aired one of his two episodes of Columbo.

James Horner passed away yesterday, at the age of 61, after his plane crashed in a field. May he rest in peace. He was an Oscar winning composer who worked on many movies over the decades, including these: The Rocketeer, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, Star Trek III: The Search For Spock, Krull, Willow, Jumanji, Hocus Pocus, and Aliens. For MST3K fans, he also worked on theme music for Deathstalker And The Warriors From Hell.

Dick Van Patten passed away at the age of 86, due to complications from diabetes. May he rest in peace. I never watched Eight Is Enough, so I believe I mostly recall him from Robin Hood: Men In Tights, Spaceballs, and The New Adventures of Pippi Longstocking (1988).

Rest in peace, Robin Williams. He died yesterday at the age of 63 of an apparent suicide. When I was around the ages of 9-13, I loved him so much. Hook and Jumanji were a tie for my favorite of his movies at one point, and I watched so much Mork and Mindy on Nick At Nite when I was younger than that. I enjoyed him as the Genie from Aladdin, and may be one of the few to remember him as a frog in Faerie Tale Theater. He will be deeply missed by everyone he brought even a modicum of laughter to.

People keep bringing up Dead Poets Society and Good Morning Vietnam as better movies of his—I’ll have to watch them sometime. He was great in The Birdcage. I also remember this little cameo that he and Billy Crystal had in an episode of Friends.

You can read reactions from the White House (they issued a fantastic statement), Pam Dawber, and several others over here and (if you’re interested in one from Sarah Michelle Gellar in this next link) here and here.

Kirsten Bishop has passed away, at the age of 50, following a battle with lung cancer. May she rest in peace. I primarily know her from the 1975 English dubbed anime version of The Little Mermaid. I watched that version numerous times in the early 80’s, around the age of 2. (I always preferred that original, unhappy ending over the Disney version.)

I don’t believe that I have ever watched anything else she voiced or appeared in.